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Revised: February 23, 2023

(Revisions in this colour.)

CCCTS Comox Valley Chapter

Weekly “Open Ride” Program

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This document pertains to the CCCTS Comox Valley weekly “Open Ride” program. The

routes in this program are 95 – 100% on paved surfaces and are suitable for road bikes

with 25 – 32 mm tires. Routes may be local (i.e. starting and ending in and around the

Comox Valley) or out-of-town (i.e. starting and ending at a location requiring vehicular

transport of bikes). Gravel or other mixed-surface rides are not addressed in this

document.

 CCCTS Comox Valley Chapter has a scheduled road ride every Friday from roughly

mid-March to mid-October weather permitting.

 The most common starting location is Riverside Park, Anderton Ave., Courtenay.

Recommended start time for rides is 9:00 AM in June, July & August, 10:00 AM for

all other dates. However, Volunteer Coordinators have the flexibility to choose the

start time for the rides they coordinate.

 One route with up to three ride pace groups will be scheduled each Friday. The

pace groups will be:

a) Touring Pace: 17-20 kph on flats

b) Anything Goes: as fast as the assembled group wishes to ride

c) E-Bike: for E-Bike riders. As fast as the assembled group wishes to ride

 The priority will be to have a Volunteer Coordinator for the “Touring Pace” group

each week.

 Having a Volunteer Coordinator for the “Anything Goes” group would be desirable

as well. However, it is likely that participants in the “Anything Goes” group will

tend to be more experienced riders capable of navigating the route (or a variation

thereof) without a pre-determined Volunteer Coordinator.

 E-Bike riders are welcome to ride with either the “Touring Pace” or “Anything

Goes” groups. A separate “E-Bike” group is available on a test basis for this season

and is intended for E-Bikes only. Continued use of this pace group will depend on

whether or not riders choose to make use of this option.

 The Comox Valley Rides - Volunteer Coordinator Handbook explains all there is to

know about volunteering to coordinate rides.

 Where possible, a coffee and/or lunch stop will be included with each ride.

Otherwise, riders will be instructed to bring their own lunch.

 The Comox Valley Ride Coordinator will summarize the information from the

Volunteer Coordinator signup sheet on the Comox Valley Rides - 2023 Schedule and

make it available to all Chapter members. For each week, the schedule will contain:

 Ride start time

 Ride start location

 A brief description of the route

 Route distance (km)

 Route elevation gain (m)

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Revised: February 23, 2023

(Revisions in this colour.)

CCCTS Comox Valley Chapter

Weekly “Open Ride” Program

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 A link to RideWithGPS where a full route map and navigation cues can be

downloaded to the user’s device (e.g. phone or GPS device)

 Planned coffee or lunch stop

 Volunteer Coordinators names for each of the three ride pace groups

“Choose-A-Route” Option

 In the past, the weekly schedule has contained a ride description called “Choose-A- Route”. This option had no pre-determined route or coordinator. Interested riders

simply showed up at the normal start location and time and decided where they

would like to ride.

 All Fridays before long weekends were designated as “Choose-A-Route”. The

reason was that fewer riders were expected to participate on long weekends.

 The “Choose-A-Route” option was also available on days where the planned route

was out of town and was intended to accommodate riders who preferred a local

ride.

 New for 2023, will be the ability for a volunteer to sign up ahead of time to

coordinate a ride pace group for a “Choose-A-Route”. This will allow interested

riders to know ahead of time that there will be someone prepared to coordinate a

ride at a pace that suits them even if the route is yet to be decided.