Cycling BC wrapped up the 2018 cycling race season with a sold-out Season Wrap-up Party at the BC Sports Hall of Fame at BC Place Stadium. Over 200 Cycling BC members, including this year’s Provincial Champions, Premier Series winners, and Community Award recipients were on hand to celebrate the past year in cycling and receive trophies for their wins.
A diverse cross-section of the Cycling BC membership showed up to the party including parents, coaches, officials, race organizers, riders of all ages from all disciplines, friends of the community, and champions of the past and present.
Some of the familiar faces in the room included past provincial champion and 2017 Cycling BC Elite Female Sportsperson of the Year award winner, Sara Bergen. Experienced cycling coach, Houshang Amiri, winner of this year’s Cycling BC Coach of the Year, made it over from Vancouver Island to receive his award. Cycling BC’s youth brought their energy to the event with young provincial champions including 8-year-old BMX rider, Cooper Shwandt, Junior Female Downhill champion, Ainhoa Ijurko, and multi-discipline U15 provincial champ (Road, Cross-country Mountain Bike, Cyclocross), Geza Rodgers, in attendance with their families.
According to Cycling BC’s Executive Director, Erin Waugh, the organization did a reboot of the event name and format to be more inclusive of the whole cycling community. The event, formerly called the Cycling BC Annual Awards Ceremony, used to be a sit-down theatre-style event with awards presentations on stage. This year, the Season Wrap-up Party took on a reception style format with short awards presentations and lots of time for attendees to mingle and explore the BC Sports Hall of Fame Museum.
“We’re here to celebrate the season and bring the whole community together,” says Erin Waugh, Executive Director of Cycling BC. “This includes everyone that makes winning possible including organizers, commissaires, competitors, coaches, volunteers, sponsors, donors, friends, and family members.”
Cycling BC’s Member & Event Services Manager, Cory Ostertag, added, “For every one of our champions, there are countless other racers who also showed up to the races and tried their best. There are dedicated community builders that build courses, officiate races, volunteer, and check off all the boxes to ensure events run smoothly. Local racing counts and it’s because of this community that Cycling BC was able to support over 300 events in 2018.”
The race season and the Wrap-up Party might officially be over but Cycling BC is already working on finalizing the 2019 Provincial Race Calendar.
“We’re looking to build on the success we had in 2018 and are working with organizers around the province to bring more, and better, events to our members so that everyone has an opportunity to compete, develop, and become a champion in their own right.” said Ostertag.
Cycling BC’s 2019 Membership/Licence registration is scheduled to open in early December 2018.
More photos from the event can be found on the Cycling BC Facebook Page photo album.
