This will be the second to last newsletter for 2016. In the LAST one we will give you :a photo gallery link, video link, the link to the 2016 Survey (where you get to give your direct feedback) and…….the schedule for #COTR2017. Keep an eye on your in box for the LAST e-mail of the season!!
A Community of Cyclocross. Our COTR community.
That is what we have built.
“We”
It is “We”……It is not me. It is not Drew. It is not the other race directors. Brett that does the web site. Roland and Katie. Patrick. Jamie Cameron and Paul. The bike shops that sponsor teams or organize rides. Megan for taking care of my kids so I can race. People that just randomly jump in to help when needed. Jack that organizes and sources prizes JUST for Super Masters. Parks and Rec. Departments……the list goes on and on and on…….
The point is it is all of us. From the event directors. The crews at the races. Registration volunteers. Sponsors. Sponsors that come out and power wash bikes. Those that race. Those that don’t race but they “get” us. Spectators. Fans. Family….and most of all the racers. This year 713 of us out there racing 2599 times.
Those are the facts. Cross on the Rock is the BIGGEST cyclocross series in Canada. On our little Vancouver Island!
I think I am up to 75-78ish cross races put on. I am not going to say it gets “easier” as it does not. It is a LOT of work on race days. Before and after is also a HUGE amount of work. What is amazing is that a LOT of people help out. Never because they are forced (that I know about) to or have to. It is because they want to.
This is the community that we have built.
We have grown our racer base 4.5X since we started in 2006. We grew almost 10% again this year for racers. Double that to 20% as to how many more times everyone raced this year!
As we grow (and judging from the size of the Zoom Zoom and ‘Lil Nutcase races we will still grow for years) we need to keep the same things that have made the series since the start.
Fun
Competitive (but not “agro”)
Hard/Challenging
But still Encouraging, Inclusive and supportive.
And hopefully more Wafels!
Keep these things in mind as we work towards our 12th COTR season in a short 9 months from now.
Hands up for the Champions
After an amazing season with TIGHT battles we gave away 45 awards at the Saanich Fairgrounds. These are the riders that rode the best race season in each category.
U13 Men: Remy Garrison
U13 Women: Eva Leikermoser
U15 Men: Nicholas Knight
U15 Women: Olivia Gribbon
U17 Men: Carter Woods
U17 Women: Talia Hill
Intermediate Men: Andy Pitre
Intermediate Women: Haley Lounsbury
Masters Men: Normon Thibault
Masters Women: Tracy Egan
Super Masters Men: Barry Beck
Super Masters Women: Joanna Fox
Expert Men: Parker Bloom
Expert Women: Carey Mark
Top Fastmers (40+ racer in Expert Men): Justin Mark
Top U19 Female: Emily Johnston
Top U19 Male: Max McCullock
Best Rookie Season: Felix Burke
And also for the first time Top Team: Coal City Cycles
This is the stuff we love
· Statistics! We love them! 23.235.211.7/~thehol19/crossontherock//results/statistics/
· First time winning last Sunday; Matthew Evans, Toria Kalyniuk, Andy Pitre and Kristen Kit!
· First time on the Podium!! Nik Kay!
· Special mention to Sarah Van Dam for her first Expert Women’s podium!!
· Monday morning e-mails, texts and FB messages mentioning how their kids slept with their ZOOM ZOOM/’Lil Nutcase Trophy and then brought it to school.
· Same as above but with photos.
· A sunny Monday with an actual block of time to (almost) unload the van and (almost) tidy up a bunch of COTR stuff.
· When an awesome racer like Mick http://www.crossontherock.com//php/racer/?racername=Mick+Egan Offers to clean your bike while you are busy organizing the awards, moving the PA, herding your kids. Thanks Mick
· OK this one is a “Don’t love”. When you walk out of the awards with your kids and one says, “How can it be dark out already when we have not had lunch”? Apparently 2 wafels are not considered “lunch”…….always more to do!!
· The “Hand up Zone” over by the parking lot on Sunday. I did not take anything as Ken Olson was hunting me down….but you guys made me want to!!
Warming it down
· As we head into winter on the Island and away from COTR there is still a few things to do….Are you missing anything….like a set of wheels, jackets etc? The lost and found box will be going to good will soon.
· PLEASE fill out our Survey when you get the link. We will do two draws for those that fill it out.
· Make sure you write all the dates for the 2017 season on your calendar and plan ahead!
· Take care of your bike before you pack it away. Bearings. BB. Wheels. Chain. Cables. Put it away in good shape. It will appreciate it.
· Apologies to Emmy Lan and one other person…..(no notes) who’s series awards we messed up on. We were using last year’s extraction which did not separate out that we had changed our points structure for youth categories this year. Sorry.
Don’t want to “Warmed Down” yet?
· BC Cyclocross Championships THIS Saturday in Squamish. NEXT year BC champs will be on Vancouver Island…..so this is a good way for you to check it out and see what it is all about. Check Cycling BC.net for more info or Steed Cycles Web page. Last chance to register is Wednesday.
· Kris Cross at the Cowichan Fairgrounds on December 11th . We have looked at this venue for a few years so it will be a good chance to check it out. Registration for this one is on Webscorer with links from OBB and Cycle therapy pages.
· Semiprestige CX Race: Dec 18th Likely the same excellent venue as last year, with fingers firmly crossed for SNOW. Keep an eye on Broad Street Cycles FB page for more information on this one.
In newsletter #15
- The most important stuff…….Thanks to our Sponsors.
- De Grote Prijs van Fairgrounds. The Last Round.
1. The most important stuff…….Thanks to our Series Sponsors.
We were privileged to have our MAZDA as our title sponsor again this year. Sean Voigt has been at every one of our events helping set up the finish area. Helping with the kids races. Taking photos and video and pretty much doing anything we have asked of him. We were able to start and support the Zoom Zoom Half Track races with their support which have become VERY popular. For gosh sakes….EVERYONE buy a MAZDA!
Our presenting sponsor this year was Muc Off. Muc Off is only part of the equation here. The real sponsor is Peter Creighton who works for Cycles Lambert. Peter has supported our series since before it was a series. He pulls in whoever he feels will be a good fit for us and helps us as much as he can. That includes power washing bikes. Dropping off hundreds of give away CO2 cartridges. Getting us an EVOC bike bag to give away. He looks through all his samples for give aways to see if he can make our events as cool as the old school MTB races of the mid 90’s. He is a great partner and supporter of COTR.
Another company that came in late to help us in a very unique way was Study-Build. This is through Danielle http://www.crossontherock.com//php/racer/?racername=Danielle+Hagen and Andreas Hagen http://www.crossontherock.com//php/racer/?racername=Andreas+Hagen. Their idea was to reduce the financial barrier for the families of youth riders by basically paying for their races. Any youth rider that did 6 or more events had their races paid for. This equated to 42 riders or around $4550 cash that they handed out in a youth-cash-mosh pit for about a minute and a half during the awards ceremony. I have NEVER heard of ANYTHING like this happening at any race series anywhere in all the years of doing sports. I hope that if your son or daughter benefited from this that it helps you and that you pass on a HUGE thanks to Danielle and Andreas.
Naked Bikes. Sam Wittingham. ALMOST won the Fastmers category this year…..a small 7 points. One more place…….anyways everyone knows that up on Quadra they make something amazing. We are the LUCKIEST series in the WORLD to get to give away a hand-built frame for the last 6 years to one of our awesome riders!!
Single Speeders don’t “like” beer. It is what fuels their huge legs to not NEED gears! Phillips Brewery Beer is the PERFECT sponsor for these maniacs. PLUS they also pitch in a tonne of growlers and fill tokens for the series awards AND for the U19 crew (on those days that you “need” it for recovery) the absolute BEST root beer from their Maltworks division.
We had 4 bike shop sponsors this year. These are shops that organize and support specific events. Ozzie’s Cycles in Port Alberni with Farmer Bills. Rock City Cycles for the KONA KUP. Pro City Cycles in Victoria for the ProCity GP. We also have Island Cycles on Quadra with Jack Mar who organizes all the prizing for the men’s Super Master’s Category.
Pearl Izumi, Shimano and Pro were the main prizing sponsor for the ProCity GP, Bear X-ing and De Grote Prijis van Fairgrounds. Not only did they supply a lot of the prizing for those events BUT they also provided around 21km’s of flagging tape or around 70 rolls of pro looking SHIMANO flagging.
Dr. Wade Luksay and the Luksay cx clan through Riverway Dental took care of the bulk of the kids race goodie bags this year as well as supported the youth prizing for the series.
KONA has been involved with the cross on the island since BEFORE it was COTR. With the KONA Kup one of the premier events in BC it is a perfect namesake for one of our own BC based bike companies. Home grown. Just like COTR.
NUTCASE Helmets. Great sponsors of the ‘Lil Nutty Kids races. Almost every kid in those races has a Nutcase Helmet which is PERFECT. We want to make sure their brains are protected as best as possible.
The Howard Johnston Harbourside Hotel and Elk Lake gave us CX racers a friendly place to stay AND gave us a bunch of free room stays for draw prizes that people were PUMPED to win at each event. We have not yet gotten Dan Brady out to a COTR race….but there is always 2017!!
Harbour Air was not a series sponsor this year with their super fun Harbour Air Hand up Zone BUT they did give us 4 certificates for the year end prizes that were a VERY Hot draw prize.
Blue Tuke up in Courtenay and Sew what I Sew in Cumberland also donated a box of prizing and a Filthy Taco respectively!
Lastly Frontrunners Nanaimo and NewBalance Nanaimo. Not only did they do racer numbers (prior to us getting the Mazda and Muc Off ones), custom 574’s for series and survey prizes and Lifestyle shoes for the Kona Kup. The most important part is how all the staff steps up during COTR season to help me and make it easier for me to do what I need to do for COTR. Sometimes it is loading and unloading wet tents, tables, gear. Receiving BIG Muc Off orders. Figuring out why we are getting more cyclists in than runners on some days…..just to chat about last weekends/this weekends race. An amazing crew of people at both these shops and I am lucky they have my back (which means our back).
2. De Grote Prijs van Fairgrounds. The Last Round wrap up.
From 2.5 X 2016 COTR race director Drew MacKenzie.
Wow what a great season! Even with 8 races this year, I’m still wishing it wasn’t over. Sad!
It’s an incredible thing we have going here and I feel incredibly lucky to be a part of it. Every weekend there are so many great people out sharing the same passion and joy for racing and riding bikes.
Also one highlight that stuck out for me this past Sunday was watching the Zoom Zoom half lap kids. Seriously cute seriousness on display during that race!
A massive round of THANK YOUs to everyone who contributes to this great series by chipping in where you see a hand being needed or simply just by coming out being quality individuals.
Specifically thank you to the following folks:
– Norm, Katie and Roland for all of their hard work and tireless dedication.
– Sylvia for wrangling volunteers all the while being so positive, upbeat and easy to work with.
Course Set up and Tear down:
Amy Errington
Kyle Clark
Dave Podmoroff
Scott Mitchell
Andrew Barnes
Parker Bloom
Cam Mclellan
Clay Webb
Jack Mar
Halldor Gunnarsson
Terry McKall
Curtis Schlossberger
Ian Brown
Andy Achuff
Joele Guynup
Sam Willis
Beginner Clinic :
Mical Dyck
Registration team:
Sylvia Storry
Andréane Lanthier Nadeau
Lisa VanDame
Patricia Rooney
Lori Swantson
Timing team:
Patrick Burnham
Bruce Falk
Sherry Barnes
Rita
Laura Cook
Ros Penty
Lori
My sincerest apologies if I have missed anyone!
A very big thank you also to our event sponsors:
Please remember to vote with your dollars and your kind words the next time you’re out shopping or talking about cyclocross to friends and strangers alike.
The internet does not put on events or provide prizing for all the races in your local community. Make sure to support your local businesses/shops/distributors/representatives that work hard to support you!
Shimano (http://bike.shimano.com/)
Pearl Izumi (http://www.pearlizumi.com/)
Pro Components (http://www.pro-bikegear.com/en-gb)
