last week i talked about the merits and pitfalls of engaging with people when discussing cycling on social media. the merits are very few and the pitfalls are endless. starting an argument with someone online can easily affect your mental and emotion states, but rarely will you get hurt physically. out in the real world, however, it is not what i would call a “safe place for animated discussion”. you have probably seen it all over the news feeds, but one of our members ended up in an altercation with a driver in kings park. as you can see in the picture the driver decided to grab a knife and did actually slice the rider during the exchange. now, if you have seen the footage, you will know this is about an unsafe pass by the motorist. it was all caught on camera, both front and rear, and it was close and unnecessary. however, the real danger turned out to be when the rider decided to confront the driver over the pass. at this time, the driver was still behind the wheel and so therefore still represented a very high risk to the rider. once out of the vehicle, is where it escalated further into an alleged assault.
now this is not a normal example of interaction on our roads. however, this is also not a first for perth as a rider was threatened with a knife during another altercation a year or so back. what we as riders need to understand is that some people just do not want us on the roads at all, and no matter what we do, their opinion will not change. in this case it was a retired person driving though kings park early in the morning. this was not the busy commuter or truckie the riders were holding up. as long as we obey it, the law is on our side and people’s opinions don’t matter in that respect. however, being on the right side of the law is a bit late, when you could end up with a knife protruding from your chest.
we as riders need to take the high ground and not do anything to escalate an already dangerous situation for us. i am guilty of yelling at vehicles in the past and, in the heat of the moment, probably will again. but we actually need to stop and think – “well that was a close pass, but i am still upright and will engaging with that individual actually change anything”. at the end of the day, probably not. if people respect our lives, they will give us a wide berth. if not then yelling at them will only solidify their opinion of us anyway. stay safe, stay upright and look after each other.
ride leader sponsor – the ride leader sponsor for january is Valetudo Health. SPR club member Corrie Fillmore (Johnstone) coaches triathletes and cyclists at Valetudo Health and also provides injury rehabilitation, strength and conditioning, sports dietetics, and exercise physiology services.
renae’s race – the premier race for women in the state is on this sunday on a closed circuit just behind the speeddome in midland. entries should close tonight (thursday 25th) but have been extended to saturday 5pm, so make sure that you enter to support this great race. more info can be found on the previous post.
renae’s race practice – for those that are still considering renae’s race but are not sure about the circuit, davina summers has organised a 1 hr session on saturday morning (9:45-11). unfortunately, the speeddome operators are charging $9 per person to access the facility, but it will give you a good idea of what to expect. entries have been extended to 5pm saturday so you can give this a go and then decided to race. check out the facebook event page and let davina know you are coming along.
australian road death stats – not the nicest topic to discuss, but i was sent an interesting article complied by abc news this week. it shows every road death since 1989 and breaks it down by age, road user, time and day. the attached picture shows that cyclists are more likely to be killed on the commute home or on the saturday morning ride. there are a number of our members that commute during the week. have a look at your route, your visibility, even your attitude and see if you can make the change to stay safe. even though the majority of cycling deaths are not the fault of the cyclist, it doesn’t look like driver inattention is going to be solved any time soon, so do what you can to look after yourself.
club photo – a few people have asked about what happened to the club photo we took the other day. well poor zac had a computer failure and after a number of weeks of trying to recover his hard-drive, it seems that the photo is lost. unlike a wedding, we can easily recreate the day, so we will be potentially lining up next weekend (3rd feb) for another crack at it. this will depend on the weather, but look to be in current spr kit next weekend if you want to be in the photo.
ride start locations –just a friendly reminder that the bike path under the narrows is a public thoroughfare that needs to be kept open. please make sure that bikes and pedestrians have access in both directions. we are getting more and more people on our rides and it is starting to become a problem. please be considerate and move down rather than stand 3 abreast.
2018 licences renewal – any race licence that you purchase now will be valid until the end of 2018. recreational licences are a year from the date purchased, but race licences are for a calendar year. if you are looking at changing clubs and wish to join spr, then now is the time to do it. a club change before a renewal is free, so get it done now then when you renew you will be a member of spr. if you want to change clubs, email through your membership number and we can initiate the change. make sure you are insured while riding, even if you are not racing.
group sizes and ride etiquette – a timely reminder from our training and development officer on just why we split the ride up into certain size groups. why we need to keep separated on the road and what it means for your safety. have a read of the previous post, because if you get pulled up for one of these issues don’t expect that “i didn’t know” to be a valid excuse.
saturday start locations – we have revamped the group start locations on saturday morning. please have a look at the map so you know where your group will congregate. this makes it easier for ride leaders to give you a briefing before the ride starts. see the previous post for more details.
ride routes – wow, no easterly winds predicted for saturday morning. so lets plan for some of the rides that we don’t see often during summer.
saturday 27th january
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 mosman 40.39km spr saturday
fast/main – shelley & mosman 50.14km spr saturday
sunday 28th january
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 – brktn weir 82.89km spr sunday
long – carr peet obs 97.72km spr sunday
monday 29th january
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 30th january
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
ride starts frasers ave at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
wednesday 31st january
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
interval training – stock road repeats
thursday 1st february
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
see previous post for ride groups
spr thursday 37.26km (cott & freo)
ride starts frasers ave at 5:45am
development group – interval training kings park
friday 2nd february
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am