Vancouver Island Fall Make-up Brevets
Old Rails & Trails 200, Sidney 300, Tour of Bays 400, A Ferry Sails Through 600
Ride Window: September 10-20, 2020
by Stephen Hinde

The 200, 300, 400, and 600 are now completed, and all results entered. This turned out to be both a very successful weekend (30 registered riders) and a very difficult set of rides, due the very smoky conditions. We extended the ride window because of the smoke, and many riders took advantage of that to wait for clear air. A few riders rode in the smoke, one with a charcoal filter. All riders who actually started a ride, finished the ride, but we had 9 DNS and at least 3 others who didn't register due to the smoke.

25 etransfer, 3 PayPal, 2 cheque.

Information controls provide some challenges - signs change or are removed, riders have colour blindness, some riders just can't figure it out (one rider missed the obvious fire hydrant while leaning on it to provide an obscure answer from nearby!). I think about 10% of the questions on the Island this year were answered incorrectly, or the information was missing. Riders using Strava have uploaded routes, and some riders sent in photos of the control, but if we were to go to selfies, that's a lot of work to open the metadata and verify. Everyone could have a free Strava account and photos taken during the ride get placed on the route map. I do know at least one rider who doesn't own a cell phone, so...

With a new 200, we had a number of riders who had not ridden a brevet in 2020, so again the trouble with waivers and coaching how to pay. Hopefully we will see less of this as we continue to improve the registration process and we get riders trained.

This is the last of the Island rides in the 2020 season. Next up, Remembrance Day.