A Mid Summer Cross Race
Hosted by Cross On The Rock and MIVA, being held at Diver Lake on Tuesday August 9th.
Schedule: 545pm FREE Kids Race 615pm B-Group (beginner/intermediate) 40min ish 710pm A-Group (Fast intermediates (top 15), experts, advanced) 55min ish
No sandbagging.
Volunteers please contact miva.president@gmail.com, help will be needed during the race as well as setup/teardown. There'll be draw prizes and a BBQ going. This is the social event of the summer that you don't want to miss.
Each race is capped at 50 racers. No refunds. No wait list. No extra race added as we'd be pushing daylight.
CARPOOL! There are about...8 parking spots at Diver Lake. We recommend you parking nearby at Country Club Mall which is about a 5 minute bike ride away. There'll be a place to store your dry bag at the race start/finish. We want to keep locals and residents happy so please show respect and don't park in someones driveway, and zero garbage left behind.
All pre registration. This will fill up so get in now. Sign up LINK HERE
PDF attached with hot link to sign up on 'pre register here' button. Spread the word. This race will sell out faster than a Hip concert. Must provide valid Cycling BC number during online pre registration. GO!
This weekend I had the chance to join in the fun that is the Single Speed World Championship. Without a doubt Parker, Drew and the rest of the many crew and volunteers put on one hell of an amazing event. Getting to Hoyne Brewery at ten am Saturday morning to be greeted by trays of free beer I knew this was going to be a weekend unlike any other.
Broken into groups to keep things "manageable" we were sent on a booze fuelled tour of Victoria to tackle the Feats of Strength. Five challenges designed to separate the winners from the losers and qualify for the championship race. Our first challenge was simple, up the stairs, through the pump track and back. The tone was set quickly as we realized actually riding the pump track was optional and the "rules" were really just suggestions. But as long as fun was had it was all fair game.
The next morning at Western Speedway you could tell fun was had the night before. Many of the volunteers and riders looked like they could have used another two days worth of sleep. But in spite of it they still managed to have an amazing course set up and ready to party. Tents were set up, grills were lit and beer was poured. A look around the site would almost make you think a race was going on. But there wasn't really any organized racing that I could see. Short cuts were offered as reward for taking a drink. Drinks were offered as reward for taking a drink. The course tape in a lot of sections was taken to be a suggestion only. Hand ups were varied and plentiful from waffles peanut butter covered pickles to the healthy Kale wrapped in bacon. If you were thirsty, hungry or not having fun you were definitely doing it wrong.
And that really is the theme of this event. Don't take it seriously and have fun. As we were riding I overheard Sam say that he couldn't remember the last time he rode a bike this slow and casually, and then remarked at how much fun he was having. Its a good thing to remember. We've all heard the joke that if there's more than two people out its a race. We've seen it/done it even on solo rides with strava and pushing ourselves to beat the other guy or get a new PB. Or when we've only got an hour to ride and we have to cram as many miles in as we can to make it count. When all is said and done we need to take time to remember why we started riding bikes in the first place. Because it's fun.
Thank you MIVA for your enormous help to pull of our MOST SUCCESSFUL EVENT EVER!
- In 2013: 173 racers, on the front end of a double header
- In 2014: 241 on it's own weekend
- In 2015: 284 racers, on the back end of a doubleheader! That is simply awesome.
Hit up this amazing stats page, http://www.
Results from the races are here: Kona Kup Pony Cx
The biggest thank you has to go to Race Director Ron Hewitson, he put in untold hours planning and prepping this event. He was out there negotiating where we could run the course with the landowners, he was booking food trucks, he was riding it over and over to find the flowiest most fun spectator friendly course possible. Ron marked out the course with small flags so when our crew showed up Saturday with headlamps on to set up the Pony Cross, we had it all laid out already. If you were there at the race, you likely saw Ron also, because he was EVERYwhere. I'd paste in his message but I think/hope he is crashed out recovering now. Again, THANK you Ron!
Also thank you to the many many MIVA members who stepped up on a Saturday everning to help set up the course. If you didnt get a MIVA waterbottle for helping out, let me know. Thank you to everyone who helped at the Pony Cross, from timekeeping to registration to parking to setup/takedown. I loved seeing so many familiar faces (and so many MIVA jerseys!).
Saturdays KONA KUP hosted by Oak Bay Bikes was also a huge success with a whopping 269 racers on the line, also up from last. Sean and Corey have hosted Cross races since '06. The first Kona Kup in 2009 had 86 people in it, this past Saturday had a whopping 284 racers! As per Norm, biggest Kona Kup ever, biggest Saturday race ever, biggest Day 1 of a double header ever, biggest race in 12 years of using Beban Park. Nice work to the OBB/Rock City Cycles crew, and to all the volunteers who helped mop up the wet. Sean and Corey pass on a big thank you to all MIVA members who lent a hand as well! Thank you also to Oak Bay Bikes/Rock City Cycles for hosting the Saturday night social!
For a full slate of great pictures from both events, hit up Patrick Burnhams site here https://www.flickr.com/
Thanks again MIVA for stepping up and helping pull off a huge weekend!
