Women's Grand Prix

BE STRONG... BE BRAVE... BE BRILLIANT.
The Women's Grand Prix has finally arrived.

Throughout the winter, Cykel have been working hard to bring an amazing series of racing to Victorian roads designed specifically for women. Round 1 will be hosted by Melton Cycling Club at MacPherson's Park.

Entries are now open for this four-round series of teams races to be held throughout Victoria with over five thousand dollars of cash and prizes up for grabs. Click here to enter.


Details:
Series and Round 1 entries close Wednesday December 14, 2011.

• Over $5,000 in cash and prizes.
• Two different disciplines - a prologue individual time trial, followed by a graded criterium.
• Points will be awarded for the finishing position of each rider, and intermediate sprints. Double points for division 1. Points are tallied for each team to determine the champion team on the day, and for the entire series.
• Under 17 girls also have the opportunity to race as a team, with the final three rounds seeing the girls race a prologue and their dedicated criteriums.

The Women's Grand Prix is a teams event. Collusion is allowed and encouraged. It is preferred that all riders within a team wear similar jerseys for identification. Note that teams do not need to be Cycling Victoria or Cycling Australia registered teams to participate as a team in the Women's Grand Prix. If you do not belong to a team, you will be entered into a composite team. If you wish to accept additional riders into your team, please notify info@cykelevents.com.au and additional individual entries will be added to your team. Maximum team size is five riders. Minimum team size is two.
Note: It is possible for your team to be spread among the two divisions, and therefore you are not guaranteed to have all your team members race together in the same division.

To stay up to date with the Women's Grand Prix, like the Facebook page and follow on Twitter. For details on the format of the series and for registration, visit www.cykelevents.com.au.

VPs Spin - Bunch etiquette and safety

Welcome to the myriad of new members to the club! It's great to see so many more people out riding and enjoying themselves. Which leads me on to a very important topic of discussion, safety.

Most people know I'm a stickler for safety on the bike and it's not without good reason, because I care about your safety as well as mine. As a coach and one of the more experienced riders I have a duty of care towards the new riders who may not know how to ride safely on a bike or the bunch etiquette so I'm going to put it all in writing. Feel free to ask questions in the comments or in person.

Communication - communication is important not just in the bunch but also to cars. Cyclists are notorious for being unpredictable. You need to let all other vehicles know what you are doing and give them good notice. So that might be pointing out that pot hole before you get to it, signalling a turn, calling out 'passing' or 'clear' at intersections. It might also mean yelling out 'slow down a little guys' if you start to drop off the back of the Sunday ride or 'flat' if you need to stop a flat tyre. It also includes passing that message up/down through the bunch, so if the guy at the back does yell out the person at the front who is 'driving' the ride knows what to do and the people at the back know or obstacles that are coming up.

Road rules - seems obvious doesn't it. How many of you ride through red lights? Ride more than 2 abreast? Ride in the lane instead of the bike lane? Do you even know what the rules relating to bikes are? Check them out here: www.bv.com.au/general/bikes-and-riding/10366/

Have a look at this short video. Seems overly harsh or a fair interpretation of the road rules? http://media.theage.com.au/news/national-news/timelapse-australias-busiest-bicycle-intersection-2674095.html

Bike handling - if you can't take one hand off the handlebars to signal I'd suggest coming out to practise on the criterium track before riding on the road. Ditto if you feel uncomfortable riding closely with other riders. Skills are things that can be improved and practised. As I tell the people who are learning to be CycleSkill coaches and AustCycle teachers they are the very foundation of what we do. They can be practised daily and they can be fun to do!

Friends of mine wrote these articles on bunch riding and cornering, while they are aimed at the beginner racer they are equally applicable to someone who just wants to do a coffee ride:
www.vikingscycling.org.au/resources/?IntCatId=28

I urge each and every rider who reads this to think when they're riding whether they're doing it in the safest way that they can. Yeah it would be great to be like a kid again and ride around like you don't have a care in the world and you're bulletproof but did you know the majority of cyclist fatalities in city/town areas are in fact boys in their early teens who do just that? Often they have no helmets, no lights and are wearing low visibility clothing but the fact is they just rode out in front of a vehicle weight 1.5 tonnes. I've witnessed cycling fatalities and I have friends who've had a car plough right through their bunch, please don't let that happen to you because you were behaving in a way you could have done something about. Furthermore I don't want to cop another rock or piece of fruit or bottle thrown at me because another cyclist did something they shouldn't.

Not convinced by my badly composed prose? Check these out:
http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2009/06/group-ride-etiquette/
http://www.cyclingtipsblog.com/2011/09/the-lost-art-of-the-group-ride-2/
http://thejennymckennafoundation.com.au/jenny.html

Stay safe and keep pedalling,
Tash.

Team ride - Ride for Bikes 60 km

On Sunday, 13 November 2011 Ride for Bikes is on. It is "a beautiful scenic ride through the heart of the Macedon Ranges taking in its most famous landmarks, Hanging Rock and The Memorial Cross, Mt Macedon." It is also a charity ride to raise money for the Cambodian Kids Foundation. Members of the club have recently registered to ride the 60 kilometre event. The team name is Melton Cycling Club and you can register and find more information here: www.wix.com/cambodiankids/ride-for-bikes