Thank you to everyone for making 2015 a record breaking year. It was a challenging year for MIVA as we transitioned and changed some things up a bit, but a strong board and dedicated membership made it a success. We ended the year with 120 members, our highest ever. We held fewer events overall (to combat volunteer burnout) but brought in greater overall racer numbers. MIVA hosted 14 time trials, 12 crits, 5 hill climbs, the 50/100k Challenge Ride, the Mount Washington Hill Climb, and the Pony Cross with COTR. I can't thank the board of directors enough for all of the hard work they did in 2015. We met once a month more or less, and well over a thousand emails tossing ideas in the air, voting on decisions, and all the behind the scenes work that keeps the machine running smoothly. Thank you.

The highlight of the year was the Pony Cross race where we shattered our attendance record with 284 racers and hosted a very successful event. The months leading up to it were full of planning, and the night before was a busy one as MIVA came out in full force to set up the race course in headlamps and gumboots.

Other highlights MIVA accomplished or set into motion in 2015:

• -Covered club insurance finally, and partnered with CyclingBC to give our club and membership the best coverage options.
• -Established a first class spin studio to host the MIVA spins at the Swet Haus.
• -We as a club stepped up and MIVA blew the doors off at Pony Cross.
• -We saw the seasons pass ($50) prove to be a huge success in getting people out week after week, creating a great atmosphere.
• -Held more social gatherings such as the summer social and the Cross Night Social.
• -Mike took the reigns and rejuvenated the highly popular Monday Night Rides for beginners, which planted the seeds in many to come out to race week after week.
• -Angelina volunteered her time to lead the Weds Night Rides from Oak Bay Bikes (now Rock City Cycles)
• -We're MOST proud of the fact that MIVA introduced more women to the sport and saw them become some of our most dedicated racers.

TIME TRIALS We dropped from 20 down to 14 events this year to help accommodate shuffling the hill climbs sooner amongst other things. Race numbers were through the roof as we averaged 25 people per race, up from 19/race last year, and 13 the year before that. In 2 years we've almost doubled. Over the past 5 years MIVA has hosted 86 TTs, with almost 1300. For TT#100 this year, we will party.

CRITERIUMS Numbers were up and a few hardy souls did every single crit. This year we ran 12 crits, 9 at Boxwood and 3 at Arbutus Meadows.

HILL CLIMBS We hosted 5 hill climbs, with an average of 23 racers out each night. Last year we averaged....7. The biggest jump was in the female competitors, going from 7 TOTAL female entries in all of 2014 up to 40 this year. Many of these racers were products of the Monday Night Rides

GROUP RIDES It has to be mentioned that there are many people who set up unofficial group rides almost every week and offer to bring along others all on their own volition. Thank you to people like Shep Stewart and Paul Thompson for doing this, and the rest of you as well. The Monday Night Rides were the brainchild of Janna Gillick a few years back to teach people the rules of the road cycling and to gain confidence and experience riding in a group. They were very successful and well attended. Over time the next year they became faster and faster, and eventually it was time for a reboot. Mike McCarney took that on this year and met almost every Monday at 6pm from the Ice Center to head out for a 20-25k ride up Jingle Pot. There were times we had 20 people out to these and had to split into A/B groups.

The Wednesday Night Rides were run by Angelina Landry and had great numbers out week after week, eventually morphing into an intermediate group and an advanced group.

Looking ahead to 2016, we're looking at fine tuning things a bit:

• -Purchasing a club trailer to store MIVA goods and race gear.
• -Looking into Chip Timing
• -MIVA/Swet Haus spins every Thursday @ 7pm until mid March for only $5
• -Next gear order will be in December with it slated to arrive in mid February.
• -April 50/100k Challenge Ride
• -May Mt.Washington Climb
• -Spring Gravel Grind (cross full day ride)
• -Spring 'All In A Day' Hill Climb Day where we'll tackle all 5 MIVA Hill Climbs in one day.
• -Time Trials will start late April and go until the end of July, likely 15-16 TTs.
• -Crits will run May-July, likely 12-15 Crits total, Boxwood course if things work out.
• -Crit Practice for Beginners on a closed course in a friendly setting
• -Hill Climbs in August, there will be 5 total
• -Cyclocross Practices Sept/Oct: we hope to have a location to set up a fun course.
• -Pony Cross November

A few of our Board Directors are moving on, thank you to Peter McCaffery, Ron Hewitson, Menno Jongsma, and Matt Evans for all of the hard work. Ron will stay on as our Cross Race Director next fall, and Leonidas Matt is sticking around to be our webmaster as well.

Going into 2016, we'd love to hear from you. Any races/fondos you want in our calendar just let us know. If there are results you can pass on to us please do.

The 2015 AGM Minutes will be made available when they're ready. MIVA welcomes the 2016 MIVA Board of Directors, a good mix of old and new.

• Phil Birrer: Treasurer
• Cheryl Morch: Secretary
• Patrick Burnham: Director
• Jason Hare: Director
• Mike McCarney: Director
• Kiyomi Schulz: (NEW) Director
• Angelina Landry: (NEW) Director
• Sean de Pol: (NEW) Director

Looking ahead to 2016, we need volunteers to help with timing. Peter is transitioning out of timing the Crits, and I'll be elbow deep in diapers so won't be able to time as many TTs.  We're putting it out there early in case there are any club members or their teenagers out there who are interested in earning extra credits for volunteering (if applicable). Please get in touch with us if so.

MIVA has its own official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/midislandvelo/ where all site posts will auto post to. LIKE IT so it gets pushed into the main feed more and more. The MIVA discussion group is still there and a great place to organize group rides etc.

Last, the main email to contact MIVA is now miva.president@gmail.com. We've standardized our boards emails to enable better sharing of documents, and to eliminate the thousands of MIVA emails in my personal inbox! Hit up this quick one question survey on how often you want MIVA emails to hit your inbox please! http://goo.gl/forms/P4ewo2dGvJ

Onward and upward, again.

-Corey

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

THURSDAY is coming up fast, don't miss another exclusive MIVA night at the SWET HAUS!  Last week SOLD OUT. Risking a walk up spot may leave you disappointed. Book in! Details below, get signed up now.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Swet Haus is MIVA's training ground for spin classes this winter.  State of the art machines and top end instructors, MIVA members will pay only $5 for the MIVA only class.  $5, on what can cost up to $20 per session, is an amazing bargain.  We expect all 15 bikes to fill up quickly every week.

Please contact Jacqui at the Swet Haus (email, phone, or facebook) to let them know that you made an account so they can 'upgrade' them to MIVA members. This is a special deal ONLY for MIVA! If you aren't a MIVA member yet, sign up now and be good until December 31st, 2016!

The class are every Thursday @ 7pm.  Sessions will be varied, usually in the 45-60 minute range with the occasional endurance night of 90 minutes.  Classes will be every Thursday until March 17, 2016.

To register for these classes please click HERE and then sign in or make an account. You can then pay the $5 online, or pay it when you get to the studio. Please note no-shows will have to pay, no exceptions.

Thank you again to the Swet Haus for providing such a great deal for MIVA!

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

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.crossontherock.com/results/statistics/ and look at the most popular races: Little Pony Cross was FOURTH HIGHEST EVER.  Ever. After 63(?) races in the Cross in the Rocks history, FOURTH. I won't lie, we anticipated about 180ish to race back when the Cross Season planning was underway. Being the back end of a doubleheader, we figured the 2013 numbers were closer to what we'd end up with..instead you all showed up and killed it. Message from Cross On the Rocks NORM: "Please thank MIVA for putting on a great race!" For a full recap see the Cross On The Rock newsletter here!

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/photos/palleus/albums

Thanks again MIVA for stepping up and helping pull off a huge weekend!