Just a heads up for anyone planning on riding vedder this Saturday(oct.18 ):
The Vedder Running Club will be holding their annual “Around the Lake Race” and will be using Endo and Dilemma as part of the course. They would greatly appreciate it if everyone could avoid riding these 2 trails from approx. 9:10am-9:45am as there will be ALOT of people running up these 2 trails. This will help prevent any potental injury to both riders and runners.
Sumas Boxing day ride
Meet at the lower gate off BATT rd for—- NOON.
Shuttle or climb,the goal is to get to the lookout on top,then
bq at TimeOut exit.
Come on out to the AGM, for our yearly update of Club activities, election of officers, and general discussion. Now is the time to speak up on any issues you have on your mind, and to ask us about the trails, and give us direction.
You don’t need to be a member to attend.
Also – this is the preferred time to signup for another year of membership. If you’ve signed up in the last three months, just show up and fill in a new form and we’ll extend your membership to the end of 2008.
There’s a new DH race course on Red Mountain! Race the 2007 Arduum Challenge, 20-21 October!
arduum: steep place, the steep
challenge: something that by its nature or character serves as a call to battle, contest, special effort, etc.
The trail “Arduum” itself started out as two trails built “back in the day” We hiked these trails, looking for a good DH training course. When we realized that the combination of the two would give us everything we wanted (steep, techy, off-camber, rooty, and some flow) we built a connector and started reworking them. The finished product was this trail. We rode it a few times, had some friends ride it and we all agreed, we couldn’t keep it a secret, we had to share this one. We decided to host a race. Just like that??
Nope. The decision to do the race happened six weeks ago. Lots of hoops to jump through, things to look after, trail to perfect but we did it. The “Arduum Challenge” has come to life. Take this as your call to battle one another and “The Steep.”
The race weekend went off quite well. Almost 200 racers turned out on Sunday for some very fast racing. I believe we shattered the course record, due primarily to the excellent work the course builders put in, and of course the near-perfect conditions leading up to and on the day of the race.
Although there were a few areas for improvement, the race went off quite smoothly, with everyone getting to race on time, and in some cases, even early. There’s always room for improvement with the shuttling, but from reports, this was better than last year. If we run it again, we’ll try to improve where possible. One big lesson: If you want to practice come the day before. Some riders on Saturday got in 9 laps. And, posting results there was a hiccup, but our backup plan kicked in and while delayed we got the results posted.
There are too many people/organizations to mention them all, but a few thanks out to:
Wentings Cycle. If Bruce hadn’t gotten the ball rolling, I’m not sure the race this year would have gone. He eventually let FVMBA lead in the planning, but he was still a big supporter, but in providing ALL the cash prizes, some of the swag, and an injection of cash to the organizers to assist with expenses. Thanks Bruce!! (Next time, we’ll wear YOUR shirts).
Course Builders. Tireless fiends. Trail building geniuses. Mosquito-bait.
Racers. Tree-hitting, jump-casing, rock-smacking, sweaty fools. Without you, there’d be no race.
Race-weekend volunteers. Thanks, Thanks, Thanks. And a special hello to Paul, who manned the gate alone for WAY too many hours.
St John Ambulance. Luckily, these guys / gals didntt have to work too hard.
CyclingBC race officals. These guys knew what they were doing.
CyclingBC as a whole. Tremendous support, and financial assistance. Tanya ‘Wow’ work a work-horse.
RCMP: For not having a car there to catch the couple of instances where drivers could have been heavily fined for no-seatbelts on riders in the back of the trucks. (Don’t do that!)
Huckwagon. Ah shuttling in luxury. Nice. Those poor CV joints, though. I’m not sure Martin was expecting that road to be as rough.
Sponsors. Too many to mention, but please look them over below. They all contributed greatly.
Mark your calendars, because the Bear Mountain racing weekend is now happening July 7th/8th in Mission. This racing weekend will feature the XC Provincial Championships as well as a Downhill Race.
The XC Provincial Championships will be held Saturday, July 7th and are organized by Cycling BC. Registration will be available on Karelo and all event information will be posted on the Cycling BC website.
The Downhill race, organized and hosted by the Fraser Valley Mountain Bikers Association (FVMBA) will take place Sunday, July 8th. Event information will be available from the FVMBA website.
Both events will be sanctioned through Cycling BC. More information soon to come!
Note: this event was originally schedule to run in May, but the July dates have been chosen as a better fit.
Also note the original website “Bearmountainchallenge.com” is alive, but obsolete for the time being. Be patient - all will be worked out.
After 10 great years, race promoter Cory Adsit has decided to move on, but there are many who would like to see the race live on as more of a fun, local event.
If you would like to have some input into the future of the Bear Mountain DH and Red Mountain XC races, please come out to a meeting at Wenting’s Cycle in Mission, Wednesday March 7 at 6:00 PM. Wenting’s is located at 33245 N. Railway Ave.
