- Wednesday night don’t forget to tune into the first world cup of the year down in Vegas. It should be a wicked battle. Check out the preview on www.theholeshot.ca with a link to watch.
- Major congratulations to COTR race Peter Reid who will miss the next 2 events because he will be in KONA getting inducted into the Ironman Hall of Fame for his 3 world championship wins. Sorry you will be missing the next 2 races!
- Did you know that every time you race this year your name goes in to win a Naked Frameset….. which is one of our series prizes. Each time you enter a race you enter to win!
- Super cool to see 14 year old Emily Johnston (Trail Bikes) take her first Expert Women’s podium. 33 years separated the expert women’s podium ages. Super cool!
- We have changed the series points reporting on the web site if you have not checked it out yet.
http://www.crossontherock.com//php/series-results/?series=2016 In newsletter #5 (7 items…..this is going to be a long one…..)
- Recap COTR 2016 #2. Top of the Rock Cross. Mt Washington.
- Zoom Zoom Video
- Some registration changes coming up
- Team Update
- Update on results processing
- Looking ahead to Tugboat Cross
- WAY down below…..some gnarly knee photos of Andreas (do NOT look if you are squeamish) and a knee report.
1. Recap COTR 2016 #2. Top of the Rock Cross. Mt Washington Notes from Race Director Dave Nowak:
It’s been 10 years since I first brought cross to the valley.
(Norm’s note. The first race in the CV was Coal Cross.
http://www.crossontherock.com//php/race-results/?raceid=1 It stands as the LONGEST cross race we have ever put on in time after the leaders absolutely hammered the first lap and messed up the lap count. It also stands as the 6th hardest race of all time with a 12% drop out rate. It was and still is one of my favorite races)
I am completely amazed at how many people attended this race considering the distance travelled and the fact that it was a Saturday! Gone are the days that 70 people at an island cup race was considered a huge success. Super stoked on this new venue and Mount Washington is stoked on the event! They want to build an entire weekend around this race, Saturday night party, DH race or lift accessed enduro on the Sunday. Rumours have it that they are building pump track, would consider an over/under through the courtyard to access more terrain and will work with us to build a ‘smoother’ course!
Fingers crossed…
Huge props to Chris Sykes for designing a course that was fun, fast, with a ridiculous run-up considering the limited terrain we were able to use this year. I can’t remember who said it, but it truly was ‘diabolical’!
So awesome to see Andrew Brown back at a CX race, granted it wasn’t on a bike, and yes Lee Blais, he is not dead. Without him re-flagging the course throughout the day, course doping would have been at an all time high. (Norm’s note. It would be impossible to beat the SSCXWC2015) Huge thanks to Trail Bicycles, Jeff has always been a huge supporter of cross, so rad to see him take out the beginner clinic. I also have to thank all the other race day sponsors; Discover Comox Valley, Biblio Taco, Gladstone Brewery, Milano Coffee, Geurrilla Pizza, Blue Toque, CV Collective, The Riding Fool Hostel, Island Joy Rides, Sew What I Sew and Eatmore Sprouts.
Highlight for me was Morgan Harker and Drew Mac donating their Run-up primes back to the kids races. (Norm’s Note….we have figured out a plan for that cash).
I would not have been able to do it without the huge group of volunteers…
Jen Mac, Katie Strain, Sarah J, Christina Zimmerman and Vanessa at registration. (Norm’s Note. Many people commented on how smooth the registration was at this event. We re-wrote the protocol a bit before the event and had a good briefing and it showed. One of the smoothest so far) Dan Wilson and his CVAA band of merry men who helped Hilary Grant with manual timing.
Pat and Laurel on electronic timing.
The Friday afternoon crew who helped pound posts and flag the course and the Trail bikes crew who raked over 500m of course two weeks ago.
I can’t forget to thank Brett “The Holeshot” Whitehead for all his help both with course setup and from behind his computer.
A big thank you for Jen Mac for wearing her “Nurse Jenny’ hat along with Dave the bike patroller for taking care of Dre Hagen (see the ‘gnar way down below if you dare) after he and his bike decided to have a fight. I heard they’re getting along again.
And I do have to thank Norm for letting me get back in the game.
Thanks to anyone and everyone else who made this race a big success!
More Norm’s Notes.
- Amazing day. I know it did rain at some point….but I can’t recall it being very long….it just seemed to be great weather the whole day.
- Super challenging course. We will see how it scores at the end of the season survey. Most people said that they loved the way it raced. The only comment (and it was not “negative” just a comment) was it needed a little more distance. If we get more people out for this event next year (which after hearing how good it was I am sure we will) we will be looking to add a bit more onto this course.
- Super happy to have the SS prizes back from Phillips Brewery. (and non-beer for U19 from Sew what I sew).
- Great venue.
- Amazing back drop.
- Great to see Sylvia Storry back out racing COTR.
2. Zoom Zoom Video
For you ZOOM ZOOM racers here is a little video from Saturday’s race: https://youtu.be/6Q9Sn0NFEQs
Thanks to Sean Voigt for making the drive up in the Mazda CX3. Getting there early and doing a great job helping out with the kids races.
He also has a bunch of photos which I will fire a link up on the FB page later in the week.
3. Some registration changes coming up
We wanted to give you a heads up that we will be implementing a 80 person cap for each category going forward. There has only been 2 race categories that have hit this limit so far. With Bear X-Ing on Thanksgiving Monday and the series final being in Saanich we anticipate that these caps may be hit again. Don’t be disappointed. Make sure you sign up before the cap has been hit. (At this point it only effects Masters Men and Intermediate Men).
4. Team Update
The New Series Team rankings have been VERY popular to check out.
LOTS of conversation about them over the weekend.
http://www.crossontherock.com//php/team-standings/?series=2016 If there is a problem with your team name. For example you have 2 teams that should be combined to one mega-super team. We will give you until Thursday to let us know. We will fix as many things as we can.
Then from that point forward it will be up to the racers to do their part and make sure you are signed up for the right team when you register.
Again if you missed it on our FB post last week here is the information.
100 points for winning expert…
80 points for winning masters/intermediate
60 points for beginner.
The number of points each person gets it proportional to where they finish.
Finish mid pack, get half those many points. Finish last, get 0.
Finish 5 of 20 gets you same # of points as finishing 10 of 40 etc etc. This doesn’t give benefit to racing in small category or to smaller races.
Top 5 racers per race earn points, no more than 2 per category.
A team needs at least 3 people finishing at each race to be counted.
5. Update on results processing
I will get an official shake down from Patrick, Roland and Katie before the next event but from the e-mails that have been going back and forth that I have been cc’ed on I THINK race #2.5 went a bit better for electronic timing. We will try to link up some splits this week.
For the uninitiated and naïve you might think that this should be “simple” and “easy”. Just attach some computer chips to some riders.
Capture the information. Pump it onto the web site post-race.
Let me tell you it is NOT.
When we tried this for the first time at the Kona Kup in 2013 we used one of the most experienced timers in the industry. He said, “This was the most difficult type of event I have ever tried to time. EVER”. He spent 7 hours post-event making sure the results were correct and had to write a special program to interpret the raw data.
There are lots of things about cross that other events just do not have. Multiple laps. Multiple categories on the course at the same time.
People warming up….and going by the timing equipment during their events.
People that can not or will not follow simple instructions on how to attach a timing chip to their wrist. People that wear their timing chip from a previous race….for the next race. Racers that DNF and then hang out at the finish line with their timing chips on their wrist…..getting counted by the reader……the list goes on. Some events have some of these things.
But no other type of event has ALL of these things.
The Vancouver Cross crew took 2 years to get theirs ALMOST dialed (it will never be 100%). 2 years!
We are at 2.5 races.
It will come….but it takes a bit.
For now though we are lucky to have experienced timers to do manual timing.
And even MORE lucky to have Katie and Roland that have a LOT of patience, knowledge and experience.
So next time you fire off an e-mail wondering why you don’t have your points but you registered the first race as NORMON THIBAULT and the second race as Norm Thibault……be patient. We will sort it out.
For now….we ask the racers to do their best to get their information correct when they register. To read the updates about timing and registration. And to listen to instructions at the races about clearing the finish line, Not reefing their timing chips super tight so they don’t register (Halldor), not carrying their timing chip with them when they DNF and not pre-riding near the timing equipment.
We will get there…..together. And then super-geek out on the stats!
6. Looking ahead to Tugboat Cross
It is nice to have 15 days to build the excitement towards Tugboat Cross.
Last year more racers rated this race “Loved It” than any other course. A full 5% higher than #2.
One of the most picturesque settings on Ladysmith Harbour……and a sweet beach which we will be taking advantage of.
Plus Wannawafel will be on-site!
Registration link:
https://raceroster.com/events/2016/10086/2016-cross-on-the-rock-tugboat-cross
7. WAY down below…..some gnarly knee photos of Andreas (do NOT look if you are squeamish) and a knee report.
Knee report from Andreas Hagen
Awesome day out this weekend – great course and I had a ton of fun! Given the look on everyone’s suffering faces, I may have come out easier off than most. Tough but great course!
The knee…it’s going to be a week before I do much, so I may be cheering and on hand-up duty only at tugboat. Good news, no new fractures or damage to ligaments!
Attached some pics – first staples ever for me and frankly feeling a bit frankensteinish. Be warned, they’re a bit nasty