Cowichan Populaire 2019
50, 100, 161 km
Organizer's Report
Ride date: June 1, 2019
by Dave Macmurchie

The complete un-redacted report is confidential to The Exective, but widespread interest calls for a short summary note. The essential message is that the event was YUGE, with no collision and no obstruction.

This was obviously the biggest event ever. There are stories that in 2017 there were 110 riders, but that comes from the failing BC Randonneurs archives. This year the organizer personally saw 106 riders at the start, and the control officials saw 106 at Russel Farm, with similar observations at other controls, and 106 were observed to finish, so clearly this year’s event was bigly successful, trust me.

One of the biggest worries was the invasion of migrants from south of the Malahat, intent on stealing course records from local riders. Fortunately our personnel at the control points were able to handle the situation, and there was no separation of parents from children, primarily because the only parent-child combination was on a tandem. This success was due to recruiting the very best people: Buddy Bhandar, Carol Hinde, Dave Suttill, Mark Payten, Melissa Haynes, Paul Hovey, Rob Scrimgeour, Stephen Hinde and Triston Line. We couldn’t have done it without them and they arranged for excellent weather, sunny with temperatures in the low to mid 20s, so no swamp drainage was necessary.

The riders generally enjoyed the routes and there were no reports of fake cues, although some noted that the section coming up to The Hub from the Koksilah River bridge was a big, beautiful wall, and the riders paid for it. And speaking of who paid for things, we want to thank Duncan cycles shops Cowichan Cycles, Experience Cycling and Cycle Therapy for providing door prizes that we used to encourage early registration, as well as Black & White Coffee Roasting for morning coffee. Congratulations to draw prize winners Shelley Howlett, Harmony Huffman, Charlene Stewart and Christine Schilling!

Dave Macmurchie, Sp.D.*

*spin doctor

June 1, 2019