Boxwood Criterium - Tuesday Evening

In a week of wildly fluctuating weather we got lucky and couldn't have asked for better conditions for the first Criterium on Boxwood Road in two years. Ten racers took the line for a 30 minute plus three laps race around our 1.1km course. Several attempts at breaking away from the main pack but were all quickly absorbed by the main bunch, finishing in a tight Sprint for the finish, with long time regular Iain Hay showing everyone how it's done. Youth rider Jack Mace managed to hang with the bunch for the majority of the race, dropping back to recover then hopping back in to finish only 2 laps down at 16 years of age.

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River Road 15 km TT - Thursday Evening

Our good luck with the weather held for Thursday night’s 15k time trial, with the day’s rain finishing and giving way to the occasional patch of blue sky. The road conditions were still definitely wet and the riders stayed cool. Six came out to race the TT but only Jack Mace took up the offer of running an extra 3 km after the 15 km on the bike setting a total time of 47:24.508. Jason Basaur was the fastest cyclist with a time of 22:39.216. Hopefully as the weather warms we’ll see more people coming out to test themselves against the clock.

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We’ll have to wait a little longer for the start of our road season. Heavy rain and wind here in Nanaimo would mean tonight's ride would be no fun, so the board has taken the decision to cancel this evening’s ride.

After a long couple of years where most club events have been on hold due to COVID, we are finally ready to re-open the club membership. We will still be monitoring the public health situation closely but we are hoping with a few basic precautions, we can have a good year in 2022.

Moving forward, MIVA will be doing all the registrations for memberships, races, and rides using CCN Bikes. The system is integrated with the Cycling BC Insurance and sanctioning system, so it is much easier for organizers to manage events and memberships.

If you signed up for a membership in 2020 before we cancelled events, you should check your email for a coupon code for your free 2022 membership.

You will need to purchase Cycling BC insurance to ride with the club. When you register, CCN bikes will check to see if you have insurance and will prompt you to purchase insurance if you do not. You must have insurance in place before the system lets you buy your club membership.

We have an exciting year planned for 2022 packed with racing and group riding, including all the favorites such as the Monday night group rides, MIVA DIVA, Crits and TT’s, plus newer events such as the MIVA Unpaved gravel fondo. As in 2020, we will kick the season off with weekend gravel rides starting in just a few weeks followed by the spring challenge in early April and then ride straight through the summer. Much more info to come plus stay tuned for details on our new kit that will soon be available for order.

2021 was a frustrating year for the club and our members in many ways. First, the pandemic prevented us from getting together as a club and then when restrictions started to relax, organisational difficulties got in the way of riding.

Despite these problems, with the hard work of our volunteers and with the support of sponsors we still had a couple of great events. On August 29th we held our first ever gravel fondo, MIVA Unpaved. Held mainly on forestry roads behind Mount Benson, the 70km course saw a mix of riders from gravel pros to some riding off road for the first time. From the front to the back of the field everyone seemed to have a good time and we’re looking forward to a repeat in 2022.

The other event this year was a very wet “Hot Cross Bunnies” cyclocross race on November 14th. The atmospheric river weather event made for some challenging conditions for the final race on the Cross on the Rock series. The race was still well attended and a few smiles were seen underneath the grime.

We’re riding into 2022 in hopes of a fuller season.

I’ve been busy recently so we’re announcing the week seven and eight winners together.

Week Seven

Our winner for our week seven challenge “Three Selfies on Three Hilltops” was Charlene Stewart. Charlene’s ride totaled 800 meters of climbing in only 44 km and she took two Strava trophies in the process! Charlene wins a $50 gift card to The Buzz Coffee House.

Week Eight

Our week eight challenge “Skills Practice” only saw two entrants; Mark and Christine Schilling. They both took on the challenge in exactly the spirit we had hoped for when we came up with this one. It’s definitely worth popping over to the event page on Facebook to see their videos.

There could only be one winner though, so we flipped a coin and Christine came out victorious. Christine’s track standing skills win her a $50 gift card to White Sails Brewing!