Pacific Sport offers many excellent programmes throughout the year. Go here for information on their Winter coaching courses and workshops.

Mid Island Velo Association is pleased to announce that it has been granted the right to host next year's provincial road championships. This is a real coup for MIVA , which is only in its second year of operation. The proposed course will be a fifteen kilometre circuit on the Nanoose peninsula, just north of Nanaimo.  This challenging route has constant short, sharp rises and a two kilometre climb, and should produce worthy champions in the various categories. For the first time, there will be youth races for riders as young as eleven years, and of course there will be the usual events for under eighteen juniors, espoirs, elites and the two provincial master categories. The proposed date for the championships is May twenty-eighth, a couple of weeks before the national road championships in Quebec. This is so that the provincial races can be used as a final selection venue for selection of BC riders. MIVA president, Peter McCaffery is delighted that BC Cycling has seen fit to allow the fledgling club to organise such an important event but commented that MIVA has already proved itself worthy of the task, having already hosted a COTR cyclo-cross championship as well as over a hundred local races in its short existence.

This Saturday, November 10th. there will be an afternoon work party to hone the course for the COTR Championships on November 24th. MIVA members meet at 1pm at the BMX course in Beban Park, wear old clothes, work gloves, and bring a rake, trimmer, shears, scythe, sickle, or whatever implement you can lay your hands on.  

Interesting world championship cx video from nearly twenty-five years ago. Note the amount of running, the MUD, the pit area techniques. and the handlebar end controls. To view, go here. Another great video from northern England in the early 1950's. The caption says 1950 but there's a 1953 Rover 60 in the picture. Look for the frame numbers, the single speeds, the guy with the rear light (pessimist?), and the river crossing techniques.  Note the Le Mans-type start (the 2010 COTR event in Errington started this way). Bear in mind that this was by no means one of the toughest courses they rode in those days.

Most avid cyclists never have enough bikes but the main problem with collecting them is where to put them. Perhaps a shed at the bottom of the garden will suffice.