VCC September 26 Update

Group Riding Reminders

This past weekend a crash happened during our Saturday ride. Unfortunately Nikoo fell hard and broke her hip! At least it seems no surgery is required, but Nikoo needs a few weeks off her bike to heal. We all wish Nikoo a speedy recovery!

After a long season of riding together, perhaps we’ve gotten a bit complacent with our group riding skills. Please make sure you’re pointing out all the road hazards you see and telegraph them from the front to the back of the group. Whenever any turns are coming up, riders up front must use their hand signals for turns and shout out the turning directions too. Riders, please continue to telegraph these indications to those behind you, with the last rider signalling the group’s intentions for any vehicles approaching from behind too.

Now is also a good time to revisit all of our Group Riding Tips.

Saturday Ride
Saturday’s ride leaves again from the Olympiette Centre at 10am. This time it’s a circuit taking in the smooth rollers on TWP 510.

Roger’s Harvest Ride – October 5
Next week we’re hoping to honour the late Roger Tetrault with our annual Harvest Ride on Saturday, October 5. But I’ve received an email from someone who I think works for the Province at the Waskahegan Trail Staging Area, stating some of the trails may not be usable.

We’ll continue to assume the event can go ahead as planned. Meanwhile, we’ll check into the park’s availability and let you all know if we’re going to be changing the venue and/or the date.

Please sign up for the ride by next Thursday, October 3, on our Event Page. Then we’ll have enough post-ride BBQ food on-hand and can email everyone if any last-minute changes are necessary.

End of Season BMX Report
Our BMX coordinator, Josh Ogilvie, has provided me an update on the great season our BMX Group has had this year. Congratulations to everyone and thanks Josh for keeping it all organized for us!

Here is Josh’s update:

This season the BMX Group had athletes competing in both the Alberta BMX Provincial series, composed of 8 series races plus a final, and Cycling Canada’s Canada Cup series of which there were 4 races in Alberta.

The Canada Cup races are for the Championship classes consisting of Junior Development, Junior, U23 & Elite categories. Taking podium positions for Velocity this year were Kaileb Torrie achieving a 3rd place position in U23 at St. Albert, as well as Ben Streadwick placing 3rd in U23 for both of the Red Deer Canada Cup rounds.

On the provincial level the team as a whole finished 5th overall in factory team standings and achieved 4 overall provincial champion titles with many of our other riders achieving podium positions throughout the year. As a team we had at least 12 entries in each provincial event with our largest showing having 47 entries over one weekend.

One of the goals for the team next season is to stand in the top 3 factory teams on the provincial level and continue to support the improvement of all our current riders.

Below are some of the team members and their achievements this year: