2013 Newsletters

May Newsletter

Hey Everyone,


Bike to Work Week  
PACA is working hard to bring you Penticton's 5th Annual Bike to Work Week! Mark your calenders and start assembling your work place team!
Dates are May 27th - May 31st.
A big THANK YOU to our sponsors so far: The Province of BC, City of Penticton, BCGEU, Fortis, RDOS, London Drugs, Freedom Bike Shop, Bike Barn.
We are also expecting guest appearances from GranFondo, Challenge Penticton, and Velo Cabs.

http://www.biketowork.ca/penticton

Volunteers are needed for Bike to Work Week. If you can help one morning from 6am-10am please reply to this email.



Bike Skills and Safety Workshop

Saturday, May 25, 9:00am to 1:00pm.

Designed for cyclists who have basic riding skills and would like to participate in Bike to Work Week, but would feel more confident with enhanced traffic knowledge and riding skills. We will finish our session with a ride through Penticton's streets; route to be determined by group ability and comfort.

For more details check out www.bikepenticton.com

Group KVR Rides

We are currently looking for someone to lead some casual rides along the KVR. These rides are all about enjoying the trails Penticton has to offer. Even if you can only lead 1 or 2 rides, please let us know.

Group Road Rides
If you are looking for a Beginner to Intermediate Casual Road ride, then come join us for rides this year. Whether you're training for the Granfondo or just wanting to ride, we have a ride for you. Our rides vary from 30 to 130 km and are fairly laid back. Anyone is welcome!

Events
This year we are working hard to bring more grassroots level racing to Penticton. At this level, it's a great way to hone your skills and train for the higher elite levels.

Road Time Trial
TT Thursday starts May 30th. Starting at the Poplar Grove Rd Carpark, this is a 17km Time Trial that will test your fitness over the coming year.
Entry Fee is $2 and to ride you need to be a PACA member or at least have a 2013 Cycling BC Road license.
Hope to see you there!!
For more info, check out www.bikepenticton.com

PACA 100
The PACA 100 is our very own low key 100km ride for Novice to Intermediate Riders who are looking to push themselves that little bit more. This could be some great training for the Granfondo or make it your goal for the year.
For more info check out www.bikepenticton.com

***Thought For May***
“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.” – Bill Nye the Science Guy

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

August has come and gone and with that, we would like to congratulate everyone who took part in the Inaugural Challenge Penticton. We would like to definitely congratulate all our members who took part either Solo or in a Team. Well Done.

Just because summer is almost over, it doesn't mean that the cycling season is over. For some, it's just warming up.

3 Blind Mice News
PACA has some great news to share. We are in the final stages of securing a formal agreement with the City of Penticton for the 300 acres at the 3 Blind Mice starting at the Pearly Gates. This parcel adjoins the 400+ acres of crown land on which we secured a Section 57 (land use agreement) last year! This will mean legal access to 700+ acres of amazing trails! We have been corresponding with many cycling communities across the province (Whistler, Squamish, North Vancouver, Cumberland, Burns Lake etc..) and have learned that we have been extremely lucky in the Penticton area that we have not had to deal too much with the access issues that many other riders are faced with. Things are always subject to change and it is much better to be pro-active in securing access and rights to trail stewardship than to be faced with a "No Trespassing" sign at the trailhead! Formal permission to use this land will allow us to negotiate better insurance for the club and most importantly we can build infrastructure and apply for grants for improvements to the network. The city is very supportive of formalizing our activities so that we can build an even better network for ourselves and future riders.

Autumn is a great time for trail work and we will be starting up weekly trail days at the 3 Blind Mice for our interested members. Fellow PACA member, Travis Kroschinsky has made a pledge to commit 100 hours of trail work over the next year. He will be keeping PACA members up to date on the date and time via our Facebook page and he has also started his own Facebook page so you can follow along at OneYearBuild. The first trail day will be at the 3 Blind Mice on October 6. Please support your local trails and lend a hand! Food and Beverage organizers are always appreciated after a work session for those not interested in working in the dirt!

To kick off the planning for this falls trail work we ask that you complete our Trail Survey to help us decide where to focus our efforts.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/N9Q3QHC
Stay tuned for more updates on the 3 Blind Mice.


The Test of Humanity (Sept 22nd)

If you haven't experienced the Test of Humanity, you are missing out. This is one awesome event. We are again throwing our support behind Nic and Shei and would love to see all of you out there either suffering on the course or cheering everyone on. We would like to wish all our members good luck for the event. If you see our PACA jerseys racing around the course, be sure to give them that extra little cheer.

We will also have a Tent setup on Race day for you to come find out the latest info on whats happening at the club. We will have our "bikepenticton.com" shirts for sale.


Cyclocross (Oct 6th) As part of the Interior Cross Series

It's that time of year again where we start mixing it up a bit.
The Vortex is back again this year and we are giving it a bit of a different spin.
We have given the course a bit of a different layout while adding a couple of new features that will test your Bike Skills like never before.
If you are interested in participating in the race but haven't done one before or would like a refresher, we are planning a cyclocross clinic.
This year we will also be adding a kids event, so please bring along your children for a little bit of CX action.
If you aren't into racing, please think about volunteering for this wonderful event.
http://www.bikepenticton.com/cyclocross.html
 
CX Clinic Details:
Have you raced cyclocross but feel rusty? Do you want to practice some skills before The Vortex in October? Or have you never raced cyclocross, or maybe you don't even know what it is!! Then this is a perfect event for you!
Date: Sept. 28.
Time: 10am-12pm
Location: Gyro Park
Pre-registration required. We would like 10 people confirmed to hold this event. Please confirm by Monday September 23rd.
Cost: Entry is by donation to the Test of Humanity charity.


Toonie Tuesday
Our Final Toonie Tuesday for the year happened September 10th at 6pm at Campbell Mountain. It's been another great year and we would like to thank the Penticton Pounders for enjoying some of our wonderful trails with us.



PACA Jerseys

You may have noticed some PACA members sporting our new jerseys. We will be putting another order in and will be taking orders by email to the club.

For more info check out our website.

If you haven't already, be sure to follow us on:
 
Website: http://www.bikepenticton.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pentictoncycling
Twitter : https://twitter.com/pacapenticton



Happy trails,

Penticton & Area Cycling Assoc.

Hey Everyone!

The Penticton & Area Cycling Assoc. has been working very hard the past 4 months to improve our club membership structure and insurance and to provide better trail stewardship within the community.

PACA is very excited about the future after recently becoming affiliated with IMBA (International Mountain Biking Association). We feel there are many benefits to this and we hope that we can bring these to you over the next year or two.
After signing our recent Licence to Use Agreement with the City of Penticton for a 332 acre sector of the 3 Blind Mice, there is no better time than now to take mountain biking to the next level in Penticton. With the IMBA affiliation comes with it the Whistler Trail Standards and IMBA's guide to sweet singletrack that will be the benchmark for how we would like to see trails maintained and built in the area.

You can see the benchmarks of the Whistler Trail Standard and IMBA's guide to Sweet Single Track here.

With the new License agreement and our Section 57 with the Provincial Government, we now have greater Stewardship when it comes to the 3 Blind Mice; as we have permission in trail signage, trail maintenance and building within the 700+ acres of riding paradise.
With the new IMBA affiliation, you will also see a reduced price in membership fees. The main reason that the insurance is cheaper is that it insures the club for liability and will not insure the individual cyclist for injury on club sanctioned rides as was provided by Cycling BC insurance. We can still opt to purchase minimal insurance for injury to our volunteers on club events, such as trail maintenance days.

A few PACA members have expressed interest in continuing the theme of monthly trail days and adding a pub night to discuss trail ideas, future maintenance days and really, just a reason to get together for a beer to talk all things bike related!! If you are interested or would like to take a lead or support role in organizing our trail days send us a message. We always appreciate someone organizing refreshments or helping to choose the next trail project.

We have just begun what is sure to be a successful fundraising campaign selling local Backyard Beans-3 Blind Mice Blend coffee. All of the proceeds from the sale of this coffee will go directly towards trails at the 3 Blind Mice. To place your order visit our website at www.bikepenticton.com

Repeatedly we heard from the cycling community that the reason for not joining PACA was that the insurance cost was too high and people did not value the coverage it provided. You spoke and we listened. Please show your support by renewing your membership or becoming a new member in 2014. You can continue to support this wonderful club that works so hard and tirelessly throughout the year to bring fun events, secure riding access and be your source of local riding info which are among some of the great benefits PACA has to offer.