to venture south on a SPR “Road Trip” to the wilds of Pemberton for the annual Pemberton Classic.
This cycle race is a regular event on the March long weekend. The event program includes: Criterium “Race around the Town” on Saturday afternoon (Feb 28) and the Road Race on the Sunday (March 1). The Road Race takes place in the beautiful surroundings of Pemberton’s farmland, vineyards and karri trees over a 40km circuit, with varying distances for different grades.
Make the most of the long weekend and explore the beautiful Pemberton area while you are down.
I am happy to coordinate and organise accommodation for anyone interested in going down (families are of course welcome) but as it is a long weekend, accommodation will be scarce if we leave it too late. Please let me know if you are interested ASAP.
As yet the 2009 information link is not yet up but I will advise as soon as it is.
Lorraine
Don’t forget to get your racing licence for 2009 NOW!!!! You will get a whole year of racing value from it instead of forking out for day licences.
well the first ride after christmas so everyone should be showing off the nice bike bling that they received from santa. we will be tackling the sprinters course on saturday with three nice flat runs to get the blood pumping all the christmas excess out of your system. we will break into 2 groups for this ride and when the main group heads up bannister road, the fast boys will extend along ranford road and chase the others along nicholson and albany hwy. the aim is to get the main group to learn to work together and the fast boys to smash themselves apart.
sunday will tackle some nice long climbs in kalamunda and mundaring. check out the map carefully and take note of where the mountain points are. also make sure you know the way to go when coming back through darlington. try really hard not to get lost and let me know who got the points on each climb.
well our third group breakfast and this one was to be combined with our christmas ride, which is always the last saturday before christmas day. we would usually do a slower circuit around the city and then have a longer than usual coffee at the belltower. this year, however, we were doing a proper spr, lorraine catered breakfast. legendary stuff. now the first breakfast was in winter time and you kind of expect there to be rain. the next one was in spring, so you may get a shower. but for me to wake to the sound of rain dripping along the downpipe in the middle of december was just typical. we have a guaranteed drought breaker if we just scheduled in more spr breakfasts. if wasn’t too bad though and the road was hardly wet.
unlike the other breakfasts, this one was to be held at jerry’s house in city beach. as son #2 was actually due the day before the breakfast, it was always going to be a stretch to think that a horde of sweaty cyclists could descend on our house. as previously reported, #2 had arrived and kate timed her discharge from mercy hospital in time for attendance to the breakfast. i however, would be on son #1 duties and would not be actually riding with the group. it didn’t stop me from riding though.
so with half a santa suit (hat, beard & jacket) and ben on the mountain bike, we set off to the usually starting point. as more a more people turned up, it was good to see that most had gone to the effort of decorating themselves or their bike. there was tinsel everywhere. i set the group on it’s way and headed off on a more direct route to city beach. for a change it was good to hear the toot of a car horn as lots of people honked and waved to ben and i as we came up past kings park and along hay street. we usually get a bit of attention with the seat on the front of the bike, but the santa suit must have turned us from target of aggression to spectacle of delight. it may be our new kit for next year. a full santa suit. imagine 50 santa’s sprinting along mounts bay road on a saturday morning. or even full elvis sequin suits. that would be cool.
ok, its a better view than at my place.
anyway, all was fine until we skirted around bold hill and it started to rain again. i stopped and popped a rain jacket on ben to keep him relatively dry, but by the time i got to jerry’s a bedraggled and waterlogged santa was i.
lorraine had everything under control and she had a few extra helpers on board as well. i thank those ladies for their time and effort and i especially thank them as it has meant that it was something extra that i didn’t have to worry about. the food was being laid out and lorraine had outdone herself once again. there was all kind of delicacy ready to be sampled and it was just waiting for the horde to descend. i just stayed out of the way as best i could, and tried to stop ben destroying jerry’s house.
the waterlogged crew finally arrived and filled the house with christmas cheer. socks were quickly escorted to the quick wash cycle and tumble dry as we had discussed, oh too late after the last breakfast. who would have thought we would have needed it in summer.
after all had gorged themselves on the wonderful spread, lorraine brought out a cake for bec who decided to celebrate her birthday with us today. i took the opportunity to keep the group together and present some gifts for each person in the group. instead of a raffle this time, i managed to scrape together enough funds from various sources (pbk and google mainly) to get everyone a south perth rouleurs hat. if you had ordered any kit (jersey at the minimum), then you would receive a hat. i do have some extras though, so if you want to buy any for you kids, supporters, etc, then let me know. lorriane was also given a well deserved gift for her tireless (get it, it was tyres) efforts within the group and jerry’s wife tanya received some flowers for allowing us to destroy her house.
the presentations didn’t finish there, as unbeknownst to me, jerry and lorraine had some surprises as well. jerry made a few presentations for some of the more memorable moments of the year. mark schneider received some bandaids for sampling the most tarmac this year, melvyn a spare tube for obvious reasons, ryan some bike wash for having the dirtiest bike and mark decastro some gu for being a wheel sucker. lorriane also received a giro sprinters jersey for her outstanding effort last sunday where she took out the “b” grade women’s race at the joondalup classic.
protected rider???
but the fun didn’t stop there and it was my turn to be surprised as a special order had been placed with cannibal and a yellow spr jersey had been made up with my name on the back. now i am not sure whether this denotes, team leader, protected rider, or just makes it easier for me to be targeted, but i certainly appreciate it, and the effort in getting something made. the presents didn’t stop there, as i also received a plaque which read –
“in recognition of your outstanding contribution and commitment to the south perth rouleurs”. this will have to go “straight in the pool room” with my two masters medals this year. in recognition of the family sacrifices that have been made in keeping the group together, kate and ben also received some gifts.
it seems strange writing this from two different perspectives. one as the receiver of a gift but also as part of the group that has given it, i feel compelled to try to explain the reasons behind it. i really appreciate the efforts that people have made in regards to the group and supporting the group dynamic. it hasn’t even been a full year and already we have a very strong core of cyclists that can only be referred to as regulars if not stalwarts of spr. the turn out for the joondalup classic was nothing short of outstanding and when mark conveyed his story about the surprise from some other riders on how many or us there were, i can say it made me smile. just getting the name out there has been an important thing to me and getting people to recognise who we are and more importantly, what type of group we are.
i can remember the apprehension i felt the first saturday that we met at coode street and the fear that i would be the only person to turn up. the saturday rides this year have been growing and i appreciate the effort that people show towards helping other riders or even working together when the ride gets too fast for them. i also appreciate the restraint that some of the fast boys have shown in keeping the ride together until the designated sprint sections.
the sunday ride has been a great success with the numbers regularly sitting around the 15-20 mark even though everybody knows it is going to be a hard day. the supportiveness of the group has allowed this ride to grow as well and we are often getting new riders coming out to play.
lately a couple of people have commented on the group dynamic and what it means to them. the word “community” has been used but even more so the word “family” was also thrown around. the plaque recognises my efforts in guiding the group, but i do it all for you guys cause you are my cycling family and i wish to see that feeling continue.
even before spr existed, one sunday coffee stop i was commenting on how we would eventually be moving back to victoria to be closer to family. dr carl straight away said “but we are your family”. it is for this reason i have worked to keep this group together and it is the reason that the group works so well together.
so have a great christmas and new years and i hope to see you out on the bike soon.
Well Peter asked for a different perspective on the “Hell of the North” and being the leader of the pack (fall), here is mine..
Firstly let me say that I am OK and thank you for the help and best wishes I have received over the last few days. The support from the SPR community (and my family and partner too) has been outstanding – it’s really appreciated! Special thanks to Melvyn and Jerry who helped all the the way along the journey, and to Mark DeCastro and Stuart Durham at the crash scene. And to Ryan for his banter, and and…
Reflecting back to the start of race when we were looking forward, it is difficult to reconcile the difference betweeen how things should have turned out, and how they did. A good day (albeit somewhat hot) and a big field of 58 on a testing 72 km course with lots of compatriots gave great opportunity for some SPR success, surely!
My first 3 laps were spent near the rear of the field, mainly because it takes that long for me to warm up and also I was not expecting any breakaways to be successful, and certainly I wasn’t ready to be doing any chasing anyway. During this time I was near John and Melvyn and we felt the elastic stretch tight on the hill at the 4km mark of each circuit. I was feeling some sympathy for the maiden racers as I felt a bit stressed already, although the previous night’s wines could be partly blamed for that. At the start of the 4th lap I decided it was time to move to the front, not so much because I wanted to (or could) do anything special, but rather to try to cover the moves which might happen soon. I was correct – the attack came on the hill of the 4th lap, and although I was in a good position to chase, it was hard work. My memory doesn’t serve me well, but my recollection is that there was a small break of 3 going up the hill, which a few of us chased. I sucked a wheel near the crest in order recover and we made ground on the leaders over the top when they slowed, I think. As we started to speed down the other side I “touched a wheel” – I’m not really sure why! Anyway, there was no gentle easing away per more fortunate circumstances. This time my wheel turned hard and I spilled quickly. My speedo later revealed that we were travelling at 53kph, but this may be incorrect because it also showed that we had travelled 39km which does not seem correct!
The imagery in my mind is that the scene was just as you would expect, with bikes and riders piling in on top. My tumbleweed imitation ceased fairly quickly without pain, and the next concern was to get out of the way of the following pack – hence the “rabbit in the spotlight” impersonation as described by James. The peloton passed around, and the race proceeded as described well by Jerry elsewhere in the blog. On the bitumen with me was Ryan, Fred Landon and a few others I didn’t recognise, plus Mark who had already phoned for an ambulance. Fred didn’t look happy and seemed to be nursing his shoulder. My elbow was leaking quite a bit of claret, to the considerable concern of fellow ceased racer Stuart Durham who stemmed the flow by wrapping his race jersey tightly around my elbow. Mark was able to be convinced that the ambovan was not required, and the DNF was formalised by a lift back to the finish where capable first-aid was provided.
Inspection of the bike revealed that the once mighty R3 was now only about R0.3. It’s remarkable how quickly such things are accepted. The other remarkable thing about the whole incident, still only 1/3 travelled at that stage, is the lack of pain suffered – never more than 2 out of 10, and I was asked enough times!
I was able to watch Lorriane’s great win and the good performances by Nico in A-grade and Ben, Jerry and Spud in B-grade – great efforts all!
Next port of call was hospital. After much discussion within the group, including Melvyn ringing Freo ED, it seemed that Joondalup was the best option. Certainly it was the closest. To cut a long story short, after admission at midday, I finally entered theatre at about 10pm for debridement (kinda like a chain-wash I guess) of the gash on my right elbow, to ensure that it was totally clean and thereby minimise risk of infection, given the closeness to joint and bone. Despite that progress through the system was seemingly slow I was well looked after and much better off than some of those in “emergency” around me. I spent the next day in hospital and returned home late on Monday. Subsequent review of the wounds (8 stitches in elbow) indicates they are healing well, but riding is not endorsed for a week or so. At least the timing is acceptable!
Aside from my personal damage, Fred Landon suffered a dislocated shoulder and broken bike (new BH I think) and Ryan received some gashing. I guess there is more that I am unaware of. These things cause me pain. Plus my own equipment damage which includes fractured top tube, gouged and twisted shifters (ouch), ruined hanger and rear derailleur, scratched rear rim (bought wheelset the day before), minor scratches/dings, and busted watch. Like I said, its amazing how quickly one accepts these things and starts looking forward. The frame is now with Aldo at Quantum Bicycle Manufacturers under investigation. All options are up for consideration, but a rebuild is the most likely.
Once again, thank you all for the support. I look forward to riding with you again soon.
you can leave any or all of these things under my tree. maybe except number 8, i was grasping at straws for that one.
don’t forget that breakfast is at jerry’s place in city beach so have a good look at the map in case you get lost. my involvement in the ride is yet to be determined so someone have a good look at the course to give directions.
cost is $10 and i have no idea what will be provided as lorriane has done everything without my involvement. based on the previous two breakfasts though, it should be good.
you are encouraged to add some decorative flair to your bike or person for this ride as we will be passing through the city to spread some festive cheer. whether it is a santa hat, some tinsel on the bike or a full on santa suit, it is up to you. but remember, scarborough beach road may get a little fast for the fat man.
A Thesis On the Advantage of Time Trials (over carnage).
by big Nick
Recovering from a bout of gastro I missed the opportunity to help out at the Joondalup Classic, and opted to undertake my first 40km “Race of Truth” . Obviously some clip-on tt bars would give me the edge over the rest of the field, and a tweak of the seat to ramp up the discomfort would also give the impression I knew what to do. Luckily I had also shifted a few kilograms over the previous weekend so the power to weight ratio was looking sweet too.
I was guided by the upbeat review in the latest Ride magazine and the cheap membership to ATTA.
The locale was a heatsoak near the Alcoa red mud lakes off Anketell Road, south of the city. Being Sunday, and the merits of 38 degree heat already well documented, it was nice to start “Visioning” winning…
…at least until I saw the millions of dollars worth of custom time trial bikes, carbon deep dish and solid race singles, blokes and blokettes with camel back aero helmet extensions, people on the trainers getting warmed up, and Cameron Meyer.
So maybe I should re-adjust my objectives for the day.
1. Finish. 2. Beat any woman 3.Take out the hand cycle dude 4. Average over 34km/h for the full distance.
Starting at 8am, still less than 36 degrees in the shade, I had Lorraine Schutz starting one minute in front of me….the extremely fit and motivated World Masters TT Age Champion. Think like a winner, at least I won’t have her go past me in her jet ….
and off we go into a head wind. Brilliant. struggle to hit 32km/h into the bastard wind, and then turn left to get assisted by the breeze only to find it is a bastard hill in the way, and I struggle to tonk it with the breeze….no-one around…another nice left hander… my *^$# seat post has just hit the “squeak like a stuck pig” button, due to my fiddling. Nothing more annoying than this symphony. See my two minute man…. a friend… nice to take him out….not a hills man obviously.
Until I hit the hill too and somehow the wind has changed direction to be right into my face and did I mention the hill…and the wind. So then hit the finish for the first of three laps with a bang. Literally. Someone’s single had popped in the heat. Road not melting yet. Hey this isn’t so hard.
Soon had time to reflect on my malfunctioning Polar heart rate monitor. Somehow the dial was stuck at 188 BPM even when I stopped pedalling briefly. Back to the next left and a sweeping section where I hit my top speed at 51km/h once.
That bastard hill..the damn wind etc….seems like a theme going on here. The heart rate montor had dropped slightly but after another lap I had the strange sensation of feeling cold and getting shivers. Recent medical advice seems to suggest that this was the onset of heat exhaustion, so anyone else that felt this should volunteer to Edith Cowan Uni Sports physiology unit…they were quite interested.
Yes well I finished….Didn’t beat the reigning World TT Champ….took out the hand cycle dude…and averaged 35.7km/h….and 178 BPM ave …so almost met my objectives. I even had a pee 8 hours later.
Cameron Meyer managed a brisk average of 46.1km/h, which was 4:36 mins and 3.7km/h quicker than the not-too-shabby next bloke, Mark Roberts ( National Masters TT Age Champion). So room for improvement there (not them obviously).
In summary….
It looks like the whole TT gig is the soft putty option when compared with mass attrition, collisions, bike and leg and elbow destruction, and Lorraine’s stonking and arguably legal brownies.
On the other hand, the fact that I was so far adrift from the lead time, facing the wind by yourself with the tuneful sounds of a ridiculously squeaky seatpost, is somehow an honest battle.
No team to let you down or support you, no crashes to take you down, no A graders fronting B grade, no being boxed in….just turn up, shut up and flog yourself. I may even do it again on behalf of SPR if I find out where my left buttock dropped off!
if you are coming along to the breakfast this saturday, please send us an e-mail asap so lorraine can organise the catering. so far we only have 26 people rsvp’d and i know we will get more than that. if you have a partner that is coming and is not riding, also send me an e-mail and i will let you know the address.
also, we will be finalising the team kit order this coming weekend, so if you need anything let me know by e-mail or at the breakfast. for those of you that have crashed recently, this is a good opportunity to replace the gear as we probably won’t do another order for about 6 months or so. i am not sure if we will be able to get everything we have ordered. some of the garments have not reached their minimum order limit so they will either be more expensive, or we postpone those bits till later. as they are mainly the arms and vests, we can probably wait till it gets colder anyway.
this is the last week for the www.perthcycling.com.au forum competition. if you haven’t already registered on the forum do so, and let your other cycling friends know as well.
oh, and happy birthday to dave pascoe who hits the big four O today.
With the last event in the racing calender for 2008, team SPR was represented en force with a total of 18 riders: Brendan was the only knight in “A” grade, 13 of us in “B” grade and 4 in the “B” grade women. The forecast was for a scorcher with the maximum of 35 degrees, this was never going to be an easy stroll in the fields of wanneroo.
I drove up with the Bard “Le Kuan” who had traded his pink diary for his red R3 to enter in his first ever race. He was a bit apprehensive but I told him not to try his legendry sprints today and stick in the bunch as long as possible. We got there with an hour to spare, but Lorraine Fuentes was already waiting under the SPR tent she put up along with drinks and her famous EPO enriched chocolate brownies as well as her trainer!! This woman is serious.
Captain Pete could not make it, Kate went into labour with their second child the night before. Ryan thought it was inconsiderate of her!
We put our SPR kit on and went for a warm up lap with master tactician Bjarn DeCastro: The plan was to watch any breakaways and keep 3-4 riders at the front of the group. If Ryan manages to go up the road, then we should try and hold the main group from chasing him. It all sounded reasonable, let’s see if we can execute.
We took off at 9:03, with a scheduled start at 9:05. (This really annoys me as Bjarn DeCastro and I once missed the start of the hills challenge for the same reason and had to chase the group for 40 Km before we caught them, we need to buy these organisers some swiss watches). With nearly 60 riders at the start, this was a big group and everyone’s adrenaline was flowing. I was told by my other SPR team mates that the course is “reasonably” flat with some undulations as they had done it earlier in the year or late last year, 8 laps of 9 Kms with a total distance of 72Kms. The start is downhill then it flattens followed by a left hand turn with a gentle hill to warm the legs up. Then comes a long flat part with a sharp Lt hand turn with a nasty hill immediately afterwards giving you no chance to prepare for it with zero momentum. The rest is flattish with an uphill finish of about 250 meters.
The goup stayed together for the first 2 laps with a fairly fast pace and I saw few SPR jerseys around me, they all looked confortable and riding well, am I the only one starting to feel the heat? Or are these cycling sunglasses hiding the pain underneath?. We lost Le Kuan after the second lap, he did one lap on his own and then decided ” bugger that, I’m staying in the shade”. John and Paul soon followed and we went past Chris “Chuck” Norris on the third lap who was sufering from leg cramps, his Tour was over. James gave him a pat on the back ( or was it on the bum?) as he went past. Now I’m not sure about the tactics in these races or whether it is merely a herding behaviour but after each left hand turn the front boys will accelerate and everyone follows suit then slow down, what was that all about?
By the end of the third lap, I was starting to hurt and had already gone through over half of my bidons, it was stinking hot and sweat was burning my eyes. Negative thoughts started to creep in: not halfway yet and I’m feeling flat, maybe I shouldn’t finish this race. I’m sure my wife will understand and my kids will still love me. As we went past the start/finish line, I saw Le Kuan under the shade with a drink in his hand, was that a Martini mate! Now in our 4th lap and tired legs were starting to wobble, no more adrenaline here or attacks on the hills, survival was the name of the game now. Riders started to drop off but we had all the remaining SPR boys towards the front of the group.
I think it was on the 4th lap that disaster struck. I was in the middle of the group when I heard the familiar
just a flesh wound
sound of carbon on tarmac and calls of “CRASH”, bikes were flying in the air as 4-5 riders hit the ground. I managed to avoid going over a rider only to realise it was Stuart, with Ryan lying on the road with his arms up protecting his head from incoming traffic. It all happened in a flash and I considered stopping but saw Judd and Ben go past so I chased them. Even if I stopped I don’t think I could be of any use, I’m only a urologist and I don’t think Ryan needed a urinary catheter then.
There were I think 3-4 riders who didn’t slow down and had a reasonable gap on the chasing group, a group that had Judd, Mike, Ben and I in it. Mark and James saw the crash a good opportunity to call it quits and joined the boys for some Martinis. I’m not sure when but we lost Judd soon after and 2 more riders dropped off too. Mike, Ben and I were rolling through with another rider who likes to tell others what to do and when to chase, needless to say that we dropped him after one lap. Mike also decided he had enough of this burning heat and joined the Martini party. Ben and I were left to ride by ourselves and we were in no medical condition to try and bridge the gap on the 4 riders or so up the road, I believe they were A graders who decided to come and play in the B grade.
2 laps to go and we were literally cooked. Ben told me he had nothing left, I shared his feelings. We did turns at the front but the heat was unbearable, where are all these water spraying basque suppporters when you need them? As we crossed the line for the last lap, the organiser told us 2 more laps to go, what the?? We also need to buy them some swiss calculators. I ran out of drinks on the last lap, I’m really an expert at that ( after riding Hautacam with no water!) and I tried to stick my tongue out to catch some water from nearby plantation sprinklers with no such luck. I started to cramp, probably from dehydration, but that was no stopping now, 5 Kms to go. We were then joined by a passing train with Dan who rode with us last sunday as well as Judd sitting nicely at the back, we quickly jumped in for some respite. Ben was acting like super domestique Jens Voigt and handed whatever drink he had left to Judd who happily accepted .
We passed Lorraine who was riding by herself way ahead of the rest of the B grade women, these brownies are definitely working. At 700 meters from the end, Ben attacked and I thought he went a bit too early, but he kept going and no one responded. Judd then took off after him and I stayed in front of the other 3 riders. I pushed on but kept looking back to make sure no one will try and pip Ben or Judd but everyone was stuffed and we were happy to roll through the finish in ( I think) 6,7 and 8 position.
We watched the A grade finish and I think Brendan managed 5th place, well done.
The day however belongs to Lorraine who not only looked after us all but managed to win her division in her maiden race. What a fantastic result for someone who was getting dropped badly on the saturday rides less than a year ago. These wind training sessions with Monsieur Fynn seem to be working ( with some EPO of course).
I was so dehydrated that day that I drank all afternoon and did not empty my bladder once, incredible. To top it all, I spent the rest of the day in front of a 250 degree woodfired oven cooking Pizzas for my daughter and her 12 friends who came over for her birthday party.
Stuart went to Joondalup Hospital and went to theatre that night for debridement of a deep right elbow wound. No fractures but the wound needs to be dressed for the next few days. His R3 frame however is cracked and I believe his crankset and rear derailleurs are damaged too. We wish you a speedy recovery Stu.
Ryan has minor bruises and superficial cuts. He said he will be there on the thursday ride!!
at mercy hospital this morning, little buddha decided to come into the world today a few days earlier than planned. daniel zun cai mah appeared at 8:52am and weighed in at 4.13kg or 9lb 1 on the old scale. as this is 3lbs heavier than ben i now have a climber and a sprinter. since it was 8 minutes before the start of my race, i dare say i had a good excuse for not fronting up.
This cycle race is a regular event on the March long weekend. The event program includes: Criterium “Race around the Town” on Saturday afternoon (Feb 28) and the Road Race on the Sunday (March 1). The Road Race takes place in the beautiful surroundings of Pemberton’s farmland, vineyards and karri trees over a 40km circuit, with varying distances for different grades.
