MIVA is organising this great event but  success depends to a great extent on having enough volunteers to help with course set-up, traffic direction, protocol, and pedestrian access to the inside of the circuit. The race is only six weeks away, on June 17th. but  the club is having difficulty finding enough available people to help with all these tasks. If you haven't been a part of an event like the Cobblestone Classic, please consider helping MIVA. All volunteers will begien any necessary training and on the day will  be fed and watered.

Contact the club at info@bikeracing.ca if you are able to be part of the race team.

The editor was looking for a strapless heart rate monitor for his wife as the normal ones with a chest belt-mounted transmitter did not pick up her pulse (for a variety of reasons we won't go into!). So the usual search using Google was done. All the devices that came up were wrist mounted, many with a variety of functions, most of which she didn't need. They also required that one or both fingers be applied to the monitor to get a reading, which would stay on the display for up to fifteen  seconds and then disappear. None of them were able to provide a continuous readout. However, one showed up that did indeed give the ongoing heart rate and which was worn on the forearm or even the wrist. It is Impact Sports Technologies  epulse²  See a full review of this innovative HRM here.

Check with your LBS to see if they carry these monitors or can get one in for you. If not, you can buy here.

Some time ago, we showed a video of Scottish free-style bike expert Danny McAskill doing his stuff. There have been a number of requests for a re-showing of this excellent film so here it is again. The scenery is really good too!

Brodie Hay, MIVA's only youth member, was at the provincial youth track camp in Burnaby all week! Great week of training, experience and fun! He raced Wednesday and Thursday night on the track and both nights had very good races.... However, Brodie is our only under 18 rider who has regularly come out to our races for four years. Since youth development is part of MIVA's mission statement, the club is applying to the BC  Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch for a Community Gaming Grant to enable MIVA to get into the schools, community leagues and other youth-oriented cycling clubs like the Nanaimo BMX club.  The priorities will be road safety and an introduction to competitive cycling, with an emphasis on grass track racing. The grant application, if successful, will enable MIVA to introduce up to two hundred 11-13 year old teens to a sport that none of them have experienced and many of these new cyclists will be able to join MIVA and take part in its range of activities and gain access to the mentorship and support of the club's existing membership

Cycling has received more than its fair share of knocks vis a vis  P.E.D's. The majority of top ten placings in  the major tours and European Classics  in the past twenty years have possibly/probably been filled by riders who may have resorted to the use of performance - enhancing methodology.  Will 2012 be the exception or are the current attempts to clean up our sport still somewhat futile?   Here   is and interesting article that provides much food for thought. Whatever you think, professional cycling in the New Year will still provide some of the greatest spectacles and mano-a-mano battles in sport. Let's hope that the scientists are finally catching up with the cheats.