Good Morning!

A week hampered by rain on the weekend but still saw great attendance for our mid-week rides! Our club was pulled in a few directions this week, with some participants in the MS Bike Tour, some Racing in Kicking Horse Cup, and some choosing to brave the rain at home!

Announcements:

June 26 - We really need volunteers for the MEC Gran Fondo June 26. This is an amazing opportunity for us to show off our members and what we are all about! You can ride or help out, or even both! We are currently looking for someone with a valid PROSERV as well in order to help out in the beering duties, otherwise we would just like people to represent the club and talk about why you joined! If we cannot find one, we will reimburse you to take the exam ($25 and a couple hours online) Please e-mail me if you are interested in helping out. It is completely possible to ride and represent our club at the same time at this event. We would like to grow and promote the club and this is an important step in doing that. It’s also a good opportunity to work up to the longer distances of the Tour d’la Alberta taking place later this summer. I’ll let the website do the talking: http://events.mec.ca/event/116436/mec-edmonton-summer-century-ride

July 2 – We will be co-hosting a Road Race with Pedalhead Road Works and supplying them with volunteers. We need all types of volunteers, including marshalls, first-aiders, as well as wheel car/commissionaire drivers.  ERTC wants to give back to the community and this is one of the ways we can. Please help support grassroots racing in Alberta! As usual, email at president@ertc.org or Bastrachec1984@gmail.com if you are interested.

July 17 – We are hosting a TT this summer and we need your help! I’ll let Andre Ratte do the talking: “I would really to call on all members that plan on racing our own events to supply a friend or family member to help with the volunteer requirements.  For the non-racers, this is a great way to contribute to the club that organizes your weekly rides and provides you with a supportive atmosphere to enjoy all the bike related fun. 

 I’ll be putting out the official call for volunteers once we’ve cleared all the hurdles, but if you (or someone who you know) has Standard First Aid and could possibly volunteer on July 17th, can you let me know?  This will probably be the hardest volunteer position to fill and I’d love to know now if there are several people that can fill this role. “

July 24th – Our sponsor, Revolution Cycle is hosting the Tour d’la Alberta again this year. It is a fully supported 60/100/160km ride and definitely one of the BEST options for you if you want to attempt one of these distances for the first time, as there are regular breaks for refueling and water, as well as a lunch stop. There will be a vehicle to drive you to the next break point or back to the line should you choose pull out. This is one of the biggest events of this type up here in Alberta (if not the biggest) We are making this a focus event and encouraging ALL ERTC members to attend if they can – we are getting a $15 discount on entries (use coupon code “ertctda2016”) and we will have our tent and chairs set up at the start/finish line. 2 randomly chosen registrants from ERTC (Registered before July 1st) will be refunded their races fees as part of our sponsorship as well. Our race team members will be out, as well as many of our non-racing members. You will never ride alone! I will let the event page and registration page do the rest of the talking. http://www.tourdalberta.ca/

Ride Changes:

Tuesday Intervals: We are switching to a new route and meeting up at Wild Earth at 5:20, rolling out by 5:30. This is to accommodate the slightly longer distance of 76.6km We are testing this route for the first time and encourage you to look at the route map: https://www.strava.com/routes/5363881 as there may be some growing pains as we adjust a little bit. It definitely helps if everyone is on the same page. We are also testing for time, to see if we can get back into the city on time without having to hammer back.

Sunday Hammer Ride: It’s on! No races on Sunday (Other than the ghost of gravel) so the race crew will be in town! The ride still has details to be confirmed, however it will be out in pigeon lake (which will require a little bit of coordination to get to)