River Valley Cycling

Supporting Cycling In and Around Fredericton

Strava Race Series Update

By

What a month for RVC races! 

The return of Short Track and debut of the Enduro Series were both met with fantastic enthusiasm and the Wooly 4 was a huge success.  Over on the Strava Race side things were hot as well with an excellent month-long back-and-forth between Mattias and Alex for the KOM (the lead changed hands multiple times). For the women Melissa captured her second MVP crown of the series and Tara, not far behind, kept her perfect season record intact. We’ve been inspired by the Short Track and Enduro with their series standings and cool trophies so we’ve gone back and now have Strava Race standings as well. We also intend to award a trophy to the top male and top female racers when we conclude in November. The prizes, however, will still be a random draw based on segments completed so if you haven’t got your name into the hat yet, there’s still cause to do so. 

Overall Season Standings To Date

For the Women Tara leads the way, combining strong results with perfect attendance. On the Men’s side, the podium is also filled by folks with perfect attendance but has seen some jockeying for position in recent months. Best of luck to those in the hunt for the trophies, keep the rubber side down! 

Clicky here for the full standings.

September’s Segment

The next segment runs from September 1-29, 2023 and is once again back to Woolastook where exciting things have been happening all summer and will continue to do so late into the fall. We’re going to utilize the new flowy trail built by Dig-In Trail Building, the new connector built by intrepid volunteers Bev and Norm to finish on Shoreline East by the picnic table for a quick rest. Be sure to check out the revamp to the length of Shoreline done this season and the Summit Deck built last season as they have both been fantastic additions to the system made possible by our partnership with the Canada Community Building Fund. 

RVC’s Woolastook 4 MTB XC event Presented by Trailway Brewing

By

This long-running favourite event is about having a good time, solo or as a team, at a hammer or chill pace, on a great, flowy course that suits a wide range of abilities. Again this year, we’re excited to be showcasing some new trail in this year’s course! Racers complete as many laps as they can in the allotted time, solo (must be 19+) or as relay teams of 2 or 3. Or just do as many laps as you feel like riding, and hang out at the start/finish cheering and socializing. It’s all fun.

As usual, there will be refreshments, cool swag, and podium stuff from Trailway Brewing, a BBQ and snacks, plus great draw prizes.

Categories are:
Solo Men (must be 19 or older as of December 31, 2024)
Solo Women (must be 19 or older as of December 31, 2024)
Open Team (team members may be any age and gender)
Women’s Team (all team members must be women/girls)
Youth Team (all team members must be 16 or younger)

Here is this year’s course.

Want to stay at the park? Ask us about unserviced camping at the Fox’s Den loop adjacent to the course. As in 2023, Race HQ, parking, and the start/finish will also be in the Fox’s Den. You won’t find it on Google Maps, as it’s not normally open to camping, but HERE are directions to the Fox’s Den from the 102. Basically you’ll follow the campground road all the way around to the campground loops. You’ll pass a set of gates and then a little garbage trailer and then turn left where it’s signed “Fox’s Den.” Race day, it will be signed from the park entrance on the south side of the highway to the start/finish and parking.

Event Day Schedule
9:00-10:30 am Registration and plate pickup
11:00 am Race start
3:00 pm cut-off to begin final lap
3:30 pm awards and draw prizes

REGISTER ONLINE (below) for $40 until 6pm on Saturday, August 24 or on site race day for $50. If you are not a Velo NB member, there is an additional $10 fee for a day license.

Please note:
(1) There is no potable water on site. Bathroom facilities are a rustic outhouse and a Port-o-John. We’ll have some bottled water, but do yourself and the environment a favour and plan ahead.
(2) There’s also not a lot of furniture on site. If you prefer to sit somewhere other than on the grass, bring a portable chair of some sort.
(3) The event runs rain or shine.
(4) Parking is in the campground loop near the start/finish. Pull into a site or clearing or pull up on the side of the road where there’s room, don’t block people in or park on any tents.

Business Community Support: Thank you Radical Edge!

By

You’ve probably heard by now that we have big plans for Woolastook Park. Maybe you’ve already seen some of the action on the ground like our new trail that just opened after Dig-In Trail Building & Design finished up their work last week? We have an entire summer of updates coming and we’ll be announcing more exciting builds coming from both volunteer and professional trail builders. This is all enabled by our amazing grant from the Canada Community Building Fund that we received in support of our trail plan.

This post isn’t about what you already know though… it’s about what we haven’t shared yet.

Unless you are one of the members who attended our AGM this spring to get the inside-track you probably haven’t heard of another key link in the chain that is allowing RVC to pull off this mega-project: a critical infusion of cash-flow provided to us by our incredible partners, Radical Edge Bike and Ski!

We realized early on in our project that without financial back-stopping, the club wouldn’t have been able to bridge the periods between when our large bills come due, and when our grant money shows up. The Radical Edge told us that this was something they wanted to help with – and we were off to the races.

We want to express our gratitude, and the gratitude of the entire community of trail users at Woolastook to the Radical Edge Bike and Ski, for their invaluable support and contribution to our Woolastook project. Thanks to this partnership, we have been able to start turning our master plan into a reality! What a dream!

We also want to express our gratitude to our wonderful community. Without your continuous support, volunteer work and belief in our mission, none of this would have been possible. The Woolastook project is a testament to the power of partnerships and collective action. It is through collaborations like ours with Radical Edge that we can bring about real change and make a positive impact on our community. Thank you, Radical Edge, for being our partners in this incredible journey. We are beyond grateful for your support, and we look forward to achieving even greater milestones together. Stay tuned for more updates as we continue to make progress on the Woolastook project!

Opening Up Woolastook For the ’23 Season

By

Thank you for your patience through the soft, spring conditions. We know it’s tough to wait but riding too early during freeze-thaw cycles can really damage all the work volunteers put into our singletrack. Despite a bit of rain this week, we are happy to say that Woolastook is adequately dried up and ready to ride!

There’s more good news. You’ll now be able to ride the new alignment of Shoreline West that avoids what used to be a muddy, flow-killing section. The new alignment stays high and dry and looks beautiful. Check out Norm’s walk-through video and tell us that this doesn’t make you want to go ride right now!

Since this is the first singletrack trail network in the Fredericton area that we think is ready to go (aside from our good friends at Mountain Bike Minto) we’re expecting a good crowd out there this weekend. You may see some volunteers out there doing trail work this weekend removing blow-downs and fine tuning things. In fact, we’re looking for a few volunteers to do some leaf/debris blowing. We’ll have our fleet of blowers all on-site at 10:00 Saturday morning and if you’re willing to volunteer for an hour or two please send us a message (via FB or email) – we’d love to set you up!

Stay connected for more trail updates as other networks dry out and remember to get your 2023 RVC Membership!

Winterbike Plan 2023 – Woolastook

By

Riders!

It might be raining today but planning for the 2023 Winterbike season continues. It will snow! Your Winterbike membership supports trail grooming at several locations in the Fredericton area. Here’s our plan for Woolastook.

This year RVC groomers will keep a little more than 9 km of trail open at Woolastook. The layout here will let riders plan out routes using stacked loops so lots of distance options will be available. You’ll want to build up to a full distance ride though because the winter lookout is worth it. We won’t tell anyone if we see you pushing your bike up the last bit of that steep hill up to the lookoff – we promise.

Woolastook mountain biking trails

Mike Hutchinson, RVC’s vice president and Woolastook project lead will do some heavy lifting this winter and plans to groom regularly. From time to time he may get a little help from Dave & Andy. Give these guys a huge thanks if you are out and you run into them. Grooming snow for fatbike is a tough job and volunteering is how it all happens!

Can’t wait!

This grooming plan is what you can expect RVC will keep open for the duration but from time to time we’ll probably be able to enjoy a few other pieces of singletrack opened up by volunteer snowshoers. If you want to update your Trailforks app the winter mode map is now up to date.

Remember, you can join RVC Winterbike right now for 2023! This year we’ve kept our winter membership price the same despite our cost of running the equipment going way up. We hope you enjoy and we appreciate your support.

Proud Members of: Velo New Brunswick

Canadian Cycling Association

International Mountain Biking Association