Our Canadian friends may have a short season, but they’re doing their best to grow the numbers creatively with free kids and beginner racing.
by Norman Thibault
The problem with Cyclocross is that you look forward to it for SO LONG each year and then the race season (at least in Canada and on Vancouver Island) is SO short. So there is a long time between the last race of the year and the first race of the next season. You still have time…
This is it. The Cross on the Rock series final. The last ‘cross race on the Island for about 300 days or close to 43 weeks. We have extended the ‘cross season on Vancouver to the latest it has ever been but it is still a LONG-LONG time until we kick off the series again next year…so come out and race. Don’t worry if you are “too out of shape”….we are never in the shape we want to be in! Come racing…For the love of ‘cross. For support for the series. For the prizes. The double points. One last chance to kick your friend’s butt. One more chance to get your butt kicked! One last chance to see some great racing…come out…bring someone new…bring your friends!
It is 2008 and it will be the 6th time that we have held a ‘cross race at Beban Park making it the oldest course on Vancouver Island…the first ‘cross course…and still one of the best.
We have a great course planned out for all that race. All categories (except the kids) will be doing the full course. We have changed a few things from last year but basically there are just tweaks and the general course is the same. Just a few different corners etc. Parks and Rec. have cleaned out the stairs from weeds and they are in great shape and ready to run. The whole course is in great shape and with the current forecast I think it will remain to be in good shape for the race.
Beginners Race for FREE
Since we are trying to promote and encourage more beginners to try out the sport the beginner’s category is FREE if you have a GRMBA license this weekend. Without a GRMBA license the race is still only $10. Drag someone out to try out ‘cross….they can use their mountain bike…or lend them your ‘cross bike for the beginners category.
Kids race at Beban Park is free
We had a great turn out for the last kids race at Jungle ‘cross in Errington. Not only a good turn out but also some solid racing. We will again have a kids race at our last race of the year this Saturday. It will be on a shortened course as usual. Any bike will do…see the event guide for more information. The kids race is FREE.
As usual we have the complete event guide for Beban Park with everything you need to know. It will be posted on our event web site some time today (as soon as we can get it down the information super highway and onto our site). IF there is anything that you need to know that is NOT in this event guide please let me know.
Event Schedule:
With the daylight fading earlier and the days getting shorter we have a slightly different race schedule that previous races so heads up:
- Registration: 10:00-1:40 (up to 20mins before your race)
- Course open for pre-riding: 10:00-10:45am.
- 10:00 BEGINNER CLINIC WITH SEAN LUNNY FROM OAK BAY BIKES and WENDY SIMMS from KONA. You must be registered for the event in order to participate in the clinic.
- Beginner Race10:45-11:15 (Race time approx. 30 minutes for 1st person). Separate starts for each category. There will be enough course to accommodate everyone. Separate prizing as well.
- Kids Race will be right as close to 11:15 as is possible.
- Course open for pre-riding 11:15-11:30
- Intermediate “Killa Bees”11:30 to 12:15 (Race time approx. 45 minutes for 1st person.
- Course open for pre-riding: 12:15-12:45
- Master’s and Women’s Race 12:45-1:30 (Race time approximately 45 minutes for 1st person).
- Course open for pre-riding, 1:30-2:00pm
- Expert race 2:00-3:00 (race time will be about 60 minutes for the first person)
