October 3, 2011.

Thanks to Chico Racing for starting a new event for the fall, the Tour de King.

Some great sweeping turny single track peppered along a rolling country road ride made for a great Sunday. This event was a first for a few Bettys. One of yesterday's  participants  started the season attending our beginner rides, while other participants attended  our ‘learn to race clinics’ over the season, and after a season of weekly riding these ‘new to racing’ Bettys are a force to be reckoned with…their smiles at the end of the 52 k and 35 k race in 4 degree rain were so heart warming …it’s why the WildBettys exists; everyone deserves an opportunity to feel so happy and proud of themselves and if it can be achieved while getting fit and making new friends, then all the better. Also out yesterday were a couple of our race team members and leaders who also had a good day in the rain and mud.


                                

That's it for me for the ‘events’ of 2011, though there is the Hardwood Single Track Challenge that some Bettys will do in a couple of weeks and of course we have our cyclocross racers, Rachael and Shannon, whose season has just begun.

The ‘Event’ is a great thing. Everybody meets to socialize a bit, (very friendly bunch, mountain bikers are), we all start at once, we just have to follow the arrows, no decisions about which way to go, we all go in the same direction, (a real treat for Don riders), and when it's over we socialize some more. I know it takes a lot of work, a fair bit of money, and some good luck, to get good weather, a good turn out of participants and no disastrous injuries, to be a success. The events in southern Ontario this season, that we attended, seemed to have had all that. It is clear that each year is a new one and we can’t take for granted that an organizer will put on a similar event for the next year. We have been keen to support new and old events in 2011 and have a great respect for all the organizers and look forward to 2012!!!