Report by Julian 

Firstly, an apology for not getting around to doing the ride report for last week.  A combination of school holiday leave, visiting relatives from Brisbane and abject laziness prevented me from completing this important task.  The July points table was updated on Friday and will be again, after you’ve read this missive. 

Anyway, back to this week.  The day started with Jerry, dressed in his Caisse D’epargne outfit, awaiting the arrival of someone in an FDJ outfit so he re-enact Luis-Leon Sanchez’s win over Sandy Casar in Stage 8.  Luckily for Jerry, I had recently purchased some new FDJ knicks so the battle lines were set before we’d even started.  The fact that it was very cold did nothing to dampen the spirits of the 20 odd riders that turned up.  Neither did the fact than most riders had been up rather late watching Le Tour or, in two cases drinking too much, gossiping and having pillow fights.  Peter then surprised all by arriving on time for his ride briefing.  Instructions were dispensed, the short cuts were established, not even Peter could get Lisa and Lorraine to shut up and before we knew we were on our way up Great Eastern Highway. 

Ben and I sat out front at a modest pace and were yelled at for going too quick (we were only trying to keep warm), so we slunk off down the back and left the front-running to others.  During this time Declan informed me of the new points system for the short cut group, such as first to the coffee shop and fastest table service.  I wait with great interest to get further details.  Meanwhile, Rob, Lorraine, Peter and Brendan kept the pace going until we got to Ridge Hill Road, with the only excitement being avoiding a dead cat in Maida Vale.  We broke up on Ridge Hill Road and the short-cutters turned up the zigzag.  At the bottom of the first climb we re-grouped and faced the challenge of finding privacy for toilet stops.  

The climb up to “Pas-de-la-Darlington Rd” went fairly smoothly.  Brendan, Jerry, Peter, Ben, Rob and myself got away and there were various attacks.  Just before Darlington Road Rob noticed his bars were moving and sent out a request for an Allen key at the top.  Once it was confirmed someone had the right tools, we did the honourable thing and attacked again, leaving him to struggle behind.  Brendan continued to force the pace but I got him on the last climb and took the points.  Ben, Peter and Jerry rounded out the top 5.  The re-group meant that Rob could do his repairs, whilst everyone else recovered. 

KOM 1 – 1. Julian,  2. Brendan,  3. Ben,  4. Peter,  5. Jerry 

We safely crossed Great Eastern Highway and were soon in the peaceful surrounds of John Forrest National Park.  Although this road is pretty rough, the lack of cars and nice scenery makes it an enjoyable ride.  Paul and Lisa did a bit of the work and we were soon heading for “Alpes du Parkerville” for the second climb.  Regrouping at the bottom of the climb to ensure everyone was present meant that no head start could be gained on the climb.  Brendan, Ben and I made our escape from the pack for the short sharp climb and Brendan put in a good attack near the top to claim the stage.  He was feeling quite happy with his climbing and no doubt his recent engagement propelled him as well.  Rob was also feeling good with his repairs and took 4^th spot ahead of Peter.  The re-group here was fairly short owing to everyone climbing very well. 

KOM 2 – 1. Brendan,  2. Julian,  3. Ben,  4. Rob,  5. Peter 

We passed trough Parkerville, Stoneville and Mundaring with incident, although the temperature hadn’t risen significantly.  At the start of Mundaring Weir Road we were joined by Ryan and the push was on during the downhill stage to the weir, followed by the climb to “Col du Asher Road”.  Coming out of the valley, Ben, Ryan, Brendan, Jerry, tall cyclist whose name I didn’t catch sorry, and myself got away and, once the initial steep climb was over, really lifted the pace.  Six riders going for 5 places meant that competition was hot.  Ryan took the spoils followed by Brendan and Jerry, then myself and Ben.  The re-group involved an interesting discussion about loading assorted naughty images, rather than maps, into Garmin computers to relieve the boredom of long rides.  We were also looking forward to the coffee shop, if only for the chance to warm up with a hot drink. 

KOM 3 – 1. Ryan,  2. Brendan,  3. Jerry,  4. Julian,  5. Ben 

The final climb – “Mont 50 km/h Road Sign” – started with me making a break for it but quickly being reeled in by Ryan.  I was surprised no else had followed so Ryan and I settled into a good pace up the climb.  The only harrowing moment came when a car came flying around the corner towards us on the other wrong side of the road and hopefully he slowed down before passing the others.  As expected Ryan took the points but I did jokingly suggest that he should only get half of them considering he missed the two climbs.  The rest of the group followed in and with such a cold morning, no fast times were recorded.  We took over our usual spot outside of the café and discussions mainly involved why SBS 2 can be picked up in South Perth and not Scarborough. 

KOM 4 – 1. Ryan,  2. Julian,  3. Ben,  4. Jerry,  5. Brendan 

The descent back home was uneventful although we lost Paul and Rob in Wattle Grove when Paul answered his phone.  We managed to get through Leach Highway lights without stopping but were then held up by two trains.  I peeled off at George St lights on Berwick St to go home at George St and nearly took Jason with me.  There was quite a head of steam up on the pack so it will be interesting to hear how the final sprint went.  All in all a great Sunday ride, 106 km by the time I arrived home.  Thanks everyone for the company.

Congratulations

to Brendan and Jody on their engagement!

Saturday

11th July

Everyone at SPR

wishes them smooth gear changes and puncture-free rides for the future 🙂

.

Hi Everyone. Just wanted to say a huge thank you to you all. I have really enjoyed being part of this group and so wanted to finally move up to the main group!! But alas family calls me home.. but I will be back. I really love Perth and hope to move back in the future. You are all such a welcoming group and I am going to try and develop something on the Nth side of Canberra like the Rouleurs… there are masses of cyclists that don’t belong to official clubs and it would be great to have such a friendly group like yours. I have also contact the Canberra Vets club which is over 30s and am going to join their very novice road racing group… then I will REALLY know what it is like to be dropped. Cycling with you has increased my confidence and being in Perth has taught me that I am a lot stronger than I thought I was as a person.. so look out Canberra!! Thanks again everyone for your encouragement support yummy brownies and welcome. If any of you are every in Canberra drop me a line libbyoa@bigpond.com would love to catch up and here the news of my second home. Take care all of you Hugs libx

the west australian newspaper is doing an article on the popularity of cycling in perth and will be down taking some photos of the group on either saturday or sunday morning.  can i please ask that if you have a spr kit that you wear it as this is a good opportunity for us. 

the kit order is underway so no more orders can be taken.  what you have ordered is shown on the bottom of the team kit page.  make sure this is right and let me know asap if not.

if you didn’t notice, the tour de france is underway and our tipping comp is in full swing.  check out the tour tipping page to see who is tipping well.  hmm.  not me.

the novice group will be doing their thing as usual, but we will be saying farewell to libby who has decided to move back home to canberra.  hopefully the weather will be fine so you can say goodbye.

saturday route will see a race to freo with the main group taking leach and the fast group taking south st.

sunday will take some of the back roads that we don’t often travel before eventually swinging back through mundaring weir and up to coffee.

south perth rouleurs saturday novice ride

south perth rouleurs saturday ride 09 (risley & cott)

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 14 (darlington & mundaring)

MAIN GROUP (Hale Road.)
We parted company from the Fast Group on Hale Road I do not think successfully, I was about fourth rider back once I saw members of the above group start to move forward I sat up to wait for other members planning to fine tune their skills within the main group. I watched as Russell went with the group as he was at the front before the split and I thought one cycle-sportif and he thinks he is fifty again; this was the last we would see of him until the coffee shop. The group was split up into just me, then another group then another that had caught the lights. I think it’s a good time to reinforce what Peter said at the Tonkin H’way lights that everyone should be ready at the lights and this would probably mean any set of lights that you must clip in and get going as quickly as possible to get as many thru before the change. The last group was a long way back ,we reformed and were on our way along Hale Road at a good pace staying in close to the side of the road with Christos and one other doing a lot of the work. About three quarters of along something fell from Christos’s bike, he was not sure what it was I then explained it looked like a little black box then he realized his GPS had left and he peeled off to go back and grabbed it. I told him we would wait at Kalamunda road for him and we pulled into the bus stop Doug and a couple went back to see if he needed a tow but along he came, it worked out well as couple of others also caught up. When he came up he said “Gee thanks for waiting “lovely manners. He was casino spiele one of the early riders at Bike Force he has been coming for a long time, I not sure if you know this but his is not really French his family has a farm 10ks the other side of Mukinbuddin, his dad owned a Citroën and Christos fell in love with all things French, his real name Chris Derek Beaumont can you see the similarities. Anyone can tell you when he goes to France he has an Aussie accent. Just say to him “How’s Mucka”and his face will light up. But enough about that back to the ride. A few new faces along today we took off from the stop and headed towards Abernathy rd we had lost a few with reports of a flat with a few stopping to help. They were lost from the group.
We moved along Kalamunda Rd no dramas still a good pace, then Gt East Hway still going alright, then Guildford rd and once past Bassendean Oval started to go into rolling thru, the fast group came up on to us at this point. Went to go straight past (just remember this must be done safely if it cannot be done the fast group must wait for a better chance ), a few were seduced by the flashy wheels ,the Knicks two sizes to small of the fast group, you must be strong, they just want your energy, they will take it from you and leave you on the side of the road like a used water bottle, not to mention your heart they will promise you the world with statements like we will wait, we do not go fast, it’s not far!, we have all been there the cut and thrust of the fast group but as we move thru time we realize that speed while enjoyable is not everything, we now like to prolong the ride, make it last, savior the moment, finding the best way to get the most out of what we have is more enjoyable, we like all parties have pleasure. It always upsets the balance when the Fast group comes thru although its only happened two or three times out of the fifthteen times we have split not that I’m counting! We reformed and pushed on and hit the hills at Maylands with everyone in a positive frame of mind. The ride then pretty normal until Adelaide terrace were Pascoe decided to have a go from a long way out the lights on Riverside drive did change for him and he still had the lead we went after I hooked onto another rider who helped me get to him then everyone came thru then the last set of lights slowed us down in the end Chris Beaumont took the money with El Paso wondering when will be his day. Good effort new rider at the front for a lot of the ride sorry I should have got your name, No not you Will.

well lets take advantage of the dry weather predicted over the weekend as they reckon it will be raining all of next week again.  cold is easier to deal with than wet, so rug up and onto the bike to celebrate good ole american day.  actually with a nuclear powered american aircraft carrier anchored just off freo, i should be careful not to upset our overlords, i mean allies.

now don’t forget that the tour starts on saturday night, so stock up on no-doze as sbs is delaying our telecast so that we will know the result off the net 2 hours before the vision finishes.  i will endeavour to find a free link online and post it on the tour tipping page.  which links nicely to a reminder that if you want to enter the tour tipping comp, you better think up a witty name and get you team in fast.  we have over 25 teams in already, so the competition will be hot.

also, i have extended the cut off date for the new kit to after this weekend.  i still have to sort some things out with teschner and cannibal so if you want something, get you order in asap.  we are up to around $10,000 worth of kit ordered again and this is our 3rd order of this magnitude.  a few things may not reach the min requirements so if you think you may need arm or knee warmers or a vest then let me know as this may just get us the numbers to get them into the order.

saturday will see a split up hale rd with the fast group having to do ridgehill as well.  i want to take advantage of the ene winds to give us a push home along guilford road.

sunday there will be hills.  only 4 categorised climbs but no chance to better your climb time up mundaring rd as we will tackle lawnbrook instead. 

south perth rouleurs saturday ride 03 (hale rd)

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 07 (canning mills & peet & patterson)

race report by russell

Team c wisely chose the 62 km distance after a few of us we persuaded our brains were bigger than our legs. A good call. I do not think we could of done another lap and kept a smile on our face. So we had a team of 7 that had not ridden together before and only a couple had ridden a sportif event before. We had a bit of a chat about what we were going to do, how we were going to do it and then mainly chucked it out the window at the first call of “ease up” – which was about the 150 metres up the back straight the first time. It took us a couple of laps really to get the right speed so everybody could stay in touch. We are so used to following directly behind a rider casino online or two abreast on our SPR rides I think we have lost the ability to detect the best, most sheltered postion, behind the wheel you are following. Consequently I think a few of the team did more work than necessary as we tried to deal with the changing wind direction.
On Lap Two one of the calls of ease up was more serious and we had to circle round to check out Mike Beecrofts bike – we could see it upside down and thought puncture. But it was a bit more terminal as he had cracked a chain stay at the rear hanger (see photo on Team A blog). We basically gave him the bullet and suggested he take a short cut directly back to the line – no hope of completing the ride. The rest regrouped and carried on.
Special mention of Sandra who was prepared to ride with the grumpy old men of the C team (or at least Nev, Greg and myself qualify for that). It might take her a while to warm up but on the last lap there was no stopping her. If we had done the 78 km she would of been in front the whole lap.
I know its not a competition but our time was 6 out of 46. I think there is likely to be a next time, and if so, with a full complement of 9 riders, no mechanicals and the injection of some youth, we should easily be in the top five and maybe even a podium.
Thanks guys and Sandra, it was a good days ride.

Team C (And you thought we were not going write about our exploits in the Cyclo-Sportif as if)
I missed Saturdays ride as something came up early Sat morning that I could not get out off, so I was relying on Dave to give me the plan for Sundays ride. It was as follows
Drive to Midland, Ride hard, Eat food, Drive Home sounds easy. I picked up Dave he wheeled out his bike complete with lights in case of a total eclipse and also brought along his bolt on mudguard, it was race he makes me wonder sometimes, if he wasn’t so cute. His son was at the window watching, I waved, he ran screaming, We arrived to find the team assembled and off we went to Herne Hill primary School, for a few of us it’s been a long time since we have been on school grounds this is mainly due to court orders but that is another story. The nerves were here with Ian (Wally) pushing his way thru the toilet line four times! Now was the time for tactics and looking at Team D(ero’s) time they listen as well. We moved up to the start line, Gary Suckling made out he did not recognize the names of Team C Russ, Greg, Gregor , Nev, Sandra ,Mike and Daryl, we were off our mission was to get that transponder back as quickly as possible and if we had to cut Russ’s leg off and carry that back we would do it! Our plan was to go single file with front rider peeling to the right and moving to the back, we probably still need a little more practice, as you watch the faster groups go past they were in a straight line with everyone right behind each other,( this may be that all the riders are evenly match fitness wise or the pace), we started at pretty good pace and after the first lap soon realized this would be hard to keep up and brought it back a bit, thank god!.There were two sections that the breeze was a factor and for me to make beste online casino sure I was safely tucked in halfway in the group was not easy but I did achieve it, I do not think anyone noticed. Mike fell off the back I went back to see why, as he had been working hard up till then, it sounded like the wheel rubbing, he turned the frame over and all was revealed. I broke off both his valves (I would usually use a three inch nail that I carry but have lost it somewhere?) I did not want Team D to seduce him into their group, thanks Kim for bringing him home we do not usually leave a man behind but Team D looked good playing hopscotch at the school and we knew they would be working hard. At Team C we Break Frames and Hearts. Team B passed us they did not look like Happy Campers, on Campersic road Greg and Gregor worked real hard to peg them back and we caught them, they had done the extra lap and an extra 2 ks average speed it was a good effort but do not tell them I said that. The last part we picked up the pace for the run home and I thought Russ also was going to visit the gravel. Had a good time ,glad we went the 62 this time, you can ride around training but it’s good to test yourself little to see were your fitness level is at. One thing I will not do next time is put energy Gels in the same pocket as you have stuffed your vest in. Highlight of the day watching Dave get changed!
Living The Dream Nev.

TOUR DE FRANCE TIPPING

with the tour starting this weekend, we will again be running a tour de france tipping comp.  entry is $10 and there are prizes for gc, points, mountains and stage wins.

you need to nominate a new rider each day and it is great way to follow the tour more closely.

click on the tour tipping page at the top of this website and register your team by filling in the comments at the bottom of the page.

there are links to each stage and you enter your tip by adding to the comments at the bottom.  the comments section will close at 6pm each night and this will be the only way for you to enter your tips.  you can, however, enter a number of tips by just commenting on each stage page.

so nominate your team name (you can have more than 1 team) and start looking at the rider start list and stage profiles.

good luck.