Nope – you aren’t imagining it; these are getting later and shorter (but not sweeter). First up – all the rides ran great this week, seeing great attendance with hills having a huge turnout as usual! All other rides had the usual 10-15 suspects. Highlandia was a smashing success, where we were asked to help provide volunteers, and I swear we had about half the volunteer field covered by members! Give yourself a huge round of applause for coming through for the racing community and I hope your experience at the race was great even if you weren’t racing!
Race updates: I am very proud at the race presence we had at this race in all categories, we were probably the best represented club out there, and our results showed it, with several podiums, top 5s, and most of the racers finishing top 10! Congratulations to Scott Rusnak for upgrading to Cat4 after only needing 1 point to upgrade and a stunning solo breakaway win to clinch it!
Greg's Edit: 9 of us travelled to the beautiful hamlet of Water Valley to partake in the most unique race/fondo and only true gravel event on the ABA calendar, Ghost of the Gravel. The 4 women that did the "Friendly Ghost" (76 km) placed 1-4 sweeping the podium. The other 5 of us (3 men, 2 women) did the "Scary Ghost" (118 km), and once again the women did well placing 4th and 6th. It was the first gravel race for most and everyone loved it. ERTC was one of the best represented clubs and I'm sure we'll have even more next year.
Club Updates:
1.) I’m slowly but surely getting stickers to all of you. Look for updates on Facebook to what rides and events I will be bringing them to so you can pick yours up. If our schedules don’t work out, we will eventually just mail them to you.
2.) Thursday is the “Pedal to Patio” patio party hosted by Latitude 53, a local art gallery. This session is hosted by Bell Joy Ride, an initiative by Bell (the bike accessories brand, not the telecom…) to get more women into mountain biking. Tickets are $10 at the door, and the theme is “A celebration of Edmonton Bicycle Culture and the opening of the new lanes downtown.” ERTC is committed to supporting bicycle culture in Edmonton and will be coming out to this event in support. There will be a bike raffle, as well as several helmets commissioned from artists available to win. Thursday hills are of course a go, but there will be an option to split off early (if you are a racer) and come hang out at the event. The event goes until 11, so there is plenty of time to come by even if you are doing full hills. This will replace Rosso as the après-ride option FOR THIS WEEK. More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/293887284404262/
3.) We will be hosting a screening of Tour de Pharmacy when it comes out on July 8th, more details to come later, but the gist of it is: $20 gets you in, catered food by Mai (the girl who did our big social) and a limited supply of homebrew beer included (but the event is BYOB).
4.) This weekend is the Rundle Mountain Stage Race, one of Alberta’s premier road races. Good luck to all the racers headed out there this weekend!
Ride Updates:
1.) Other than the change to Thursday’s post ride, all is as per schedule.
2.) Remember to read and understand our ride cancellation policy in regards to weather. Ride cancellation just means that there might not be a leader and routes and distances will be determined based on how everyone is feeling.