Thursday, May 6, 2010

May 6 Commitee Meeting

MCA ROAD COMMITTEE MEETING MAY 6, 2010.

Present: Hal Loewen, Ian Hall, Ron Brown, Steve Johnston, Gary Sewell. Emailed in on one point Adam Bergen apparently also including views of Kevin Kilbrei. Regrets: Arlene Woodcock and Taras Macyk.
Firstly I would like to thank Gary for bringing pizza. He may have thought that he brought too much however I think the rest of us were able to impress him with our food eating prowess.
NEXT MEETING IS JUNE 17, 530 MCA.
The first item which we addressed was a Manitoba Cyclocross Cup. We will have a formal one this year with a championship awarded in for the men and women in both A and B categories.
Here are the rules which we have determined:
Sept 12 – Belgian SuperCross, Olympia, Cup 1
Sept 19 – Wildwood Cross,Woodcock, Cup 2
Sept 25 – CMUCross – FGBC, Cup 3
Oct 3 – Omands Creek Cross – Training Co-Op – Cup 4
Oct 16 St. Malo Cross – Olympia and Oct 17 Southern Cross, FGBC will be run as the “Cross Grand Prix” which will be a award an overall weekend winner and will count as Cup 5 together.
Oct 24, Whittier Cross – FOG, Cup 6
Oct 30, Harbourview – RRR, Cup 7
RULES:
Winner will receive a Cup Jersey. There will be a jersey in Men and Women for Cat A and B.
Points will be awarded as with all other MCA Cup points as follows:
1 – 30, 2nd – 25, 3 – 22, 4 – 20, and there on decending by one point.
Riders will not be allowed to drop any results. Total points is what will determine the winner(s)
If a rider moves up from categories they can take 50% of their points from B to A. Rider movement will be determined in accordance with the MCA standard on the Road which is by decision of the Road Co-Ordinator, Chief Commissaire, and Provincial Coach. Riders may move down upon request however points will not be transferred down.
****UCI rules with respect to bicycle standards for cross bikes, i.e. no disc brakes, no mountain bikes, will be enforced for the 2010 season in all races for Cat A. For Provincial Championships UCI bicycle spec rules will be applied to each participant. THIS WILL BE EVALUATED AS TO WHETHER OR NOT IT WILL BE APPLIED TO CATEGORY B in 2011******
Women’s races will staged so as to start 30 seconds behind the men in each category. This is done in the interest of fairness to the racers in each category.
2. WEBSITE:
We will be creating a racers information pamphlet, basically what to expect at a race. This will be geared towards first time participants. If there is anything you think we should add please canvass with your club. Ideas include: equipment you need (i.e. helmet, etc), proper mass start equipment etc., what to expect at a race (i.e. signup procedure etc).
-If anyone has pictures of racing they would like put up please send them in.
-we will be creating a link to archived race results on the new web page (we think we can go back 2 years).
-if people have GPS routes we will be creating a link to a website where people can post up their rides so that we can share ride locations.
****WE WOULD ALSO ASK CLUBS TO CANVASS MEMBERS TO SEE IF THEY HAVE PEOPLE WITHIN THE CLUB WHO ARE: 1) Writers, or 2) computer literate, 3) design backgrounds, to assist on the MCA web committee which may be created. Please ask. If people are interested they should contact Hal Loewen or myself.
3. FORMS FOR ORGANIZERS Related to above, but mostly Organizer focused: I understand that on the road so far we have done very well with the filing of Forms. We would like to thank organizers for taking the time to do these forms, they ultimately help everyone and I can also advise there has been very positive feedback on the Race Bibles which have gone up on the website. Good Job EVERYONE!.
However – (there is always a but) – it turns out you do not have to do as much work as you have been doing. When submitting the forms it is apparently easier to post them if they are simply sent in as a Word doc, rather than PDF.
***IF ORGANIZERS DO NOT COMPLETE FORMS the website will simply put a direction that if racers have questions they will be directed to contact the organizer directly. With few exceptions the MCA is NOT the organizer and racers need to be given information from the people who actually are organizing so as to avoid confusion.
Finally, FORM C – EMERGENCY MEDICAL INFORMATION – needs to be provided prior to 48 hours before a race. The Commissaires will not run races without proper medical being in place and if an organizer does not have medical in place then we need to have time to cancel races if we know it in advance.

4. RACE CALENDAR UPDATES:
FOG ITT will be moved. The consensus is to move it to a date in June. FOG will update shortly. There are issues with the Park. We are considering locating to a Thursday or a Sunday am.
May 15 Race in Darlingford is postponed. More to come.
June 8 Crit and June 15 FOG races will be switching to accommodate organizers (subject to Permit)
5. THE PROVINCIAL ROADS:
I have been working with community partners to get this in place. We are close and should know by next week. Right now we still do not have a single club to organize and would simply ask that each club provide 2 volunteers to allow us to run the race. This should allow all racers to race.
Thank you again to everyone and keep the rubber side down.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Time Trial Rules.

See below from CCA.

April 1st 2010

Clarification of UCI time trial bicycle frame regulation

After receiving updates from the UCI regarding the compliance of time trial
bicycle frames and questions from our members, the Canadian Cycling
Association wishes to clarify the bicycle rules that will be enforced for the 2010
season.

All technical regulations must be strictly observed in World Calendar events and
in class HC and class 1 events on the Continental Circuits.

In Canada this applies to:


U23 Coupe des Nations Ville de Saguenay

Men’s 1.1 or 2.1 events
• ProTour
However, to avoid penalizing riders participating in lower category events, a
tolerant attitude can be applied to time trial frames, as an exception until 31st
December 2010, solely for the following events:


Class 2 events

Women’s Calendar events

Junior Calendar events

Masters categories (men and women)
• National Championships
The application of UCI rule 1.3.024 (3/1 aspect ratio) to handle bars will be
applied at UCI races, Nationals Championships and National Racing calendar
events as well as other UCI bicycle rules (weight, wheel type, rider position).

Reference

UCI Technical Regulation for Bicycles:

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/BUILTIN/getObject.asp?MenuId=MTkzNg&ObjTypeCode=FILE&type=FILE&id=NTI0MDY&Lan
gId=1

UCI Rule Book – (Page 58 Equipment)

http://www.uci.ch/Modules/BUILTIN/getObject.asp?MenuId=MTkzNg&ObjTypeCode=FILE&type=FILE&id=34033&
LangId=1

May 6 Road Committee Meeting

I am proposing our next Road Committee Meeting for May 6, 5:30 p.m. at the MCA.

We had an excellent opening to the season this past weekend as everyone has probably heard.

Another very positive development was that we had a good turnout for the commissaire course. Thank you to the clubs who had people come out. We really appreciate it. Hopefully people will follow up with the “real life” training part of it as well.

The MCA has funding available now to send Arlene to National Commissaire Training so that she will be able to train people up to certification as well. That gives MB two people who can train and is a major advantage to us.

I can also advise you that we have ordered another set of numbers and pinnies due to some concerns I have about durability. Ultimately we have a new supplier and they cost a lot less (even with two orders) than last year. I want to make sure our numbers last through to the cross season so this will ensure we are ready to go for the end of the season.

Given that I think it is time for another road committee meeting.

The agenda is as follows:

1. Provincial Championships – Currently there is no single club which wanted to take this event on. The decision was previously made at the committee level at scheduling time to use the Wawanesa course. I think that should stay the same. What I would like to do is actually have one club as the “organizer” for our purposes and then have each club provide two volunteers for the race. If we do this there is very little “Cost” to each team, and realistically we can probably do it without involving any racers such that they would miss the event.

We will have some further discussions about it at the meeting;

2. We need to make sure the schedule is moving ahead as planned (I realize it is fairly front heavy and we will have had three races by the time the meeting takes place) but we need to firm up the Darlingford race plans, and the possibility of Lifesport taking on one more race.

3. Cyclocross – We need to discuss the cross cup, if there will be a formal one this year, and if so what the rules will be. Last race we did not discuss this because there were not enough club reps who are holding cross races so we decided to defer the discussion. Hopefully there will be more this time.

4. MCA Website. We have the opportunity to edit the Road and Cross side of the page to make it as cool, or not, as we want If there is anything anyone wants me to add then I can do so (within reason).

5. Any other item anyone would like to add to the agenda.


Thank you for your consideration of this matter. If you WILL BE ATTENDING please respond to advise. Thank you.

Steven Johnston

Thursday, March 11, 2010

March 10 Road Commitee Meeting

The meeting started at 5:10. There were not enough cross organizers present (although many did get back to me via email) for me to feel comfortable with the discussion on CROSS cup races so that will be at the next meeting.

On the Cross side I was advised that Red River racing has announced the race will be at Harbour View. That should be an interesting venue.

The balance of the agenda went like this:

CUP races:

April 25; Spring Classic
May 2 - Fog ITT
May 8, 9, 11Woodcock Stage Race
May 15 Darlingford Road Race
June 15 Stony Mountain Crit
June 20 - Portage Double Header
July 18 Alter Ego ITT


Scoring: 1st 30, 2nd 25, 3rd 22, 4th 20 and then down by one point. Each racer can drop worst result (we recognized that while MTB does not do this, and obviously we want to have people encouraged to attend races that there are situations where a TT flat for example could cost an entire season)

A racer who is an organizer, or commissaire within a cup race (and does not race but actively participates as organizer or commissaire) will receive 3rd place points.

If a racer is moved between categories, i.e. 5 to 4, or 4 to 3, they can do the following with Cup points: Elect to transfer points up to category however points will be credited at 50% towards the new category Cup points. Or they can elect to leave the points behind and start again in the new category. If they have sufficient points to win the previous Cup category then the remain eligible to win.

ROAD FORMS:

There are still in prototype form, but I the first one done seemed to work.

COMMISSAIRE ISSUES:

I am happy to say that after my email we have had a significant interest in running the commissaire course this year. We will likely be partnering with Saskatchewan to run the course, and with luck will be able to run the Course late March, early April.

We will work towards keeping a list of who are commissaries are, their “levels” and contact information.

We are also working on a program to encourage commissaries in coming forward, see for example above race points calculations. We also considered the possibility of the Road Committee paying for general memberships (in the following year) for commissaries who commissaire in 3 races.

More will follow once we have a training date for this.

RACER MOVEMENT:

A subsection of this was a discussion about racers moving up (and down) between categories. We have come up with the following formula:

Entry: All racers entering the sport, or have not held a licence in the past 5 years, will commence their first race in Category 5.

Racers will then move up after earning 100 “podium points” which are earned as follows: 1st 30, 2nd 20, 3rd 10 (no other placings will be counted). Once a rider has 100 points they will be expected to move up to the next category. Movement would still be subject to a veto by the Road Category Committee

Racers can also move upon their own request, in writing, to the Road Co-Ordinator. These applications will be considered by a committee consisting of the Chief Commissaire Road, the Road Co-Ordinator, and the Provincial Coach (The Road Category Committee). The decision of this Committee will be final.

Racers can also be moved between categories based on the sole discretion of the Road Category Committee. The committee will provide the racer 7 days notice of its consideration to move the racer (up or down). The racer may provide written argument in favour of his/her position which will be considered by the Committee however all such decisions will final after the Road Category Committee makes it’s decision.


OTHER:

Whether the Assiniboine Crit series should run as A/B categories arose. We decided to leave this to the Commissaires and Jayson.

THE NEXT MEETING WILL BE TOWARDS END OF APRIL.

Monday, March 8, 2010

March Meeting

We will be having a meeting at 5 pm at 145 Pacific on March 11, 2010, the new home of cycling (and other sports)in Manitoba.

The agenda is as follows:

1. Designating Cup events for the 2010 season, hopefully including cross events (will only do if there are a minimum 3 cross organizers present) – and rules.

-proposed rules: Scoring should be higher for first place: 30 points first, 25 second, 22 third, 20 fouth and then the rest go down by one point.
-If a the designated organizer does not race at his/her race but does attend as organizer then he/she would be credited with third place points. (The idea is to not penalize an organizer of a race if he/she needs to help out at own race)
-Should we have drop worst result as with last year? The argument for this rule is that if a person misses a race because of personal reasons, or DNF’s, they would still have a chance at winning the overall. The counter argument (and I note that I won last year largely because of the dropped result situation) is that this is to encourage participation and therefore dropping a result is counter to that idea.

2. Discussing the Road Forms
3. Discussing the commissaire issues: It is difficult to put to fine a point on this, but here is the situation: Last year there was no new commissaire training in Manitoba on the road. This year we have a possible course to put on but need to gauge interest before I can determine cost and whether we put it on. One possibility is to use Skype to save a considerable amount of money by not having to fly in the trainer.
Yes, you read that correctly, fly in the trainer. This is a major problem because currently there is only one person as I understand it in Manitoba who has the proper CCA approved qualifications to train commissaries. This is a MAJOR problem because we have essentially put all of our eggs in one basket. This year we are unable to use the local MB trainer so we must look elsewhere and are doing so.

Cycling needs four things to work in this, or any other Province: Athletes, Coaches, Commissaires, and Volunteers. If one of those four pillars collapses the other three will collapse quickly thereafter. Each club which is an “A” level club commits to having, as part of its agreement to get Bingo money, to having a commissaire. That can be met by a commissaire in one discipline, i.e. Road, Track, or MTB. A part of this means ACTIVE commissaire. Commissaire are paid positions at races. This means that if a club has a volunteer commissaire (as an example) the club can pocket the money which would normally be spent on the commissaire.

Please ask within your ranks as to whether anyone wants to be trained as a commissaire. The reality is that without commissaries there cannot be any racing.

4. I would also like to discuss moving between categories.
Proposal one: Each racer moves up or down at end of year based on Road Cup results – I see a problem with this in that attendance can dictate results (many of the people who did not do well as an example in Cat 3 Cup last year still need to be Cat 3);
Proposal two: Chief Commissaire Road, Provincial Coach and Road Rep will discuss movement between categories. The problem with this is that Cup race results would be potentially on the line in a move up. One possibility is that a rider could keep their points from before but be in ellgible for an overall win, (this unfortunately means it could effect results in the lower category), or the person just forfeits their points and moves up. Moving down could be done in a similar fashion.


If you already have people in mind, or people are interested and want more information on the process please contact me at this email address, or bring up names at the meeting on Thursday.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Road Nationals

Here is an email about accomodations for Road Nationals and the confirmation of the Masters/Juniors Weekends.

From: Matthew Knight [mailto:Matthew.Knight@canadian-cycling.com]
Sent: Monday, February 22, 2010 2:55 PM
To: pso@canadian-cycling.com
Cc: Copeland,Bruce
Subject: Accomodation Information for Road National Championships Attached

Please find attached information for accommodations at the University of Alberta for Road National Championships. Please note the parking and key policy. This accommodation option will be opened to the general cycling community later next week.

Junior and Master events take place in Devon, AB. Course maps and schedule will be posted shortly.

The event organizer for the Junior/Master weekend (July 2-4) is Bruce Copeland (brucec@nait.ca ).

Kind regards,

Matthew Knight

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Full Calendar

Here is the full MCA calendar for 2010. All locations are subject to getting permits in place.

Date Discipline Race Location Organizer

April 25 Road Spring Classic Bruxelles, MB Olympia
May 2 Road ITT BH Park FOG
May 2 MTB Cup #1 Grand Beach Olympia
May 4 Road Tues Crit 1 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
May 8–9 Road Woodcock Stage BH Park Woodcock
May 11 Road Stage 3 Stage Race Assiniboine Park Woodcock
May 15 Road Road Race Darlingford Lifesport
May 12 MTB WNS #1 Bur Oak Olympia
May 16 MTB Cup #2 Brandon BBC
May 18 Road Tues Crit #2 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
May 25 Road Tues Crit #3 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
June 1 Road Tues Crit #4 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
June 6 MTB Back 40 Enduro Morden Tinker
June 8 Road Tues Crit #5 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
June 9 MTB WNS #2 Bur Oak Olympia
June 13 MTB Cup #3 & Downhill Falcon B&B
June 15 Road Stony Crit Stony Mountain FOG
June 20 Road PLP Double Header Portage La Prairie JunkYardDogs
June 22 Road Tues Crit #6 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
June 23 MTB WNS #3 Bur Oak Olympia
June 26 MTB Cup #4 BAF Birch JYD
June 29 Road Tues Crit #7 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
July 4 MTB Reach Beach Enduro Grand Beach Olympia
July 6 Road Tues Crit #8 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
July 7 MTB WNS #4 Bur Oak Olympia
July 11 MTB Cup #5 Swan River TTT
July 13 Road Tues Crit #9 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
July 18 Road ITT Morden Alter Ego
July 18 MTB Enduro Pembina Valley Training Coop
July 20 Road Tues Crit #10 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
July 21 MTB WNS #5 Bur Oak Olympia
July 25 Road Prov. Road Race Wawanessa, MB MCA Road
July 25 MTB 24 hr Enduro Falcon FGBC/Birch/RRR
July 27 Road Tues Crit #11 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
Aug 1 Road Road Race TBA Lifesport
Aug 3 Road Tues Crit #12 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
Aug 4 MTB WNS #6 Bur Oak Olympia
Aug 8 Road Muddy Waters TBA FOG*
Aug 10 Road Tues Crit #13 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
Aug 15 Road Provincial ITT BH Park FOG
Aug 15 MTB Alter 8 Enduro Birch Alter Ego
Aug 17 Road Tues Crit #14 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
Aug 22 Road Provincial Crit Broadway Ave Woodcock
Aug 24 Road Tues Crit #15 Assiniboine Park Prov Team
Aug 29 MTB MTB Provincials Falcon MTB Committe
Aug 31 Road The Finals Assiniboine Park Prov Team
Sep ? MTB Event Sandilands Body Driven
Sept 12 Cross Belgian Supercross Belgian Club Olympia
Sept 19 Cross Wildwood Wildwood Woodcock
Sept 25 Cross CMU Cross CMU FGBC
Sep 25 MTB Fall Classic Event Birch JYD
Oct 3 Cross Omands Creek Training Coop
Oct 16 Cross St.Malo, MB Olympia
Oct 17 Cross Southern Cross Altona, MB FGBC
Oct 24 Cross Whittier Park FOG
Oct 30 Cross TBA Red River Racing
Nov 7 Cross Cross Provincials TBA Woodcock