welcome to our new website
Tinker Creek Cycle is a small bike shop located in Tinker Creek Manitoba, just a few miles south of Morden. We service bicycles and sell Rocky Mountain Bikes in the local community, but really we're more about getting out and enjoying the incredible mountain bike trails right out our own back door.
Take care, James
World Championships on CBC
Not all of us can go watch the World Championships in MSA in person like Jeff. But don’t worry, CBC is televising it Saturday afternoon. Go Catharine P & Geoff K!
This pic was borrowed from Canadian Cyclist – photo credit goes to them. I just wish they would show the next 2 or 3 frames as well. Ouch!
Podium bound
So, the Manitoba XC Provs were on Sunday the 29th at Grand Beach. This year, the MCA MTB Committee took on the task of organizing the Provincials race, to try to ensure a well run event and a course that was a good test of MTB for all levels of racers. The race was originally supposed to be at Falcon Lake, but due to excessive moisture this summer, the normally “moist” sections at Falcon are very swampy this year. So the venue was changed to Grand Beach.
Now, Grand Beach has a bit of a reputation of being not very technically challenging, not very much elevation and also too much double track. So to try to improve the course, several committee members and a few non members spent several days at Grand Beach cutting some new single track to break up the long double track sections, including adding a nice set of downhill switchbacks. The course was also run clockwise.
Well Organized Event
Race Day – there was apparently a huge downpour around 9 am, so the start needed to be delayed 30 minutes, but that was well communicated. The kids races happened around 11:30 and the adults race about an hour later. Most everything I heard from other racers after the race was VERY positive about the course, people really liked the added single track and how it felt a lot different from the normal counter clockwise direction. I think it was the best Grand Beach course I have ever done.
The race course was well marked, there were even marshals on the course, food was good (great homemade cookies too), many volunteers were on hand to help and there was a large turn out for the race at 90 people. It was great to see a large turn out and the post race positive vibe. Good times!
Huge thanks to Hal for doing the vast majority of organization work but also to the other racers who sacrificed their own riding time during the weeks leading up to the race, to spend several days cutting new trails, also to the MANY volunteers who helped set up the day before, morning of, and tear down after. It is greatly appreciated & good job!
Tinker Creek Results
Tinker had a handful of members racing, and as Ramona pointed out to me after the race, they did not disappoint. In fact, it was basically all or nothing for Tinker racers. They were all on the podium (except for yours truly who busted his chain half way through the race, while in the lead Expert group of 4 riders… Yes, that is my excuse & no, I didn’t have a chain tool with me!)
Here are the results of the Tinker riders who actually finished and a few pics courtesy of Ramona, make sure to give them props next time you see em.
Under 9 Boys
Tristan Wiebe – 2nd Place
Under 11 Girls
Jaydi Wiebe – 1st Place
Women’s 40+ Sport
Jane Braun – 1st Place - Nice elbow job their Jane!
Men’s 30+ Sport
Lincoln Wiebe – 1st Place
Men’s Senior Expert
Gerald Klassen – 1st Place
Nice job guys. Here are a few more pics courtesy of Ramona.
(Last pic is stolen from Ger’s profile on Facebook).
Anyone up for World Champs in Mont-Sainte-Anne?!
Kabush winning the World Cup race last year in Bromont.
Whats up guys!
I’ve now made the transition from living in Lethbridge (aka: close enough to the mountains to ride there every weekend) to living in Guelph, Ontario (aka. close to Toronto, meaning there is waayyy to much pavement and not enough bike trails). There is a great group called GORBA (Guelph Off Road Bicycling Association) that does have quite a few trails in the area but they are mostly flat with less that 100 ft. of elevation change. Fast and fun with little climbing…Not bad, but I’ve been spoiled by the mountains!
Anyways…back on topic. This coming week/weekend the UCI Mountain biking World Championships are being held in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec. For me, its about a 10 hour drive out there. I figured that since this is probably the closest I will ever be to the world’s best mountain bikers (and one of the best event venues as well) I should go check it out on the weekend. The only problem is that I’ll have to enjoy this experience by myself…which might suck….
The reason I’m posting this is that I’m inviting anyone and everyone to come and join me there! If you get yourself here, I’ll take care of the rest. I’ll pick you up from the airport, drive you to the event, take care of the food, and we’ll watch the best guys and gals of the sport lay it down for the rainbow jersey!
Hope you can make it!
Jefferson
New single track – Ehhhhhhh!
Provincials XC mountain bike race will do down this Sunday at Grand Beach. Thanks to the hardwork of some dedicated racers, some new single track has been added recently and the course will be clockwise (backwards from the traditional CCW direction for cup races).
If you haven’t raced Grand Beach in a few years, there is some pretty nice new stuff and one newish section that will also be included – on what Hal calls “Blueberry Hill”. (Insert your own “Fonzi found his thrill” joke here.) Check out the course map image below for all the newest sections that have been added – I blame Hal for the names.
But the highlight just might be the homemade cookies that will part of the post race “Made in Manitoba” food.
All the details are at the MCA site here – You gotta have an MCA race license to race. Pre-register for $25, cause walk up is $40.
No word on where Fonzie will be jumping the shark at the East or West beach after the race – TBD.
Congrats Alf!
Saw the results from Alter8 and it looks like our boy Alf had a good day and came in a solid 3rd place. Nicely done Alf. All the post race comments on FaceBook sounds like the course was really good, flowy and fun. Pics stolen from the link on the Alter8 site.
Alter 8
The gang at Alter Ego is putting on the Alter 8 this weekend. They work hard to make sure the course is actually fun and flowy. I can’t go, but if anyone one else doesn’t already know the details, you can find them all here. Looks like the weekend will be a little cooler, a better temp for riding.
Tuesday Nite in WPG
Well, the rain held off just long enough on Tuesday, til the last of the bikes were being loaded into Mike G’s truck after 11pm. It looked like the guys who made it out for the Short Track XC “Race” had some fun. Here is a gallery of the photos from the evening. The camera was acting plenty goofy with humidity… Enjoy anyway. Thanks for helping burn in the trails.
Stage 2
So we’re done Stage 2, fed and watered and showered. Bikes washed, checked and lubed. I wish I felt as good as my bike looks! The weather was great to ride a 71 km ride. The first half was climbing…again, naturally. We were up at the tree line by the time we were done. Then an insane downhill for almost 30 km! There were some areas that were ridiculous and with the number of riders, there tended to be bottlenecks where there were a bunch of riders, on, off the trail and in the bush…yard sales everywhere. Because Jonny was in the front 20, he missed most of the bunged up issues. The day finished off with logging roads and I had way too many Euros passing me. They’re a breeze to pass on the technical singletrack but they spend way to much time on the road back home. Everybody’s real nice (mostly, with a few primadonnas) and the flow goes good. Jonny did real good again with a 12th place finish. With the UCI accreditation this year, he’s surrounded by racers doing this as part of their point tallies. I’m squarely in 23rd, I think out of a field of 75 in my category left. I felt considerably more beat up today with the stage more than twice as long as yesterday’s. Tomorrow’s another epic day with all the heavy duty climbing near the end, about 40 km into the ride. There’s this thing called the Continental Divide and apparently we’re going to hump over it. Here we go. I hear the weather is epic back home. Makes me think that rain (60% chance for tomorrow) might be better for biking than what you’ve been getting. See ya later.
TransRockies 2010
Yeah, Jonny and I finished stage 1…Fernie to Fernie time trial. We had to seed ourselves based on where we thought we would finish so we started at 10:10 and 10:23 respectively. Jonny is in the big Open Men’s category and I’m in the Master Men’s 40 plus (distinct disadvantage being 54). It basically rained all night and at the start which meant we were in for a mudbath and we weren’t disappointed! Fernie has fairly organic soil so the mud was epic. First part of the stage was all climbing, roots rocks…you get the picture and all on singletrack. Some amazing views when the clouds cleared and the mist subsided. After the first 1/3 we got some fun descending and then more climbing and rolling terrain. I managed to reel in about a dozen guys and got passed by about 4. The field is huge this year with I think over 400 riders. The 30 second staging meant they were going from about 9 am till 2 pm. I was riding alone a lot of the time without the hassle of other riders constantly passing or waiting to pass someone else so I guess I seeded well. I crashed once hard on the first descent…too much fun so going too fast “for conditions”. Long and short, I’m fine but I’m down to granny gear alone up front which means making time on the downhills a little challenging. At the 2nd checkpoint I poured some water and gatoraide over my drivetrain to clean it enough to see what was going on. My cable had slipped up, thus the single gear. On the last third of the ride I had 2nd chainring only. Fun and games. Finally rolled in something like 3 hours 20 minutes. I have yet to check the postings which we’ll do when we go to dinner at 6:30 for the awards ceremony. Jonny did great but again too early to tell where he placed. We’ll keep you posted. Feels good to have the hot shower which was done with all biking clothes on to rinse of the 1/2 inch thick layer of mud first before we got the full benefit of the shower. The mechanics were back from last year and it was good to see them again. See ya later with some pics hopefully…
Got back from the big feed and awards ceremony that went of forever, like they always do. In terms of placing on the first Stage, Jonny is 13th in the Open Men’s (behind the National Champion) in a field of 87. I’m sitting 27th in the Master’s Mens in a field of 80. We”re happy enough.
So off to bed and 71 kms of riding awaits us tomorrow…something like 2100 meters of climbing….blah blah blah.
Beach Babe!
OK, now that I have your attention, the gang at Olympia CC are having their marathon race with weekend, all the details are here. 33km, 66km or 100km options.
If you like long rides, this will do it.
EDIT – YOU DO NOT NEED TO BE AN MCA MEMBER TO RACE – ANYONE CAN RACE! Cool!
