Venue support from Coastal Community Credit Union.
We are coming up on race #6 of the 2024 season! The “Penultimate” race — The Broad Street Cycles GP. We have 2 races and only 3 newsletters left for the year!
LOTS of Notes for this week:
- Registration is OPEN for the Broad Street GP. As normal it will close Saturday night at 6:00pm.
- Without a Vancouver Island race last weekend we saw COTR racers taking home Provincial Championship jerseys in Chilliwack and a few racers making the trip to Montana for the Pan American Championships! Do some digging and check out the results.
- Pelle Gustavs captured some 192 great images from Cowe X. It will be his last time behind the camera this season as he is planning his COTR return to racing for the first time since 2018
- Ross Greenwood sent us a link to his photos from Cowe X of the Open races. Some great ones of the amazing conditions in the later races that day.
- The lost and found has started to STINK so we put everything through the laundry on “EXTREME”. Have a look through it this weekend as you only have two chances left to claim your stuff then it is off to L&F hell!
1. For Lindsay
There has never been a more sad time at a COTR race than at Cowe X. From seeing Lindsay’s bike in the pit area first thing in the morning by itself before anyone else arrived. A rainbow appeared right after and ended right above her bike. Tears flowed. We have been a part of organizing cyclocross and other events on Vancouver Island for over 30 years and never before have we experienced as much emotion, love and support that was present at CoweX. We were shattered by the end of the day. It was a beautiful tribute. Our hearts continue to go out to Chad and Lindsay’s friends and families.
Many thanks to everyone that made our salute so special and so fitting.
Our own Terry McKall wrote a piece for Canadian Cycling magazine remembering Lindsay.
Patrick Burnham compiled a photo album from all his albums of some photos of Lindsay.
2. Race #6. Broad Street Cycles GP. Preview.
This is the forth year at the Jordie Lunn Bike Park located in Irwin Park (so confusing) in Langford. We’ve had all sorts of weather here: epic rain to dry and dusty. Forecast is currently calling for a bit of rain. Our title event sponsor for this event is in the title: Broad St Cycles! Rhino Coffee House is now open at the club house, enjoy a snack after your race.
We will have a little kids race this year in the area that has previously been our starting area.
PAY ATTENTION TO THIS NOTE ABOUT PARKING!! (We do NOT want you to be towed away and you have to ride home all cold etc.)
Parking this is the BIG issue so PAY attention!!Parking is going to be tight. Please carpool or ride out if you live in greater Victoria.Please follow the directions of the parking volunteers DO NOT PARK on any residential streets. (You will be towed and get us banned from the venue)Not annoying the neighbours is THE key to being allowed back to this venue.There are three places you CAN park. See the MAP.The main parking lot is at 2992 Irwin Road. Please only use this to drop off equipment and then park elsewhere.Continue on Irwin Rd and make a left onto Creekside Trail for the secondary parking lot.When both lots are full, there is overflow parking on Constellation Ave, only 500m away.I repeat: There is NO PARKING on the shoulder of Irwin Rd or other nearby streets.Please use a parking lot or you will be towed.
COURSEExpect a 2.5km loop with a mix of fast hard packed surfaces, technical features, pump track, and a bit of mud. All set in a beautiful forested park with two mini lakes. We are mixing up the course this year: running it in the reverse direction and taking out some of the single track that caused a lot of flat tires. Expect a course that’s easier on your bike and has some running.
3. Cowe X Review
A special thanks to Peter Creighton for setting up this amazing Muc Off cyclocross base camp at Cowe X! Having Peter and his power washer out at the races is a HUGE help…..particularly in the conditions we had at Cowe X! A reminder to everyone to keep up on maintenance during the race season to keep your bike running well!
Notes from Matt Grossnickle from Cycle Therapy…..our beloved race director for Cowe X
Hope everyone had fun!
I am still cleaning the mud out of my bottom bracket and we were happy to bring back the mud of Cowe X for another year. We loved everyone’s costumes and special thanks to Chad Kroeger for making an appearance 😉
These events take a lot of effort from a lot of people and we are thankful for our Cowichan Valley and Island Cycling community.
Special thanks to the Cowex organizing committee of Doug Merrick, Pete Stevenson and Mark Law.
The course setup went quick this year thanks to the help of Tim Winter, Darren Meiner, Evan Mcneely, Doug Merrick, Pete Stevenson and Jarrad Wilhelm and Ryan Lendrum. Thankfully we didn’t get soaked like last year.
Thanks to Shari at the Cowichan Exhibition for letting us mud up the fields again.
Special thanks to my amazing wife Heather for running registration all by herself and continuing to support my cycling obsession.
Thanks to JLA food truck for coming out literally on less then a day’s notice. Thanks to Josh at Hojo’s Eats in Nanaimo for offering to come until truck troubles stopped him.
Thanks to Patrick for timing as always and the volunteers of Nora Livingstone, Emmett Pastuck and Julie Leblanc who helped call out numbers ALL DAY!
And thanks, as always to Norm, Roland and the rest of the Cross On The Rock crew for continuing to run the best cyclocross series in the country!
It was a very sad and trying week for the Vancouver Island Cycling Community and the memorial half lap for Lindsay was very touching.
Parting Shot to show us how if we ALL help out with clean up after the last race the world is a better place and awards happen earlier!
