MUC OFF – Cross on the Rock 2024. Season #18 is over. It takes a while to recover!!
Newsletter #8 (The last round) – We are looking forward to Season #19 already!
Amazing venue financial support from Coastal Community Credit Union. THANK you CCCU!
LOTS of end of season notes:
- OK. Lets be honest. We could keep this newsletter in the draft file and keep adding and adding to it for a LONG time. We love cyclocross. We love COTR and we love the community. But sooner or later this needs to come OFF the to do list so we can move on. Today is the day!
- One COTR racer represented us at Masters CX World Champs in Hamburg. Natalie Wright bended up 9th in Masters 50-54. COTR Masters Road Trip?
- Now it is YOUR TURN. Send us some of your feedback. We have seen some “unofficial” feedback on your socials. Fire us some official stuff. What you liked. What you did not like. What you would like to see. How to get more people racing. What your favorite course was this year. Who you loved battling with……FEEDBACK. The council of cross loves it! Send it to: normon@crossontherock.com
- If you are one of these people: Stasia Ferbey (2nd Launch Women), Justine Kaseman (3rd Launch Women), Scarlett McFarland (3rd U13), Fred Clark (3rd Mega Masters), Owain Ralston (1st Launch Men) we have your TROPHY and Muc OFF prizes from the series overall. We won’t chase you around but if you want to make arrangements on how to get it let us know!
Many People to thank.
7 events make up this series. Each event has a group of people that make the action happen. On top of that we have an amazing army of help from all of you at the end of each race to pitch in and help pack up. We thank everyone that helped out through the year. Some people are ALWAYS there (We SEE YOU). Always pitching in. If you are not one of those people……Season #19 is a great opportunity to get involved! It just makes the series better and better!
We also have amazing Sponsors!
Title and MAIN PRIZING SPONSOR as well as the Muc Off Cup title sponsor withPrizing and bike wash support is Peter Creighton from HLC Bike.
Coastal Community Credit Union gave us a cash grant this year to help with rising venue expenses!
Hotel ZED and Accent Inns for great draw prizes and our grand prizes.
Super Masters Men’s Category Sponsors Jill and Simon from Cycles West in Victoria.
Frontrunners who let me race and organize and without knowing it pay for all the fuel for the series. They also cover our bill for flagging tape and donate some draw prizes. That shop is GREAT and soon opening in Cumberland!
Wade Luksay from Riverway Dental sponsoring the kids prizes and Wendy Simms that searches for deals for prizes for the kids.
Kyle Denny from 11 Speed Coffee covering the Last Not Lapped (AKA most in need of coffee) and some series draw prizes
Event Bike shop sponsors Pro City Cycles, Broad Street Cycles, Rock City Cycles, Cycle Therapy, Jumping Slug Cyclery, Trail Bikes.
Our race directors this year: Scott Mitchell, Nik and Lee, Brett and Tom, Corey and Sean, Roland, Matt, Patrick, Christine and Shep.
Supporting Clubs: , Tripleshot Cycling, Trail Bikes Club, Rock City Cycles Team, Broad Street Cycles, Cycle Therapy, Jumping Slug Community and MIVA
Awards
Paul Brend, Paul Brend’s Brother in law, Roland and Victoria Waterjet.
Our stats, results and timing crew:
Patrick Burnham and Roland Rabien
Website
Brett Whitehead
And our ARMY of pre and post race help at each of the events!!
1. Another loss for our community.Sammy Long has started a Go Fund Me for our long time sponsor Kyle Denny and his family. Kyle is the founder of Eleven Speed Coffee and a long time supporter of Cross on the Rock and in particular the sponsor of the coveted LAST NOT LAPPED Prize!
Consider donating.
On Nov. 14th 2024 Heather Clark passed away peacefully at home after a hard battle with cancer. We are raising funds for her two sons and husband, Kyle Denny, with the aim of alleviating the financial burden and giving them time to grieve and recover from this loss. Kyle is a treasured member of the cycling community. He is endlessly generous with his business – Eleven Speed Coffee – in sponsoring events and keeping many (if not most) of us caffeinated, and is always there to support others. My hope is that this GoFundMe can support him during this difficult time and show him, and his family, the love he shows to us on a regular basis. Any amount makes an impact- not just in easing the financial burden, but also to show that we are here and have their backs. Thank you, all!Sammy
2. Hot Crossed Bunnies – Series FINAL. Review!!
Live and Still reminder of the action.
Ross Greenwood posted some photos from the Intermediate and Open races. They are downloadable.
Terry McKall snapped some great shots of the Men’s Masters and Super Masters races…..until his hands got too cold.
If you did not catch Pelle from unexpectedleft’s Edit from Hot Crossed Bunnies yet on IG it is also posted on Youtube. Pretty sweet footage and some amazing stats for each of the featured riders. Another one is coming…..might be done before we post this. (This was the one from the Broad Street GP as well)….GUESS WHAT. We did not get this out super fast and now there is ANOTHER edit from Pelle for the Masters and Intermediate races at Hot Crossed Bunnies. CHECK IT OUT!!
Notes from Christine the president of MIVAWhat an amazing day for the final race of the series. So much work goes into putting an event like this on, and we are so grateful for all those that made it happen. As always, we are thankful to the City of Nanaimo, the V.I.E.X. and Nanaimo Equestrians for allowing us the use of their grounds and equipment to set our course up. Jon Watkin and Roland came through big time with delivering barriers for the start/finish stretch after a mix up with the City. With no water on site due to the cool temps, the legend Pete Creighton called in a favour and Dean from Bay Water Hauling came in with an 800 gallon tank to save the day. If your bike went home clean on Sunday you owe those two a high five. Thanks to Jayson from MJR Trees for clearing the lower course by the BMX track. IF YOU NEED TREE WORK this is the crew you want! It was fantastic to have Sip and Sliders out for their second race of the series, together with Harbour City Donuts, keeping bellies warm and full.
Big shout out to Coal City Cycles and Rock City Cycles for sponsoring draw prizes, and Georgies’s Pies for the Podium pies. And the volunteers: despite the rain, wind, and cold that just kept on coming, a very dedicated and determined group from MIVA and the Nanaimo cycling community set out this extensive course under Shep and Paul’s direction. Think about that favorite mud puddle or obstacle you just loved to hate: that was probably Shep’s idea! On race day a team of dedicated individuals, many on site from dawn to dusk, made sure everything ran smoothly, even to the farthest reaches of the course. Kudos go out to Shep, he was truly “the boss” and the day would not have been possible without him. I’m always grateful for the way this club and community pulls together to make events like this happen.
3. Season #18 Review.
The Victoria Cyclocross GP at Topaz park seems a LONG time ago!! The fall goes by so quickly when you have racing to look forward to. These events are the fall highlight!
Looking back hopefully there will be some highlights for you to pull from. Check your photos. Watch and re-watch some of the little videos. Start listening to the CX Hairs or CX Fever Podcasts. Change your BB bearings……we are so lucky to have such a great community to get together with 6-7 times a fall.
One of the e-mails we received in the week after Hot Crossed Bunnies expressed how they were able to come to the races. Race as hard as they wanted but everyone was respectful and had a great time. There was no “bad-drama”. All the drama was on the race course!!
Where are we as a series and a sport? Well check out our famous stats page!! We are in a great spot! We came from HUMBLE beginnings! in 2006 we AVERAGED 65 racers per EVENT. We did not crack 100 until year 5. We did not crack 200 until year 8. Since then we have had UP years and slightly down years. This year was bigger than last. One of our main take aways is the QUALITY is VERY HIGH!! If you look at the DNF rates for this year people are coming prepared and with experience! They are making it to the finish. We are a highly motivated bunch! We love the events. We love the competition. We love the community!
That is it for the council of cross for 2024! Keep an eye on our socials for any updates or news from now until August. We will have to make one more Lost and Found post before that goes to good will so that is one thing to look out for.
Thank for a great race season.
Feel free to e-mail or DM us any time!
The Council of Cross!
Parting Shot
We miss it already. Already planning for Season #19 starting September 2025!
