Important message from Ross about the NRC

During the last few laps of the Bill Patterson Memorial A-event at the NRC on June 14 two vehicles entered the course at separate times near the end of the event.  Both vehicles proceeded to drive in the opposite direction of the cyclists.  One vehicle approached corner 4 on the last lap as the cyclists where rounding the corner.

The NRC received a complaint from an employee in one of the vehicles.   As a result we are no longer allowed to use the long course and are one complaint away from being expelled from the NRC. An attempt has been made to open a dialogue with the NRC to try and rectify this situation.  At this time (June 21) there has been no reply.

Regrettably until construction is finished on the regular course all events will take place on the warm-up course. 

Below is the message from the NRC:

Mr. Knight,

We have received a complaint regarding conduct by the bike users during the extended course event held Tuesday night, June 14th.  An employee was leaving work at 7:45 Tuesday evening and attempting to leave the property via Chataway Avenue only to be verbally abused, run off the road and had his exit blocked. Unfortunately this is not the first complaint we have received regarding the practices of a few of your riders.  Regrettably the actions of these few negatively impact the many riders you have which do respectfully use NRC property.

Complaints in the past have caused the cancellation of the Ontario Criterium event and now will result in the cancellation of any further extended course events.

Employees of the National Research Council work varied and long hours to accomplish their programs.  As such they are worthy of respect, especially on their own campus.  Priorities must be for their safe and enjoyable use of our property regardless  of licences for recreational use or how important our licensees believe their events are.  Should any other complaints be received the licence between Seenite Sports and the National Research Council will be terminated entirely.

Bill Patterson Memorial Criterium

Great race tonight at the NRC. The podium: 1. Doug van den Ham 2. Matteo Dal-Cin 3. Sean Wakefield.

NRC crits start Tuesday, April 19

Remember to check out the seenite.org information page. Please fill in the registration form form prior to your first event. Make life easy for Ross and team and show up early. Also note the new fee structure. $70.00/season or $30/per event. Bring your UCI/CCA License. Citizen Permits can be purchased from the OCA, the OBC, or through Seenite Sports before the start of an event.

NRC criterium schedule announced

click to visit websiteAfter much behind-the-scenes work by Ross Knight and others, the weekly Seenite Sports Criterium Series returns for 2011. The series starts April 19 and continues until September 27. The series fee has been raised to $70 for this year (still a bargain IMO!) with individual races at $30 and one-off event for the B-race remains $20.

Also, don't forget to sign up for the corner marshalling spots. The events cannot happen without corneer marshalls so please sign up by checking the available dates and e-mailing Ross your intention to volunteer.

Click the image to visit the Seenite Sports Criterium Series website. 

Thanks again to Ross and for making this important event happen for the Ottawa cycling community.

Bill Patterson Memorial Crit race report

click for bigger. photo courtesy Matteo Dal-cinA fun night of racing at the NRC last night for the Bill Patterson Memorial Criterium. Thanks to Doug Corner and the BRO gang, and of course Ross Knight and the volunteers, for putting on a great event.

With the threat of getting pulled after being dropped on the minds of most riders, we lesser riders all tried to hang on as the pace went up in the first couple of laps. I recall seeing high-40s, low 50s km/hr on the straights. Corner #3 was a bit of a bottleneck when the pace slowed as 90+ riders tried to move up through the crowd. But otherwise the course worked very well considering the speed and size of the group. There was one unfortunate crash when Duncan Beard's front tire washed out in corner 1 about 15 minutes into the race (heal up buddy!). The race results:

• Eric Lyman 1st
• Matteo Dal-Cin 2nd
• Hans Loeffelholz 3rd

The perfect weather helped with the good turnout and it is a good lead into Preston Street Criterium. The CJOH crew were there and featured had two segments on the 6:00 pm news which will be good promo for Sunday's races. Doug Corner of BRO sends these bits of information about Preston Street:

Reminder that there will be no warming up on the course on Sunday and riders should not park inside the course. Amongst all the cash and primes, the Senior 1,2, Master 1 top three will win $1000, $500, $300  in the main event at 3:00 pm.

click for biggerUpdate on Thursday, June 17, 2010 at 08:45AM by admin

Zara took a bunch of very excellent photographs at the Bill Patterson Memorial Crit. Check them out here.

Preston Street Criterium this weekend!

click to download technical guide

Tonight is the Bill Patterson Memorial Crit at the NRC. This event is organized by Doug Corner of BRO.

Preston Street Crit is coming up this weekend too! Should be a great event.

The Technical Guide for the June 20th 2010, or 38th running of the Preston Street Criterium is available for download here (PDF, 1.7mb)

Check out the BRO website for more details about Preston Street.

tuesday night events

photo by Gilles M.Just a few reminders about weekly Tuesday night training and racing events in Ottawa.

Gatineau Park loops

Rob Orange lets us know that Ride with Rendall are finalizing a 'Special Events' contract with the NCC. There will not be a police escort, but Ride with Rendall will be providing a trail vehicle. This will require registration and a nominal cost. 

These details wil be clarified in the next few days.

E-mail Rob please if you have any questions or concerns.

NRC criteriums

Ross Knight, organizer of the NRC criteriums is always looking for volunteers. Make sure you sign up to help out as a corner volunteer. Remember - if we can't get marshals, the event won't happen.

The Bill Patterson Memorial race goes on Tuesday June 15, and is always a highlight of the NRC crit season. Hope you can make it.