This will be a quick weekly update, letting everyone know that the Racer and Spectator Course Guide is now updated for 2021 and posted.
Although there are still a few hopefully minor course related details to resolve we’ve mostly hammered everything out and have agreements with most CheckPoint facilities in place. There are more things to consider with some of the venues this year owing to ‘the thing that shall not be mentioned’ (rhymes with blamdemic), but we’ve worked things out to the satisfaction of most venues and we’re at the point where we can really move forward.
As already mentioned elsewhere on this site our biggest changes to the course this year are:
leaving Winnipeg you’ll use some of the Seine River
no one goes further south than Niverville
the longest distance cyclists do an out-and-back along the La Salle River
Take a look at the Course Guide to get a sense of what you’re in for this year, and then get out and ride!
We want this to be a place of positivity. Our rides and runs are a reprieve from the news of the day, and we’re pushing ahead with event plans in large part because we want to offer the community an exciting, positive goal this winter.
At the moment the local pandemic news isn’t exactly improving, though with good community efforts things could turn more positive quickly. In case they don’t though, we’re looking closely at contingency race weekend plans in order to keep the event going even if, say, there are increased restrictions that keep us out of CheckPoint facilities or don’t allow us to congregate even in groups of 5 or 10 at the start line.
We hope to post a contingency framework here very soon so that when you register for the event you’ll be well informed and know what the race will look like if we need to make changes. Stay tuned, and start or keep training!
Okay, admittedly we’re trying to make this slightly inconvenient pandemic sound as exciting as we can, but we do kinda think these masks are cool.
For the last few years Actif Epica volunteers and participants have received custom toques on race weekend. This year we’ve decided to go with the times and are giving everyone involved with the event these custom masks. They’re a fully sublimated design, double layered, with adjustable ear straps, machine washable and reusable, from Champ-sys, a Canadian company we’ve personally used for other custom cycling gear.
A part of our race weekend protocol will be to wear a mask whenever indoors (even if the official provincial government restrictions are lifted by then), and although we won’t insist that you wear the one we give you we thought it would nice to provide one for you.
As an added touch we’re ordering our first lot of 50 masks right now, hoping they arrive in the next 2 to 3 weeks, and we want to try to get them to the 1st registrants as soon as we can, seeing as you can use them right away. We hope to have registration open soon, and we look forward to getting the first of the masks out as soon as they’re received.
Now that it’s the beginning of October we’re going to start some regular, weekly posts. We’ll copy what we can to our Facebook and Twitter accounts but remember that the greatest amount of detail can always be found on our main site at actifepi.ca.
We’re hopefully just days away from getting a lot of new info up on the site but the biggest thing to announce today is a new tentative race route!…and by tentative we mean there may be a few tweaks but what you see below is more or less how it will end up.
The biggest change is more of a looped route within Winnipeg compared with the out and back route we had last year. This year we’ll start from the Forks along the same route as last year for the first bit but then diverge and take the Seine River south to exit the city.
The shortest distance (approx 60km this year for cyclists and runners) will bring participants through the Fraser Road CheckPoint (a shack just north of the Floodway) at the midpoint, after which they continue on the race loop and connect with the same course used last year that takes them through the U of M and eventually along the Red River, returning to the Forks.
The mid-distance (110km or so) cyclists and runners head south after reaching the Fraser Road CheckPoint the same way the short distance athletes travelled then continuing south to Niverville before turning around and retracing their steps / pedal strokes north until they hit the floodway, then connecting with last year’s course north through the U of M and along the Red River to the Forks Finish Line.
The longest distance (200km) cyclists will follow the mid-distance course down to Niverville and back north to the Floodway but at St Norbert will head west along the La Salle River and do an out and back along the river to add the extra distance before reconnecting with last year’s route north after passing back through St Norbert, also finishing at The Forks.
We’re excited about offering both the Seine River (for every participant) and the La Salle River (for the longest distance cyclists) as additional features to this year’s race. Both rivers are huge highlights for local athletes and demonstrate some of the great winter routes we have in and near Winnipeg.
Please note that there will almost certainly be minor tweaks to this route as we finish scouting, firm up details with CheckPoint facilities, etc, so if you copy the image below or bookmark the route URL below know they are meant to give you a decent idea of this year’s route BUT THEY ARE NOT THE FINAL ROUTE AND NOT MEANT TO BE USED FOR RACE NAVIGATION OR SPECTATING.
We plan to post to this blog every week or so to keep you updated on our race weekend plans. We imagine some posts will be more interesting than others (some weeks it’s all about insurance and permit paperwork, other weeks it’s about ordered swag and race route pics) but keep checking in to learn more.
One of the things we’ll share soon is our new Covid protocol, because it’s the fashionable thing to do. Okay, maybe also because it will help keep you safe. We’re excited to be able to provide this event in the midst of a pandemic and are of course aided by the fact that it’s a pretty socially distanced event by its very nature. But, precautions still need to be taken that will alter the feel of the race a bit. Rest assured it will still provide the same, if not more, sense of accomplishment.
Lastly, stay tuned for registration news. We’re hoping we’re not more than a week or so out from opening up registration for everyone. And with just a bit of luck we’ll be ready then to also announce a small bit of incentive to sign up early.
