Race Calendar   Events Calendar   Race Results   Provincial Cycling Team   MCA Info/Contact    Area Rides    Forms & Files    Online Membership    Cycling Links   Commissaires-Rules    Bike Trails   Can-Bike

 2007 Membership/License Printable Forms  Click here for PDF file    Click here for Word doc   

     

 2008
MCA Membership
& License online
registration soon


 

Mountain Bike

Kids of Mud Club

Road Bike


F.O.G. Club

Muddy Waters 100

 

Recreation & Transportation

Recreation & Transportation
Committee

Cycling Tips

Cyclist Map

Winnipeg Routes

Winter Cycling

Cycling List Serve




 

 


New Executive Director:

Ron Brown is the new Executive Director of the Manitoba Cycling Association

Event Notice:
Ice Bike 10 -
Sunday February 03, 2008

Once again Woodcock Cycle presents Ice Bike. It will be held at The Forks.  Kids course, Adult course and 3 categories for each. Pre-registration deadline is Friday January 25, 2008  Full details on the Icebike Website (to come)   New for 2008 - A raffle for a Kona Paddy Wagon (draw tickets just $5)
Pre-registered Entry cost - Adults $30.   Kids $15 t-shirt included
Helmet use is Mandatory

Printable Entry form       Printable waiver.    Both must be completed

Racers Survey:

The Friends of the MCA have created a survey to gather some basic information from the current and past participants of MCA races about the race experience in Manitoba. The information will then be reviewed and then presented to the MCA board and staff for their review. Our hope is that they can provide some good ideas and possibly address any valid issues or concerns of the participants. The  intention is to help the MCA and supply productive feedback on what is working and what the priorities should be.

Click here to take the survey

Award Won:

At the Canadian Cycling Association AGM Banquet on Dec 1st, The Manitoba Cycling Association won the Torchy Peden Award for overall success in Membership, Efficiency of Operation and Administration, and for all they have done for the Sport of Cycling for 2007.  Congratulations for the hard work of the Staff, Board and Volunteers.

Volunteer of the Year:

Nomination forms for Sport Manitoba Regional Volunteer of the Year and Regional Youth Volunteer of the Year for all seven regions are now available on the website.

The deadline for nominations is January 7th.
Download a form here and nominate your region's outstanding volunteers today.

Barry Moroz
Sport Manitoba Communications
Email: moroz@sport.mb.ca
Phone: 925-5903
Cell: 795-2355
 

2007 Manitoba Cycling Association Award Winners
Presented at the Annual Awards Night Banquet:

Road Bike

Rider of the Year: Lindsay Argue
Top Male: Daniel Nemetchek
Top Female: Lindsay Argue
Commissaire of the year: Arlene Woodcock
Sportsmanship Award: Mike Payment
Most Improved Rider: Steven Johnston
Top Jr. Female: Karlee Gendron
Top Jr. Male: Adrian Huemmer
Most Pomising Rider: Marshall Verbrugge
Organizer of the year: Woodcock Cycle

Mountain Bike:

Rider of the Year: Don Sissons & Bill Benson
Top Male: Daniel Nemetchek
Top Female: Kylie Case
Commissaire of the year: Dave Johnston
Sportsmanship Award: Mike Caslor
Most Improved Rider: Tristan Geisel
Most Promising Rider: Anna Schappert
Top Jr. Male: Paul Benson
Top Jr. Female: Leah Kirchmann
Organizer of the year: Portage Junkyard Dogs
MTB Club Points Award: Alter Ego

Volunteer of the Year: Dale Cramer

BMX Help Needed

I have a request for talented volunteers to become involved with the BMX Committee. Specifically I need a treasurer, a secretary, and most importantly a person who is a phenomenal fund raiser with the skills to approach potential donors with our plans for a BMX park…and come away with donations to help realize our goals. These amazing talented people should have a strong desire to want to be part of something big, something that will benefit Manitoba, its kids and families, the cycling community, and do it with a dedication that only the cycling community can muster. All interested parties should contact Rob Nagy at argeenagy@mts.net  as soon as possible!
 

Suggestions for the Active Transportation Committee:

With the recent naming of Kevin Nixon as Winnipeg’s first Active Transportation coordinator with the City of Winnipeg cyclists are starting to see some tangible results when it comes to commuting by bicycle in the city.

An Active Transportation Committee has been quickly formed and the Manitoba Cycling Association has a spot on it, so we’d now like to hear from you. The committee is looking for what commuter cyclists see as priorities over the next 5 years in terms of cycling infrastructure, what areas of the city need more attention? Are more trails, bike routes, or diamond lanes needed?

E-mail your suggestions to Phil Roadley, Recreation & Transportation Coordinator with the MCA at bikesandbeyond@shaw.ca


 

 
Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project:
Restoring the Riverbank.

by Jaimée Dupont, Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Technical Assistant


The seasons are changing with nights getting colder and the days getting shorter. The riparian forest in Assiniboine Park has also gone through considerable change over the course of the 2007 field season. The Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Project is a partnership between the Manitoba Naturalist Society and the City of Winnipeg Naturalist Services Branch.

The goals of this endeavour are to help the riparian forest bounce back from heavy recreational use, flooding, and competition from invasive species. The group also wants to enhance the overall recreational trail experience for all users-groups, and help to ensure that future generations are able to enjoy the forest. By restoring and enhancing tracts of native riparian forest we are helping to increase native biodiversity, and educate the general public on the importance of these ecosystems.

Click on photos for full size version

Trail Winding Through Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest – Jaimee Dupont

What’s so special about riparian forests? Riparian forests are the wooded zones bordering streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands. They perform important ecological functions including: trapping and storing sediment, stabilizing banks and shorelines, filtering nutrients and contaminants, storing nutrients and contaminants, regulating water temperature, and providing wildlife habitat and corridors. The riparian forest was identified as a threatened habitat type within the City of Winnipeg, and Assiniboine Park contains one of the largest riparian areas in Winnipeg. Many people frequent the park which makes it ideal for demonstrating its importance and informing the public about riparian areas.

What have we been doing? This year’s focus was on the area east of the footbridge, on the south side of the Assiniboine River. The project team this year was composed of a three member Green Team, the Assiniboine Park Riparian Forest Technical Assistant and the support and guidance of Helen Fabbri of the City of Winnipeg Naturalist Services Branch. Along with several different volunteer groups we planted over 2100 native trees and shrubs in the forest including Manitoba maple, Red-osier dogwood, Pin cherry and Green ash. We have also distributed 200 yards of natural wood mulch along a 0.85 kilometre defined trail.
The team combated invasive species such as Purple loosestrife, Canada thistle, Common burdock by removing them through hand pulling and digging. Over 100 European buckthorn trees were cut down and removed from the forest, as well as hundreds of small seedlings pulled by hand to try to keep the number of future buckthorn trees down in the future. Buckthorn berries were also removed from trees to limit further spread.


Students from Gordon Bell High School
-  Helen Fabbri

The Scouts and their leaders doing their
part on Arbour Day – Jaimee Dupont.

Why wood chips and mulch on the trails? There are several reasons why natural woodchips were chosen as surface material for the trail. The majority of damage to the forest floor and trails occurs in spring due to the wet conditions created by melting snow, receding flood waters, and spring precipitation. These wet spring conditions, in conjunction with trail-use, creates deep ruts and pits along the trails. As users go around to avoid them, trails get wider and vegetation subsequently gets damaged. Woodchips provide a dry, usable surface to walk, jog, or cycle on during wet spring conditions and minimizes the impacts of these activities on the trail and surrounding vegetation. This spring we were very pleased with how dry and usable the woodchip trail was so early on in the spring as opposed to the extremely wet sticky conditions of the mud trails. Because the trail is in a public park, it is frequented by many user groups comprised not only of cyclists but by those who also enjoy walking, hiking, jogging, dog-walking, and bird-watching.

Community involvement was successful this year. We had several volunteer groups come to aid in the restoration process. On Sunday, June 3rd we had a successful Arbour Day planting with great weather. A dedicated group of 15 volunteers from the Boy Scouts of Canada planted 300 native trees and shrubs in the riparian forest. There were also several other volunteers from the community who dropped in to plant that day. On June 13th, a group of ten students from Gordon Bell High School planted 100 Green ash trees along the woodchip trail to close off old trails and fill in gaps in the understory. Deloitte’s yearly Impact Day saw 60 volunteers join us at Assiniboine Park to plant over 362 containerized trees in the riparian forest and another 150 in an established no mow zone, spread 100 yards of woodchip to touch up worn areas of the trail, do a thorough riverbank clean up, and remove large quantities of European buckthorn. Around 20 volunteers joined us for the evening of October 2nd to plant trees just over 100 trees in the riparian forest. Our last (but certainly not least) event of the fall is a dedicated group of MNS members will join us on October 13th to remove European buckthorn from an area north of the zoo parking lot.

Riverbank stabilization and erosion control was also a concern this summer, and an extension of the fence by the foot bridge, and two smaller fences to block heavily eroded entrances to the forest. Additional trees and shrubs will be planted in hopes of further saving the bank. No-mow or naturalization zones between the riparian forest and the asphalt path were also created this summer. Extending the edge of the forest will help to stabilize the bank and allow native species to grow back. A large no mow zone has also been established in an oak forest west of our site and was reforested with 150 oak seedlings.

Permanent signs are set to be installed by the end of October in the forest to assist with educating and informing the public about the project and the forest. These interpretive signs explain the important functions of a riparian forest, some common native riparian tree and shrub species, a site map and project information.
It has been a successful summer overall, with the forest looking better than ever. However it would not have had such great success without the network support and volunteers who contributed to the project. The project wants to extend a big thank-you to Susan and the MNS staff for all of their administrative help and support, and to the members who came out to remove buckthorn in Assiniboine Park in October. We also want to thank volunteers from the Boy Scouts of Canada, Gordon Bell High School, Deloitte and all those from our October 2nd event. The City of Winnipeg also deserves a big thank you for their in-kind support of materials and equipment, native vegetation, technical support and project guidance. We are looking forward to even more success and improvement in the future. For additional information, please contact Jaimée Dupont at 986-7234 or jdupont@winnipeg.ca  or Helen Fabbri at hfabbri@winnipeg.ca   \

 

 

©2007 Manitoba Cycling Association
 Contact Executive Director Ron Brown at info@cycling.mb.ca or 925-5686

This site best viewed with screen resolution 1024x768 or even larger.  We no longer support 800x600

  free web counter  
Hosted by Shaw

All links within the Manitoba Cycling Association website are provided as a courtesy. Link content  is the sole responsibility of the link holder. The MCA reserves the right to refuse any link for any reason at its discretion. Please direct concerns regarding the content of any link to the Manitoba Cycling Association