its beginning to smell a lot like christmas. and in australia that usually means hot and stinky. our annual dress up ride is this saturday so decorate your bike and yourself. tinsel, bells, baubles, reindeer antlers have all been seen on bikes in the past. elves, santas, mrs claus, reindeer are all popular xmas riding attire. there is a prize for best dressed/decorated but remember safety first and dangly things can get caught in wheels and chains. maybe if you are lucky, you can find a santa at the coffee shop and let him know if you have been naughty or nice. i’ll let you decide which one has been naughty and which has been nice in the photo above.
ride leader sponsor – the 
ride leader sponsor for december is Dr7 Physiotherapy and Podiatry. Located within Dr7 Medical Centre in Yokine, their experienced physios, podiatrists and massage therapists provide a wide range of services and treatments to help optimise your health and well-being.
where are we riding today – please have a quick look at this post as there is some important safety info about why we publish ride routes before the weekend.
fast too??? – as the group grows in size and skill levels increase, it is important for us to change how we are structured to adapt to this. there has been a very clear need to a group that sits between fast and main as some people cannot keep up with fast, but are too strong for main. we now have one for thursday and last weekend we debuted a saturday group. these have been rather aptly called “fast 2”. minutes of thought went into the name of this group but it serves its purpose. the training and development committee have put a bit of thought into which group you should ride in. check out the previous post for an “easy to follow” chart of how to make that decision.
the ring criterium series – this weekend sees the 5th race of the ring series head back to tech park where spr and rccc will run proceedings. the series has been very successful and there has been close to 200 riders at every event. online entries close every thursday night preceeding the race, so if you want to race, get on it now. there has been lots of discussion about the number of people wanting to ride ‘b’ grade and what to do in this situation. essentaily, the course is not really wide and flat enough to run 2 large fields at once. therefore both ‘a’ and ‘b’ grade will be capped and it will run on a first come, first served basis. if you really want to race, buy a season pass for entry to every race. entries and more information are available via the ring website.
spr gloves –there are a small number of gloves available in black/green that were done as a sample before we finalised the white ones. limited stock, in the club shop. see the previous post for more details.
spr xmas breakfast and award spectacular – so our end of year wrap up breakfast is on this saturday. as per usual, this will be a dressup/decorate your bike day. there will also be more awards than you can poke a stick at, covering a years worth of club activity. check out the previous post and put your name down in the comments so Dome can adequately cater for us.
spr xmas drinks – as the christmas season descends upon us, we look to find a slot to have an out of lycra social get together. this year we will be back again at the empire bar and we thank the social committee for organising everything. if you are interested, tickets and more info is available via the previous post.
licences/memberships – as of today we have 435 financial members. in 2 weeks time we will lose 168 as people come to the end of their membership. the majority of those will be race licences that expire on the 31st dec. however, regardless of whether you are racing or not, having an expired licence means that you have no insurance. this means that if you have a crash on a group ride, or even by yourself, there is nothing covering you for out of pocket expenses. also, it dissappoints me when our membership dips below 300.
ride routes – it is a true test of one’s fitness when you can do the normal saturday morning ride at a pb pace wearing a full santa suit. it is looking like it will be 33 degrees, so make sure that the santa suit is not north pole rated and you have adequate hydration.
saturday 17th 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 st 51.23km spr saturday
sunday 18th 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 – coffee ride
short – khna weir 72.23km spr sunday
long – can mills peet obs 90.30km spr sunday
monday 19th december
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 20th december
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
ride starts frasers carpark at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
wednesday 21st december
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
interval training – stock road repeats
thursday 22nd december
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30arm
spr thursday 37.26km (cott & freo)
ride starts frasers carpark at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
friday 23rd december
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
How nice the red is with the SPR kit ????