so the 2013 tour route was unveiled this week and all the big names are commenting on this 100th edition.  the interesting talk is to whether wiggo will defend as he is saying that there may not be enough tt in it for his liking. froome says he is ready to lead sky, so maybe we see the superteam implode before a pedal is turned in anger.  i can only hope so as this years tour was dead boring…maybe it needs more drugs.  and speaking of that, what is it with all the spanish guys supporting lance.  indurain, valverde and contador have all come out and crapped on about the lack of evidence.  sounds like there could have been some spanish steak to go along with the texas steak at the last bbq.  regardless of the drug scandal, i do remember enjoying watching the tours that armstrong won.  they were more exciting, even if they were all juiced up.  at least the drug testing put some limitations on how juiced up they could be so it kind of levelled the playing field amongst the cheats.  i hope for a clean tour this year, but at the end of the day, i just want to be entertained.  a clean schleck, contador, evans and wiggo all in peak form may be fun to watch.  i hope so, anyway.

gloves & booties – the gloves have arrived and so we will be doing a distribution at the coffee shop after the saturday ride.  any of the gloves, booties, t-shirts or bottles ordered can be collected on the day.

dirty sunday – our mountain bike come and try day will be held this sunday.  if you have a mountain bike and want to give the dirt a try check out the previous post here and add your name to the comments.

kings of wanneroo – we are holding a race with the RCCC at barbagello raceway on the 3rd and 4th of november.  held as part of the motobike “kings of wanneroo” we will have age grouped masters races on the saturday and graded open races on sunday.  more info can be found here. we would like everyone to promote this event as much as possible.  actually we would like as many of you as possible to come and race as well.  hands up all those that have ridden a push bike on the waneroo track???  this is an opportunity not to be missed and you need to make sure it gets widely known.  go to the link above and download the pdf and email it to all the cyclists you know.

track riding – we also have a come and try day for the track coming up in late november.  check out the previous post here and register if you want to give it a go.  the cost covers hiring a bike as well as hiring the venue and a couple of coaches to make sure you are doing it right.  track riding can be lots of fun once you get over the initial fright of how steep the banking is.  lots of our top level aussie cyclists started out on the velodrome and all say that it helped their technique.

atta time trials – you may have also seen a rather obscure post about time trialling.  not all time trialers end up like nick, so don’t let that put you off.  there are, however, lots of club members that give the atta’s a go and the events are very easy going and friendly.  all abilities have a go at these events as they are as much about a personal achievement than beating others.  if you think that road racing is not really for you, but would like to test yourself, then time trialling could be your thing.  you don’t even need a special tt bike as there are many that are riding normal bikes (or even a penny farthing).

ride routes – nothing too strenuous on the ride routes this week.  just get out and ride and look after one another.

saturday 27th october

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 42.94km (freo & cott)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.04km (hale & ridge hill)

sunday 28th october

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 82.79km (brookton & weir rd)

long – spr sunday 94.64km (kahuna & canning mills)

so the news world has found out about cycling this week and for all the wrong reasons.  lots of my non-cycling work colleagues have been asking me about drugs in cycling and how can it have happened and why don’t they just let everyone on it and do they take it at my level in the sport etc, etc.  i am kind of in a “whatever” mode over the whole lance thing.  he will continue to deny everything and as such there will always be a shadow of doubt.  what will it do for cycling???  well for those that are already cycling, i doubt that they will hang up the bike.  lance has not been and inspiration for many people lately (especially after doing triathlons in just speedos) and there is a new crop of cycling drug takers superstars to inspire new riders.  the biggest shock was the admission that an aussie cyclist had taken drugs.  really???  was this such a big shock???  matt white was on the us postal team that was chocked full of …. ahem, talent, and it was really competitive to get on the tour team.  you are riding in a pro team, on the same team as the previous winner, and you can get a chance to ride in the tour on a winning team.  not really that much of a stretch.  so will either lance or matt white stop people from taking up cycling???  i don’t think so as most people feel quite distanced from the upper echelon of any sport especially when they are starting out.  i think that it is pointless to hope that this is the end of it and there are definitely others out there.  if you have a good team budget, you can probably stay ahead of the game and not get caught (for a while).  i also love the term “glo-time”.

gloves & booties – the gloves have arrived and so we will be doing a distribution at the coffee shop after the saturday ride.  any of the gloves, booties, t-shirts or bottles ordered can be collected on the day.

kings of wanneroo – we are holding a race with the RCCC at barbagello raceway on the 3rd and 4th of november.  held as part of the motobike “kings of wanneroo” we will have age grouped masters races on the saturday and graded open races on sunday.  more info can be found here.

dirty sunday – our mountain bike come and try day will be held on the 28th october.  if you have a mountain bike and want to give the dirt a try check out the previous post here and add your name to the comments.

track day – in november we are also looking at putting on a come and try the track afternoon out at the velodrome.  keep an eye out for more info.

ride routes – some interesting comments after my little main 1 apartheid experiment last week.  am wondering how many spr kits we will see this week on the saturday ride.  comments from both groups is that it went well.  don’t be afraid to speak up.  a quite word now sure beats a word to the ambulance operator later.

saturday 20th october

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 49.69km (holmes rd)

NOTE: change to the fast/main course.  due to the ride to conquer cancer leaving from south perth near the causeway, we will reroute our ride.  it will be similar to the sunday rides when we head out to welshpool rd.  from mill pt rd, right onto douglas, follow this past the uni, left onto marquis, follow this till you cross shep rd, right onto swansea, left onto welshpool.

sunday 21st october

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 70.93km (kahuna)

long – spr sunday 96.36km (patterson & canns & urch)

my lack of “love for the bike” was cured somewhat over the weekend.  we had a few teams down at pinjarra for the state team time trial, so i rode down the freeway bike path to say hello, grab a bacon & egg toastie with coke, and then ride back home.  it was either going to make me or break me (as 167kms of solo riding will do) but i have been on the bike a further 3 times since then, so i guess that i haven’t been broken yet.

ride safety – there has been a lot of feedback on the blog and people have been sending me emails on this issue.  however, most of the suggestions all seem to hinge around an increase of supervision.  i agree, however, people need to sacrifice their own ride to look after the groups.  you want the group to be safer, so you need to help out.  there are up to 8 groups every saturday and i can’t look after all of them.  there are regular ride leaders that sacrifice their own time to look after the groups, so i am sure that a number of you can take a week off from smashing it on the front, to look after a group.

so one little tip to help keep the groups safe.  if you are on the front of the group, with clear road in front of you, there is NO REASON to brake or stop pedalling.  if you don’t want to be at the front any more, accelerate and move over to the right and wave the group through.  the same goes for roll throughs.  if you are struggling in the faster line, don’t just stop pedalling when you get to the slower line.  you must maintain a pace.  if you feel like you can’t then don’t and pull out of the roll through BEFORE you get to the front.

dirty sunday – sunday 28th of october will be our “come and try” mountain biking day.  scott will put up a post soon but the idea is to take a group out to the hills and swap the skinny tyres for the fat ones.  also keep your eyes on the blog for a “come and try” track day out at the velodrome.

kings of wanneroo – our main race event this year will be held out at wanneroo on the totally closed race track as part of the motorbike “kings of wanneroo” weekend.  there is more info here but we will have masters races on saturday and graded open races on sunday.  we will be running the event with the rccc but we really need to promote these races to take advantage of the opportunity that we have been given.

ride routes – alex drive for the main group on saturday.  there are nice long stretches where you can practice your roll throughs.  just remember, stay out of the gutter.  we can ride 2 abreast in the lane we are in.  most crashes happen down the line when people have nowhere to go, so make sure everyone has room to move.

saturday 13th october

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 41.18km (reverse river ride)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.18km (alexander drive)

sunday 14th october

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 66.71km (greenmount & gooseberry)

long – spr sunday 95.04km (greenmount & parkerville & mundaring weir)

school holidays, a week off work, weather not too bad, what’s missing???  actually any other time i would be smashing out hundreds of kms this week, but i am still in a bit of a funk when it comes to cycling.  i am actually spending more time in the garage restoring an old clunker to ride around than i am in the saddle of my proper road bike.  not sure where the love has gone, but it is hard to love something that hurts so much at the moment.  so my alternative is to try to live through my 6 year old and his biking exploits.  i have put an old garmin on his bike now so he has his own strava account to keep track of things.  just need to purchase a hr strap that fits him to complete the picture.  oh, and strava keeps telling me to “enter a valid weight” when i try to put in his body weight at 19kgs.  we took a ride down to the southside bmx track the other day and he did about 12 laps, including 3 stacks where he didn’t go fast enough to get up the jumps and rolled backwards.  he hit the deck, was in tears, but still managed to worry about his “beautiful bike”.  when it was suggested that we head home, he just wanted to do more laps.

state team time trial – good luck to the spr teams competing down in pinjarra this weekend.  there are 3 teams that i know of, so good luck and see if you can bring home some medals.

focus group – the kids ride is on this weekend as it is the first saturday of the month.  feel free to bring your own kids (about under 10 yrs old) along for a ride to the causeway and back.

ride routes – there is still lots of issues with some of the groups and their attempts at roll throughs.  it is important for people to get more exposure to it so that they can get better at it, but lately the experience they are getting is not particularly good.  my suggestion this week is to not roll through until the ride gets to west coast highway.  since it is after ewan st, the size of the groups should be whittled down somewhat which makes rolling through easier.  up until that point just ride two abreast with both riders pulling off to the right when changing.

saturday 6th october

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.86km (rebold hill)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.23km (ewen st)

ride starts behind boatshed cafe (coode st carpark) at 9:30am

focus kids group – ride along bike path to causeway and return (7kms)

sunday 7th october

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 –  follow long course out to the kalamunda climb

long – spr sunday 90.10km (kalamunda & chookenberg & observatory)

so i thought that after the water tower challenge was over, things would settle down a bit, but no.  not a chance.  this week has been just as hectic as the last.  work has been over the top, bike riding has been crap and there is the looming sickness on the horizon.  kate has lost her voice for most of this week, and while this has it’s benefits, it also means a potential for the next round of colds to flow through the house.  probably next week, when i have the week off work.

stu, i have this posted before home and away this week.

state team time trial – this is on next weekend and there are people on the hunt for teams.  see the previous blog post here and add to the comments if you want to play.

water tower challenge – thanks to all those that took part and especially to those that volunteered.  besides gnangara rd, everything else seemed to go well.  thank you also for the feedback as it gives us an idea of how we can improve it to make it bigger next year.

ride to conquer cancer – there are a few people in the club doing this event mid october for various reasons.  get on board and help them out with a donation.  more info here and here.

cycling wa agm – this is coming up at the end of october.  if you want to see behind the scenes of cycling wa, come along.  there is a members forum afterwards if you want to ask any questions.  more info here.

ride routes – public holiday ride this weekend but we will split into a fast/main1 and a main2/3/trans group to minimise out impact on the road.

saturday 29th september

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.47km (south st)

sunday 30th september

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 82.79km (brookton & weir rd)

long – spr sunday 97.99km (carradine & peet & observatory)

monday 1st october

ride starts under the narrows (south perth side) at 5:30am

early lap – spr monday 33.72km (south & freo)

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

fast/main – spr public holiday 59.35km (shelley & freo)

main/trans – spr public holiday 59.35km (shelley & freo)

what a horrible week.  work has just been totally flat out.  riding has involved getting totally soaked.  water tower challenge is looming and i want to make sure it is a good day for those participating.  everything in the same week.  so far we have about 40 riders registered for the event and surprisingly, most are in the imperial challenge.  there are some finishing touches that i need to organise (buy some drink, print out final start lists, email participants with instructions), but it is getting there.  thanks to all those that have volunteered and to those that have entered.

ride etiquette – there has been a lot of talk lately about the way some people are riding in the group and the effects that it is having on the safety and organisation of our rides.  firstly there have been a number of minor crashes or near misses where people have not been rolling through correctly.  the key is consistent speed, no surging.  also, if you are on the front, unless there is an emergency, there is no reason for you to stop pedaling or hit the brakes.  we have a ride etiquette guide and i suggest that a lot of people (old and new riders to the group) need to review it.  at the other end of the spectrum, there are experienced and strong riders that are blowing apart other organised rides for their own benefit.  certain rides have a following because people know what to expect.  thursday ride is fast, but this doesn’t mean that every other ride you do as part of the group needs to be at the same speed.  i will look at putting together a “rules of engagement” for the rides that we have.  this will cover things like expected speed, when the fast points are, when the regroups are, etc.  if you go back to the etiquette guide you will see that riding on one of our training rides means that you ride as a group and look out for one another.  certain roads we ride on are safer if we stick together rather than being strung out.  have a think about what you are doing to the group as a whole.

water tower challenge – registrations close tonight for the water tower challenge.  the event page is up and running and more info can be found there.  this event is aimed at challenging any riders in our club.  get a team together and register now.

body genius presentation – this week after the saturday ride there will be a special presentation at the cafe by steve from body genius. he has been helping jen for a while now so they have organised a presentation so our members can see what is on offer.  please hang around after the ride to listen to the presentation and ask any questions of steve.  to allow time for people to get in from their rides and have a coffee, the presentation will start at 9:30.  please hang around if you can to hear what steve has to say as you may just find some value in it to improve your cycling.

ride routes – there is a sunday hills ride on this week, but you really should be doing the water tower challenge.  the short and long course will both head out to gooseberry together and then split from there.

saturday 22nd september

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 51.07km (morley drive)

sunday 23rd september

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 –  follow the long course to do gooseberry

long – spr sunday 85.76km (gooseberry & kalamunda & bickley)

so last saturday a mate of mine from work (he sits in the next office) was out riding with the canning vale cycling group (formally cyclebuzz).  he hasn’t been riding long and i have been trying to get him out with us, but he lives closer to that group.  anyway, they are coming through shelley and taking that last sweeping turn before the end when a totally freak accident happens.  if you remember last saturday ride, it was quite windy (we did abernathy), and as they passed under some trees, a branch blew out and went straight through his front wheel.  now you can see the damage and even though this wasn’t the “fast” group, they would have been setting a decent pace.  his wheel instantly disappeared from under him and he went straight into the road.  i won’t post the pics on here, but it looked like his face took the brunt of the impact.  a broken nose, 11 stitches in his face and lots and lots of road rash.  basically i can’t see him shaving for a while and he is still not back at work. anyway, this is a freak accident and there is not much you can do about it.  this morning, however, on the thursday main group ride, there was an accident where kizzi came down pretty hard.  we were rolling through on burke drive and suddenly the left line slowed dramatically.  by the time this motion reached 15 bikes back, there was no room to move and she hit the deck.  now i was in the middle so didn’t see exactly what happened, but it was either of two things.  we were coming up to a slow rider on the road and instead of overtaking, the left lane just slowed, or after rolling through, someone died and just stopped pedaling.  either way, the actions of someone at the front of the group caused an accident at the back.  when you are riding in a group, you must be aware of what the entire group is doing.  going too fast or too slow or too erratic is going to cause accidents.  don’t be the reason why we have to call an ambulance.  there is no shame in having to pull out of a roll through.  it is better to drop to the back and sit on then try to be a hero and disrupt the flow.

water tower volunteers – we need a few more volunteers for our water tower challenge to enable it to run properly.  please sign up on the volunteer page if you can help out.  it is not very strenuous, mostly sitting around waiting for teams to arrive, then handing out food and checking them off the list.

water tower challenge – the event page is up and running and registration is open.  more info on the event page but this event is aimed at challenging any riders in our club.  get a team together and register now.

body genius presentation – next week after the saturday ride (22nd) there will be a special presentation at the cafe by steve from body genius. he has been helping jen for a while now so they have organised a presentation so our members can see what is on offer.  please hang around after the ride to listen to the presentation and ask any questions of steve.

ride routes – last chance training before the water tower challenge, especially for those doing the imperial challenge.  make hay while the sun shines.

saturday 15th september

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 41.18km (reverse river ride)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.98km (benara rd)

sunday 16th september

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) follow the long course to welshpool

long – spr sunday 101.86km (welshpool & mundaring & kalamunda)

so i am over my cold and have moved onto the next phase of sickness, the sinus infection.  a quick visit to the doctor (and i do mean quick), and $90 later (walk-in doctors in the city are expensive) i get what i am after, a script for a $16 packet of antibiotics.  so a few days on that and i feel i am getting better.  good enough to get back on the bike this morning (not the fast group).  hmm, not a big mistake, but not the best idea in the world.  i am so worried about all the fitness i am losing that i just want to get back on the bike.  probably should wait till i am totally better.  it’s not like i am training for anything in particular.  you, however, should be training up for the water tower challenge.

dardanup open – good luck to those heading down to dardanup this weekend.  may you bring back many a golden gnome.

water tower challenge – the event page is up and running and registration is open.  more info on the event page but this event is aimed at challenging any riders in our club.  get a team together and register now.

ride routes – looks like the sun will be shining this weekend.  make sure you get on the bike and smash out some kms.

saturday 8th september

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 49.09km (abernathy rd)

sunday 9th september

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 90.23km (welshpool & observatory & kalamunda rd)

blah.  when i am writing this ride route blog, i put down all the headings first, then fill in the details as i go.  for this little section, i usually write “blah”.  well blah pretty much sums up my week.  after being sick last week (1/2 day off work) then recovering enough to ride on saturday, things took a turn for the worst on sunday and the cold took hold. a couple of days off work and it seems like weeks off the bike.  i get back to work and find half the floor is either off sick, or trying to recover.  i am trying to work out what my cycling goals are for the rest of the year.  these couple of weeks have put a pretty big dent in any fitness i thought i had and will take time to drag myself back to that level.  for many of you a goal might be just challenging yourself.  so we have something for you with the water tower challenge in a few weeks.  either 160 or 100kms of riding fun.  hopefully i can get out on the bike this weekend.

focus group – the focus group is on this weekend.  feel free to bring your own kids down to come along for the ride.  starting at 9:30am behind the boatshed cafe.

dardanup open – our sister club, swcc (the jaffas) are holding the dardanup open again on the 9th of sept.  the format has changed this year and they are trying to encourage more recreational cyclists to come down and have a go.  there is still a road race for A, B & C grades, but the distance has shortened to 40kms.  each of those riders then does an A, B & C grade team time trial and the overall winners are based on combined times plus bonuses (note: no tt bikes, sperm helmets or disc wheels allowed).  there will also be a D grade team time trial which will cater for the recreational licences.  this will be similar to a cyclo-sportif event except will only cost $25 as opposed to $95 for the latest bwa event.  entry fees for the combined road race and ttt are $40.  keep an eye out for a post with more info.

water tower challenge – you may have seen the previous post about the upcoming water tower challenge.  this is designed to give the recreational licence members in our club an event to participate in that isn’t actually a race.  it is a challenge and open to anyone with a wa club recreational licence.  the idea is you ride around a set course in perth taking in a bunch of the water towers along the way.  there are 2 distances, and imperial century (160kms) and a metric century (100kms).  add to the comments on the previous post if you are interested and we will set up an event page as more info is finalised.  we will also need volunteers on the day or this will not work, so if you are not looking at riding, then please volunteer to help.

ride routes – the saturday hills ride has been put on hold until we get more interest in holding it.  let me know when you have a few regulars and we can start to program it in again.

saturday 1st september

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.86km (rebold hill)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.72km (rebold hill & cott)

ride starts next to boadshed cafe at 9:30am

focus group – along bike path to causeway and return

sunday 2nd september

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 70.93km (kahuna)

long – spr sunday 87.72km (kahuna & peet & patterson)

crap week on the bike for me.  absolutely zero kms and counting.  a couple of days off work, so i planned to do a massive ride in the hills.  unfortunately the crap that i am coughing up said otherwise.  i did manage one small bike related win as ben’s new bike arrived today.  a 20″ internal hub 3 speed cruiser made by giant.  the bigger wheels and gears should mean that the longer rides will now be a bit easier.  it also means that dan can have ben’s old 16″ bmx so he doesn’t look so much like a bobble head when he rides along.

paul o farewell – don’t forget that it is paul owen’s (aka paulo, aka dropped in dalkeith), farewell this saturday night at toby’s DOME.  it is a pay as you go and bring the family affair. more details here. (if you don’t know who paul o is, come along anyway and just pretend that it is a carbo-loading session for the city2surf).

tuesday transitional ride – as the weather is kind of starting to warm up, and the sun is kind of starting to get up earlier, i have been asked to see if there is any interest in a tuesday morning transitional group ride.  this is one of the rides that owen started (or actually restarted as scott and toby started “tubby tuesday” a while ago), but now ros is looking at kicking it off again.  it will start with the main ride and leave just afterwards.  so it is 5:30am tuesday under the narrows, cityside.

water tower challenge – you may have seen the previous post about the upcoming water tower challenge.  this is designed to give the recreational licence members in our club an event to participate in that isn’t actually a race.  it is a challenge and open to anyone with a wa club recreational licence.  the idea is you ride around a set course in perth taking in a bunch of the water towers along the way.  there are 2 distances, and imperial century (160kms) and a metric century (100kms).  add to the comments on the previous post if you are interested and we will set up an event page as more info is finalised.  we will also need volunteers on the day or this will not work, so if you are not looking at riding, then please volunteer to help.

saturday hills ride – this has been a bit low on numbers the last couple of weeks (low being zero).  it was initially implemented for people looking to up their hills riding for certain events.  these were primarily the pyrenees tour, the uci race and christophe’s alps challenge.  we  since all three are either finished or currently on, is this ride no longer needed.  give me your feedback in the comments if you want it to stay.

uci masters world champs – we have a crew over in south africa right now competing in this event.  the time trial was on today and the road race is on this weekend.  good luck to all those competing.

dardanup open – our sister club, swcc (the jaffas) are holding the dardanup open again on the 9th of sept.  the format has changed this year and they are trying to encourage more recreational cyclists to come down and have a go.  there is still a road race for A, B & C grades, but the distance has shortened to 40kms.  each of those riders then does an A, B & C grade team time trial and the overall winners are based on combined times plus bonuses (note: no tt bikes, sperm helmets or disc wheels allowed).  there will also be a D grade team time trial which will cater for the recreational licences.  this will be similar to a cyclo-sportif event except will only cost $25 as opposed to $95 for the latest bwa event.  entry fees for the combined road race and ttt are $40.  keep an eye out for a post with more info.

ride routes – just remember that the city to surf is on this sunday so a number of roads will be closed.  this usually doesn’t affect us too much, but it will mean more pissed off drivers looking to vent on anyone that is more vulnerable than them.

saturday 25th august

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

early lap – spr earlybird ride

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

development group – spr saturday 35.48km (novice shelley)

transitional – spr saturday 40.72km (mosman park)

fast & main groups – spr saturday 50.47km (south st)

saturday hills – spr sunday 90.23km (welshpool & observatory & kalamunda rd)

sunday 26th august

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 94.36km (chookenberg & observatory & gooseberry)