respect for other road users. now this is not just about a healthy respect for cars, trucks and other vehicles that potentially can injure us, but also for other riders that we share the road with. i received an email during the week where a cyclist complained about one of our saturday morning groups. he was a fairly new rider and probably didn’t have all the “cool” gear on, but found it quite daunting when 30 or so riders all came past him. he said that he tried to talk to the guy that was on the front, but was just ignored completely. now, i am only hearing one side of the story, but when someone from outside identifies a group of our riders and says that they haven’t been shown any respect, then i worry that there may be some elitism creeping into our club. we pride ourselves on being inclusive and that is not just who we allow to ride in our groups, but also how we treat other riders on the road. there are many stories of people joining other ride groups and not being given a second glance let alone a polite word. we don’t want to get that type of reputation. understanding that we don’t own the road when we come past another group, and just stopping to think for a minute back to when we started riding and how we may have felt in their situation. look out for each other.
ride leaders – give some of your time to the club by helping out as ride leader. it is important that developing riders understand what is expected of them on our club training rides. there are enough experienced riders in our groups to be able to impart some of their knowledge to the other groups.
2014 spr agm – on the 22nd march we will be holding our annual general meeting. please see the post on the blog or (if you are a member or expired member) you will receive more info via email.
Cyclist Coffee Stop of the Year 2014 – Dome Westralia has been nominated for coffee stop of the year in the Cyclist magazine. you have to vote via facebook, but there is a link to their link here.
road works – our monday, tuesday, thursday, saturday ebr and sunday ebr rides now have an extra dimension to them. cyclocross along melville beach road while there is roadworks going on. at the moment, it is not too bad as long as you don’t hit it at speed. the weather is looking pretty good, so it shouldn’t turn to slush, but if it gets too cut up, then let me know and we will reroute the rides until it is fixed up. please ride to conditions and stay safe.
ride routes – hot windy week predicted so make sure that you are adequately prepared before your ride. also, have a think about the wind direction before you start up a roll through. the idea is to make it easier, not harder, so if you think the group is rolling the wrong way, do something about it. a little visual reminder here.
saturday 22nd february
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
early lap – earlybird 40.93km spr special
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 6:00am
uci training – more info here
all rides start at coode st carpark at 7:00am
development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday
transitional – trans abernethy 39.96km spr saturday
fast & main groups – abernethy rd 48.21km spr saturday
sunday 23rd february
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
short – brktn weir 82.89km spr sunday
If you redirect the EBR onto Matheson Rd by going up Canning Hwy three turns you can still easily go around the road works and still do the climb up Fraser Rd and down into the Strand. Seen lots of flat tyres on Melville Beach Road due to the road works on my way into the city each day.
Good idea Andrew. We’ll try it out tomorrow.
Regarding the Saturday Transitional, Main & Fast Routes, Abernethy Road will apparently be reduced to a single lane between Kew St and the intersection with Leach Highway (the ~300m prior to Leach Highway) due to works on the Gateway WA project.
Details can be found on the Gateway WA Traffic Notice (pdf).
As the intersection is likely to be a congested mess it might be an idea to choose different routes this week.
Thanks for the details Scott. I think we’ll be ok. It’s a short distance, and we’ll be going through at about 7:15-7:30, so hopefully the traffic won’t be too bad. We’ll make sure that everyone is aware of the problem when we start the ride.
Thanks.
luv the pix showing Alijet in action!
Just a big thanks to Megan and John for looking after me after my hard landing on main 1 this morning on Kalamuda road after I hit a drain cover.
The group around me stopped, rendered assistance and though I’m a stranger to both, they were a welcome support, whilst we waited by the roadside for my wife to come and pick me up. Without them to manhandle me into the car I would have been stuffed as I was in severe pain. Little did I know at the time but I cracked my hip, and as I write in hospital I will be on crutches for at least 6 weeks. ( that puts and end to 5 dams this year.)
Anyway it was heartening to realise that the SPR good natured helping spirit came up trumps. I’m a member, but not a regular rider until Dams training kicks in, so it is uplifting that strangers help out when your literally down and nearly out.
Thanks again John and Megan.
bugger. All the best with the recovery, Kevin
Hey Kevin, while I’m pretty sure a cracked hip (and crutches for 6 weeks) is pretty damn painful, it could have been considerably worse. I was a few wheels behind you when your wheel got stuck in the drainage grate, and it looked pretty dramatic from where I was 🙂
Best wishes for a speedy recovery, and hope to see you back out on the road as soon as possible.
Hi Jordan, yes its funny but Ive been cursing my bad luck, but as was pointed out by the Physio here at Murdoch it could have been much worse.
When I saw the drain, it was so late, all I had time to do was point at it, and in doing so only had one hand on the bars,which added to the front wheel going out of alignment and as I remember it was a deepish drop into it. What I also remember is as i was going down,was looking back,and seeing the rest of the group bearing down on me..Jeez,how no one ploughed into me was nothing short of a miracle. Shame there wasn’t a GoPro video of it, would be interesting to see that….
The other thing was the head definitely hit the tarmac and the helmet did its job.
Thanks for the comments guys,its certainly a painful injury, but the Surgeon here has said there should be no long term affects once all is healed up,so hope to see you all out there in a couple of months.
Cheers.
Heal fast Kevin.
Kevin/Jordan, should the offending drain cover be reported as a traffic hazard?
you can do it here. https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/activetransport/25460.asp
Done.
Hi Kevin, glad it is “only” a cracked hip! You were looking like you were in a fair bit of pain so we were a bit worried that you may have done more damage!
Hope you have a speedy recovery and are back out on the bike ASAP.