just a little housekeeping for the club this week. while we may be out enjoying a little birdwatching while riding, there are a number of other things that we should be paying attention to. i was contacted this week by a person that was using the pedestrian crossing on st georges terrace just as one of the groups was finishing their ride. they say that the light was red, so they were crossing back to the bhp building for work. a group of riders in our kit came through the light to access the footpath and cut off this guy and his mate. some raised voices occurred but only one cyclist replied and the rest just ignored it and went to coffee. now regardless of whether you are allowed to ride on the path or not, the group was riding on the road as it approached the red traffic light. as we always obey traffic rules, that group should have given way to the pedestrians before using the crossing to access the footpath. its not a good look and some people bias all cyclists as “rule breakers” when they see acts like this. please be more aware of your surroundings as even hitting a pedestrian can mean that you end up having time off your bike.
crit season – criterium racing kicks off this weekend with midland holding a race on saturday at behind the velodrome and rccc running a race on sunday at the tonkin business park. entries for midland are on the day but more info can be found here and entries for rccc can be found here.
spr xmas drinks – keep the evening of sunday 15th december free for our annual out of lycra xmas drinks night. tickets can be found in the blog shop and more info can be found in the previous post.
tour of margs – waiting for race@spr to put the finishing touches on the tomr race report and some photos from zac williams to come through. mo said that he was running out of nick-names so have your glossary handy.
AusCycle – so there has been a bit of an update over the last week in relation to AusCycle. Tasmania came out and voted no to join NSW. it is expected that WA votes no even though our official vote isn’t in, the in-house vote said that we want a different model than what has been proposed. you can find out mode from the cyclingtips blog that is currently covering it. there is lots in social media about it and there are lots of heated conversations going on that i have decided to keep out of. however, the question i have for the states that are all for it is this; qld, vic, nsw are three states that have dedicated crit circuits. are the riders in those areas okay with their licence fees and state funding going towards building a crit circuit in wa? that is one of the fears from the association over here. the centralised mtb model has shown similar things in the past with no money being spent in wa, so they went ahead and setup their own wa association to get stuff done. not saying that coming under one banner can’t work, just that it seems to have not been well thought out.
hotel funivia – many of the spr members that have taken the trip over to ride in italy have tackled the famous stelvio. odds are that they stayed at hotel funivia whils they were there. this weekend the team from hotel funivia are in perth and will be on our saturday and sunday rides. if you are thinking of riding the mountains in italy make sure you have a conversation with these guys whilst you have the chance. check out the previous post for some more information.
cycling trip to france – next year long time spr member, christophe is looking at organising a trip to france to ride in the mountains. it is 12 nights with 2 french speaking guides cruising around such little hills as mount ventoux. if you are interested, see christophe at the coffee shop after the ride or email him at crosstraining@optusnet.com.au
sunday start locations – as numbers increase over summer, we are looking at how we can manage the groups on a sunday morning. as such we are implementing a start location system to give us an idea of how big the groups are. we can then split them before they leave the carpark to ensure that the groups are a safe size on the road. see the previous blog post about where to meet and the new start time.
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.
spr juniors – juniors, juniors, juniors. the weather is looking good so get the kids out and onto the bikes. there were some new juniors out last weekend so the numbers are growing heading into summer. A few more returns from last year and we will have quite a squad in kings park.
from the ride coordinator – Great to see the numbers out and about on such a hot Saturday last week with most groupings swelling to the brim. Thinking that this week we might see healthy numbers again for our main ride. Whilst it’s awesome to see so many out, large numbers often means larger groups. Larger groups often means different abilities and more risks riding in a group. So this weeks commentary is all about making sure we have a safe mindset when riding. Whilst your ride leaders will do their best to split the groups into manageable numbers, you can also contribute to the safety of the group. The usual suspects including calling up AND down the line for hazards, being watchful at roundabouts and knowing the ride routes become really important when the group sizes are big. So do yourself and the group a favor by preparing a little and being a participant in the group. Happy riding !
saturday 23rd november
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
juniors – kings park juniors 23.72km spr saturday
development group – novice shelley 36.06km spr saturday
transitional 1/2 – trans shelley 40.59km spr saturday
fast/main – south st 51.23km spr saturday
sunday 24th november
rides start at coode st carpark at 6:00am
note: sunday rides now start at 6:00am from nov to feb
development group – coffee ride
short – brktn weir 82.89km spr sunday
long – carr peet obs 97.72km spr sunday
monday 25th november
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am
south stock 33.76km spr monday
tuesday 26th november
ride starts under the narrows (cityside) at 5:30am
spr tuesday 36.37km (river ride)
wednesday 27th november
ride starts raffles bike path at 5:30am
interval training – stock road repeats
thursday 28th november
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 29th november
ride starts under the narrows (sth perth side) at 5:30am