October 30, 2008 – Rain, sweet rain. Keep it coming! I am tired of all this dry cyclocross!! Rain, mud and a bit of foul weather… that is what makes it all so AWESOME isn’t it!!??

A couple of corrections before we go onto the details in this update. First of all Wendy corrected me in that Dave Shishkoff is not a “vegetarian” as reported in the last race report but a “vegan”… stay tuned to see if Dave continues his first Vegan streak this weekend in the Intermediate category… if there are any other Vegans racing in that category please let me know. Second Marty Thibsimms’ report on the women’s race missed the fact that it was not the aggressive rider prize winning Lisa Ludwig that took 3rd in that race but rather Tanya Berg in her first cross race of the season that took the last podium position. Hopefully those are the only major mistakes made….

Well it looks like we might avoid the horrible weather that “they” have been predicting for the weekend. What we will not avoid is the 2nd annual DOUBLE CROSS WEEKEND!! I have been looking forward to these two courses since we raced them back to back last year. Two very different coursesÅ .both with great features. I can’t wait.

There is a TONNE of information in this week’s update. Read through it.

HEY if you are getting these updates and really you don’t want them, just fire me a note and I will try to delete you from the list. No offence taken by me.

BUT if you like the updates and know someone else that would like them, please feel free to forward them to that person, club or organization.

Wendy is still away rocking the Euro-world cups. 7th last weekendÅ ..her full race reports as always can be found here.

Who would we love to see out this weekend… well there are a few faces we have not seen for a while this year… perhaps some of the mainlanders will come over with the promise of 2 awesome events… hope to see lots of familiar faces this weekend!

OK. ONTO THE UPDATE….

IN THIS UPDATE:
1. Note about “Sandbaggers” and Categories
2. KONA and Crankbrothers rule the Cross on the Cross on the Rock Series.
3. Kids Race at Jungle Cross
4. Coal Cross Event Guide (Not attached)
5. Jungle Cross Event Guide (Not attached)
6. You Tube coverage of Experience Cross
7. Weekly Saturday Morning cross Clinic in Victoria
8. Series Standings
9. Wendy’s Bikes for sale.
10. Note from race director Dave Nowack requesting help/volunteers for set up on Saturday Morning.
11. License Requirements for racing the cross on the rock series (repeat but important for new people)
12. PHOTOS

Then other “stuff”

1. Sandbaggers and Categories
It is really great that our series is growing this year… almost cracking 100 (EVERYONE GO TO THESE RACES SO WE CAN CRACK 100!!). With growth comes more people. With more people comes more ideas of how things should be, more opinions etc. So we hear more stuff.

I just wanted to address a couple of the things I heard at the last race (pre/post) before they fester.

Sandbaggers
I heard a couple of comments about riders in the intermediate category being sandbaggers and that they should move up. Just so you know, we keep an eye on the results, do calculations, factor things in… well we are pretty much fanatic about the series and always working on it.

Sandbagging is always an issue in all series. Of note are a couple of athletes that are really, really good. We know who they are. We have looked at their times. IF they were able to keep those speeds up they would do fine in Expert. Normally, and in the past, we have asked this speed/talent of athlete to move up. BUT there are some exceptions. In this case it is an exception for the following reason… these are KIDS, under 19 years of age racing in their 1st season of cross. For me, for our series and for our events, we want kids to race. We want to be able to do anything we can to foster these kids to race. Personally, I don’t think making kids, in their first racing season, no matter how fast they are move up into a category that they will probably find much, much harder and potentially get discouraged is good for the sport, the kids or the series. Again,we want them racing. There will be a point where we look at the results, riders’ development and their speed and say… “it is time”. This point has not been reached. We encourage EVERYONE to challenge themselves at our races and IF anyone wants to move up a category… we welcome it! If anyone has any further suggestions or comments on this please feel free to e-mail me. Remember the primary focus is to race hard and have fun.

Categories
At the start of the season I put out an e-mail to what I call our “advisory” board asking all sorts of questions about the races, schedule, categories etc. Categories are always a great topic. Last year we moved the age of masters up to 35+. So far I think that has worked out very well for the races and has evened out the numbers between masters and intermediate better than a couple of years ago. The women’s category is always an issue. We would LOVE to have an intermediate women’s category. Most girls race beginners and then the jump up to women’s seems too big. It is a problem. BUT the problem is that the women’s category is not big enough. Would more women come out if we had an intermediate category? Should we make the first race a beginners and intermediate combined? What we want to avoid is a case like Beban Park last year where we were giving out cash for the women’s category and we got 4 girls out…. We want to have a intermediate category for the women, BUT we need to see the number of women RISE in order for that to happen. I would say that the magic number is 20 total women so that we can have about 10 in open women and 10 in intermediate women… so get your girls out there and show us the need and we will make it happen for 2009. In the meantime, as always, the primary focus is to race hard and have fun. I know that ALL the women in the open category from 1st to last love to race… so come out and have a great time!

2. KONA and CRANKBROTHERS rule the Cross on the Rock Series (at least in Duncan so far)
We added a little survey to our entry form at the last event so that we could track some information and give some feedback for our sponsors. Well we were very happy to say that two of our sponsors, KONA and CRANKBROTHERS will be very happy to see the support they are getting from our racers. Both are #1 in our seriesÅ .at lease for the Duncan event.

Pedal Results
– Number of replies: 56
– Number of Brands represented: 5
– Highest brand: Crankbrothers on 28 bikes or exactly 50%
– Higest model: Some variation of the Eggbeater on 65% of the bikes equipped with Crankbrothers Pedals

Bikes Results
– Number of replies: 68
– Number of Brands represented: 24
– Highest brand: KONA represented 13 of the bikes or close to 20%
– Highest model: there were a couple of people that did not put their model down but the Major Jake had 5 of the 13 and the Jake the Snake had 4

Expect to see more of our mini surveys on the entry forms so we can gather information for sponsors. Thanks to everyone that filled them out.

3. Kids race at Jungle Cross
While there will be no Kids race at Coal Cross in Cumberland we will have a good shortened course at Jungle Cross at Fletcher’s Farm on Sunday. Any bike will do. See the event guide for more information.

4. Coal Cross in Cumberland
We have not attached the event guide for this event as it seems to be clogging up some people’s in boxes so instead we have posted it here.

Here is a little note about the course from the race guide:

This course winds its way through the Village of Cumberland. It starts adjacent to the historic No 6 Mine Park and takes you through Cumberland via road, alleyways and the collery road that surrounds the village. The Lap point and finish has been changed from last year and will be adjacent to the park on asphalt with a slight uphill finish. There is a good mix of grass, gravel, mud, cobbles, and asphalt. The course looks wide open but the grass and the false flats are gruesome. Lots of terrain changes through corners makes this course more technical than you would think it would be. Attacking through the alley ways will prove futile and it will more than likely be the twist and turns in the no 6 mine park that will make or break the race.

5. Jungle Cross at Fletchers Farm in Errington
We have not attached the event guide for this event as it seems to be clogging up some people’s in boxes so instead we have posted it here.

6. You Tube Coverage of Experience Cross in Duncan
Our friends from Everti sent us a little link to their home video of their riders at the Experience Cross event in Duncan 2 weeks ago.

The video link here.

7. Saturday Morning Victoria ‘Cross Clinics
We leave Oak Bay Bikes at 9am, and head to various appropriate locations and help riders develop their cyclocross skills. From riding up and over curbs and logs to flying over barriers and riding up steep walls, we’ll help you with whatever you need to become a better ‘cross rider! Our attendees have gone on to be Provincial and National Champions! (Well, not yet at least!)

These clinics will be run every Saturday morning until the final ‘Cross on the Rock race in November (with the exception of the First weekend in November the “Double Cross” weekend), all are welcome, and it’s free! Experienced riders encouraged as well, to share your knowledge and experience. For more details, email Dave Shishkoff: vegantrackie@gmail.com

8. Series Standings
I actually had these done very quickly after Experience Cross (Race #3 of 6 in the series) but they have sat in the Cyclocross Folder. I think they are getting posted as I write this and should be able to be found here OR if they do not get posted there they will be here.

Quite a few changes in the series so check it out before the weekend… lots of points available this weekend!!

9. Wendy’s Team KONA race bikes for sale
Wendy has 2 of last year’s KONA team bikes for sale. Both 54cm size. One has been “de-tuned” and one is still in full race ready mode. We need to sell these bikes to fuel our cross obsessionÅ ..and pay for Wendy’s Euro cross! If you or any of your friends are interested feel free to e-mail me and I can send you the parts break down and specifics. If you want me to bring them up this weekend also let me know because my van will be very full and I will have to hitch them a ride with someone else. VERY NICE BIKES!

10. Note from race director Dave Nowack requesting help/volunteers for set up on Saturday Morning.
The Cross on the Rocks Cyclocross series is looking for volunteers. The Second annual “Cumberland Coal Cross” presented in part by the United Riders of Cumberland is coming to the Village of Cumberland November 1, 2008. The race organizers are currently looking for volunteers to assist with marshalling, timing, registration, set up and take down.

Course set-up will be starting bright and early @7:30am at the No. 6 Mine Park in Cumberland. We hope to have the course set-up by 10:30. Timers, marshals and those wishing to help with registration will need to be there around 10:30am and should be prepared to stay until the end of the last race @4:00.

All volunteers will be provided with beverages (hot and cold) and snacks throughout the day and they will have the chance to win some great draw prizes. The course has been slightly condensed to allow marshals to return to the park for a snack and a break after each race.

We generally have ample help to take down the course but we will need a ton of help with set-up. Last year we were able to flag the course the night before which lightened the load race day. However, our race falls on the day after Halloween and we have decided not to set anything up the day before as it would probably not last the night.

If you or someone you know would be interested in helping us with this event please contact Dave Nowak, Race Director, @250-897-8484 or via email nowak@futurewest.ca. Thanks in advance for helping us present another successful event.

11. Reminder (and good reason to drag someone new out to the events) No License Required to race

This event is a GRMBA sanctioned event (www.grmba.ca). You do NOT have to have a GRMBA affiliated club license to participate in this event. IF you do have a GRMBA affiliated club license then GREAT you MUST present it: SORRY no exceptions. IF you do not have one or do not have it with you then it is only an additional $5 to race for that day. Please don’t let $5 decide if you are going to race these events or not! There are few events that you do not need a license for left and fewer that if you don’t lave a license that it is only $5 extra.

Sorry a Cycling BC, Masters Cycling BC or other cycling association license does not cover you for this or any of our series events for this year.

12. PHOTOS
We are pretty lucky that a lot of people take their cameras out and snap great photos of the events. Usually I post all of ours on this Gallery here and we get literally thousands of hits for the pictures. But I have hit some glitches posting there and no time to sort them out so far this season… I will figure it out soon.

In the meantime others have been taking up the slack.

Check out Vegan Dave’s photos from the Experience Cross http://picasaweb.google.com/davenoisy/20081019ExperienceCross“>here.

And there are hundreds and hundreds of photos from new cross racer Halldor Gunnarsson… here is his note to us:

I’ve shot hundreds of photos of race #2 and #3. They are now posted here. They’re all available in high resolution, dustproofed etc. for a very honest price. SO If anyone sees a picture of themselves, or their partner and wants a copy. I’ll have that printed for me and mail it to them. just get in touch with me at hallldor_photo@hotmail.com Thanks for the awesome series, I really enjoyed my first race, even though that hill almost did me in.

All the best,

Halldor Gunnarsson

HELP US GET THE WORD OUT (You have heard this all before but it STILL HELPS US… Help us. Help the Sport!…. Just pass it on!) I lost my complete cyclocross data base over last summer summer in a hard-drive meltdown so we need your help to get this information out. PASS THIS E-MAIL ON!! Feel free to forward this information on to anyone else in your club, organization or to riding partners as well as future cyclocrossers. We have beginner categories to encourage beginners to come out… so you don’t need to be an expert cross racer. You don’t even need a cross bike… a MTB will do fine. We love to see as many new faces as possible coming out to these events so drag someone new with you to ride, help out or be a spectator.

Special Thanks to from Coal Cross:

– To The Village of Cumberland and the No. 6 Mine Park Committee for allowing us to use this venue.
– Our host Cycling Club; United Riders of Cumberland
– Our Local Bike Shop Sponsor; Trail Bicycles and Jeff Beeston
– All our volunteers, marshals and post pounders

Special Thanks to from JUNGLE CROSS at Fletchers Farm:

– To Hugh Fletcher & the Fletcher Family for agreeing to let us use this spectacular venue again!!!
– Our host Cycling Club; Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club.
– Our Local Bike Shop Supporter: Arrowsmith Mountain Bike Club.
– Our Host; Fletcher’s Farm.

Any Questions?
Feel free to contact me at this e-mail address.
Normon Thibault at normont@islandnet.com
www.island-multi-sports.com