Bicycle Festival – Visit beautiful Niagara

Velo Niagara Cycling Festival will return JULY 8th. 9th. and 10th. 2022

Thank you to all of our generous supporters!

Heart Niagara is very pleased to anounce that we will continue to offer elementary schools across Niagara, Cycling Safety Education (CSE) programming for grade 5 and 6 students in 2019. CSE educates students about cycling safely to school and within our community and provides students with a channel to acquire the skills they need to safely and confidently operate their bicycles on our roadways. Students will develop the fundamental skills to make cycling a lifelong form of physical activity that they can use for both recreation and transportation purposes. Elementary schools across Niagara are invited to register for a spring bike rodeo by filling out the following online form:

The cost per student is $9. Sessions are approximately 90-120 minutes long. A maximun of 32 students can participate per session and multiple sessions can be booked throughout the school day to accommodate each grade 5/6 class.

Heart Niagara is commited to finding new opportunities to sustain CSE and invites sponsors and donors to learn more.

Due to the COVID-19 situation, Heart Niagara will not be delivering the bike rodeo program this year. Alternatively, we have developed a digital resource called “Cycle Safety Virtual Bike Rodeo” in English and in French, which is available on our YouTube channel, to adapt to the current situation and ensure people still have access to this important education during these times

For details on how you can get involved, email victoria.lafratta@heartniagara.com or call 905-358-5552 Ext 108

TRAILBLAZERS Tandem Cycling Club

Hidden Niagara - Creation of the Niagara Gorge

"Got an hour? Watch this video about the history of the formation of Niagara River and Falls. Millions of years ago, this area was at the equator, which is why the rock surface is the result of having been under a sea. And other rock, way beneath that, is from a mountain range that was taller than the Himalayas, all worn down by the forces of nature. Lots of strange but true information."

Apres cyclo schedule:

Friday:

Saturday:

Time:

5:00

5:30

6:00

6:30

7:00

8:00

9:00

Presentation by:

Peter

Kerry

Allen

Peter

Virginia

Tour / Activity:

Guantanamo Mango

Fat Mary

Transcuba

Celia Sanchez

Silk road

Time:

5:00

5:30

6:00

6:30

7:00

8:00

9:00

Presentation by:

...

Steve

...

Tour / Activity:

All afternoon

outside market

...

Pub Quiz

...

Movie

Ride Schedule:

ALL RIDES START AT 9:00am OUTSIDE THE FRONT DOOR OF THE RESIDENCE

Day #1 - Friday, July 9th.

Easy rider route:

Details:

Easy ride along the cycle path to the market in Port Colborne 48km.

Route:

Leaders:

Dawn Cant-Elliott & Alfie Duva.

Middle marker route:

Details:

50/60km. Effingham Long (ride to Meglomainiac).

Route:

Leaders:

Walt Berg and Dan Toppari.

Long marker route:

Details:

Under 100km.

Route:

Leaders:

Dave Livett and John Lye.

E-bike route:

Details:

Riverside route 58 km.

Route:

Leaders:

Ziggy Krueger and Tami Williamson.

Day #2 - Saturday, July 10th.

Easy rider route:

Details:

30/40 km. Niagara Falls Short.

Route:

Leaders:

Alfie Duva and Dawn Cant-Elliott

Middle marker route:

Details:

50/60km. Niagara Falls Long.

Route:

Leaders:

Howard Graham and Dan Miron.

Long marker route:

Details:

Approximately 126km.This is a very challenging route, with lots of climbing, to tackle this you are a very fit rider or on an E-bike.

Route:

Leaders:

Jeff Murphy and Mike Bosch

E-bike route:

Details:

Port Dalhousie Short, 43km.

Route:

Leaders:

Ziggy Krueger and Tami Williamson.

Day #3 - Sunday, July 11th.

Easy rider route:

Details:

43km to Port Dalhousie.

Route:

Leaders:

Dawn Cant Elliott and Dan Toparri.

Middle marker route:

Details:

Jordan 79km.

Route:

Leaders:

Janet Rivers and Kristine Dione

Long marker route:

Details:

Under 100km.

Route:

Leaders:

Howard Graham and Dan Miron

E-bike route:

Details:

Ride to Balls Falls. 67km.

Route:

Leaders:

Ziggy Krueger and Tami Williamson.

All rides to be supplied with URLs from “Ride with GPS” website. Each route will have a local cyclist as a leader. This site is under construction please be patient, all will be ready soon.

VELO NIAGARA WILL EMBRACE THE E-BIKE

E-bikes aren’t cheating, they’re empowering. We need to embrace e-bikes because they get more people on bikes more often. From older riders, to those with longer commutes, to people dealing with health issues, e-bikes provide important bike riding opportunities. We’re not saying they’re for everyone, but we believe that more people riding bikes is good, not only for everyone who rides, but for the entire community. Let’s embrace the future and make the most of the many benefits that e-bikes offer. You are welcome to participate in all tours with your e-bike. These are not races, so please stay with group. There are a series of daily e-routes. Leaders are on e-bikes and routes are not too long for those with shorter battery life. We are not fostering segregation with these rides, but rather just looking for ways to bring these new-fangled velos into our riding community. We hope everyone is happy with this. Although we in Canada and the US have been slow to accept these electric contraptions and are lagging far behind the level of acceptance in Europe, the e-bike is here to stay.

In aid of:

Vintage Velo-Market (Coming soon...)

Sell your old bike at Velo Niagara Cycling Festival. Just bring it to the residence parking lot or the afternoon of July 6 th . 2019 and handle the business yourself. If you have a Vintage bike(made before 1986) Send us a photo along with a short description of your stead and we will post here for pre-show advertising, here on this website. There is no charge for this service!

Escuela de Iniciación Deportiva Escolar

Referred to by the acronym EIDE. These are sports oriented high schools that are attended by youths deemed to have a talent for a particular sporting activity. There is one EIDE in each province of Cuba. Not all EIDE cover cycling but you can bet Cuba’s top sports are in every provincial EIDE, such as Boxing and baseball. Driving around the vicinity of each school with a cycling squad, you might come across a group of young athletes being escorted by their gym teacher on a motorbike. What a great idea, sure beats vaulting a box or pommel horse. They do have gymnastics but don’t push it down the throats of those not inclined to vault and bounce around the gymnasium.

As the great Fausto Coppi told us the best exercise for cycling, is cycling! Life is not all games at these EIDE institutions, a student must maintain passing grades in order to hold that prized place I the provincial EIDE. Let your marks slip and expect the boot. After all the state doesn’t want academic slackers representing it at the Olympic or Pan Am games. No matter how far the youth lives from the school, they are taken care of by the state. If you live close enough to walk then do that, further way and you will be bussed in daily. Beyond a bus ride there is a boarding school where you are fed and housed. Cycling can possibly be regarded as an elitist sport. In Cuba it defiantly is that. Simply because even if your family had the money, to purchase racing equipment, this would not be possible.

There are bike shops in Cuba but these are rather rudimentary and cater to utilitarian sit up and beg roadsters. You know those Flying Pigeon bikes with rod breaks and roadster tires. You might see some low end Shimano parts in a shop in Havana but high quality racing parts are out of the question. These are sometimes found in our Revolico (something akin to Kajiji). These schools need your used parts! Can you imagine how difficult it must be for the coach to keep 20 kids in rubber? Sure we need your old racing bikes and you are sending them here for which we are very grateful. It is impossible to buy a 700 x23c racing tire or inner tube, please consider bringing your used tires. The list of our needs is extensive, from water bottles to the cages that, hold them on the bike, handle bars to tape, gear cables and break cables, saddles, chains and cassettes. If it goes on a racing bike we need it, not necessarily new, used will suffice. Send us your used spokes.

Thanks so much for reading this begging letter.

Best regards, from Havana, Peter Marshall.

Accommodations

For 2019 Velo Niagara will return to the Niagara on the Lake residence of Niagara College and our rides continue in the area with our usual 3 choices of distance; approximately 40k, 70k and 100k all rides will have a group leader. In addition to our road touring routes we wil offer a daily Trail ride for those who would like to do some mountain biking. The routes will be set up on a “Ride with GPS” platform. We will endeavour to keep all groups to a maximum of 12 riders and will seek more leaders from the local clubs if these groups exceed our 12 rider maximum. This event grows every year and we strongly suggest that you plan ahead and book your residence spot as soon as possible. There are many options in the area for staying overnight, the residence is our ride headquarters and is where we will have a cycle-art exhibition, show our movies and hold our pub Quiz. The Quiz is sponsored by a local winery and we will again have prizes. You will love “Velo Niagara” it has lots to offer for any cyclist.