October 3/12 19:15 pm - Cross On the Rock #3 Preview

Posted by Editoress on 10/3/12
 

The Kona Kup at Bowen Park, Nanaimo. There is a rumour floating around that the LEGEND - Dik Cox from Kona Bikes - will be making an appearance racing at this year’s Kona Kup......it would be his first Cross race.........I hope this rumour is TRUE!

Records are made to be broken. We have been doing a great job of that so far this season with an all-time COTR attendance record at Condo Cross. A HUGE turn out and record for Dodgey cross. Now we want to take it all.....we want the COTR Race at Bowen Park, the Kona Kup, to have the largest attendance for any Cross race in Canada west of Ontario (anyone can tell us what the biggest cross race in Canada has been?).

Don’t you want to be a part of it? We won’t count the kids....we won’t count you twice if you race the Open Women and then slay also in the Experts.....we will have a Legit Count. We want to SHATTER the record. Drive up if you are down Island. Drive Down if you are up Island. Jump on the BC Ferries and have a sunshine breakfast. Roll down Stewart Avenue to Bowen Park if you are from the mainland. This course is AWESOME. It is a HOLIDAY. You ate too much on Sunday.....Let's light it up for attendance!!

Kids Races

There is no “Youth” category at the Kona Kup (they can still race Beginners or another category, of course) and initially we did not have a Kids race, but we will set up a Kids course for practice on the lower part of the park below the Parking Lot and fire up some kids competitions at the usual 12:45 time. You little rippers get out there!!

Course

Reminder for those pre-riding this week and on race day that this is a popular park in Nanaimo so please be cautious and courteous to other users all ALL TIME.

The course outline is in the Master Blaster Guide to the cross season found on our Website. If you have raced this course before there will be a couple of changes. First of all, the opening road section which you do each lap will be about 70 metres longer. We are going to extend it up and over one more speed bump before making the left turn into the trails then up the hill. On the lower sections we are adding a couple of off camber turns right when you pop back into the open lower sections. The lower sections will be slightly changed/altered to extend the distance out a bit. Before the first steeper downhill from the upper road we are going to do a 180-degree turn into it to slow down the speed going into that downhill. The city added some gravel into the sand for the volley ball court so it will be interesting to see if anyone can ride it this year. Lastly we will be adding a set of double barriers right before the finish line to slow you down for the timers and add an element of "should I ride, or run from the volley ball court?"....the stairs are still in there!!

Speaking of the stairs.....we want to make this the funnel of NOISE this year. So bring your noise makers, heckle machines get your best one-liners ready....pump up the racers.

Parking

With the turn out expected to be a record breaker, the lower parking lot will probably fill quite early. There is more parking at Bowen Park quite close by. At the top part of the course above registration and the first right on Bowen road past Wall Street there are a number of additional parking spots. Across Wall Street there is a HUGE parking lot at the curling rink (be careful crossing Wall Street). IF all three of these areas fill up there is additional parking at the second entrance past Wall Street in Bowen Park.

Pre-register

Save yourself some paper work on race day. Save yourself some time on race day. Save us some paperwork on race day. Allow us to plan better. Help us get your call up correctly.....Pre-Register. You don’t have to....but it is much-much better! Link on our Website.

Cash Money

As you know we are always trying to do new things....exciting things......different things....mixing it up.

This Monday at the Kona Kup we will be “mixing it up” by NOT offering prizes for the Expert and Open Women Categories. No Prizes.....well we will still have BEER and Coffee, cause our sponsors are AWESOME. But instead of all the other good stuff we normally have we will have CASH. Cold Hard Cash!

Keep in mind despite our recent successes we are still a club-based grass roots series....so we are not talking mega-UCI-C1-Bucks. Just a few dollars to help out those that are trying to make ends meet while racing at the top levels.

Equal prize money for Men and Women because we are NOT in the dark ages like the UCI is.

Expert and Open Women

1st $125
2nd $ 75
3rd $ 50
4th $ 30
5th $20 (you basically get your entry fee back!!)

That is a $600 prize purse!

If you are a female that usually races the Expert Category (Mical, Dawn and Wendy...talking to you here) for the additional workout, feel free to race for the cash and then get another number and try to get more cash in the Expert race....or just more training......

Not to be left out and to show our support:

Intermediate Men and Women as well as Masters....if you win....we will give you $25 towards your gas money/recovery food/beer. We love you guys too (well we love the beginners as well but to race for the $ you gotta move up categories....no one has cash for beginners!) Plus your usual prizes!

Other News

Ok, there is one piece of information that almost everyone will want to know about to do with the Ladysmith Crosstoberfest race on October 28th. This event will have a feature that has NEVER happened in the history of COTR. It has been approved by both Cycling BC as well as the City of Ladysmith. The Crosstoberfest race will have......an official......sanctioned......and properly staffed.....BEER GARDEN!!!!!!!!!!

Courtesy Norm Thibault

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