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As we’ve basically shut things down for the year, I felt that now was a good time to reflect on the season that was.
In a word… incredible! This past year we experienced another amazing level of growth on all fronts; our Club, our Team and our reputation within the local cycling community. It truly is amazing to see that the humble little Club that began six years ago with a mere 17 Members has grown to be just shy of 200 Members in 2009. I’m not sure how the math works, but no matter how you look at it – that’s substantial growth.
Back in 2004, we were just a rag-tag bunch of mountain bikes who decided it would might be fun to do more that just ride together every once in a while. Fast forward to this past season and not only do we have we grown our MTB program, but we now offer a full range of Road Rides, social events, and bike events such as the now famous Biketoberfest. Oh yeah…. and we’ve also managed to develop a pretty impressive Race Team. [more on the Team later].
Sure, the season did present some challenges… growth does not come without growing pains. This was one of the reasons why we sent out the recent survey to our members. We need to know what works and what doesn’t and Member input is invaluable to the continued success of our Club.
The Executive and I were most impressed with the volume of responses generated by this survey - almost 90 sets of responses received - and we’ll be taking all this information into serious consideration as we begin to design and re-work our Club Programs over the next couple of months in preparation for the 2010 season. Thanks to all who participated in this survey and please know that we can only improve your Club if you speak up and let us know what you want.
Speaking of which, it must be noted that this Club can only succeed because of the generous contributions of those who their volunteer valuable time and effort to the Club. I am extremely lucky to work with an Executive Board that time and time again, went above and beyond the call of duty for our Club.
Thanks to our 2009 Executives... and a special welcome to Korina and Jane, the newest members of the Club Executive who were elected this past summer.
Our Club Executive:
• Korina Besednik
• Francois Boivin
• Liam Philley
• Jane Renard
• Mark Thurston
• Paul Weston
• Larry Woo
It should also be noted that with the end of this season, we are saying good-bye to Liam as he has decided to step down from his role in the Executive concentrate on some personal goals, commitments and aspirations. Liam was a driving force behind the development of our Road Program and helped us to define and direct the first two seasons for the Road Race Team. We wish Liam well. And please know that this is not the last we’ve seen of Liam. He’s still going to be riding with the Club and offering his services as Ride Leader in 2010.
I would be remiss at this point if I didn’t also include a huge thanks to all who helped out with rides this past season. We truly appreciate it when Members step up and help out our Ride Programs and take on the role of Ride Leader. It is because of your contributions that we managed to offer so many ride options in 2009. Thank You.
Which now brings me to talking about some of the Highlights of this past season.
Season Highlights
I truly believe that one of the hallmarks of our Club, and the reason I believe we have been so successful, is the simple fact that we have tried very hard to build a Club that is inclusive and open. Many of you who have gotten to know me, know that over the past couple of seasons it has been a personal goal, and yes a goal of the Club, to offer and present a full program for woman.
… and this past season saw the true beginnings of a very healthy program for our Ladies. Not only did we have Woman’s Only Rides on both the road and on the dirt [sorry boys], but we also saw our Woman’s MTB Team do some serious damage on the race course.
2009 Ride Hightlights:
• 172 Rides schedules in 2009 [combined Road and MTB]
• 13 woman’s specific rides. [Wish I knew what happened on these rides]
• 14 Road Training rides
• 14 sets of our early morning hill repeats
This past summer also saw the launch of our new website with many new features and levels of information. Including our Club Forum, which has been hugely popular. So popular was this forum that within the first couple months following the launch, we needed in increase the sites bandwidth twice!
The success of this new site has a lot to do with the invaluable contributions of Radek Zajkowski. As the brains behind the programming of our new website, he put up with [and continues to put up with] all my inane questions, and quires about can we do this, and how do I do that... and has truly helped us build our online Club community.
Some interesting Website Stats [as of the November 30th]:
• 35,000 + unique visits since January [no not all Steve Martin] – hits are at almost 3 million
• July was our biggest month with just over 5000 visits into the site
• Almost 400 topics on the Forum with well over 1500 posts
And of course one of the biggest highlights of this past season ... Biketoberfest - our first club-wide social and ride event. Thanks to Andrew Szafranski the mastermind behind our Biktoberfest for all the hard work setting up this event and designing the Road and MTB TT racecourses. This hugely successful event is truly just the beginnings of what we hope will be a regular series of “happenings” in the Spring, Summer and Fall.
Our Race Team
As many of you know, racing and our race Team is very near and dear to my heart. I take a huge amount of pride in our Team and the incredible reputation you have earned within the Ontario Race Scene. Beyond speed and talent, the LapDogs are known and respected for being a team that truly is a Team. We work together and present an incredible level of comradeship at the events we participate. One only needs to have been at any of the recent ‘Cross races to see our “LapDogs Wall of Sound”
In 2009, our Team in only its 2nd full year participated in 37 events across Ontario. This included Road and MTB O’Cups, the Cyclocross series. We also had some very enthusiastic participation in several 8 hour and 24 hour events – in which we put Teams on the podium every single event, including Tanya Flemming who won the series Championships for Solo Woman at the Duke’s Cycle Epic 8 Series.
Several of our racers also participate in a 3-day MTB stage race, Crank the Shield in which our very own Robin Kay won the woman’s category and yours truly together with my race partner Mark Thurston, narrowly missed a final podium position with 4th overall in the men’s 2 person team category.
And finally, we had Club Members participating in numerous “citizen” events throughout the past season – weekly series on both the road and dirt and various one-day tours, races and challenges.
All in all we saw our ‘Dogs on the podium 96 times! Yes, this truly was an impressive season for us.
Ontario Cycling Association Club Challenge [as of Oct 23, 2009]
• Combined Results, all disciplines – 2742 points for 5th out of 128 Clubs in Ontario
• Road Club Challenge – 508 points for 4th out of 91 Clubs
• MTB Club Challenge – 1783 points for 5th out of 81 Clubs
• Cyclocross Club Challenge – 451 points for 5th out of 48 Clubs
Ontario Cup Provincial Champions
Our entire Team of racers put in some very impressive performances this past season in both the O’Cup Road and MTB series. Congratulations to all who participated and very special “job well done” to our 2009 Provincial Champions.
• Lenka Branichiva, MTB Provincial Champion, Master Sport Female
• Mark Brusso, MTB Provincial Champion, Master Sport Male [30-34]
• Steve Martin, MTB Provincial Champion, Master Sport Male [35-39]
• Derek Hardinge, Road Provincial Champion, Master Male
Team Sponsors and Supporters
Thanks to all who helped support our Team in 2009. It was a great pleasure to share our season with you and I look forward to continued success in 2010
• Duke’s Cycle [www.dukescycle.ca] – Our home shop and one of the driving forces behind the concept of developing our Team
• Revolver, Risk Management [www.resolver.ca] – Thanks for the support and generous contributions to the Team
• IBI Group [www.ibigroup.com] – Thanks for the support and generous contributions to the Team in 2009.
• Sugoi Performance Apperal [www.sugoi.com] – The reason why we are known as the ‘best looking’ Team in Ontario
• ImFit, Performance Studio [www.imfit.ca] – A special thanks for helping many members of the Team to achieve their goals this season
• Lambert Cycles [www.cycleslambert.com] – Thanks for your generous contributions to our Team and for making us stay fast & clean
• Outdoor Gear Canada [www.ogc.ca] – Thanks for the generous contributions to our Team and for helping to keep us safe and stylish with fine products from Giro
• RPM Spin Studio [www.rpm.ca] – Thanks for helping us get fast and giving us a place to celebrate the season
• Get Spun [www.getspun.ca] – Thanks for helping us get fast
• The LapDogs Cycling Club [www.lapdogs.ca] – Without our Club, there is no Team. Thanks to all the members LapDogs Cycling Club
So, that about wraps things up for season six of the LapDogs Cycling Club. Time now to start working on next season.
See you all in 2010.
~ Michael Cranwell
As we’ve basically shut things down for the year, I felt that now was a good time to reflect on the season that was.
In a word… incredible! This past year we experienced another amazing level of growth on all fronts; our Club, our Team and our reputation within the local cycling community. It truly is amazing to see that the humble little Club that began six years ago with a mere 17 Members has grown to be just shy of 200 Members in 2009. I’m not sure how the math works, but no matter how you look at it – that’s substantial growth.
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