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.

Re. parking for this event: park in the Country Grocer car park as Serious Coffee is OPEN. A nice place to relax and swap excuses after the time trial. Besides, riding up the hill to the start is a good warm-up. For real wimps, there is parking along the hard shoulder before the start.

BTW, if this event is as successful as we think it will be, the organiser is exploring the possibility of holding further events on the Duke Point Highway after the ferries start running again. The ships arrive and leave every two hours and there is about a one hour plus window between sailing times when there is very little traffic. Further information to follow.

The eRace Cancer Cycling Team is  an Ontario based cycling team created to raise money for Cancer research. They hope to make a little difference through their cycling and fund-raising efforts. The team members will race across all cycling disciplines : Mountain Biking, Road and Cyclocross. The riders must be all licensed Ontario riders . The team will raise funds from Corporate and Private sponsor / donors . Fund raising efforts will benefit cancer research. This is how it all started:  From Lori Kofman

"Pete and I have decided to change our focus for next year and add a new dimension to our racing; that is, instead of going fast purely for our own indulgence, we have created a team dedicated to raising money for a charity, the Princess Margaret Hospital. After losing Pete's Dad a year ago to esophageal cancer, we wanted to funnel our energies in a meaningful way. To that end, we have garnered support from a number of corporate sponsors who want to back the efforts of our cause. Our new team, E-RACE CANCER . If you are interested, please contact  Lori Kofman or Peter Kofman at: pkofman@rogers.com

We currently have 6 riders and are looking for about 5 more . If you are a licensed rider in Ontario racing Mountain , Road or Cyclocross and need a team affiliation for 2012 please consider racing for us".

The editor (and event Organiser) spent some time on Wednesday morning looking for safe start, turn-around and finish locations. Since it's New Year's and most participants will have put on a few kilos over the holidays, it was decided to have a downhill start so the added weight will aid in much-needed momentum, a turn round at traffic lights so that no-one has any excuse for missing it and riding on into the Georgia Strait, and a finish before the steep climb up to the overpass. Course details as follows: Start will be at the short lay-by just before the overpass at beginning of Duke Point Highway, turn at end of median and just before the entrance to the long term car park (Coned), finish just after the Cedar Road bridge. Distance is almost exactly 15 kilometres.

Registration is just by the start at 10.40am and first rider off at 11.01am  (no tent as we don't want to attract undue attention). Suggest that participants park at Chase River Shopping Centre by Tim Hortons.

If anyone whom you suspect to be in official capacity - RCMP, Transportation BC, papal delegate, etc. - apprehends a participant, the rider should simply claim to be  inspecting the road for debris, weeds, garbage, etc. as the club is considering looking after the Duke Point Highway as a part of the "Adopt a Highway" progamme.

By the Way, MIVA male Best All Rounder for last season, Don Gillmore, is riding so there should be a pretty fast time for the other riders to aim at.

Course map here