August 7, 2007 – Building on our successful first year of Cross on the Rock Vancouver Island cyclocross series, Multi-Sport Promotions would like to announce the dates and venues for 2007.

Our series this year will consist of five events. There will be three new courses and venues. With the Bastion Square Grand Prix moving (for this year only) from May to September, we will not be hosting our traditional kick off event at Diver Lake, Nanaimo. Instead we will start the cross season on the island with a new race on Thanksgiving Monday – the Turkey Cross at a new venue in Victoria. All events will count towards the series. We are also working on having kids events at all the races.

All our events will be sanctioned by Cycling B.C. at the “Multi-Club” sanctioning level. This means that you can race any of the events with either a club level provincial license or a full UCI level racing license.

Series Schedule

– Monday, October 8 – Cross on the Rock Race #1: Turkey Cross: Victoria
– Saturday, October 20 – Cross on the Rock Race #2: Cross in the Valley: Duncan
– Sunday, October 21 – Cross on the Rock Race #3: Island Champs at Beban Park: Nanaimo
– Saturday, November 10 – Cross on the Rock Race #4: Cumberland Cross + Saturday night riders social
– Sunday, November 11 – Cross on the Rock Race #5: Jungle Cross at Fletcher’s Farm *Series Final and Double Points.

Our Club partners for the events will be: Cowichan Valley CC, Arrowsmith CC, Oak Bay Bikes Nanaimo and Victoria, Comox Valley CC and Wheelers.

Of course, like all the other cyclocrossers in Canada, we are waiting for the announcement on where Nationals will be (highly “Rumored” to be Kamloops but not yet announced) and WHEN they will be (we have heard 4 different dates at this point (one conflicting with the first and second USGP races, another conflicting with the UCI race in Aurora, the third date with a venue conflict). IF nationals is scheduled on one of our weekends then we will swap the affected series races to the first weekend in November.

Categories for 2007 Series

Expert: For road category 1+2 and faster 3’s . MTB Expert riders.
Masters: Riders over 40 years old if they choose to not race Expert.
Intermediate: “Killer B’s ” for Cat 4 + 5 and slower 3’s . MTB Sport Riders
Women Intermediate and Expert
Beginner (Men and Women); New to racing, New to MTB’ing. New to Cross
And hopefully if we can, a race for the kids!

Equipment: You can ride a MTB OR a Cross bike in all of our events. Disc brakes allowed on cross bikes.

Series Sponsors:

– Oak Bay Bikes in Nanaimo and Victoria
– Frontrunners Nanaimo
– Lighthouse Brewery
– Norco
– Converse All Star
– Specialized
– The Howard Johnson

2006 Series Winners

– Masters: Robin Dutton-Arrowsmith Bikes
– Women: Trish Sinclair-Scott Bikes
– Intermediate: Bill McMillan-NMBC
– Expert: Troy Woodburn-Gigabike/Pro City Cycles

History

Multi-Sport Promotions has been putting on events on Vancouver Island since 1995. Their main event has been 12 years of the NewBalance Half Iron. Their first cross race was held in 2003. They held another cross race in 2004 at Beban Park. In 2005 they hosted 2 B.C. Cup events at Diver Lake and Beban Park. In 2006 they hosted the first Cross on the Rock Series with 4 event to help promote cycling at a grass roots but competitive and fun level. They also hosted the National Cyclocross Championships in 2006 at Beban Park.

Website: www.island-multi-sports.com (to be updated soon)
Contact: Normon Thibault: normont@islandnet.com