February 10th meeting Agenda Items - Backgound Materials and Information

Website

• Possible further developments of the MCA website could see the creation of a mountain bike page or hub, what sort of features would you like to see on this page?
  

Race Standards

• One goal for the Mountain Bike committee and the MCA is to make the race experience for all racers the best possible experience possible; one way to achieve that goal is to promote certain standards for all cup races and provincials, including: venue development, standardized race fees, reporting of results, and consistency in expectations of prizing and food provided. What would you like to see in these or other standards?
  

Organizer's Manual

• To help race organizers put on high quality races I would like to see the a new and very thorough race organizers manual, the Alberta race organizer's manual is a very good example of this; do we adapt this manual to suit Manitoba races and events?

Moving riders to appropriate categories

• 8 riders have been identified as having the ability to move from Sport to Comp class, as a committee we will review the riders who will be requested to move up to the next category
  

Commissaries

• We need to select a new chief commissaire, a list of eligible candidates will be forwarded to you by email, from this list we will rank the potential candidates by secret ballot at the meeting (out of town committee memebers can respond by email in confidence)
• Commissaire training is scheduled for March 20th-22nd
• We need to develop a policy defining what consitutes a race and what consitutes an event, and if commissaires are required for both.
  

Spruce Woods

• Rob Nagy received an email about some interest in the Spruce Woods as a possible race venue. This would involve trail development and negotiantion with the Parks people (some inital contact has been made and there is interest in this happening).
• Do we invite IMBA trail crew in for a seminar? This has to be self sustaining so we could invite a number of clubs to participate and cover the costs.
  

Race schedule review

• A review of the final schedule (I believe a couple of changes need to be made already).
  

Marathon races

• We need to define what a mountain bike XCM (cross country marathon) is and how our races and venues adhere to the rules so these are sanctioned races on our calendar.
• Here are the some of the facts that we know: the UCI states that marathon races can not cover the same course more than once and that it adheres to both a minimum and maximum distance; the UCI also states that national federations may grant special exceptions for races or particular events run in its own country, which may allow us some leeway; the CCA does not cover marathon races in its document so there is no guideance there; our insurer will insure us for races as long as we have rules and officials in place and we are happy with those rules.
  

Race levies

• In an effort to reduce expenses it was suggested that we could apply a minimal race levy for each cup race and the provincial race. The money from this levy would go directly back to the MTB committee to cover costs incured by this committee. Opinions?

Novice license

• A $40 novice license will be insituted. The following rules have been suggested: citizen race categories will not qualify to collect provincial cup series, or upgrade points; you may not obtain a Manitoba Citizen race license if you have previously held a UCI race license at any level of competition; in order to race for a Provincial Championship, the rider must be fully licensed with a UCI race license (i.e. citizen license does not qualify); citizen racers may be requested to move up in category if requested by MB Chief Commissaire in discussion with either Mountain Bike Committee chairs (difference in cost of license upgrade is required to be paid). We will go over these rules of the license.

KOM rides during races

• Shawn Zayac has a suggestion for leading KOM on rides while parents are participating in races. We'll present this in fuller detail at the meeting and discuss further.

Race promotion poster

• The MTB poster will be presented to advertise the upcoming season.

Agenda items from last meeting

• Ron to explore the cost of using Karelo for online registration
• Hal to post equipment list
• Hal to present tentative race schedule to joint Mountain/Road meeting
• Hal to coordinate the updating of the Mountain Bike Organizer’s manual
• Ron to contact Dave Benson about the running of commissaire courses