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saturday 13th december – hale rd

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short ride report by peter.

 

with so many people racing tomorrow, it was never going to be a fast day.  a group of about 50 were keen for a ride and we headed out shep rd towards welshpool.  the slow pace combined with the large group meant that we were bound to be caught out at a number of traffic lights and the group was split a number of times.  the worst was probably along hale rd where it crosses tonkin hwy and the second group was delayed significantly.  as we hit kalamunda rd, michael turned off to do more hills as he is not racing tomorrow and is training for the alpine classic in victoria in january. 

the pace was still easy as we headed through high wycombe and didn’t step up until we crossed the bridge in bassendean.  the stretch along guilford road through to maylands was a high pace with the boys at the front pushing along at about 45kph.  the group was still holding together, but you could see some of the riders slipping back as they were not used to the sustained high pace.  the tailwind was helping though. 

once we hit the rolling hills of maylands, jerry went off the front.  the pace and hills began to splinter the group and some of the guys just could not help themselves and began to chase.  once jerry was back in the fold, james and then ryan went off the front.  they pulled quite a gap but were slowed by the lights allowing the majority of the bunch a chance to catch up.  byt the time we were on east parade, there was quite a group together.

as we approached the final stretch along riverside drive, ryan slipped back in the group to get a good lead out.  the group was quite big in comparison to other days on the same route so it was always going to be messy.  a number of riders hit out hard but it wasn’t till the last 100 m that ryan started his sprint and (i am assuming as i was so far back) took it as the lights turned orange. 

a special mention today and i really don’t know how to explain it.  it thought of in terms of awards – the award for “getting dressed in the dark” or the award for “i am trying to cover up my advertisers” or the “superman wears his undies on the outside too” award.  anyway, it goes to dr mark for some how getting his knicks on inside-out.

christmas breakfast next saturday at jerry’s palace in city beach.  i will map a nice easy course so don’t expect any sprints or too hard a ride.  it will be $10 per head and if you are coming, please let us know by sending an e-mail here.  there will be food and coffee and a special appearance by anorexic santa.

anorexic santa
anorexic santa

we have another run of kit going, so have a look at the kit page on this website and send an e-mail if you need anything.  final orders need to be in by next weekend.

the prizes on the www.perthcycling.com.au are being drawn next saturday, so if you haven’t registered on the forum, do so now so you can get in the draw.

ride routes 13th & 14th december

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no baby as yet so i am planning to ride saturday and race sunday.  fingers and legs crossed that he doesn’t come till monday. 

so a nice easy one saturday and we will take a pleasant cruise up hale rd and back along kalamunda and guilford rds.  the pace will step up once we cross the bridge in bassendean, but apart from that i am expecting an easy ride.  as there is racing on sunday, we will not split into 2 groups as we need to save the legs.

sunday will be a case of “who is not racing”.  so far we have our best turn out ever for a race event at the joondalup classic.

“a” grade men – brendan

“b” grade men – ryan, judd, stuart, peter, james, jerrard, mark, ben, paul, mike, melvyn, chris, john

“b” grade women – lorraine, bec w, lisa, nicole???

as this takes out most of the regular sunday riders, there are many a mountain point available to be claimed.  the map shows some cat 2 climbs, but make them all cat 1 and let me know the first 5 riders to the top.  for those that are planning to tackle the sunday ride, make sure you check the map as there will be a few tricky points to navigate.  good luck to you and we will see if we can get a rouleur onto the podium.

south perth rouleurs saturday ride 03 (hale rd)

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 02 (darlington & mundaring weir)

new team kit

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i have added a new page at the top that provides details of the new team kit order.  we will be taking orders over the next couple of weeks, but availablity of items will depend on us reaching the minimum requirements per garment.  you can let me know what you want either via e-mail or by filling in the order sheet at the coffee shop on saturdays.  like last time, we will not be ordering extra kits, so whatever you don’t order this time, may have to wait at least another 6 months before we order again.

CHRISTMAS RIDE AND BREAKFAST

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The Christmas ride and breakfast will be on Saturday 20th December

Christmas fancy dress for riders is highly recommended

And don’t forget some Christmas bling for your bike too!

A sumptuous breakfast will be waiting at the end of the ride

at Palazzo Ghossein in City Beach (details later)


Don’t miss out on this wonderful end-of-year social event for the South Perth Rouleurs

Everyone welcome!


$10 per person on the day

Please RSVP by Weds 17th December

if possible

admin@southperthrouleurs.com.au


Jerard’s wife Tania is helping me with the breakfast but if there is someone whose partner could also come and help it would be much appreciated.

Lorraine

saturday 6th december – gooseberry hill

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ride report by peter.

 

december already and there is a lot of things on the plate.  christmas, christmas parties, spr christmas breakfast, new kit to be ordered, oh, and a new baby needs to be scheduled in there at sometime.  it looks to be a busy few weeks.  in keeping with the season of giving, i am giving you guys the chance to step up and take control of the group.  when #2 son appears, it is unknown how much time i will be able to spend in the saddle but we need to keep a tight reign on the group or it will just become another group ride. 

see, we do have some girls in the group
see, we do have some girls in the group

to that end, i devised a cunning plan.  in the words of the great blackadder, “as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed professor of cunning at oxford university”.  i needed to split the group up to protect the weaker riders from the pace of the stronger ones.  then while the fast boys are smashing themselves apart, the rest of the group can build to a more sustainable pace.  as riders progress in their ability, they can then step up to the faster group, or if the stronger guys have been brought down by illness or injury, they can use the second group as a recovery ride.

now how this helps me, is that when the stronger riders are self flagellating at the front, the only guys that they will be hurting are those that have volunteered to go in group one.  if they get dropped, they are usually strong enough to make their way back without me having to worry about them.  with group two, the natural order of things will find a few guys and girls that will step up and take control of the group to keep it together and help the struggling riders.  russell was that person today and i thank him for it as it makes my life easier. 

so, how to make the split.  how do you tell someone which group they are in.  well i didn’t have to.  i put a bloody great hill in the middle of the ride and that made the decision for me.  gooseberry hill is long and steep.  not as long as some of the sunday hills nor as steep as some of the others, but definitely a new thing for the saturday ride.  for many it was the extra incentive to say “group 2 for me” for others it would be a long painful morning. 

about 40 were willing to ride this morning and we set out on a fairly new route.  a zig-zag course through belmont and maida vale found us on hawtin rd which is the last stretch of the hale rd route.  this gave us and easier approach to gooseberry than i had originally mapped out as we could cross kalamunda rd at the lights.  the selection point was the roundabout and i barked orders as we approached and then watched the group split fairly well in two with about 20 heading straight up gooseberry and the other 20 turning left via ridgehill rd. 

as i had slid back through the group to let everyone know what was going on, i started the climb well down in the placings and had a lot of ground to make up.  i was surprised at the amount of traffic that this road gets and we had to go single file at the start which allowed a few of the boys a fair gap up ahead.  i stuck on hugh’s wheel for as long as i could and we picked up a number of riders before the road flattened out slightly.  knowing that this was the calm before the storm, i tried to pick up as much ground as i could before the steepest part of the hill started.  as the gradient sapped the strength from my legs, i was past by judd and a couple of others, including julian  who is climbing exceptionally well lately (note to drug testers).  ryan was well ahead and i have a feeling that hugh was also up the road.  as the grade finally settled to the point where you could actually see the finish, i accelerated around judd and the others since i could now measure the effort to the line.  i managed to hold julian’s wheel, but was in no state to try to come around.

we waited and watched the riders come up one by one in many a state of emotional and physical disrepair.  the last rider was rob, an old mate from work who was back on break from liberia in west africa.  not much riding going on there and i was surprised to see him volunteer fro group one.  the look on his face at the top of the hill said it may have surprised him too.

a nice descent down the zig-zag complete with a view of the city made it all worthwhile and provided a good reprieve for the legs.  a regroup at the top of ridgehill rd provided us with an indication of just how far ahead the second group would be.  a looooong way.  it took us ages to get up gooseberry, then the zig-zag is not the most direct route to the bottom, so we were at least 15 min behind with about 45 min of riding to go.  the group splintered on the descent and quite a bit of organisation was needed to get it back together for the run into town.  once we were complete, the boys on the front lit the fuse and were off.

i expected that we may roll through, or even half the group roll through, but the front few were keen to just power through the wind running single file until the pace slackened.  another rider would then come to the front and take the strain.  the tailwind combined with the diesel motors of judd and nick along with the turbo of ryan and the rotory engines in james and ben, kept us humming along at around 50 kph for most of helana valley rd.  by the time we hit great eastern hwy it was clear that there was a group 1 and a group 1.5 due to the pace. 

we had picked up another rider on the way and i spent most of helena valley rd chatting to sean o’neil who has been one of, if not “the”, top triathlete in perth the last few years.  he was a handy asset to have on the return journey and did a lot of work on the front as we came through the rollers in mt lawley.

every time we regrouped at the lights, the pace would be on so that only the strongest survived to the end.  if we discount gooseberry hill, as we did regroup three times after the climb, then it is actually pace that determined who should be in group 1 and 2.  as far as i was concerned, it was the best and hardest saturday ride i had been on in ages. 

we rolled into the coffee shop about 10 min after the first group had landed and they all had their coffee’s

ryan's new bum hole
ryans new bum hole

and sustenance on the table as we arrived.  there was no way we were going to catch them, but it had them worried and they were trying to stay away for the rest of the ride.  the important thing was that they stayed together.

as for the saturday ride from now on,  am keen to get feedback on whether this is the way to go.  i think that people will eventually fall into the group that they feel comfortable with and it should make the ride more pleasant for all.  if we do proceed down this path of two routes, it will not always be a hill that will be added, but usually a extra lap to give the group two riders a head start for the ride home.  however, expect the pace to be high in group one as the chase begins.

in other non-riding type news, just a reminder that the ride on the 20th of dec will be the christmas breakfast in which we will not (as tradition dictates) be riding hard and you will all be encouraged not to be too serious and either dress up or decorate your bike.  the breakfast will be held at jerry’s palace in city beach so just be aware that the ride home will be a bit longer that usual and it may pay to organise some small groups to ride home together.

the next run of team kit will be underway soon and i will be posting details on the blog just as soon as i bolt down some of the finer points.  like price.  there will be the standard kit plus potentially some extras, like undergarments and t-shirts, as long as we get enough orders to reach the minimum required per style.  keep an eye on the blog as well as look for the signup sheet circulating around the coffee shop.

i forgot to mention that ryan fell off and hurt his bottom on the way to the ride this morning.  luckily it wasn’t his spr kit that he got a hole in.

your cycling holidays in the alps

you may occasionally see some of the group riding in an “aussies in france” jersey and wonder what the hell that is about.  last year, christophe took a group of cyclists over to france to ride some of the little hills they have over there.  after a bit of a hiatus this year he is organising it again for august next year.

fabrice, who acted as a guide last time, will be joining the tour again and will be organising a quote over the next couple of weeks.  the distances have been kept below 100km per day to make sure that everyone enjoys themselves without being too exhausted the next day.  total rider numbers will be kept down to 20 so if you are interested contact christophe by e-mail.

 

Arrivée From To 17/08/2009 km Climbs
Etape 1 Eze Eze 18/08/2009 58.3 Col de la Madone de Gorbio
Etape 2 Eze St Martin de Vésubie 19/08/2009 79.2 Col du Turini
Etape 3 St Martin Vésubie Isola 2000 20/08/2009 58.1 17 km de montée pour Isola 2000
Etape 4 Isola 2000 Barcelonnette 21/08/2009 86.6 Col de la Bonnette – le col le plus haut d’europe
Etape 5 Barcelonnette Embrun 22/08/2009 71.3 Col du lauzet, col de st apolinaire
Etape 6 Embrun Briançon 23/08/2009 73.5 Col de l’Izoard
Etape 7 Briançon Alpe D’Huez 24/08/2009 72.0 Col du Lautaret, Alpe d’Huez
Etape 8 Alpe d’huez Alpe D’Huez 25/08/2009 94.0 Col du Glandon, Col de la Croix de Fer, Alpe D’Huez
Etape 9 Alpe d’huez St Michel de Maurienne 26/08/2009 88.5 Col du Lautaret, Col du Galibier
Etape 10 St Michel de Maurienne Val d’Isère 27/08/2009 89.0 Val d’Isère
Etape 11 Val d’Isère Beaufort 28/08/2009 70.5 Cormet de Roseland
Etape 12 Beaufort Le Grand Bornand 29/08/2009 98.4 Col des Saisies, Cote d’araches, Col de Romme, Col de la Colombière
Etape 13 Le Grand Bornand Annecy 30/08/2009 74.8  
Etape 14 Annecy Genéve 31/08/2009 73.9  
Départ     1/09/2009    
      TOTAL 1088.1  

ride for youth

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some of you will know anna who regularly does the sunday hills rides but may not know that she is doing the ride for youth fundraising bike ride.  the ride travels from albany to freo over 5 days, covers 700kms and is raising money for youth focus.

youth focus is a WA non-for-profit community based organisation that works with young people 12-18 years of age who are showing early signs of suicide, depression and self-harm.  so as part of the fundraiser, she is selling wines, by the dozen, from salitage wines.  there 6 different wines available and would make a good christmas present.  prices are below that of the bottle shops and you can find the order form here.

ride routes 6th & 7th december

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holy crap it’s december.  where has my year gone.  i think i must have left it in my other pants.  we are looking at a warm one on saturday and it will be good to get the riding gear on without having to worry about armwarmers, vests, bootie covers, knee warmers, etc, etc, etc.

to celebrate such a nice warm saturday ride we are going to do something different.  i want to try to break the group up a bit.  i.e. a group 1 and a group 2.  the way we are going to do this is by imposing a massive hill in the middle of the ride.  namely gooseberry hill.  if you have joined the fun of the sunday ride, then you may have experienced gooseberry.  if not think hard about which group you want to play in.  the group 2 riders will skip gooseberry and head over the easy side of ridgehill rd.  it will then be up to group 1 to try to catch group 2 on the way home via guilford rd.  with easterly winds this may be a hard task.  so make sure you look hard at the map so that you know exactly where we are riding as this is a very new route.

sunday i will have to miss out on the fun as i will be taking number 1 son to the christmas parade in the city.  after the work kids christmas party the night before, at adventure world, we should be all santa’d out till christmas day.  so to make it easy for you i am sending you on a kind of reverse of what we did last week.  most people should know the roads, but make sure you tally up the points as we start a new month in the mountain points this week.

south perth rouleurs saturday ride 15 (gooseberry hill)

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 01 (carradine & peet) 

sunday 30th november – soldiers rd and canning mills

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ride report by peter.

 

after a successful outing on the bike yesterday, i decided to have a run at the hills to really test out how bad this cold has affected me.  dr ronny’s big brother kenny was in town from over east and ronny wanted to make sure we took him out to see some hills.  there were a number of our current routes we could have followed to show him the hillier parts of perth, but instead i mapped out a new one that meant that we had to go exploring.  this is always dangerous as sometimes google maps does not exactly match the real world.  i tried to add in a number of climbs that we generally have only done as descents.  solidiers rd being the main one as this is one of the best mid-ride descents that we do when we head out to ride around rolystone. 

about 20 or so riders toed the line this morning and dr paul and mark kicked things off with a couple of jokes.  if you have every shared a table at the coffee shop with dr paul, you know that this can be a very dangerous thing.  but always very funny.  we headed out to albany hwy for a pleasant and uneventful trip to the base of the kahuna.  we were not headed up the kahuna, but this was the back way into kelmscott and kept us off the main roads.

we then headed towards the base of canning mills rd which loomed large above us.  i was saving this for later so we turned off just before the climb started.  a slight detour and u-turn and we were soon on brookton hwy and going up our first categorised climb.  this was a short section of brookton and was only to get us to the start of soldiers rd.  it was only a cat 2 climb as the grade was not steep and the distance short.

stu set the pace from the start and i sat on his wheel.  a couple of looks over the shoulder and the group was still pretty much together.  it was going to come down to a sprint and when we saw the turn off, stu, kenny and i wound it up.  it was a short sprint and then we had to negotiate a right hand turn to get into soldiers rd.  i will be changing parts of this route soon.

stu – 5, peter – 3, kenny – 1.

 

i cannot remember the climb up soldiers rd.  we have done it before, but it was probably well over a year ago, if not longer.  i can remember coming down it so many times, but the grades and distances are deceptive when you are descending.  we took off with mark and john leading the charge.  it starts with a quick descent followed by a sharp uphill before leveling out for a bit.  by the time we hit the main part of the climb, a group of 5 had established themselves at the front.  stu was on the charge again with brendan marking him close by.  kenny was climbing alongside and seemed to be doing it easily while jerry and i sat at the back hanging on as best we could. 

the lower slopes with the nice hotmix surface were not too steep and no-one could really get away easy.  as the road wound its way past churchman’s brook dam, it steepened up somewhat and the corners made it hard to know what was coming next.  the corner where scott came off ages ago was actually quite steep when tackled form this direction and this is where brendan made a move.  he said later that he had a look at stu’s heartrate monitor and thought that he was almost at max, so to hit him now.  kenny easily went with him and i had to chase to try to get on. 

i didn’t quite make it but kept the pace on as best i could to stay ahead of stu and maximize points.  i was losing ground to brendan and kenny who were engrossed in their own tussle with little attacks on each other to see who would crack first.  stu made up a bit of ground a couple of times, but i was constantly looking over my shoulder to see where he was and make sure he didn’t creep up on me.  on the last few pinches of the climb, brendan managed to shake off kenny and had a nice gap at the top.  a flattish section to the line provided a nice run for me to time trial up to kenny and pass him within about 50m of the finishline.  sorry, but i needed the points.  stu dropped jerry but he managed to hold on to fifth place.

brendan – 10, peter – 7, kenny – 5, stu – 3, jerry – 1.

 

we regrouped and headed down canns rd another road we usually do the other direction and this time it made a nice change.  at the bottom we turned into carawatha but the other side from which we usually tackle.  the descent is always fast so i expected that the climb would be hard and it was…a bit.  it wasn’t as hard as the f_ckenberg and it certainly wasn’t easy, but overall it was a bit short to really cause any damage.  everyone is usually panting when we come up the other side, but this side didn’t seem as brutal.  kenny had shot up the hill like a rocket and brendan took off after him.  it was a bit too steep for me and stu and jerry also left me behind.  as it was not that long, there was no time to make up any ground and that is the finishing order.

kenny – 10, brendan – 7, stu – 5, jerry – 3, peter – 1.

 

we changed the route somewhat and headed down the other side of carawatha and onto albany hwy.  as we turned onto brookton and about to head towards the base of canning mills rd, there was the depressing sound of air leaking out of a tyre.  michael had another puncture.  i think starting next year we will have a page of the most punctures during the saturday and sunday rides.  i’m sure michael will “win”.  as we pulled over to watch him change it, someone wondered out load where melvyn was.  he was definitely with us a the top of the last climb, but had managed to disappear.  i rode back up to the base of carawatha but didn’t see him.  as i rode back to brookton, i heard him yell from a side street.  he had got a puncture and had rolled around the corner to change it.  i was lucky to see hear him as i didn’t see him at all.  i rode back to the group to let them know what was going on and so we could wait for him.

we headed towards canning mills rd and to the dreaded climb.  this is not a favourite of mine as it is just too steep for me to get into a proper rhythm.  kenny and brendan took off up the road again and left me to my own world of pain.  as i kept them in sight for a while, i watched kenny put in a number of attacks on brendan to try to break him, but he just set tempo and pulled him back each time.  i eventually was past by stu but tried to keep him in sight to not concede much ground.  i was starting to struggle a bit and found holding the effort for a long time a challenge.  i started slipping back but it wasn’t till hugh caught up to me that i thought i better pull my finger out.  a few hard pedal strokes and he was off my wheel.  i kept the pressure on as best i could and eventually caught up with stu.  it was close to the top of the climb so i continued to push to make sure he didn’t come with me as the hill flattened out.  i saw brendan and kenny in the distance and i thought that i may be able to chase them down.  however, they were playing a chase game of their own so were pushing a big gear as well to stay away.

i eventually made it to chevon rd and the official finish line but brendan and kenny were nowhere to be seen.  they had continued up the road to the end.  stu kept plugging away and stayed ahead of hugh till the end.

kenny – 10, brendan – 7, peter – 5, stu – 3, hugh – 1.

 

we took off along chevon rd and headed towards karagulen servo for a quick stop.  the chevon rd used to be used a lot by us but back in the old days where we would only do one or two hills on a sunday.  those days are long gone.  a quick refill and we headed to pickering brook.  a truck was held up as we climbed one of the bonus climbs but provided a nice draft for a couple of us as he slowly came past.  nice to climb a hill with no effort.  quite a few turned off as we headed through bickley valley as some were headed home while others were looking for a quick way to the coffee-shop.  michael and mark managed to get a nice break on the rolling hills through bickley and started the last climb with a buffer.  this has worked in the past for some riders and they were a dangerous pair to allow to escape. 

as we climber the last little pinch before the mundaring weir climb, kenny changed down from the big ring wth an almighty crunch.  chain off and he was stopped.  bad timing, and this put him out of contention for the climb.  i was also just off the back as the days efforts and lingering sickness were taking their toll on my energy levels.  by the time i started the climb, brendan, stu and jerry were up the road.  i couldn’t push my cardio up for an extended period so thought it best not to chase.  being a sadomasochist (cyclist) i put it in the 53×14 gear and pushed a 40rpm seated cadence all the way to the top.  i picked up and past a few riders but john managed to stay just ahead of me the whole way.  just as we reached the last pinch, we saw another rider up ahead.  it was mark hanging on to fifth spot and he was nervously looking over his shoulder to make sure he held it, which he did…just.  in retrospect if i had pushed a descent gear at a constant tempo, there wasa  chance i may have caught him and grabbed a extra point.  unfortunately not the case.

brendan – 10, michael – 7, stu – 5, jerry – 3, mark – 1.

 

at the end of the day this meant that brendan was now 1 point ahead of me on the total november mountain points.  that one extra point would have been good, but as he has “won” the weekly overall for two weeks, he would have still been ahead on a count back.

i’m getting tired and running out of time so i will summarise the return trip.

  • coffee shop was good if not a bit busy.  there was a table booked where we usually sit.
  • no land speed records today on the descent as the wind was not favourable.
  • mr dickhead was in a small 4wd and decided that two lanes were not enough and passed us very close which made mark comment on the apparent small size of the drivers manhood.  he took offence to that and words were exchanged.
  • no sprint along welshpool but john and melvyn did the work along the entire stretch.
  • a pretty messy sprint along berwick as traffic was everywhere and taking up both lanes.  either melvyn or brendan got there first.

 

so, i made it to the end even though my top end is still a bit clogged up.  a week off the bike didn’t heal me, so a week on the bike is planned for this week.  see if i can blow it out of my system, or just blow up my system.