Team c wisely chose the 62 km distance after a few of us we persuaded our brains were bigger than our legs. A good call. I do not think we could of done another lap and kept a smile on our face. So we had a team of 7 that had not ridden together before and only a couple had ridden a sportif event before. We had a bit of a chat about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it and then mainly chucked it out the window at the first call of “ease up” – which was about the 150 metres up the back straight the first time. It took us a couple of laps really to get the right speed so everybody could stay in touch. We are so used to following directly behind a rider casino online or two abreast on our SPR rides I think we have lost the ability to detect the best, most sheltered postion, behind the wheel you are following. Consequently I think a few of the team did more work than necessary as we tried to deal with the changing wind direction.
On Lap Two one of the calls of ease up was more serious and we had to circle round to check out Mike Beecrofts bike – we could see it upside down and thought puncture. But it was a bit more terminal as he had cracked a chain stay at the rear hanger (see photo on Team A blog). We basically gave him the bullet and suggested he take a short cut directly back to the line – no hope of completing the ride. The rest regrouped and carried on.
Special mention of Sandra who was prepared to ride with the grumpy old men of the C team (or at least Nev, Greg and myself qualify for that). It might take her a while to warm up but on the last lap there was no stopping her. If we had done the 78 km she would of been in front the whole lap.
I know its not a competition but our time was 6 out of 46. I think there is likely to be a next time, and if so, with a full complement of 9 riders, no mechanicals and the injection of some youth, we should easily be in the top five and maybe even a podium.
Thanks guys and Sandra, it was a good days ride.
Team C (And you thought we were not going write about our exploits in the Cyclo-Sportif as if)
I missed Saturdays ride as something came up early Sat morning that I could not get out off, so I was relying on Dave to give me the plan for Sundays ride. It was as follows
Drive to Midland, Ride hard, Eat food, Drive Home sounds easy. I picked up Dave he wheeled out his bike complete with lights in case of a total eclipse and also brought along his bolt on mudguard, it was race he makes me wonder sometimes, if he wasn’t so cute. His son was at the window watching, I waved, he ran screaming, We arrived to find the team assembled and off we went to Herne Hill primary School, for a few of us it’s been a long time since we have been on school grounds this is mainly due to court orders but that is another story. The nerves were here with Ian (Wally) pushing his way thru the toilet line four times! Now was the time for tactics and looking at Team D(ero’s) time they listen as well. We moved up to the start line, Gary Suckling made out he did not recognize the names of Team C Russ, Greg, Gregor , Nev, Sandra ,Mike and Daryl, we were off our mission was to get that transponder back as quickly as possible and if we had to cut Russ’s leg off and carry that back we would do it! Our plan was to go single file with front rider peeling to the right and moving to the back, we probably still need a little more practice, as you watch the faster groups go past they were in a straight line with everyone right behind each other,( this may be that all the riders are evenly match fitness wise or the pace), we started at pretty good pace and after the first lap soon realized this would be hard to keep up and brought it back a bit, thank god!.There were two sections that the breeze was a factor and for me to make beste online casino sure I was safely tucked in halfway in the group was not easy but I did achieve it, I do not think anyone noticed. Mike fell off the back I went back to see why, as he had been working hard up till then, it sounded like the wheel rubbing, he turned the frame over and all was revealed. I broke off both his valves (I would usually use a three inch nail that I carry but have lost it somewhere?) I did not want Team D to seduce him into their group, thanks Kim for bringing him home we do not usually leave a man behind but Team D looked good playing hopscotch at the school and we knew they would be working hard. At Team C we Break Frames and Hearts. Team B passed us they did not look like Happy Campers, on Campersic road Greg and Gregor worked real hard to peg them back and we caught them, they had done the extra lap and an extra 2 ks average speed it was a good effort but do not tell them I said that. The last part we picked up the pace for the run home and I thought Russ also was going to visit the gravel. Had a good time ,glad we went the 62 this time, you can ride around training but it’s good to test yourself little to see were your fitness level is at. One thing I will not do next time is put energy Gels in the same pocket as you have stuffed your vest in. Highlight of the day watching Dave get changed!
Living The Dream Nev.
with the tour starting this weekend, we will again be running a tour de france tipping comp. entry is $10 and there are prizes for gc, points, mountains and stage wins.
you need to nominate a new rider each day and it is great way to follow the tour more closely.
click on the tour tipping page at the top of this website and register your team by filling in the comments at the bottom of the page.
there are links to each stage and you enter your tip by adding to the comments at the bottom. the comments section will close at 6pm each night and this will be the only way for you to enter your tips. you can, however, enter a number of tips by just commenting on each stage page.
so nominate your team name (you can have more than 1 team) and start looking at the rider start list and stage profiles.
cyclo-sportif races, for those of you that don’t know, are not races. they are participation events. there is no winning team and the results are not even published in finishing time order. this escapes a few insurance issues about holding races, but as far as a participation event goes, it is pretty damn competitive. for this reason, i was trying to put myself in the second team as i know that i was not totally on form.
however, let me step back a bit.
it was great to see so many spr riders entering the event this weekend. we had four teams, two in the 78km event and two in the 62km event. what was even better was the fact that we had a number of first timers and it was great to see them out having a go at racing. hopefully this will be a sign of things to come and we can build on this. if people are still willing to turn up when gale force winds and driving rain are predicted, then they are hard enough to take on any of the races.
so, i was trying to change the teams around so that i could have an easier ride. not necessarily an easier ride, but just so i wouldn’t be a burden to the team. the format of these events mean that you cannot drop a rider or leave anyone behind. it happens and we have done it before, but with no real definition of a winner in these events, it is hard to say that any team has had an advantage.
so our team consisted of ryan, brendan, judd, michael, mike, jerry, rob and myself. some strong riders in there, but i was not to be counted in that category. the other 78km team had seven riders as did the two other 62km teams. hopefully we will get a race report from all of them.
this event has been notorious for attracting bad weather. two years ago, the wind and rain was so bad that they eventually cut the ride short and sent people home. last year was wet, with some wind, but it is winter after all. this year, the long range report had most people running scared. the wind and rain that lead up to the event were not a good sign, but by the time the morning rolled around, it was looking pretty good. we seemed to have lucked out and the event was sitting right between two cold fronts. kind of the eye of the storm. there were showers about, but the wind was nothing like the previous day. hopefully it would remain that way.
we signed the teams in and managed to get everyone in a spr jersey so that we at least looked the part. the main registration was held at the velodrome and would coincided with the track grand prix. more on that later. lorraine showed us her wheel with the nice nail stuck right through the tyre and embedded into the rim. luckily she had her spare wheels ready to go. there wasn’t a lot of stuffing around before it was time to head to the herne hill school for the official start.
we had obviously stuffed around enough as we missed the initial roll out and the escorted transition to the start line. we kind of knew the way so just took off on our own. well not really on our own as others missed the escort as well. by the time we reached the school, there was only time for a brief toilet stop before we were lining up.
gary suckling announced our team, had a few digs at ryan and before we knew it we were away. single file was the plan with 30 sec turns at the front. this allowed everyone to get a decent rest and also made sure that riders didn’t burn themselves out too early. a proper two line roll through means that you are often chasing the guy in front and don’t get to rest too long. with the wind the way that it was, a single file also meant that we could hopefully echelon across the road if we needed to.
the groups were set off in 30sec intervals and so we could see the guys in front of us right from the start. usually they start the faster groups later much like a handicap event, but this means that you need to know how fast a group will go. as we haven’t competed this year, they just put us anywhere.
we quickly caught and passed the first group and began chasing the next one. the circuit, although square in nature, had a number of left, right corners and even what could only be described as a chicane. this meant that you were often dropping into corners and this made it hard with slower groups around. we often had to slow down to get past a corner before we could overtake.
by the time we reached the long back straight, we had picked off a number of teams and had begun to work out what to do in the wind. i had just got to the front when i heard a call go out. against the buffeting winds it was hard to make it out so i asked behind me what was going on. “ease off” was what we heard, but there was no way i was hurting anyone this early in the race. a few more calls later and we sat up to find that judd had punctured his rear tyre. we spun back around and watched/helped/waited for the tyre change as a number of groups past us back again. with the tube changed and all gassed up we were off again. i was just behind judd and noticed that hie tyre was looking flat almost straight away. i thought that maybe he had not put enough in but he said that it was getting soft. two flats is a criminal offence so we shot him and left his carcass in the bushes. actually, we disobeyed rules and left him behind with a spare tube to fix his wheel. as it was a circuit race, we would pick him up next lap. i now had the timing band on my leg so the team would at least have to get me home.
we got going and quickly picked up the teams that managed to get past up while we were stationary. one team did come flying past and we never saw them again, but no-one else managed to pass us. we were still sorting the team out in respect to where to echelon off to account for the wind. some people felt compelled to ride on the left side of the road when the wind was from the right. i guess that it is just what is hammered into you when you start riding. it took us a couple of laps to really get it sorted out and it made it difficult that we had to continuously pass other group so had to revert back to a straight single file.
we picked up judd on the second lap and continued on our way. we were all still doing turns at this point, but some like rob and myself were beginning to struggle. rob would put too much into his turn and would drop off the back after he peeled off. i was really starting to feel the pace in my hammies and was not able to maintain a strong lead. judd (or the judd-inator) was determined to make up for his lost lap and would often get to the front and smash out a long time trial.
by the end of the third lap, both rob and myself were toast and with two laps to go, we were down to survival mode. we didn’t go to the front and just sat mid pack with ryan riding alongside, in the wind, giving us the occasional touch-up to put us back on a wheel. it was only 2 laps and only 30 kms, but it felt much, much longer than that. only highlight i can think of was rob dropping his bottle and having it jam in between his frame and cranks. he thought that he had dropped in altogether, but managed a great save.
we eventually rolled across the line for the final time and stopped the clock at 2:11:07. no idea how much time we lost with the tyre change, but with the conditions the way they were, we were pretty happy with the time. it was then the slow roll back to the velodrome to get changed and have lunch.
the one benefit of starting early and being relatively fast was the fact that there were no queues for lunch. after getting changed we were straight through to the stands to eat and watch some classy riders on the track. there were a number of riders that have ridden with us before as well as some regulars. josie was back from europe and was wearing her world champs colours as were anne meares and kaarle mcculloch. three world champs at an event wasn’t bad. the fleet girls were there (minus davina who is still racing in america) as were a few others that have graced us on sunday – mel, sam, adrian.
all up a great day (as it didn’t absolutely pour down on us) and it was great to see some of the non-regular-racing people having a go to show off the spr colours. thanks to kim as well who came out to take some photos and helped mike back to the velodrome after he cracked his norco frame on lap one. also thanks to shun who won one of the raffle prizes at the cyclo-sportif but donated it to spr for us to use as prizes and giveaways. he said he didn’t really want the stuff, he just wanted to win.
After lying awake for most of the night listening to the howling winds and rain I was hoping for a little text to say its cancelled….. no text came and up I got when my alarm called!!
We (I grabbed a lift with Jerry) arrived at the speed dome to see a congrigation of SPR crew already forming – Lorraine went and registered our team and the pre-race preparations began. I was good enough to get a flat prior to the race starting (basically Jerry’s pump ate my valve and it pinged off into oblivion!!) so tube was changed and then tyres pumped. Time was getting close and there were lots of calls from the officials to get a move on and get to the start so off we trotted.
With only a little wait at the start line it was not long until we were off… Mark meant business and got the tempo up straight away. The first lap we were rolling through nicely and getting used to the wind speed and direction (namely head and cross wind – I dont think we had a tail wind or if we did I didnt notice it!) As we were getting used to riding together and the wind direction the magic really started to happen – with Mark’s knowledge and encouragment a perfect echelon formation was formed and we (even if I do say so myself) looked good!!! (or so I am told I seemed to be towards the front 9/10 when we rode like this 🙂
The communication was great and people were not affraid to yell if they were dropping off round corners or just feeling tired – Brett got a little push from Mark and I got a well and truly appreciated HTFU push from Jason which sent me zooming back on the wheel that I was dropping off of and on we continued. Brett was struggling a little with cramp and on the last lap within the last couple of k’s it got a little too much and he had to get off and stretch – we were all a little concerned as he didnt look like a happy camper and I think the last couple of k’s were agony. As we approached the home straight Paul and Jason were at the front and stepped up the pace. Me being me and always getting a touch of white line fever decided it was time for the final sprint. After comfirmation from Paul that the line in fact was the finish I went – Loz knows what I am like and seen as she had the timing band on jumped on my wheel and we all cruised across the line – THANK F*%K we made it 😉
There was plenty of encouragement and great team work – if we could have taken our hands off the handle bars without being blown off I am sure there would have been alot of high fiving too 😉
A lousy weather forecast had many riders writing off any cycling even before the weekend had started! I had even bought a fancy rain jacket on Thursday in preparation… no excuses for me!
While up in the hills getting dressed the first text arrived before 6 am… “are you riding?”… “yes” was the answer (with a smiley face 🙂 added for enthusiasm). Driving out of Darlington the next text came… “will meet you at coffee”. As I stopped to send a quick reply a mysterious 4 wheel drive stopped in front of me! Oh no… not another stalker (as per Dardanaup)… This stalker I recognised however… It was Russell! We drove in convoy down to Coode St to find ourselves the first riders there. But who was that huddled in their car?… Jerard! He was seriously contemplating not setting foot outside the car let alone getting on his bike. He even had conveniently left one of his gloves behind (a tribute to Michael Jackson apparently)… How incredibly lucky for him I had brought 2 pairs with me!
A few hardly souls had gathered by 7 (sorry I never count heads) but not enough to split up considering the weather (which wasn’t really that bad). We rolled out led out appropriately by the president Pete and vice president Brendan. As we rode along Riverside drive and a few drops of rain started a hardly soul (wearing very familiar gloves) rode up next to me and whispered sweet nothings in my ear…. “shall we just stop for coffee now?”. “No” was the answer… 🙂
As we kept up a comfortable pace along Mounts Bay Road it was becoming evident that the wind was going to be more trouble today that any rain. Up though Thomas and down Hay Street over the speed humps into Subi. Further on ahead we turned off onto Perry Lakes and then onto to Oceanic Drive where the rolling hills spread the group out for the first time. We hadn’t split much at all though and not much of regroup was needed as we made our way onto West Coast Highway. The cross winds buffetted us nicely all the way along until we finally turned a sharp right onto Marine Parade.
Along the coast the cross wind lashed at us blowing the hardiest of riders back and forth with it’s strength. My violent swearing must have been audible above the wind and Pete came up beside me to do his best to stop me being blown half way across the road… Thanks El Presidente! Back through Swanbourne and Claremont and over Stirling Highway saw us maintaining a comfortable pace and keeping everyone together. The attack points in Dalkeith were completely ignored and I found myself in conversation rather than fighting for breath as we cruised along “Gumnut Alley”. Down onto Mounts Bay Road…. would anyone be in the mood for a last effort? Not today… wind, rain and saving of legs for tomorrow’s Cyclosportif meant that there was no one in the mood for anything resembling a sprint!
Back at coffee… no queue and hardly any wait for drinks… at least there was an unforeseen upside to venturing out today! A few people had made it down for coffee and for some pre-Cyclosportif team tactics.
South Perth dwellers and those of us going back to the carpark headed out and back over the bridge deep in discussion about what the Cyclosportif would hold in store for us the next day. Cruising along the riverside with Mends Street ahead of us I suddenly heard and felt an almighty BANG!!!! My back wheel slid out and before I knew it I was on the ground… “what the $#%@!!!” For a few seconds I could not figure out what had happened…. Then I looked at my back wheel! I had manged to impale an enormous 4 inch nail right through my tire and just about right through my rim as well. Lucky for me I had plenty of SPR friends to scrape me up and get me and my bike off the road.
Julian “Paparazzi” Johnson had pulled a camera out to capture the scene before I even had my helmet off!!! New SPR guy/white knight Jason immediately headed off to get his van (which by the way is large, spacious, unmarked and could easily hold
4 or 5 bikes!) from Coode St to come back and pick me up. Lisa (from whom I was expecting sympathy++) just looks at me in utter disbelief and starts laughing!!! “This couldn’t happen to anyone but you Lozza… You have the worse luck!”. Jerard joined in with “You know this would never have happened if you’d been riding a Pinarello!”
Damage assessment: Rear Conti Attack tire and tube are history;
wheel is still usable with a bit of rim tape to cover the nail hole (thanks Pete); pedal damage++; shifter caps scrunched up++; hole in the knee of my knicks; hole in the new rain jacket!!!!; various scrapes and bruises.
I won’t be joining SPR next weekend as I am off to Canberra on Thursday to have a go at my first taste of national racing in the Canberra Women’s Tour.
ok, so the weather forecast is not looking too good this weekend. actually it is looking total crap. so, lets go for a ride.
saturday there is only one route mapped as depending on numbers and conditions it may be safer to just hang together and cruise along rather than include any fast sections. we will play this one by ear.
sunday sees the majority of the regular hill climbers doing the cyclo-sportif at swan valley. as per usual for this event, the worst weather has been predicted over the weekend. they have even cancelled the ferry to rotto for the next three days. so if anyone is left and wants to do a hills ride, i have mapped out a route that allows the most chances at heading to an early coffee as it passes the coffee shop three times.
SPR KIT – i am hoping to have the order finalised by the end of the month. there are some items that haven’t sold very well and we will not make the minimum garment requirement so they will have to wait till next order. these are most probably the summer arms and sleeveless jersey. we still need a few more vests and winter arms to make the minimum, so if you are thinking you need more kit, let me know asap.
TOURDEFRANCE TIPPING – i have started a new page on the website that will act as the main page of the tour de france tipping comp. similar rules that we have played the past two years where you have to pick a new rider every day. this year it will all be done through the website and you will enter by placing your tip in the comments section. working out the costs now, but there will be prizes for gc, sprint, mountain and stage winners. all proceeds will go towards the club.
ok, we have the following teams registered tonight. what happens is the team leader will pay for the entire team out of their own pocket. it is then up to you to make sure that they get paid back on the day if not before. for my team expect an email soon with my netbank details so you can deposit some funds.
the amount of dollars that each person had to pay is dependant on what type of licence you hold. unfortunately, the cyclo-sportif club has decided that the recreational licence doesn’t count any more so if you have one of them or no licence, you have to pay $60. if you have a cyclo-sportif licence or a full racing licence you pay $45. if i have made a mistake with what i have on the list, you still need to pay you team captain but you should approach cyclo-sportif on the day to get a refund of the difference.
however, everyone will need to register as a “friend of cyclo-sportif”. this is free and just allows them to take your details for insurance purposes. go here to register as a “friend”.
the teams were set up to try to even up abilities across the teams, but there is always going to be a weakest link in a team. the type of event that this is, it is up to your team to manage the fitness and skills so that you all make it across the line together. no dropping riders and no riding up the road because people can’t keep up with you. unlike the tour de france, it is not the fifth rider across the line that counts, but the last, so stick together.
after a couple of years of doing these events we have found the best technique is to stay in single file. the rider at the front does a 30 sec turn then swings off and goes to the back. as the race progresses, the stronger riders may need to take longer turns while the weaker ones take shorter. best not to miss a turn as you will leave a gap. if you are really struggling, just pull straight off after the rider in front has. that 5 sec on the front will allow the others to get a rest too.
The wet weather no doubt kept many people away this morning and we presumed Captain Peter had not finished construction of his pirate ship. Nevertheless 13 of us turned up for the ride and there were a few positive comments about no rain on the radar. The roads were damp as we made our way out along Welshpool Road but the rain stayed away and just before the climb the sun managed to peek through the clouds. Spirits were lifted as we attacked the first hill. Hunter and Brendan made a couple of early moves, then Brendan declared his climbing day over about 400 m into the first ascent and dropped back. I was feeling quite good and made good progress to the top, then turned around to watch the battles for points. Hunter held off Brendan for second, with Rhys and Mark D rounding out the top five.
KOM 1 – 1. Julian, 2. Hunter, 3. Brendan, 4. Rhys, 5. Mark D
One of the newer Sunday riders Bill had the day’s first puncture, in his rear tube, on the climb and this resulted in the re-group being longer than expected. Once this was sorted we headed off to Carmel, taking care on the damp roads but at least avoiding rain. The first split of the day occurred when we hit Mundaring Weir Rd. A group of 4 took a left turn to coffee (which I’m sure they really earned!!), whilst the rest of us started the climb to Asher Road. I opened up a break on Hunter early and maintained this. The rest of the group made good time and we shortly met again at the top.
We cruised down to the dam and readied ourselves for the next climb and had started to wind up when the call of “flat” went out. Bill had managed to puncture his front tube, so we stuck together whilst this was repaired. The climb to Mundaring began again at the roundabout near the pub and featured a great duel between Hunter and Mike, with Mike claiming 2nd behind me. Claire also climbed strongly to take home 4th and Rhys took 5th.
KOM 3 – 1. Julian, 2. Mike, 3. Hunter, 4. Claire, 5. Rhys
The trip through Glen Forrest and Darlington was pretty cruisy. It turned out that most of us has done the ride in the other direction so there was some hesitation at intersections but we managed to negotiate the correct route. As an aside, the Ryecroft Road repairs have been completed, even though we didn’t go that way. When we hit Ridgehill Road Hunter and Ben made a break, but with no points on offer, no else followed. Given the length of this ride, it may be worth adding in another climb at this stage.
At Kalamunda Road, Hunter and Claire departed for home leaving 7 of us to tackle the last hill. Simon and Nicole only just missed out on points and we were all glad to reach the safety of the coffee shop. Even more pleasing was that we arrived dry, without a hint of rain on the whole ride.
KOM 4 – 1. Julian, 2. Brendan, 3. Rhys, 4. Mike, 5. Bill
I had to get back early today so didn’t stay for coffee so the report will end here. Also, next week I won’t be riding so if anyone tackles the Sunday ride in preference to the Cyclo Sportif, can they please keep a tally of points and send them through.
