Welcome to our blog!
With cycling season rapidly approaching it might be interesting to know if your fellow riders would consider you to be a bike snob.
Not me. Of course not.
Note: If you are planning to participate in the Victoria Group Rides scheduled for August 24 – 27 and haven’t registered, please send us an email at victoriaride2023@gmail.com with the names of the riders (with email addresses) and the motel you you are staying at.
See you out on the highways and byways soon.
How about trying a new approach for our major, multi-day, group ride in 2023 like basing ourselves in one location (Victoria), and doing various loops from there?
Starting all our rides in Victoria offers the following benefits:
Numerous interesting, scenic and diverse routes can be accessed from Victoria. Lawrence Berg has an intimate knowledge of these routes having ridden them many times with his Victoria cycling friends. He has kindly provided us with the following routes for our consideration:
Based on the above routes we can have a total of 4 consecutive days of cycling. This event has been scheduled for:
August 24th – August 27th.
Many thanks to Lawrence for providing us with these great routes. He has also indicated that he and some of his riding buddies may be available to lead us.
Rides would start from Beacon Hill Park at 9 AM. Following are some 2 and 3 star hotels located within 1.5 km of the park: James Bay Inn Hotel, Helms Inn, and Quality Inn. These hotels range in cost from approximately $170 to $260 (before taxes) per night. Unfortunately hotels are not cheap in Victoria and block booking for groups is not available.
The maximum number of riders will be 30. A minimum of 20 riders will insure that this event proceeds. In order to register for this event please book your hotel as soon as possible, due to limited availability, and send an email to
victoriaride2023@gmail.com
indicating the names of riders, email addresses of riders and which hotel you are staying at. When you are booking a room/s please ensure that you are able to cancel for a full refund 48 hrs prior to arrival. Based on the number of registrants we hope to determine by March 1st if this event will proceed or not.
Stay tuned for further information.
Mountain biking might not work in downtown Kelowna, but it certainly seems to in Medellin, Columbia.
Hair raising, to put it mildly !!
After two very successful group rides in the Kootenays, it seems as though the Killer Beez are interested in considering another out-of-town group ride in 2023. One of the areas suggested was Vancouver Island. Some of us participated in a very enjoyable 6 day Vancouver Island Ride in 2014 which was organized by Michael Malkowski and Bob Perra. I recently met with Michael and Don Brown, who also participated in the 2014 ride, to discuss the possibility of another Vancouver Island Ride. Since the 3 day ride format used in the Kootenays was so successful, we mapped out a 3-4 day loop for consideration which can be accessed through the following links.
Day One – Sydney to Lake Cowichan via Salt Spring Island.
Day Two – Lake Cowichan to Sooke. This could possibly be broken into two days with a layover in Port Renfrew. However, accommodation there is limited.
Day Three – Sooke to Sydney. This is partly on the Galloping Goose Trail.
These routes are subject to fine tuning and are intended to show approximate distances and elevations only.
Cars (except support vehicles) would be parked at the Tsawwassan ferry terminal.
I look forward to receiving your comments in this regard.
The Snow Gods worked their magic early this year so it’s time to dust off the skis / snowshoes and hit the trails at the Nordic Ski and Snowshoe Club.
Starting this coming Saturday and Sunday, we will meet near the pavilion (the usual place) at Mission Creek Regional Park by 9:15 am latest for carpooling. Skiing / snowshoeing will start at Nordic at approximately 10 am.
Let’s go play in the snow !!
Now that Winter has arrived in BC, it’s the time some us like to dream about our next cycling adventure. Here are a few Cycling Tours to mull over as you shovel out your driveway. Be aware that the tour prices are quoted in US dollars.
On Saturday we will hike scenic Dilworth Mountain. Gorgeous views of West Kelowna, Downtown Kelowna and the Glenmore valley are available from the Dilworth Mountain trails and summit. The hike will start at 10 AM from the parking lot on Glacier Crescent. Ample parking is available at this location.
Hope to see you there.
The following email was received from Jordan Boultbee, a student at the University of BC, Okanagan Campus:
My name is Jordan Boultbee; I work under the supervision of Dr. Jonathan Little in the Exercise Metabolism and Inflammation lab at the University of British Columbia Okanagan.
We are doing a 2 x 2 study design on immune function, and one group that is of particular interest to us – is endurance athletes! We are currently looking for master’s athletes.
If you could please share the attached study poster with your members or on your website/ Facebook page, that would be much appreciated. It offers eligibility criteria and so on! Thank you for your consideration,
Jordan Boultbee
HES Honours Student | Exercise Metabolism and Inflammation Laboratory
The study poster is available below.
If you are interested in participating or learning more about the study please contact Jordan at jboult16@hotmail.com.
Have a desire to cycle some hairpins and don’t mind flying to get there? Then this might be the hill for you. 600 hairpins could be a considerable exaggeration, however there certainly are enough to keep you busy. Starting at an elevation of 3,197 meters may be a bit of an inconvenience. Click here for the hill specs.
Haven’t put the bike away yet? Click here for the closest airport.
Recently an enterprising swarm of Killer Beez lead by Paul Stephenson (including 2 of our Queen Beez) found a new riding area not currently populated by our main enemy, the automobile. It’s called South Perimeter Road and is not currently used by cars as it is awaiting it’s second layer of asphalt.
So get there fast if you want to be able to ride it before it opens to traffic.
It’s a climb to get there however. Our Beez buddies took Uplands across Kettle Valley, Southridge, and then Upper Gordon. Taking Gordon all the way would obviously make for a long, nasty climb.
Thanks to Paul Stephenson and Mike Wagstaff for the photos.
