The Cross on the Rock Mid-Island Championship, organised by MIVA on Saturday, went off very successfully. Despite having to make some major course changes, due to an unscheduled dog show, everything was ready for pre-riding by 9am. Our great volunteers, aided by Normon's crew, went out of their way to ensure that there were no glitches. Many of the one hundred and thirty nine riders (third largest turnout for an Island CX race made  favourable comments on the course, especially the intestine with its gradient changes and its variety of wide and tight turns.

This was MIVA's first involvement organising a cyclo-cross event and the club members who volunteered their time can be proud of the outcome.

There will be a report on the race on the Cross on the Rock web site. For now, the results are here.

Here is the revised course for Saturday's Island Cyclo-cross Championship. At 3.25 km, it is longer than most courses but has a number of fast sections. To best see all the details, click on map options (top left) and then on "hybrid". The map can be enlarge by using the plus sign on the grid at left. For a full description of the changes, scroll down below the map.

A bunch of MIVA and other volunteers got the lion's share of the course set-up done for tomorrow's Island Championship. Despite having to make several modifications to the course (safety concerns, big dog show in large barn, big soccer game tomorrow, etc.

Normon Thibault brought the Frontrunners trailer complete with all the necessary cones, stakes, Rebar and caution tape on site in Mid-afternoon and stayed for a while to help, even coming back later in the day to help out with the bottom end of the course.

By 7pm our band of stalwarts had all the main course features completed, with a smalll amount of work to do tomorrow. The major task at the start of set up was figuring out the exact layout of the intestine but, after several walk throughs, many reviews of the plan and much insertion and removal of Rebar, John Hannon got itr right by riding his bike round.

A heartfelt thanks to all the volunteers who made the set-up that much quicker and easier.

For all those who have been waiting for the weekend's technical guide, here it is.

Beban Park, Nanaimo October 14^th. 2011 go here for videos and photos

Mid Island Velo Association's first cyclo-cross clinic was agreat success. Nearly twenty people turned out to practise and develop their dismount and remount skills, both with and without barriers. Clinic conductor Peter McCaffery utilised the expertise of participants Tom Wojyk, John Ham and Shawn Boyd who demonstrated effective ways of getting on and off their bikes without losing speed.

The second part of the clinic focussed on descending cross camberslopes. Again, it was easy to see the rapid improvement made by some of the “students” A few of the more experienced riders also rode up theslope, demonsrating their bike handling skills.. Everyone commented on how much they learned and are looking forward to next week's cornering clinic.

The evening concluded with a thirty minute race using part of the course for Saturday's Island Cyclo-cross Championship. One of the features, the BMX course, was approached very gingerly by a number of the riders but, as confidence grew, some of them sped around the banked turns and over the whoop-de-doos like seasoned BMX'ers. There was only one crash whn Bryan Rehill, his weight too far forward, met the tarmac and cut his knee.

Shawn Boyd led the race from start to finish, with Kevin Higgin and John Lam hovering ten to fifteen seconds back until lap six, when Higgin closed in for a lap but at the line, Boyd had increased his lead to over twenty seconds. In the women's event, Vicki Boyd, who had just returned from competing in the Ironman triathlon, won comfortably, gaining almost a full lap on Rose Houle, Charlene Stewart having retired. The race proved to be the most popular part of the clinic and the three reaming workshops will also finish with a similar event.

Thanks to Dave Kenny and John Hannon for help with course set up and marshalling. Most of the participants also helped with course take down – much appreciated!