Hey everyone - this week we do a bit of a safety highlight. Since we are riding with other people it is difficult to control what other riders do, which is why we emphasize coming out to skill nights as these give you the skills to be safer around other people, as well as give you the skills to avoid unsafe situations.
When you join the club, part of the agreements you signed acknowledges that organized cycling inherently has a higher level of risk and that you may incur injury or damages through no fault of your own. In these cases, we rely on the riders involved to inform ride leaders of what happened if it was not directly observed by ride leaders. This is so the club can submit an incident report to the ABA and they will hang onto it if any liability claims arise as part of it. If you do not report incidents to ride leaders, we may never know or take any actions to help run our rides safer.
The incident reports we file list the riders involved and do not delve into fault, and as a club, we are also not investigating fault.
CLUB UPDATES:
Our annual Pigeon Lake Road Race and Fondo is happening again this year on June 29th - new for this year is the Fondo, with a 48 and 72km option. We hope to either have our membership out volunteering, or participating in the rides. You can learn more about the race here: https://www.ertc.org/plrr the Fondo here https://www.ertc.org/plfpg and the volunteer signup here: https://volunteersignup.org/4PYQK
Skill Sessions are over now. Keep your eyes peeled for future sessions, however these will be paid sessions as they will be put on by professional coaches.
RIDE UPDATES:
Nick is away, so no Shootout this Saturday. Tempo ride instead if that’s your jam.
RACE UPDATES:
The 2024 Try-Racing Program is now live! You can learn more about our program and sign up here: https://www.ertc.org/tryracing noting that there is no cost to you (other than your already paid membership, of course)
Interested in racing midweeks? Check out https://www.emrcracing.com/ and https://www.karelo.com/register.php?BID=534&BT=10&Ev=21665 to sign up. All Try-Racing Members get entry for free.
The next official ABA race is June 16 - the Ghost of the Gravel (Gravel National Championships) - more info here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FkginU6-4IEDC3dp_TXT9CSRoepXsPYS/view
GENERAL REMINDERS:
Official Rides are posted on strava. If you haven’t requested to join, please do so here: https://www.strava.com/clubs/2845 if you’ve applied and haven’t heard back, e-mail me, but first, make sure your strava name matches your registration name.
Day to day communication and general chatter is via slack. You can join here: https://join.slack.com/t/edmontonroada-7u36621/shared_invite/zt-1t5qvezds-JotWB~e_EJcXrD9NArQarA - this is where you can get real time updates about unofficial rides, talk bikes with club members, and sell your stuff to other club members! If you identify as female and would like to be included in the WoERTC communications and event announcements, please message Heather Curtis on Slack to be added to the private WoERTC channel.
The membership cards are here! If you have been attending rides you may have already gotten one, but if you haven’t they will be carried by all the ride leaders so if it is your first ride, just ask, they will probably have some on them! We will not be mailing these out to you, so the only way to get one is to show up on a ride. Remember to fill out the emergency contact portion of the card. While club leadership has access to your emergency contact information, having it on your person allows anyone else to call someone you trust without contacting us first. This membership card also serves as your proof of membership when getting your discount at the physical location for Hardcore Bikes and Healthcare Solutions. The QR code will lead you to the private site where you can find the discount code for online shopping at 7 Summit Snacks, Healthcare Solutions, and when booking online at Flexion.