GVVA Update for April 9 - Great Start to the West Shore Velodrome Season!
Michael Cooper
The GVVA is off to a great start for the 2012 season. We had our first Thursday night race on April 5. It was a cold night, but a dedicated group did some very fast racing for the start of a long season.
The enthusiasm is building for track cycling. We are getting regular inquiries from people who are thinking about returning to the sport after many years of being away. We are getting lots of interest from people who have never tried the sport before. I just received an email from a UVic student who is interested in track sprinting as a cross over sport for his main interest of speed skating.
We had a 16 members spend the day taking the St John Ambulance First Aid course on February 26. In addition to those club members who are already certified, this will give us a solid group of volunteers who can be track monitors. This will ensure that we meet the conditions of our facility agreement with West Shore Parks and Recreation.
On March 30-April 1, we had a 2 day coaching workshop facilitated by Jeff Ain, the Provincial Junior Road and Track Coach. Jeff has an extensive background with junior development in British Columbia, running the Vancouver-based dEVo Youth Road Cycling Club, as well as the Burnaby Velodrome Youth and Junior programs. He has also led various provincial and national-level junior projects including Pan Am Games, Track World Championships, and National Championships. His facilitation was excellent, and covered everything we needed to run a "Learn to Ride" program, and a bit beyond. We had 13 members participating including 3 juniors who did a great job of putting together and presenting a track drill demo.
On April 6, the velodrome was one of 7 stations for "BikeJam". We had nearly 100 grade 6-12 students try the velodrome out. Our station was coached by former Olympic track cyclist Kurt Innes who has an outstanding ability to generate enthusiasm. All of the students were completely focused on his coaching. It was quite remarkable to see that degree of engagement from such a diverse group of very energetic kids. We had a great group of volunteers supporting Kurt, setting the track bikes up for the kids, and doing whatever one-on-one instruction was needed to get the kids up and riding.
With the help of Cycling BC, in March we submitted a gaming grant for youth programs. The government opened a brief window of opportunity with revisions to the criteria for the gaming program. We have not yet heard back on this. There is another grant deadline coming up in May and we will submit a second proposal for this.
On Friday April 13, the Camosun Recreation Program will be coming out to the track for a Learn to Ride program. There will be nearly 60 participants. This will help generate some revenue for the club as well as increase our exposure to another group that might then promote the sport to their friends and programs. If anyone is able to volunteer for this Friday please contact me directly at velo...@shaw.ca .
This week, there will be the regular Thursday night race, and then next week Monday night timed events gets under way as well. Malcolm Faulkner will be starting up the Learn to Ride sessions as well - check the website for start dates. There are a number of other regular events at the track, so please check the website regularly for updates.
Mike Cooper
President, Greater Victoria Velodrome Association