Weekend Racing 30/31 Jan/01 Feb

Not a lot of racing in town this weekend after last

weekends criterium series people probably fancy a rest. However for those that want to spectate there is some track racing on Friday night, I would guess entry is free but see the details below.

buy no rx cialis

It may be too late to enter but for those wishing to race against the clock ATTA has a time trial event on Sunday at Herne Hill. If you want to see bling TT machines this is the place to be this weekend.

You will more than likely see some of familiar faces at both of these events so get on out there and let them know you’re there.

Bruce and I will be racing with the other old boys at Kewdale on Sunday, feel free to come along and watch us get our backsides kicked by a bunch of 60 year olds. I am informed Bruce has done a Jan Ulrich over the Festive Season and bulked up. Venue is Bradford Street Kewdale with racing starting at 8:30am.

If you are racing let the rest of the bunch know by posting a response here, the more support the merrier.

Track Cycling WA

Friday 30th January 09 – NDCC-Joondalup Wheel Race, 6.00pm Warm Up, 7.00pm Start, Midvale Speed Dome, Enq: 0408 881 282

ATTA

Sunday 1st February 09 – Herne Hill 40, 7.30am, Herne Hill Enq: 0408902349

Cheers

Chris

spr kit

update –  our latest run of cycle kit should be arriving this week and i will be looking at distributing it this saturday at the coffeeshop after the ride.  any hats that haven’t been collected will also be bought along.

other kit.

i have got a quote for a sleeveless version of the jersey for those that don’t like the tan lines over summer.  they will be $80 and will look like the style shown below (but in spr colours).  if you want to order one, let me know by email.

also, as the triathlon season in underway, a couple of the guys thought it would be great to show the spr colours on the tri scene as well.  we have got 2 quotes for tri-suits which will match the spr kit.  the new ultra fast trans suit is their new thing and has mesh bits for venting etc, but will cost $175 while the original fast trans suit will be $155.  the main difference for us will be the minimum order as the new ones need to get 20 while the older one only needs 10.  again, if you are interested send me an email.

Australia Day Ride Report by drronny

 

Faster in red!
Lenny: Faster in red!

Twenty people showed up to celebrate Australia (aka Invasion) day with an SPR ride. Everyone seemed to find the alternative/secondary/secret meeting point up the road from the usual Coode St carpark without a problem. Committee members, Brendan and Lorraine were there to make sure we all behaved.  Without a posted map on the blog, it was decided that we would make a counter clockwise loop of the river except no-one actually knew how to do this (translation:  I thought we would be getting lost).  Some people volunteered knowledge of certain sections of the vague route we had in our minds (“I know how to get to Shelley”, “I can get us to Point Walter” etc etc).

 So we took off and it was an uneventful ride out to somewhere. I had vague memories of the Boxing Day ride where I learnt about a magical place called “Shelley” where the road was fast and curvy and the sun shines on your back through the dappled light of the leaves.  I recognised the bike path near this place which we navigated without incident, keeping to the left and avoiding the array of walkers, other riders and a dog.  When we reached the magical road, Brendan called that we would go fast along this section and that the regroup would be at the top of a hill. 

Milram Dan is now known as Cheating Dan
Named n' Shamed: Milram Dan is now known as Cheating Dan

The pace lifted and a small roll-through began. The speed was the fastest I’ve seen the SPR group go and we passed more than a couple of smaller groups (3-5 riders). By the end, Brendan was the only one fast enough to keep it there for that long and drove the pace to the finish. I don’t think anyone got dropped but we all stopped in the shade of a tree at the top of a small hill to catch our breath and drink some water. 

We negotiated more bike path to find our route blocked at Point Walter for the Invasion day triathlon.  We had suspected that this would happen and were waved right. Brendan led the way via a less scenic detour and managed to find some steep, short hills along the way for those of us who missed the Sunday ride. We managed to find our way to the Southbank foreshore in Freo and the pace picked up again.  Once again, a well organised, safe but speedy train developed.  Dan magically appeared at the finish of our little run by using some sort of shortcut.  We turned left up the hill and over the bridge into North Freo and onto the coast road where I decided to test my legs out a bit and went to threshold.  I found a willing partner beside me (sorry, I don’t know your name) and we pushed through from the North Freo lights to the south end of the Cottesloe strip.  Mercifully, we heard Lorraine behind us say “Are you alright guys?”.  “Yep, we’re fine.” About 40 milliseconds after this came out of my mouth, my legs had something to say and they said something like “Actually, we’ll pull off.”   And that’s what they did.  No one sprinted in Dalkeith so I didn’t get dropped. Cruising along Matilda Bay at ~27kph, Dan zoomed up the right, his bike clacking away.  No chase ensued. In the distance we saw him cut the red light (naughty, naughty…).  We stopped, waited for the lights and then got organised for a roll through. As we began to hear his drivetrain over the sound of the traffic, we slowed down a little to give him a 30m gap (yes, his bike was that loud) and left him out there a little longer.  When we went past we dropped him thoroughly. Cheaters never win…

The Nameless Wonder and Doug
The Nameless Wonder and Doug
The honest SPR boys and girls having a drink.
Coffee: The honest SPR boys and girls having a drink.

Oz Day Triathlon

1 Comment

Race report by Rob

4:45am is too early to be getting up on a long weekend, especially Australia Day. Still, Paul and I had agreed to participate in the OzDay Tri at Point Walter, so up early it was. My preparation for the event hadn’t been what one would say ‘ideal’ – does 2 beers and a glass of red the night before consititute a hydration strategy??

Coming off the back of the WA IM, this was going to be a different race. A sprint (750/20/5) is not about finishing; it’s about flogging yourself over a short distance and trying not to think of throwing up while your heart beats at stupid rates per minute.

The course was still going to be challenging though, due to the hill that we all know and love up and around the Point Walter Golf Course – 3 times up and down plus 3 times up and down to the café around the corner. With what was going to be up to 700 bikes on a 7km loop, safety was the primary concern – neither of us was not coming off today.

With race briefing out the way, a quick comfort stop to settle the nerves, and we headed to the race start. It was hard to get much of a read on the swim course as the sun was directly over the turning bouys – should have taken more notice of the race map, huh?! We were lucky enough to see the earlier wave get going though, and the fact that they all headed along the complete wrong line helped us to get our sighting strategy in place! Stick to the depth markers and we’ll be right!

When we finally got underway (7:40am after a 6:40 briefing!), the swim felt good. I could see Paul under my shoulder as I breathed, so he was travelling well too. Trouble is, it doesn’t take much, and I didn’t sight properly for another couple of minutes – off I went in the same direction as the earlier wave! Bugger – extra mtrs in the water are never good! By that stage I’d lost Paul and thought he must’ve been up front going in the right direction. After my detour, I finally got to the first turn, headed across to the bottom marker and then made a determined effort not to lose sight of the Pt Walter Jetty on my return. I was pretty annoyed having known what to look for, and then not followed the right path. Oh well, best I just flog the bike a bit harder!

Coming out of the water and up to transition (first 200mtr uphill run to transition I’ve ever encountered!), Paul’s bike was still in the racks (appraently he’d had some difficulties navigating through the back markers of the wave before us). I threw the requiste kit on and headed out onto the course. The first bit is uphill, but then a nice skip across the range and down the other side to settle into the first full lap along Burke Drive. “Yep – there’s 700 bikes out here.” And I thought Saturday rides got messy!

With the number of bikes on the road, many of which were first timer or novice triathletes, it meant having to adjust expectations of what could really be achieved over the 20kms. I found myself getting a nice rhythm going, with a cadence of 90-95, HR at 164 and speeds of 38 – 40 and then coming up behind a pile of newbies across the full breadth of Burke Drive. With the other competitors taking up the full breadth of the opposite side of the road on their return journey, there was nothing for it but to try and open the lungs a little more and bark a “MOVE LEFT” in breathless tones. Always fun (or is that just my sadistic streak?) to see the wobbles start and everyone try and bunch in next to each other while you squeeze past with wheels cutting the double yellow lines. Generally though, most people were pretty good and out there to have fun.

The first trip back to the golf course hill was fast and hard. No wind to speak of, so it was just getting down on the TT bars and pushing. When the hill finally loomed, I dropped down to the small front ring to increase the cadence and make my heart take the load. That worked! I managed to get up to 178 bpm at the first crest and hold it through for the 2nd push to the top. Thankfully there’s the corresponding respite of the drop down the other side, so a good opportunity to suck air and get the HR back down ready for the climb back up.

The next lap was pretty much the same as the first, albeit a little more effort required by the legs to get up the hill a 2nd time. On the last lap, the return journey along the flat included a fast tiring bloke trying to hold my wheel for a bit if a rest. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for grabbing a wheel for a little breather, but this went on for a little too long (and he wasn’t a SPR, so all bets were off). Changing up and giving the cranks a little tickle saw him off, but also made the acid build up in my legs build up. Maybe I should have bumped him off a little earlier, before the final hill ascent? Oh well, pain is only weakness leaving the body!

Rounding the final turn and then up to the dismount, I was pretty happy with my time. 35mins (or thereabouts) was within my target range. Just a quick out and back 5k’s and we’ll have this in the bag.

The first 900m out was all downhill, which was a test for the legs straight off the bike. They’re usually pretty wobbly anyway, but to have to control a fast descent plus a few tight corners added to the challenge. When I got down to the flat and tried to establish my rhythm, that’s when the stitch monster decided to visit! The next km involved trying to keep the pace high but tightening the abs and only breathing on the right side heel strike to blow the stitch up. God I love triathlon! Finally I managed to get rid of it and settle down to a comfortable “going out” pace and a HR of 159/160. At the 2.5k mark I was feeling pretty good and decided to really lift it on the way back. I managed to get the HR up to 169/170 and hold it there. It was at that point that I started to wonder what was going on. I was looking at all the guys I was ahead of as they ran past me on their way out. They all looked like your typical hard core tri guys – the big upper body, thumping guns and fully cut legs. Why was I in front of them?? Did I do the full 3 laps on the bike? Did I miss a buoy on the swim? I have no idea why this was going through my mind, I expect it’s more just that I don’t think that I’m as fit/strong as what these blokes all look like – but I guess that’s the thing isn’t it? It doesn’t really matter what you “look” like, it’s about performance on the day and having that level of self belief to carry you through. So my learning in that was to not get psyched out by appearances – believe in your own training schedule and go out to do the best you can – the results will follow.

Anyway, I managed to convince myself that I hadn’t cheated and kept on flogging myself on the run. I saw Paul on his way out and he looked to be in a pretty comfortable rhythm. The final climb hurt, but then I expected it to. No good crossing the line with anything left in the tank! I got over in 1:13:44 with my first ever podium finish in a triathlon- 3rd place in 35-39 category (1st was 1:11:21 but 2nd was only 7 seconds in front at 1:13:37). Paul followed in 1:21:47; 15th out of 50!   All in all a good hit out and preparation for City Of Perth on March 15. I caught up with Hunter after the race (Sportsfever ride kit who joins SPR on Saturday rides when he’s allowed out) – he won the 25-29 age group at Waikiki last week and came close again this time (3rd place) if it wasn’t for not being able to get his shoe on at T2!

Next step: SPR Tri suits – stay tuned – more on that soon!

monday 26th jan – public holiday ride

1 Comment

ride report by brendan

Well after getting to our backup meeting place right on 0700 I expected a few more riders but after waiting another 5 or so mins we had swelled to around 20.

Dr Paul and a couple of others decided to go and do a shorter ride so headed off in another direction while we decided who knew the way (Pete warned me the day prior he might not make it), hah being my first Monday ride with SPR (I seem to be always at onsite when these public holiday rides are on) I was a little sketchy but Julian put his hand up and between us we lead the group off for Shelley Beach to stretch the legs.

While mainly uneventful and general chit chat seemed to be the way of the group we sat on a steady tempo. With numerous detours and roadwork’s we tossed up which way we could go in case of closures etc we thought all would be well as we hit Shelley beach.

I did a little roving of the pack of 15ish riders saying go for it and we would re group at end of the Shelley Beach run. Was sort of like letting dogs of a leash everyone was straight into a higher rhythm and started rolling through quite well as the pace climbed higher and higher, while I was doing the “Pete thing” making sure all were happy at the back through to front I finally managed to get back up onto the front and upped the pace again to see who really wanted to get a little hurt going.

We quickly passed a couple of smaller groups as we were averaging around mid 40’s with a few smaller surges by Ronny and Co I decided to stretch the group right at the last Km to finish off, which reminded my legs  of yesterdays effort in the hills (note to self recovery ride is Monday!).

After the regroup we continued through to Applecross over a short section of roadwork’s under Mount Henry bridge which turned out to be only sand and pretty smooth so no punctures and new bitumen heading through to Canning bridge made quite a enjoyable ride. Several Boats/People were starting to get prime positions around several key spots on  the Swan River but overall the traffic was generally well behaved towards us. Once under Canning Bridge we settled into a relaxing pace and made way to Point Walter which of course due to the Ozzy Day Triathlon had the road closed we detoured around the edge and came back not far down from the Point Walter golf course and continued on our way.

On heading down around (can’t remember the roadJ) heading towards The Left Bank the pace picked up and with a few little attacks ad surges the pace picked up and I’m pretty sure everyone came through for a turn which was pleasing as the speed was mid 40’s and goes to show how everyone is ever improving on these rides, on coming to the end we had a slight wait to make sure we had everyone and heading off up towards Cott.

With the change of direction came a rather nice tail wind blowing us along rather brisk pace right up into Cottesloe with Ronny and Co seeming to holding the pace high for quite a while we suggested that they can go off the front to have a break back in the group which they quickly took up on. The pace continued to stay high straight through Cott and for a change there was hardly any traffic which always  makes riding in a bunch more enjoyable… Going up over the crests (I refuse to call them hills, many might disagreeJ) heading back up to West Coast hwy we for my first time ever scored a green light and the whole group made it through and headed up towards Dalkeith. As we were nearing where one of our Saturdays sprint spots the pace was increasing higher and higher and never one to back away I added a few km’s an hour to that as Ronny made a surge passed me Dan and a few others went for the sprint while I sat back and watched which is a nice change and great seeing other people slogging it out for gloryJ , making sure everyone turned right heading back around to Mounts Bay road we continued through to the back of UWA where Dan on his squeaking Specialised took off, pretty sure everyone in the neighbourhood heard him go as he defiantly gets the noisiest bike award for the dayJ With no one too keen on chasing we let him get a few hundred meters up the road before we upped the speed and held him at that distance and as Murphy’s law 8x out of 10 the lights will get him and sure enough we had a laugh when the lights got him, but on a big SPR no-no he jumped through the RED light to get as much advantage as possible heading for our run into the coffee shop sprint, we yelled DQ to him and generally hung you know what on him, when we took off (from the GREEN light) and chased him down, everyone rolled through until the pace moved up into the high 40’s and a few started to fall off and hang on as the speed kept on climbing, Dan was looking back and starting to think the worst and is speed was fading fast as the Train caught him with around 600 to go to the sprint line, we all hung a few passing words of encouragementJ on him and powered to the Swan Brewery where I was offered a lead out (sorry missed your name) and not one to pass those up we shot off and I powered away for a nice finish with the group relatively intact.

the chosen few
the chosen few

Due to several blocked access ways we made our way unconventionally to the coffee shop (don’t think I will elaborate on that any more) so after ordering food and drinks and sharing a few laughs mainly at Dans expense for his cheeky move and noisy bike, Lorraine took a few piccies of us all and Dan as she wanted to post him up on the blog some name and shame feature haha.

So overall a most enjoyable ride with pace and recovery sections and quite a few good laughs had by all…Till next time watch this space….

Sunday 25th January – Kahuna, Peet, Canning Mills, up,up up…

ride report by mark

pete asked me to write the blog up, as he is up to his ears in new family and new cycling club stuff. fair request i thought. As for me, no real excuse for being late with the write up.

i arrived early  on sunday for a change, and was pleased to see about 18 – 20 including a good compliment of medical specialists as usual, and pete! we headed out with peter and brendan leading till well into albany hwy, and thereafter steady rotations in front at around 28 -31km/h. there was a moderate to strong headwind all the way to the first hill; kahuna.

it’s a good steady climb – i started out near the front and watched them come past; peter, stu, brendan, warren, dan, etc. then jon b and i rode together for a while – which is becoming a pattern. near the top i thought he was on my tail, and tried to get away, but it was actually shao (sp?) and he passed me easily as he chased the leaders. points at the top were: brendan – 10, stu – 7, warren – 5, bill – 3, peter – 1.

i think i was 7th at the top of the hill, mainly due to the absence of ryan (racing), michael b (heart surgery – fair excuse) and dr jerry (chasing lance at tour down under). we had to whistle really loudly to stop dr carl from going straight over the top – he looked like he was on a mission in search for coffee; in the drops, head down and in the zone. the group was down to about twelve riders by that stage, with the short riders taking on of the earlier hills straight up to the coffee shop.

then the dog-leg via chevin, and the great downhill of urch, before the horror uphill of peet.  luckily i had a head start from the downhill, but as usual it was not enough. for a while i actually thought i may be in the points there. i hung in with the front bunch till past the top of the steep bit, but then it just got too hard (read “i didn’t want it badly enough”) and i fell back. that was ok; i was still in 5th position and in the running for my first point of 2009. then warren came past, and i thought i might latch onto him, and chase the group for some serious points; but he made it clear that he was on a chase, not a rescue mission. i watched him and my one point disappear up the hill to rolystone high school.

brendan – 10, peter – 7, dan – 5, warren – 3, stu – 1

 

we regrouped, and then headed down the hill to the t-junction at brookton hwy; and turned right. the first time i’d ever done that before, and the first time for many by the sound of it. going all the way down brookton was a strange experience, and it seems like a completely different road to the one we’re used to climbing. but it was hell-fun for a downhill junkie like myself, and it seemed to go on forever. then up the back of the hill for a steep steady climb to the chevin rd turnoff again.

i think that is one of the best climbing hills in perth for a cyclist; it feels like a shorter version of an alpine ascent to me, and one seldom sees a car on the road. great steady winding road, lots of shade, and a steady 7-10% climb. i settled into my own rhythm, and tried to keep it there till pete passed me. being a boy on a push bike, tried to follow, but didn’t have the legs to stay. then along came some big fella dressed in white, on an all white bike with no labels. i don’t know who he was, but he ended up joining us at the coffee shop. i followed him for a while till we caught and passed pete. then he left pete and i to battle it out as he went ahead. i was in a mood to play, so i passed pete and chased the white knight, only to run out of steam, and watch pete roar by me a few hundred meters from the top.  i coasted up in about 6th or 7th again; whilst the order up front was: brendan – 10, bill – 7, warren – 5, stu & dan – 2 (deadheat)

we regrouped, and carried on straight over the undulations that took us back towards canning road. i remembered the road well from a cyclo-sportif event we did there a year and some ago.  we were all together as we went through bickley valley, and took the usual old route to the bottom of mundaring weir road. brendan and i took the corner first, and i sat on his wheel for a few hundred meters until the others caught us. surprisingly i hung on almost until the hill flattens out before the long false flat. i really thought i may be in the points, until i looked down at my heart rate which was 192.  i felt the imaginary elastic band connecting me to the group snap, and made a loud “ping” sound as i exited off the back. so no race up the last bit of the climb for me, but i was happy that i’d felt fine on all the climbs on the day. for those in front; the points at the top were: brendan – 10, stu – 7, warren – 5, bill – 3, dan – 1

i don’t know how many meters we ascended, but i’d guess it was around 1500; a good ride by any standard. the coffee was great as usual, but the croissant was overdone for the second week running; one more and we will have to register a complaint in writing! at least the service was good this week.

the ride back home was pleasant and uneventful; just a little too warm at around 35 degrees.  the sprint to the first set of lights at the bottom of welshpool road is becoming increasingly competitive, with john b being the current favourite.

we chased and caught a fit looking rider on a cervelo t3 bike on the way to leach hwy, and kept a brisk pace all the way to albany hwy. then i left to make my way home via manning, only to find that the freeway bike path between canning and mt henry was closed, so i had to do an extra few km via mt pleasant. not a bad detour, but i felt hot and thirsty, and didn’t need the extra km at that stage. it was at the rowing club in that i passed dr ronnie, wearing leggings and long sleeves – i don’t get it.

another great ride with the bunch. also the end of my slack cycling phase, which has lasted since i got back from vietnam in october. next week i officially start training harder; the goal is to contest at least one hill each sunday by march. they say if you make your goals public, you have a better chance of achieving them. this is as public as i get!

see you next week

saturday 24th jan – cresswell & herdsman

sorry for the lateness off the report and the content as well.  things have been a bit hectic lately.

firstly the formation of a club and the committee office bearers were appointed before the ride began.  as the number of nominations didn’t outweigh the number of positions available, there was no vote needed.

president – peter mah

vice pres – brendan nichol

secretary – stuart gee

treasurer – ryan fynn

team manager – chris norris

development officer – mike bonner

marketing/promotions manager – lorraine hartland

events manager – lisa wood

committee members – noel michelson, julian johnson, judd otley

 

these positions will be confirmed at a later date when we hold an official agm meeting.  we actually need members first for this to go ahead.  however, this plus the draft constitution is all we need to approach cycling wa to become affiliated to allow people to join via the regular channels.

as for the ride, it was a very controlled event and as we were heading through some of the main drags of the city, the group got caught at many a traffic light.  with our numbers totally about 60 it was no wonder we didn’t get a smooth run.  as we made our way up grand prom, paul broke away from the front and i thought that he must have to take an early mark.  however, it was a spot that we used to go hard back in the day and as he hasn’t spent that much riding time with us lately, wondered why no-one else was following him.  the hill at cresswell tested a few legs and james and brendan fought it out for line honors.  we regrouped at the top to find paul already waiting for us.  by this point i don’t think we had lost anyone.

we picked our way across to herdsmans lake (swamp) where we were to begin our next hard section.  the nice wide roads and double lane allowed us to pick the pace up nicely.  dr ronny made a valiant attempt to set the early pace as he now has the cervelo back, but found out that the training on the learsport had not increased his capacity that much.  the group splintered a bit but little echelons formed and people more or less worked together to keep their group going.  i wasn’t at teh front so not sure who (if anyone) claimed line honors as first to james and chris’ special synchronized spilling round-about.  a small wait for some back markers and we left julian to fix his flat as he said that he would intercept us along the way.

more extra kms at a nice pace found us in claremont and onto the normal road home via dalkeith.  the pace picked up in the usual spot and the big boys had an opportunity to push hard on the rolling hills.  the regroup at mounts bay gave little reprieve as the pace was soon on once the lights turned green.  with my bike still making bad gear crunching noises (i need to see yas) i was in no place to sprint and needed to stay seated as long as possible.  it all got a bit messy towards the end and there was some drifting of lanes during the sprint when there was cars coming.  i opted to sit up at that stage and let the group go.

a entire weekend of watching the crits followed and that plus taking in excess of 2000 photos (of which i only kept 800) has been a bit of a time waster for me at night.  the crits were good and apart from watching ryan get spat out the back of each race, the open men’s race was a bit ho-hum for me.  the open women’s however, had quite a few of our spr girls fighting it out. wins by holly, davina and bec and a podium picture of all three with their spr hats on, made it more exciting as we had a vested interest.  well done to lisa also for stepping up and taking the plunge with the other fleet elite girls.

Perth Crit Series

7 Comments

As Peter has already mentioned, the Perth Crit Series is on over the next 4 days starting Friday evening (tonight).

There will be some spectacular racing including Ryan with the WAR team

and the Fleet Elite girls (as well as a few other familiar faces).

Ryan -Team WAR - Leederville Series
Ryan -Team WAR - Leederville Series

Let’s look forward to having an SPR team (or two) out there for next year’s series!

Girl Power!
Girl Power!

All the event information is on the Trievents website.

Don’t forget to set your DVD recorder for Sunday

though… The sunday Crits are on at the same time as the live coverage of the final stage of the Tour Down Under.

ride routes 24th & 25th & 26th jan

16 Comments

after quite a successful splitting of the groups last week, i will look at implementing that more often.  for this week though, we will go back to the “go hard then regroup” strategy as we tackle the cresswell hill in yokine and herdsman lake. 

our pseudo-election of office bearers will take place before this ride and if you wish to nominate you still can.  also, we are gathering a list of riders that would be interested in joining the club so if it is you, look back on the previous post and send us an email.

sunday will attempt some nice long climbs but as always there will be shortcuts and lots of regroup points.  stu has an 11 pt lead over mike in the mountain classifications for january, with ryan not too far behind.  as next sunday is the start of a new month, it may all come down to this final weekend.

monday is a public holiday and as such there will be a ride going around the river.  the meeting point, however, will have to be up the road a bit on the corner of angelo and coode as there will be road closures in place early on.

also, starting tonight, the perth criterium series will be on with a race everyday over the weekend.  it is fast racing that is spectator friendly so i recommend that you head along and watch.  also ryan will be racing in the open men’s section (for the WAR team) and a few of our regular girls will also be out, so go and give them some support.

south perth rouleurs saturday ride 14 (cresswell & herdsman)

south perth rouleurs sunday ride 15 (kahuna & canning mills)

expressions of interest – south perth cycle club

after taking advice from our club lawyer today, we need to start documenting some of the things that we are doing with setting up this club.  one of the items was to have a register of club members.  as we don’t really have any at this stage, what i am asking for is an “expression of interest” in becoming a club member.

there will probably be at least three different levels of membership based around the cycling australia licencing system.  firstly there will be racing members (those with a full racing licence) also recreational members (those with a non-racing licence but it covers insurance) and also social members (no licence but generally don’t ride, so usually partners who may want to be involved in social events).

we are working with cycling wa to formulate a member benefit summary so that you know just what you get for your licence and how cost effective it will be for you.  we would encourage you all to take up some form of licence just for the added benefit of the insurance in the unfortunate event of an accident.  there are a number of issues we need to explore with respect to insurance for both individuals and the proposed club and it will be sorted out before we officially become a club.

so what i am asking for is if you are interested in becoming a member could you please email me the following information to admin@southperthrouleurs.com.au

name, address, contact #, email, type of membership.

your information will be kept confidential but will be needed to prove that this venture is not just a way for me to profit for myself.  if you have already joined a club, in order to get a racing licence, that is ok, send your details through if you are thinking of joining us.  we will organise a transfer later.

once we have a constitution (in progress), office bearers (will talk about that in a sec) and a register of potential club members, we can move forward to getting the club affiliated with cycling wa and following that, becoming incorporated.  the affiliation allows riders that take out a licence to nominate our club as their club to join, and becoming incorporated gives us an opportunity to get access to government grants as well as changes our effective liability in the event of an accident.  it also allows us to open a bank account in the name of the club making everything a lot more transparent.  all legal yada ya but essential in this process.

now office bearers.  i have taken advice (non-legal) on this one too and i have changed the positions that we will need to fill.  i was originally going to have minimal defined roles and a bunch of committee members from which we could pick to do the work.  it was pointed out that this would effectively mean that we would have to continually delegate people tasks throughout the whole year.  so what we are going to do is define the roles early, then those people know what they have to do throughout the year and can get on with it.

so the roles are

president – leader of the free world.

vice-president – in case president is inactive.

secretary – keeping the club on track.

treasurer – keeping the finances on track.

marketing and promotions manager – promoting the club externally.

events manager – organisation of events both social and race (could be two roles).

team manager – logistics for race events we attend.

committee member – a few extra hands to help out when needed.

new roles may develop as we grow as a club and we will have the provision within our constitution to change these if the committee thinks that it is needed.  we will sit down later with the elected officials and clearly define the roles that they need to play.  if you would like to put your hand up for one of these positions please let me know.  please don’t feel like if you are not one of the hard-core racers you shouldn’t be a part of this.  every aspect of our group needs to be represented as it is the only way that we can continue to grow and i do not want this club to become only focused on racing.

 

so where do we go from here.

we will have a draft constitution. 

we will elect office bearers this weekend (those office bearers will be confirmed at a later date with an official election of fully paid up members). 

we become affiliated with cycling wa so that people can join through the normal channels.

we will finalise the constitution and become incorporated.

 

it all sounds so simple.  so if you think that you would be interested in becoming a member let me know.  this isn’t a binding contract and once we get the club off the ground, we will have a proper membership drive.

The website for the South Perth Cycle Club