so a full year has come around and we are having our agm this week. having an agm, breakfasts, committee meetings and all that stuff seems quite normal now, but it didn’t used to be. waaaay back in 2008 i wrote a blog to talk about how i got into cycling and how it got me to where we were at the time. it is funny because we were only just getting the new kit together and it was going to be the identifying feature to distinguish the club. now, 5 years later, there are spr jerseys everywhere and the new kit is even more noticeable than before. i am going to have to sit down as some stage and write the part II to the old blog. a lot has happened and the growth has been phenomenal. we are expanding out into new areas all the time and, as can be seen below, the next generation are coming up fast.
club breakfast and agm – this saturday is the breakfast and agm. check the previous post here but $15 will get you a beverage and some food. the agm will follow directly after. make sure that you sign in if you are a member so we have a record of agm attendence. it is important to attend as we will elect the committee members that will shape the club for the year.
giro d’perth – this sunday a very different type of event will be held in perth. some of the club members are helping out and i will be manning a refreshments tent on the day. entries closed after participant numbers hit 500. it is good to see that cycling is well and truly alive and people are looking for different events to enter. entries have closed but more info here.
road works – as was pointed out in the previous post, there are roadworks on preston point road again. please be careful when negotiating the area as there still may be loose gravel. this is especially important to the earlybird riders as it still may be a bit dark.
ride routes – no 7am uci ride this week as there has not been any interest. it seems that anyone doing it is pitching up at 6:00am and cutting laps with the bonner group.
saturday 16th march
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – spr earlybird ride
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 6:00am
uci training – spr saturday (uci perry lakes)
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)
transitional – spr saturday 39.81km (shelley & bannister)
fast & main groups – spr saturday 49.09km (abernathy rd)
sunday 17th march
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – spr earlybird ride
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
short – spr sunday 61.14km (welshpool & weir rd)
long – spr sunday 87.99km (welshpool & observatory & camelberg & gooseberry)
a classic piece of race footage, with excellent production and music score.
it’d get my vote in an SPR tropfest, with the Pemby B Grade stack a close
second.
Was it just me who was waiting for ‘The Tears’ chapter of that video?!
Pete you even suck the wheel of little kids!!!!
An impressive turnout again this morning, which made it hard to cater to everyone’s training needs. Hopefully everyone got something useful out of the session.
For those interested, the first 4 laps – with a largish peleton rolling through – were 12m29 (38km/hr), 12m16 (38.7), 12m26 (38.2), 12m00 (39.7), then Dave, Ryan, Luke, Jason, Mat et. al. broke off the leash. Pretty tidy riding again on a windy morning.
Next week the aim for the front group will be 9 laps (4 laps steady with a big bunch intact) to prepare for the physical and mental pain of 14 or 12 laps on April 14th. Tacit approval has been granted by the new Race/multicultural committee member.
For many, including me, there will only be two of these Sat. sessions left thanks to the Midland 100 road race on April 7th, and the need to taper.
All the very best to the Rouleurs who are competing in the state individual 40km time trial tomorrow….may the force be with you!
+1
Pete, thanks for the link to your 2008 blog. It was a good read.
Is anyone doing Giro d’ Perth ? Wondering if I can get to the start of that if I do the short hills..
If anyone on the Hills Rid this morning happened to have a Go Pro recording the ride, I’d be interested to get the license plate of the small light green hatch back that threw a large partially filled clear water bottle at the 2 front riders as were heading out Welshpool Rd . Incredibly they cam,e past us again a few kms later & threw a 2nd bottle.
And while I’m in teh mood to make comments on the ride… it seems there was a disproportionate number of angry (rude & inconsiderate) drivers this morning… HOWEVER I’m pretty sure that responding to their excellent & entirely unnecessary honking efforts with hand gestures that indicate you feel something else they know how to do other than honk at us is masturbate will not encourage them give us more consideration next time!
I agree, Graham – we shouldn’t be rude or aggressive ourselves, especially when wearing identifiable kit (no matter how stupid or aggravating drivers are).
I think that much of the attention comes from SPR being such a big group on many Sundays. We are very noticeable and do take up a lot of the road, making us a target for those with issues. Single or small group riders don’t attract the same response very often.
If there are more than about 30 riders, we probably need to spit into Long course + strong short and group 2 as Short coursers (the rest of) from the start. We were split at most lights this morning because of the size of the group, so a little common sense needs to be used i.e. realise the difficulty of keeping 50 – 60 riders together through major intersections.
2 manageable groups would have avoided the long chase by the back half and patience running out at the front.
I thought it was amusing that the hillbilly with the L Plates on Mundaring Weir Rd was being taught how to blow the horn everytime you pass a cyclist by the adult in the car
Bare in mind that they may have been giving a polite toot to let you know there is a car about to pass.
Of course if it was followed up with a projectile or stream of abuse as they pass then that obviously wasn’t the case.
Whilst I appreciate that we often encounter unnecessary abuse from drivers (such as Sunday), I would also say that there are some occasions when we do not help ourselves. Sometimes we become very righteous because we are on bikes and forget how we’d feel if we were the driver of a car, being forced to drive 30km/hr in a 60 zone, behind a large group of cyclists. It is important that, where possible, we let cars pass us an don’t take up the road just to win a sprint or strava segment! The longer you let that driver gather rage behind us, the more likely they are to do something stupid.
Ahh yes, it is also amazing how far a wave of appreciation can go in the Car v Bike relationship. If we are taking up the road, because it is narrow and it is safer to stop the car from passing than to go single file, a wave of appreciation when the car does then pass safely after waiting behind us can go a long way.
A little bit of politeness and gratitude could go along way towards relationship building between the tin tops and us.