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)