CROSS ON THE ROCK NEWS #5 for 2011
October is the golden month for cross on Vancouver Island (the Belgium of Vancouver Island)!
LUMBER CROSS REVIEW…..a Look back at a great day for C.O.T.R.
Special thanks to Alberni Valley Riders and Alberni Single Speeders for putting on a great event. Also special thanks to: Hilary Grant for being our master-volunteer timer, The McLean’s Historic Society, All the volunteers and local sponsors of the event as well as Bryan Anderson from Rocky Mountain Bikes who supports the event through Ozzie Cycles.
Records BROKEN! Not only did the 2nd Lumber Cross destroy last year’s attendance at their event it set a NEW RECORD for all time attendance for a COTR event at 140 racers. This beat last year’s KONA Cup event at Bowen park by a scant 4 racers. PLUS…..PLUS…..40 women were out! 11 in beginner (outnumbering the men). 18 in intermediate. 10 in Open women and 1 in Expert. That is not only a COTR record that has got to be a Provincial record!
We also had a respectable turn out of Single Speed CX racers in both the intermediate and beginner categories as well as 1 in the intermediate women’s.
The masters race needed 2 registration and 2 timing sheets!
It was a perfect day for cross with temperatures hovering around 11c. The Steam Pot café was open at McLean’s Mill…. serving great food that people were raving about. There was only a drizzle of rain. Great competition and the course…..the course…..
The course was similar to last years but not as long, not as much mud and not as much grass. Racers RAVED about it….especially those with MTB back grounds. A bit of everything with fast roads. Fast sections that you had to slam your brakes on to make the next corner. LOTS of turns. Some single track. Some road. Double track. Grass. And of course the intestine.
One feature of the course that was not welcome were a few sharp rocks…..you had to be smooth, put a bit more tire pressure in than normal and pick your lines carefully.
The pits were the busiest that anyone had ever seen with people swapping out wheels and bikes but staying in the race. As one person commented, “it was last man standing out there”. Even with the number of flat tires the drop out rate/tough race rate was not even in our top 10…..which means to me that people wanted to keep on racing ’cause it was so fun!
NOTES:
- Kelly Guest taking down his first podium and his first COTR win on the weekend. That was not the most impressive part though. Spectators watched as Kelly finished the grueling race, dropped his bike and headed out of the venue in a full sprint. Kelly was practicing his transitions in preparation for the world X Terra Champs coming up on October 23rd in Maui. Cross is great training for Xterra….do you hear that Mel……Mel……??
- The gloves might be off and love lost between Regan and Mical….both tied in the standings for Expert…..what will happen next in this unfolding drama??!!
- The race in Port Alberni was my (Normon Thibault) 30th COTR race finish and the first time ever I have won the 1st lap prime!! I had a great time doing some wheel to wheel racing with the Pro City boys, Jon Benskin, Huntley and Cameron. I might actually rank Lumber cross 2011 as one of my most favorite COTR races of all time!
- It sounds like Vanier park did beat us for overall participation BUT that is fine. We had more women!! Plus considering we had a record turn out….well it a record is a record! They dill “accuse” of us being “bullies” though with our potential shunning of regular island racers…..we gotta do what we gotta do!!
- There was a lot of “Buzz” surrounding the first place prize at the event which were custom red suspenders with “Lumber X” “First Place” embroidered down them. They were one of the coolest prizes ever….that was part of the buzz…the other part….well you might have to try to find the photos on Facebook on the ASS site….and not the ones of Ron Hewitson.
- It was great to see Ron Hewitson take his first victory in the Master Men’s category. He has been doing a lot of BIG events this year…all in preparation for COTR!
Menno Jongsma made his first COTR appearance in 2 years with a respectable mid pack finish. - Also a major thanks to Bryn from Saltspring Coffee for making an extra special trip to the venue to drop off coffee….he wanted to race….but was just a bit too late….bummer!
- Series results are posted as well….so check out who is getting close to you and who you are getting close to.
Kids course
Port Alberni also was able to put a separate kids course together featuring a small intestine, bridge and mini-barriers. Kids were ripping around this course all day and “unofficial” races were held mid day to the delight of all the mini rippers. Lee and I learned something very valuable about kids courses after watching Otis Birch get onto the course first early in the morning…..um….the flagging has to be WAY-WAY down. Otis ended up in the middle of the large intestine and way off the kids course within seconds….. we adjusted the flagging and everything was a lot more smooth.
OTHER “BUSINESS”
CONDO CROSS THIS THANKSGIVING MONDAY
We will have the bible posted Friday morning will all the information you need to get yourself to this event. Work off your turkey! IF you want to make it an extra challenge do the 8k, half marathon or marathon on Sunday as well!!
SURVEY
Some of the racers last weekend noticed and fully completed the MANDATORY Bike survey on the registration form…..some did not….some tried a bit too hard to be funny people with their responses!! If you have ever done a class on stats etc. you will know that sample size and return are important factors on getting good quality information. We need this information occasionally for both our records and in order to get sponsorship for the events that you guys race in. SO in order to up the return on the survey I am asking the following people to fill out the survey by e-mail as they missed it or part of it on the weekend and fire it back to me. Thanks in advance.
Please send the following information to me at normont@islandnet.com
What brand of bike you raced on:
What model of bike you raced on:
Where did you buy it:
NEED INFORMATION FROM
Beginner Women (11 racers 6 completed surveys)
Monica Birch
Mykelti Berg
Kelsi Duncan
Joanna Duncan (incomplete)
Danielle Coleman
Beginner Men (9 racers 5 complete surveys)
Jeff Coleman
Brodie Hay
Russell Leach
Billy Leach
Intermediate Women (19 racers. 14 completed surveys)
Aledandra Grant
Danielle Coleman
Christina Jones
Roberta Wilson
Intermediate Men and S/S (31 racers. 19 completed surveys)
Andy Pitre
Chris Hall
Chris Dickinson
Pelle Gustavs
Chris Sundby
Paul Auton
Shawn Boyd
Michael Arensen
Glen Wakling
Lee Blais (come on Lee!)
Brent Larkin
Antonio Burtini
Open women (10 racers. 6 completed surveys)
Kate Scallion
Karen Fedoruk
Tanya Berg
Glenowyn Carlson
Masters Men (39 racers. 29 completed surveys)
Dan Proulx
Tony Webster
Steve Crowley
David Holden
Jamie Emery
Robin Willard
Kirby Villeneuve
Bill McMillan
Norman Marcy
Ian Hay
Expert Men (22 racers. 18 completed surveys)
Kelly Guest
Dan Scott
Mical Dyck
Gavin Eaton
ANDREW PINFOLD
You may have read last week that Andrew Pinfold retired from the pro road peloton. What you may not know is that the first ever official cross race on Vancouver Island in November of 2004 at Beban park was won by Pinner. He also used to do some of the USGP’s and I think he even traveled to Europe for some cross action before his road career took off. I was going to extend a welcome to him to return to cross racing and an invite to the COTR series and then I noticed he did the Vanier Park cross race on the weekend. We are excited to have Andrew back on the dirt and hope to see him over for some of our races….provincials…..Nationals…..Bend??
SERIES FINAL (BIG UPDATE)
You may have noticed on some of our promotions stuff and the race calendar etc. that the venue for the Series Final for COTR was not mentioned. We were trying to sort out dates available with facilities available. We have the venue nailed down but because of a previous booking the date has to be changed to one day earlier. SO the final for COTR this year will be on Saturday, November the 19th. The venue will be WESTERN SPEEDWAY. There is a tonne of parking and great facilities out there. We had our COTR scouting crew out there last Saturday to make sure they can build a great course and they are VERY CONFIDENT. So please change the dates on your calendar and do what ever you need to do to get that date off and make sure you are on the start line to finish up the series!! (We will also work on an after party
location and keep you posted!).
PHOTOS
I am sure there are a few more photo galleries floating around out there but so far I only have a link to this one from the Pro City Boys: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bicyclepuller/sets/72157627809085394/
UNDERGROUND CX IN VICTORIA
The first ever cross race for myself, Wendy and Corey Piket was the Underground cross race at Larytz park in October of 2003. Corey and I rode our MTB’s as our cross bikes had not arrived. Wendy was doing her first ride on her Surly that she would go on to race at Nationals for 2 years and 2 world championships. There were about 13 racers out on a rainy night. I think I remember: Drew, Kelly, Andrew Petrie…..not sure who else. Anyways last Wednesday I was down in Victoria for a couple of meetings and planned on attending the weekly “practice” session down there. I was BLOWN AWAY
with the 90 people of all ages and abilities that came out. It was super fun and pretty much as competitive as you wanted to make it. What a great way to get people into cross and get your weekly hard workout in!
SERIES SCHEDULE (UPDATED)
* September 11th. Coal Cross at the Village Park in Cumberland: In
the BOOKS!
* October 2nd. Lumber Cross at McLean’s Mill in Port Alberni: Chopped
down and DONE!
* October 10th. Condo Cross at Topaz Park in Victoria
* October 15th. Beban Park in Nanaimo
Social at the new Oak Bay Bikes in Nanaimo in the PM.
* October 16th. Bowen Park in Nanaimo (Island Championships)
* October 30th. Transfer Beach in Ladysmith
* November 19th Cameron Cross at Western Speedway in
Victoria/Langford (Series Championships and Double Points)
NEXT RACE is Condo Cross in Victoria Thanksgiving Monday…..only a few short days away. October is the golden month of cross on Vancouver Island this year!
SERIES SPONSORS
* KONA
* Oak Bay Bikes Nanaimo
* Lambert: Pedros-Leyzne
* Action Motorcycles
* PHILLIPS BEER
* Howard Johnson
* Saltspring Coffee
* Oakley
* Pro Bar
* Aviawest
* Frontrunners
* Also a bit of series support from Orange Sport Supply
Brought to you by the Council of Cross.
23.235.211.7/~thehol19/crossontherock/
This Cyclocross Series is Organized by the Cross Council:
With the following cycling clubs: MIVA, VICC, Everti Cycling Club, UROC,
Arrowsmith MTB Club, ASS, Alberni Valley Riders and IRC
Supported by the following Shops:
OBB Victoria, Westshore and Nanaimo
Trail Bikes in Courtenay
Experience cycles in Duncan
Cowichan Cycles in Duncan
Cycle Therapy in Duncan
Frontrunners in Nanaimo
Straight Up Cycles in Victoria
Dodge City Cycles in Cumberland
Ozzie’s Cycles in Port Alberni
Sanctioned by:
Cycling BC