why do we have a breakfast???  a few years ago when spr first started, there were not as many people in the club.  a breakfast consisted of 30-40 people turning up to my place and getting a coffee and some muffins.  back in those days the numbers were easy to manage and the club could fit in my lounge room.  the intent was that we would provide a more social setting to allow people to get to know each other better off the bike.  there were also raffle prizes and bike weigh-ins to provide some light entertainment.  what we were trying to develop was a culture that extended past just riding the bike.  what this means is that belonging to the club meant more than just riding against others, it meant that there were people that were also there for you.  this has been evident in the unfortunate event of an accident where the club has rallied together to support the fallen riders.  now the club is sitting at 415 members and with greater numbers also come different ideas and beliefs.  some of this has meant that we have now diluted the culture that the club was built on.  unfortunately this is just a part of growth, but we still want to hold fast to the corner stones that we started the club on – safe, organised, inclusive and social.  at the christmas breakfast this saturday, take the time to have a chat with some of the riders that you don’t usually hang out with.  these connections are what make the club strong.

ride leaders – it is in the clubs best interest to develop new riders so that they ride in a safe manner.  put your name down here to ensure the club grows to its potential.  with the nice weather now arrived, expect more people to be joining us.  the club needs you even more to represent it in ensuring the ride etiquette is followed.

spr drink bottles – will be available for collection on saturday after the ride.

spr kit order – will be available for collection on saturday after the ride.  if you would prefer to collect it from tech park at the crit on sunday, then email kit@southperthroulers.com.au.   next kit orders close on the 12th january.

spr christmas breakfast/awards – this year the christmas breakfast will be on the 14th dec at Dome.  we have a few awards that we want to give out to the club and need your help in deciding who gets these.  please help by filling in the survey on the previous post.

criterium race 01 – in conjunction with rccc we will be holding the first of our 4 race series of criteriums at technology park.  both ‘a’ grade and ‘b’ grade have been pre sold, but there are still positions in ‘c’ & ‘d’ grade as well as women’s ‘a’, ‘b’ & ‘c’.  if you are not racing, or before and after your race, we will need a few volunteers to make the day run smoothly.  put your name down on the previous post if you can help out.  it would be greatly appreciated.

first time racers – if you have never raced before and would like to have a go at the criterium this weekend, then the club would like to help you out by covering the entry fee of anyone that is a first time racer. a criterium is held on a short circuit (1km) so if you do get dropped, then you don’t have far to get home.  there will also be lots of spr people in attendance so you will be well supported.  more info can be found in the previous post.

christmas drinks – next tuesday 17th we will be holding an “out of lycra” get together as a christmas celebration.  it will be held at the empire bar in rivervale.  more info can be found on the previous post.  put your name in the comments so we know how many to cater for.

ride routes – it’s the breakfast ride on saturday, so there are no hills just in case people are too dressed up.  it is looking to be a hot one, so perhaps no full santa suit this year.  on sunday there will be no earlybird ride, but the main ride will leave at 6:00am.  this allows the groups to get out and back before the heat as well as being able to help out with the criterium when they get back.

saturday 14th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday

transitional – trans abernethy 39.96km spr saturday

fast & main groups – abernethy rd 48.21km spr saturday

sunday 15th december

all rides start at coode st carpark at 6:00am

short – wlsh weir 62.23km spr sunday

long – wlsh obs kal 90.32km spr sunday

when we talk about safety in the club, in a group ride, or by yourself, what do we actually mean by that, and why is it so important???  we are just out on the bike to enjoy ourselves right???  it is surprising that just how quickly things can change right in front of your eyes.  in lawson’s case it was a taxi turning right in front of him while he was doing 60km/hr.  the act of just riding the bike on a road is always going to be risky.  it is how we manage those risks that is important to the club and its long term growth.  a lot of the roads that we ride on are busy, and that is actually quite deliberate.  busier roads are more often double lane and when we are riding in a group, this gives drivers an opportunity to get around.  however, when someone gets dropped they may be on their own for a while until the next group come along.  sometimes just being aware of other riders around you and dropping back to give them a wheel may be all it takes.  we have been talking a lot about the ride leaders, but it is sometimes just the little things (the draft back to the group, or the friendly push) that make such a big impact to someone’s group ride.  the spr awards make an effort to recognise some of those people so click on the link below and nominate someone that has made your ride better/safer/enjoyable.

ride leaders – it is in the clubs best interest to develop new riders so that they ride in a safe manner.  put your name down here to ensure the club grows to its potential.  with the nice weather now arrived, expect more people to be joining us.  the club needs you even more to represent it in ensuring the ride etiquette is followed.

spr drink bottles – should be here for collection on saturday.  will let you know if there is a change of plan.

spr christmas breakfast/awards – this year the christmas breakfast will be on the 14th dec at Dome.  we have a few awards that we want to give out to the club and need your help in deciding who gets these.  please help by filling in the survey on the previous post.

night ride – would you like a nice relaxing evening ride???  check out the previous post and let us know when you would like it.

criterium series – as shown in the previous post, rccc & spr are putting on a 4 race criterium series in december and january.  as well as riders, we will need some volunteers to ensure that quality racing can continue to be run in perth.  there will be a blog post up soon calling for volunteers and letting people know what jobs we need filling.

ride routes – lets ride.

saturday 7th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday

transitional – trans shelley 40.59km spr saturday

fast & main groups – south lake 51.99km spr saturday

sunday 8th december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – wlsh weir 62.23km spr sunday

long – chook obs goose 94.01km spr sunday

one of the things from the blog last week was how important our club’s ride leaders are; these are the people who volunteer to take responsibility for the group they are leading. their role is to ensure that the ride is safe, fun and inclusive. they do this by managing the pace of the group, managing regroup points as well as ensuring everyone knows what’s expected before heading out on the ride. we respect that everyone comes to ride with us for different reasons, so with a few simple guidelines and active support out on the road, everyone should have a great time. demonstrating how important our ride leaders are is captured in the weekly blog’s feedback comment from ivan (aka pricklymoses) regarding last week’s main 2 ride leaders, carlos and meg: “m2 ride with carlos and megan today was an absolute pleasure. everybody was clear what was expected of them, pace was moderated to be just right with an acceptable average of 30.5 and the two leaders were real active looking after their charges. well done guys!” as i mentioned last week, a bit of positive feedback will go a long way – how will you deliver yours? 

ride leaders – it is in the clubs best interest to develop new riders so that they ride in a safe manner.  put your name down here to ensure the club grows to its potential.

spr christmas breakfast/awards – this year the christmas breakfast will be on the 14th dec at Dome.  we have a few awards that we want to give out to the club and need your help in deciding who gets these.  please help by filling in the survey on the previous post.

criterium series – as shown in the previous post, rccc & spr are putting on a 4 race criterium series in december and january.  as well as riders, we will need some volunteers to ensure that quality racing can continue to be run in perth.  there will be a blog post up soon calling for volunteers and letting people know what jobs we need filling.

ride routes – it may be a little damp on saturday morning, so make sure that you ride to conditions and keep a focus on your safety and that of the others in the group.

saturday 30th movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday

transitional – trans mosman 40.39km spr saturday

fast & main groups – shelley & mosman 50.14km spr saturday

sunday 1st december

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – kal goose 67.63km spr sunday

long – kal obs goose 97.40km spr sunday

as SPR grows & we welcome more and more people from a range of diverse backgrounds with varying degrees of skill and experience on the bike, a significant challenge is to ensure that our rides continue to be safe, fun & inclusive. we also need to ensure that we demonstrate high levels of respect for not only for ourselves and our fellow riders, but also other road users. anyone on an SPR ride (member or otherwise) needs to role model the way we’d like to be referred to by a third party. we have a great bunch of regular ride leaders that make a valuable contribution in this regard, but perhaps have a think about how you personally can make a difference too. if you see something that you feel makes a ride unsafe or possibly reduces the fun aspect of a ride, say something; preferably to the person who may be at fault. you might be surprised to find that they were either unaware of the fact that there was an issue or they just made an honest mistake. just the same, if you see someone do something great, let them know too (genuinely acknowledging the rider who throws the anchor out at the orange light, even though it means the group may disappear into the distance and they’ll miss the final sprint?). your  positive feedback will go a long way!!

weekly rides newsletter – we are trialling a new service where you put your email into the widget to the right and it sends you an email when the ride routes are updated.  give it a try and give us some feedback.  sorry for the spam last week.  it accidentally emailed everyone who has registered on the site.  hopefully it spammed some spammers.

ride leaders – it is in the clubs best interest to develop new riders so that they ride in a safe manner.  put your name down here to ensure the club grows to its potential.

ride routes – so, with no state champs, tour of margs or watertower challenge on, we should be looking at a normal weekend.  just be aware that the great perth bike ride is on this sunday, so some roads may not be accessible.

saturday 23rd movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday

transitional – trans rebold 38.69km spr saturday

fast & main groups – alexander drive 50.46km spr saturday

sunday 24th movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – wlsh weir 62.23km spr sunday

long – wlsh weir kal 101.71km spr sunday

running late this week and running on stress.  it has been a busy few weeks and it culminates in the watertower challenge this weekend.  no real time to discuss anything here.  hope everyone is well.

watertower challenge – a great turnout with 108 riders registered for the challenge.  thanks also to those that have volunteered to run the event.  hopefully it is a successful day.

weekly rides newsletter – we are trialling a new service where you put your email into the widget to the right and it sends you an email when the ride routes are updated.  give it a try and give us some feedback.

ride leaders – it is in the clubs best interest to develop new riders so that they ride in a safe manner.  put your name down here to ensure the club grows to its potential.

ride routes – time to test out those navigational skills with a ride through whiteman park.  see which groups get lost this time.  my money is still on the fast group.  on sunday, we will still be setting off some of the watertower challenge riders at 7am.  be aware that they will also be there and that some of the usual ride leaders will not be doing the sunday hills ride.

saturday 16th movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday

transitional – trans shelley 40.59km spr saturday

fast & main groups – whiteman park 50.4km spr saturday

sunday 17th movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – brktn weir 82.89km spr sunday

long – carr peet obs 97.72km spr sunday

are we our own worse enemy??? when we are out on the road there are always risk of interactions with other road users.  whether they are cars, trucks or bus’s the odds are not really in our favour.  what about the other road users???  what about the other groups of cyclists that are also using the roads.  as we head towards summer the number of groups and the numbers of cyclists within the groups will always increase.  we make the effort to split our groups for safety reasons, but not every ride is that organised.  our interaction with these groups is sometimes just as dangerous as those with cars.  when you are in a faster group and are overtaking, make sure that you allow plenty of room before you cut back over to the left.  remember that the person you are overtaking has just received a small draft advantage from you and may now be travelling quicker than before.  also be aware of the size of your group and the one you are overtaking.  make sure that there is enough room for you to actually overtake before any traffic furniture or oncoming traffic appears.  try to aim for a single file overtake when going around other groups.  if you are the group that is being overtaken, please make allowances for the other group.  yes, you are allowed to ride two abreast, but you don’t really need to take up the whole lane.  at the end of the day, a little respect between the different cycling groups goes a long way.

state road championships – if you haven’t already heard, the state champs had to be cancelled part way through as the traffic management group didn’t turn up to close the roads.  the wash-up from this is still ongoing and we are not sure if we now have the time to reschedule the event in this year.  thank you to all the people that volunteered their time to help out on the day.  with 150 riders racing across 5 grades, it was looking to be a great event.

tour of margaret river – this weekend 6 spr teams of 6 riders plus a DOME team (and other spr riders in a few other teams) will compete in the tour of margaret river.  a three day 4 stage event around the scenic surrounds of margaret river.  good luck to all involved and well done on such a good turn out.

ride leaders – it is in the clubs best interest to develop new riders so that they ride in a safe manner.  put your name down here to ensure the club grows to its potential.

spr watertower challenge – next weekend marks the second annual watertower challenge.  we already have about 75 people registered with entries open till next wednesday.  go to the event page for more info.  with one week to go we need you to spam this out to as many people as possible.  download the flyer and email it to all your cycling friends.  this is not just for spr members but open to the general public.  we are also going to need a few volunteers to make sure this event goes well. if you are not looking at riding, please help us out.  please see the previous post.

skills cycling course – if you are new to cycling and want to get better at group riding skills, then cathi dixon will be running another 3 week session of cycle skills.  riding at a fast pace over longer distances takes more than just fitness.  developing your bike skills, especially group riding skills is very important.  see the previous post for more details.

wheels in mo-tion – as per the previous post, please support our guys that are participating in mo-vember this month.  discussions about bad mustaches are easier to have than those about health issues, but hopefully it can start the conversation.

ride routes – there will be a lot of the usual suspects missing from the group this weekend due to the tour of margaret river.  ensure you know the ride route and don’t be afraid to speak up if you think something is not right.  your safety relies on everyone in the group doing the right thing.  it is going to be a hot one on sunday, so we will look at keeping the ride close to facilities.

saturday 9th movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday

transitional – trans benara 39.90km spr saturday

fast & main groups – benara rd 50.76km spr saturday

sunday 10th movember

ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am

early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special

all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am

short – wlsh weir 62.23km spr sunday

long – wlsh obs cam goose 88.67km spr sunday