just looked at the weather report for the week. sunny, sunny, sunny, sunny, sunny, awesomely sunny, possible rain, sunny. i expect to see all you out there this weekend. especially you. you know who you are. you have been always making excuses like “it’s too cold”, “i’m too unfit”, “my bum looks big in lycra”, “i don’t like bikes”. so what. your bum does look big in lycra because you haven’t been riding your bike. the rest of us will be waiting for you on saturday.
uci cycling world tour race – this sunday bonner, ainsy and jason will be lining up in belgium for the masters world champs. once we hear something, we will post it on the website. please add to the comments on the previous post to give your support to our guys.
road racing – dardanup open this weekend and the kermit’s and jaffa’s will be racing for golden gnome glory. even better if we can win the actual race, but the race within a race is very important for club pride. state champs next weekend. i will be entering the masters division in a bid to help mike bonner get a state title. the sunday hills ride will be routed to head past the state title so you can come and support the spr riders on the day.
mtb racing – the dwellingup 100 is on next weekend. not sure on all the details. maybe scott can do a post on it as i know that there are a bunch of spr riders heading down to it.
ride routes – sunny days, excellent for bike riding. see you out there.
saturday 10th sept
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 1 – spr saturday 39.81km (shelley & bannister)
fast, main 1, 2 & 3 – spr saturday 49.09km (abernathy rd)
sunday 11th sept
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)
Ok ok, I will attempt to get out this weekend. I will wear black to make the derrière look a little less cumbersome…
My favourite video
http://youtu.be/obdd31Q9PqA
Just coming out of lurkdom to say I miss riding with the trannies but will be back towards the end of the year…I hate being a cager 🙁
Ah, also, whilst i’m here…does anyone just happen to have an indoor stationary recumbent exercise bike I could borrow?? I can provide many cases of beer in exchange….
Ride 4
(Lessons learnt)
Well what could have turned into a disastrous ride not only become a good one but also a very productive one. Learn from your mistakes.
I new as soon as I saw the parcours for the ride that it was going to be a hard one. Lots of long open roads suggested some big roll-throughs and lots of attacks, but I was determined to do the fast group again. There are some things you can only learn there and some techniques that I you are forced to practice.
I managed to hook up with the early ride again just before the last couple of hills and was surprised that they were putting in some serious effort. It seemed like it was the ‘race before the race’. At least I got the chance to chat with the ‘Eddy Hollands’ rider on the McMurdo bike, and even he could see the irony – ‘Perth is a bit incestuous’ was his explanation (he used to ride in GPC kit).
The fast group was surprisingly large and the warm-up on the way out was typical tempo riding, only intensified a little by the head wind. Once on Abernathy Rd, things started to hot up. The speed got wound up and then the roll-through – if I thought the South St roll-through was ‘smokin’ then this was absolutely ‘blazing’ – 48Kph into a headwind!
The first few roll-throughs seems to go fine with 2 long lines and some reasonable breathing space between rolls. Then it seemed like my turn was coming around sooner and sooner and the lines seemed to be getting shorter and shorter. It took me a while to realize what was happening – riders dropping of the back like flies.
Then came my BIG mistake. I should have realized that something was wrong when I found myself on the rivet and out of the saddle to get to the front – then on my next turn, half way up the line I blew! I pulled across to the right and was treated to a barrage of abuse from behind (and quite rightly so). My apology was of little consolation to the poor guy on my wheel who had to try and make up the gap. Sorry Mr. Retro Jersey.
Lesson: Don’t take a roll unless you can get to the front. I guess I should have skipped a turn and stayed on the back – but I did think I was ok. Maybe an extra gust of wind and speed was the proverbial ‘straw’.
From behind the bunch, it was quite fascinating to see what happened next. The whole roll-through immediately began to disintegrate. I guess the strongest riders turned up the screws even more when they saw the chaos I had caused and other riders started popping out the back like champagne corks at a Bar Mitzvah.
Interestingly, as soon as I dropped my speed down a notch I began to feel quite good. I looked back for riders to join but they seemed too far back, so I started after the ones in front. Bianchi was my first cohort but he just sat on my wheel for a bit then dropped off. Then when the next one did the same I started to think that it was going to be a l-o-n-g lonely ride home. The bunch was still in sight when I saw another rider drop off and I hoped I had a companion to ride with.
Well it turned out to be J, the president of vice, and he had some fight left in him. We got into a solid rhythm, taking turns and kicking up a good pace. The plan was to go as hard as we could and hope the traffic lights were against the bunch (maybe it was more wishful thinking than a plan). We never did catch them but I was impressed with how much we were able to do working as a team – even with only 2 riders.
A very productive ride and lots of lessons learnt.
I know I should do ‘speed interval’ training, but I hate it with a passion. I will happily spend all day climbing, but try to make myself do speed intervals… just doesn’t happen. At least group riding forces me to do it.
(As you may have guessed these are not really ride reports – I have no idea who comes first, second or third, nor do I know who out-sprinted whom. They are more, mindless meanderings of a brain fried by too many hours staring at the tarmac – but they might be of interest to someone.)
Yes we worked well together Ess. Problem is your cover has been blown with me!!
Julian
Does Jordan know about this new realtionship of yours Julian???
*weeps*
I hope Ess hasn’t blown anyone else’s covers.. that would make him a bike..
It was me you blew up in front of (I think you left your brains on the road…).
Anyway, no need to apologise, we weren’t going that quick and it was quite easy to close the gap.
Well Jordan hasn’t been around for the last couple of weeks so I might have to find someone else to share the pre-dawn light with!
Julian, I’m doing UCI laps this week.. if you feel like you need a good sunrise.. let me know !
a happy ending again.
Andrew, just be careful about being the third wheel – you don’t wanna get hurt.