Last night we held our first board meeting of the new year at White Sails Brewing one of our new club sponsors for 2016. We went over a lot of planning in our short "one hour" meeting and have some fun events planned for this year. Without giving away too much, we do want to get a couple of quick reminders out

You can renew and pay for your 2016 membership online through web scorer and all members who do so before Feb 1st will receive a free pair of name decals for your bike. Sign up here

Also the new club gear design is just about finalized and we will have the online store opening up soon.  Don't forget to swing by Rock City Cycles and check out the fit kit.  You can also browse the champsys custom store to get an idea of what kit you'll want to order when our own store goes live.

Samples will be available in early January for sizing, orders will all go in January 15th.  This will have the gear on everyones backs by mid to late Feb! A few small revisions left, and expect to see a design for the jacket,  long sleeve jersey, arm warmers, and leg warmers, all coming soon.

Thank you to many of you who have already renewed (or signed up fresh) as MIVA members for 2016. This enables MIVA some early season cash to purchase insurance, get signs made, permit fees, etc. As a freebie this year, everyone who signs up before Feb.1st gets a free pair of MIVA name decals for your bike! This can be your last name, your bikes name, whatever you want (one word). On the webscorer sign up page there is a drop down menu where you can choose one of three colour schemes.

Remember, the order goes in Feb 1st, so if you're going to sign up anyways stop procrastinating!

Membership Form and Waiver

******2016 MEMBERSHIP NOW OPEN****** To fill out the form AND pay online via Paypal, please use this Webscorer link: http://www.webscorer.com/register?raceid=15138

To enroll the old fashioned (but totally ok) way, please click here --> 2016 MIVA Membership Form <-- to download the 2016 MIVA membership form and waiver.  Submit them to Corey Friesen via email ( Miva.President at gmail.com ) or drop off with any MIVA board member.

MIVA's mailing address is: Box 731 STN A Nanaimo BC V9R 5M2

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.

PHOTOS

We'd like to thank everyone who came out to attend our AGM this past Friday at the Longwood Brewpub.  It was great seeing everyone out and having the chance to socialize and learn what everyone looks like without a helmet on. It was also great to recognize the hard work and effort everyone has put into improving their riding this past year.

http://imgur.com/79yGlY9

For the Overall points in our Time Trial series.  Our top riders were Paul Auton and Janna Gillick.  The top youth riders were Aiden Hare and Abigail Hare.

http://imgur.com/8wEm11H

The BAR(best all around) award went to the riders who posted the fastest combined time over all three distances (15/20/40)of our Time trial series.  Don Gillmore and Janna Gillick.

http://imgur.com/5uMU4R8

Crit overall Champion went to Nicholas Kupiak and Janna Gillick.  For the youth riders we had Evan Luksay and Abigail Hare.

http://imgur.com/vX8gm44

Winners of the Hill Climb series were Nicolas Kupiak and Lorrie Baildham, in the youth Category we had Evan Luksay and Abigail Hare.

http://imgur.com/kAGL1z3

Based on their overall performance and improvement we saw through out the season we named Evan Luksay and Meghan Gillmore as our Overall Youth Champions.

http://imgur.com/XwcWZrX

With Most events ridden we had Nicolas Kupiak(24), Janna Gillick(21) and for Youth Aiden Hare(14) and Agigail Hare(15)

http://imgur.com/CUKVt1N

Our most improved Male rider this year was Lee Zavarise who worked hard and showed some great gains in his time trialing.  Our most improved Female rider was Kiyomi Schulz who put in a lot of miles this year training hard.  Put in a fantastic effort in the hill climbs being in contention for the overall win before breaking her ankle on a training run to prepare for cross.

http://imgur.com/gLqdMU4

Something new we added this year was our Bounty Hunter prizes of Fifty dollars handed out to riders who managed to knock down our 40km TT and Doumont Hill Climb course records.  In our time trial series Janna Gillick worked hard and earned not only a personal best but a new course record for the 40km distance   At our series championship Hill Climb up Doumont Road riders cleaned out our presidents wallet and he was left owing some people as we had three records smashed that night.  Evan Luksay took down the youth male record with 16:51, Nick Kupiak with 11:48 and Janna with 14:12 also knocked down their respective records as well.

http://imgur.com/0skfCT0

The Peter Mcaffery Volunteer of the Year award, is a new award created by this board to recognize that this club and these events simply don't happen without the hard work of the volunteers who come out to run them.  It was named to honor Peter without whom this club simply would not exist here in the Mid island region.  For all his time and energy spent organizing and running the time trials and hill climbs and for all his countless hours behind the scenes planning and organizing, and for his constant barrage of emails and communication this board (without his approval) voted to award it Corey Friesen.

http://imgur.com/TguTsy2

Also just in case you couldn't hear him, Phil mentioned that we have spin classes at the Swethaus, he just doesn't know where it is.

http://imgur.com/5EAff1m

More shots from the AGM here