Relive the 2023 cycling season by participating in our Members' Choice Awards! Vote for your favourite hill climb, ice cream stop, coffee shop, scenic routes and more! 

Results will be published in an upcoming Cadence newsletter. 

You must be logged in to the website as a member to vote. 

Here's the link to: VOTE NOW!!

EVCC Zwift Virtual Rides

Contributions by Heather Opseth, Bob Westlake, Mike Haden, Darren Bender

To participate in our Zwift rides:

1. Join our club in the Zwift Companion app. Go to the "Clubs" menu and search for the Elbow Valley Cycle Club.

2. Join our voice chat group in the Discord app. Find our channel at https://discord.gg/ZPxHS982y3 

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have questions or would like to help co-ordinate virtual rides.

Full instructions

This article covers the following:

• What is Zwift
• What is required to ride on Zwift?
• How will the Club use Zwift over the winter?
• OK - so how do I join an EVCC group ride in Zwift?
• How do I follow someone in Zwift?
• What is the Zwift Companion app?
• What is Discord?
• Wrapping up

What is Zwift?

With winter at our doorstep, it’s time to consider options for staying active over the winter. We don’t need to put our bikes away, we just need to bring them inside and train on them over the winter. In recent years, several new virtual cycling applications have become quite popular, helping to keep cyclists motivated in their training – far better than hours of watching old reruns or catching up on your Twitter feed while cycling indoors.

Zwift is just one of several virtual cycling applications to choose from, turning your basement workouts into an interactive web-based experience with thousands of other riders from around the world. It features a multitude of gamified elements that encourage you to ride longer and harder, with the goal of increasing your fitness. The benefits are many, including

• Cycling fitness maintenance
• Endurance or power improvements
• Working on pedal stroke efficiency in a stable, consistent environment
• Structured workouts

Other than Zwift, several of the applications display real roads and real venues as you cycle, at the pace at which you’re riding. The first-person view is lifelike and the applications enable you to “ride” many classic climbs and tours in the world that we likely haven’t visited. Applications like Fulgaz, Rouvy, Tacx Training App, and Kinomap fall into this category.

Zwift is more like a computer game, with avatars of real people around the world, all cycling in a virtual world at the same time. It’s all about community, with races, group rides, group workouts, free rides, several virtual worlds, plenty of challenges, and it’s quite engaging as a result. It is the EVCC’s platform of choice due to its great community, group riding features, and number of users.

Using Zwift as our platform, the EVCC is pleased to offer to its members group rides on this virtual cycling application during the winter season. These group rides are posted in our regular event schedule during the winter season, are hosted by trip coordinators from the club, and provide an opportunity for club members on Zwift or new to Zwift to join in on group rides to stay connected and motivated through the winter months.

Helpful Resources:

• www.Zwift.com (the main Zwift website)
• https://www.mantel.com/blog/en/zwift (good introductory site, sample screenshots)
• www.Zwiftinsider.com (a Zwift community website, with lots of resources including the Zwift course calendar)
• How to get started on Zwift with a smart trainer
• Smart trainer vs. dumb trainer – what ’s the difference?

What is required to ride on Zwift?

You’ll need:

·         A “smart” cycle trainer OR a “dumb” trainer with a power meter and/or speed sensor on your wheel

·         A desktop computer, tablet, or mobile device

·         The Zwift application installed

A “smart” cycle trainer can be controlled by the Zwift application to provide resistance in line with the terrain on which you're “riding”. It also accurately senses and responds to your power wattage output. A “dumb” trainer can’t be controlled by the application but can, with the use of a speed sensor and/or power meter, provide speed and/or power feedback to the application.

Which devices can you run Zwift on? Just about everything – your PC, Mac, tablet, or phone. For best results, you’ll want a relatively modern (but not necessarily the absolute latest) model of one of these. Obviously, the larger the screen, the better (more immersive) the experience. Most Zwift users use either their tablet or their desktop computer to run the application.

Some of us use a desktop computer and then mount our tablet or phone on our bikes so that we can use other apps at the same time (see our notes on the Zwift Companion app and the Discord app below). Others mount the tablet on or in front of their bike so that it’s accessible and use that for Zwift and other apps at the same time.

Either way, don’t forget to have ready access to water bottles (hydration obviously), a fan (to cool you down), a towel (to keep you dry), and maybe headphones.

Helpful Resources:

• Cycle trainer recommendations (For everything you need to know about trainers, and then some, this is the site)

How will the club use Zwift over the winter?

In the winter of 2021/2022, our only option on Zwift was to use a ‘meetup’ feature in which an EVCC ride coordinator invited other riders for a ‘meetup’ on Zwift. In order for you to receive an invite from the ride coordinator, you need to ‘follow’ the ride coordinator in Zwift. For more on this, see ‘How do I follow someone in Zwift?’ below.

During 2022, Zwift released a new feature - Zwift Clubs. Much like real-world cycling clubs, they let Zwifters organize themselves into groups, then take part in group rides together. There is now a Zwift Club for the real-life Elbow Valley Cycle Club that you can join to be notified of Zwift group rides specific to EVCC. For these rides, it is not necessary to ‘follow’ a ride coordinator, but you should join the ‘Elbow Valley Cycle Club’ within ‘Clubs’ in Zwift and then join the posted rides within the Zwift club.

Whether it’s a meetup or a group ride in the Zwift club, we will continue to send out email notifications from the EVCC calendar, and you should still register for the event as you would a summer-time ride which helps us track the level of interest in winter Zwift rides. For “meetup” rides, we’ll be sending an invitation for the event to all of the Zwift accounts we have on record for EVCC members so keep your eye on your Zwift account for invites. Ahead of any group rides, we’ll also be putting notifications up on the EVCC Zwift club and the EVCC Strava club.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

• How to Join a Zwift Club

OK, so how do I join an EVCC group ride?

If you are brand new to Zwift, please test your equipment and software and complete some solo rides before joining a group ride, well before the scheduled group ride. Please contact the ride coordinator several days in advance if you need help – we ’d love to help, but it ’s really hard for us to provide significant tech support at the time of the group ride.

First, register for an event in the EVCC calendar as per a usual EVCC event.

The trip coordinator may announce that the scheduled group ride is a Zwift “meetup” ride. In that case, the trip coordinator will ask you to “follow” them in Zwift and they will provide their name in Zwift. If you don’t “follow” them, they can’t invite you to the meetup ride. ( That’s just a requirement of Zwift presently - it’s a personal meetup so it’s by invitation only. See ‘How do I follow someone in Zwift?”below for more details. ) When that ’s done, the trip coordinator will add you to the Zwift group ride and Zwift will notify you with a “meetup” invitation in-game.

Alternately, the trip coordinator will announce that the scheduled group ride is an EVCC Zwift Club ride. In that case, you don’t have to “follow” the trip coordinator in Zwift. However, you do have to join the “Elbow Valley Cycle Club” Zwift Club, and then join the group ride from there by reviewing the list of ‘Club Events’. Select the relevant group ride and hit the ‘+’ symbol to join the ride.

Before the group ride starts, launch Zwift and test out your bike setup to make sure that the setup between your trainer, bike and the Zwift application is working well.

Before the ride begins in Zwift, everyone on the group ride will be brought to the start point automatically by Zwift. The trip coordinator will have picked out a route in Zwift (which will be listed in the event details) and the group will start from the beginning of that route.

At the pre-determined start time, we ’ll be off! (You have 30 minutes grace to join the group if you happen to be late. Often it ’s a technical issue with the device/trainer connection that can foul you up just when you ’re rushing to join the event.)

HELPFUL RESOURCES:

•    How to Join a Zwift Club

How do I follow someone in Zwift?

To follow a trip coordinator in Zwift, you can use either the Zwift Companion app or your account on Zwift.com. We could spell it all out here, but we think that Zwift has done a pretty good job of it on their support page for “Managing Followers”.

What is the Zwift Companion app?

The Zwift Companion app is a mobile app available for Apple iOS or Google Android mobile devices. The app gives you access to on-the-go features such as signing up for events and interacting with Clubs. When using the Zwift Companion app alongside Zwift, the app makes it easy to chat, control some of your actions in-game, and follow your route with the built-in map—plus a whole lot more! 

HELPFUL RESOURCES

• Using the Zwift Companion app
• How-To Basics of Zwift Companion

What is Discord?

Discord is a voice, video, and text chat app that's used by tens of millions of people to talk and hang out with their communities and friends.

In some of our group rides, members choose to use Discord so that they can chat to other members on the ride instead of simply texting each other in-game on Zwift.

It’s optional, but to do this, you need to have the Discord app installed on your mobile device prior to the ride. ( Figure out the installation and the app setup well in advance of any EVCC group ride on Zwift, please. )

Then, join the EVCC Discord channel within the app. The link to the EVCC channel is https://discord.gg/ZPxHS982y3 but you can also search for EVCC in the Discord application.

HELPFUL RESOURCES

•    What is Discord

•    Discord Basics

Wrapping Up

We hope that this provides a good starting point if you’re interested in joining EVCC group rides on Zwift this winter season. The application and the virtual community that it has generated in the past several years has made a big difference to a lot of cyclists in their off-season training routine. The reaction of seasoned veterans, when they have begun to cycle in-game, has been quite positive - many of them are surprised by the reality of the in-game “feel” of pushing hard up hills, rolling over the tops and dropping into long downhill grades, or perhaps even having a little “small-c competition” with a fellow Zwifter in another country. For some of us in the club, it’s a great way to continue to ride together through the off season, and we hope that you’ll consider joining us on more virtual group rides this winter.

Hello EVCC members,

Get ready to take your cycling skills and fitness to the next level with our exclusive cycling program, consisting of three blocks (2 x 8 weeks and 1 x 6 weeks) that can be stand-alone, but ideally done together to build off the previous one!

Join us for 60-90-minute sessions packed with progressive intervals meticulously crafted to build upon each other. These sessions are specifically designed to enhance not only your physical fitness but also your cycling technique, ensuring you're road-ready by the time spring arrives.

What sets our program apart is that you'll be using your own bike within our custom studio. This guarantees maximum comfort and allows our experienced coaches to provide you with invaluable real-time feedback, tailored to your unique setup and riding style.

But that's not all! You'll be part of a dynamic group of fellow enthusiasts, all working toward their own goals. This camaraderie will not only motivate you but also provide a supportive environment where you can challenge yourself relative to your abilities.

Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to become a stronger, more skilled cyclist throughout the winter. Spring will be here before you know it, and we're here to help you make the most of it!

There are only 24 spots left across the entire week, with 2 classes already full, so act now to avoid missing out! To secure your spot or to learn more about our program, visit our website or reach out to us directly at tcrsportlab.com and you can use EVCCTCR2324 to get 10% off if you sign up for the full 22 week program.

The TCR Team

AKA Tips and tricks from the EVCC Level 1 Road Skills Course

By Jenia Tishkina-Norman

My first Granfondo is now under my belt and what great fun that was! We picked the Penticton Granfondo Okanagan as our inaugural event because we’ve heard so many great things about it: from the scenic course to the amazing volunteers and the skilled organizing committee. Throughout the event I couldn’t help but be thankful for the skills and tips I gained from four weeks of technique instruction with the EVCC in collaboration with TCR Sports Lab and their superb coaching crew of John and Dan.

…but let me backup a bit first…

We declared the summer of 2023 to be the Summer of Cycling. And, because it was indeed a family undertaking, ever so gently my husband reminded me early in the season that I actually ought to go out and cycle, and not merely “think” and visualize myself cycling, in order to “be trained up enough for all of us to enjoy spending time on the bike together”.  Which meant I had to throw all my resources into cycling and bike-related activities.  

When the rubber hits the road 

I am a fair-weather cyclist, and the weather had to be well into the high teens/twenties before I braved going outside (nigh on perfect, according to hubby). My amazing sister-in-law suggested that hopping on a trainer early in Spring, if nothing else, would toughen up my tush. I busted out my old and not very smart bike trainer. The first tip of the day: when working at home, having a sit/stand desk and getting the trainer under it works magic for being able to attend training sessions, “listen in” meetings, watch podcasts or movies. The time flew fast and before I knew it, I had a self-declared 20k effort.  Kilometers kept adding up at about one hour at a time. I was well on my way!

Then April rolled around and I was called on to actually put the proverbial rubber side down on the pavement. I quickly realized I could do much better with just a bit more technique knowledge. Lo and behold one of the emails from EVCC called for participants for its foundational level 1, 4-week technique course. I jumped on the opportunity. While I am not an absolute beginner cyclist and have many kilometers under my belt, I very consciously decided to be open minded about every tip offered by the coaches – I am thrilled I did, because it allowed me to become a sponge for the extensive knowledge Dan and John were so happy to share. 

Photo: Our Level 1 Road Skills Class - June 2023

Without further ado, here are the highlights from the course that helped me most and the ones I keep practicing in my Summer of Cycling:

Safety first: Make sure your bike is fit for riding:

• Check tire pressure before every ride, referring to the indicators for optimal pressure on your tires. Note: the latest thinking is to go a bit softer for higher comfort.
  
• Check brakes – front and back
  
• Make sure there is no wobble in the headset (and tighten if there is)
  
• Listen for “funny” noises and address those before heading out!
  

Know your signals:

Learn the common signals and practice them on every ride. The critical ones are indicators of stopping; turning left/right; slowing; and pointing to obstructions or potholes/debris. If you are not able to point it’s OK to shout out the upcoming situation to the riders behind (and sometimes ahead of you)! 

• Right hand extended right = turning right (who knew! I didn’t have the rotational flexibility in my left arm for that bent-armed limp thing to mean much to anyone but me)
• Left hand extended left = turning left
  
• Either arm elbow bent down = slowing/stopping
  
• Either arm elbow bent down hand moving left/right = speed bump
  
• Arm down finger pointing at “something” on the right or left = watch out for an upcoming hole/rock/ “thing”
  
• Arm/hand swooping behind the back (typically on the right) = obstruction ahead, e.g., walker or slower cyclist / road narrows / parked car / move “the other way” (typically to the left)
  

Discuss the conventions and the expectations for your group (even when casually riding with friends) before setting off: Cyclists may be familiar with different practices than yours and it’s good to set the ground rules beforehand!

Never “overlap” wheels:

When riding in a group following other riders watch out for the tire of the rider immediately ahead of you – stay clear because if you accidentally touch it with your own, the rider behind goes down hard; don’t overlap the tire of the rider ahead with your own.

Climb like a champion: 

• Look up, anticipate a hill and the imminent change of effort. The more you practice with purpose, the more you will be able to predict the “right” gear for you.
  
• Gear down into an easier gear (especially if you remain seated when climbing). 
  
• For longer sustained climbs, start gently with about 6/10 effort for the first quarter of the hill, progressively upping the effort to 7, 8, 9/10.  The idea is to not red-zone it from the get-go.  Continue downshifting as it becomes harder.  
  
• When ready to change gears, ease the pressure off the pedals a touch to shift effortlessly and smoothly. 
  
• When riding uphill, initiate the push from your glute muscle and hip, not just the quad.  Another way to try it is to drive your pedal stroke by pushing your heel forward (not driving your toes down). I tend to remember “drive forward with my heel” and magically the glute engages while I am at it!
  
• Gear up a couple of gears / go into harder gear if you want to stand up on your pedals and power up, typically a punchy, but short-ish hill. On a longer hill switch back and forth between standing and sitting (remaining seated is also great!)
  
• Keep your elbows slightly bent and ease off the handlebars/hoods. Have relaxed and “low” shoulders when riding – keep them away from your ears! (I struggle with this one – all my photos look like I progressively tense up/ raise my shoulders!)
  
• The back should be neither hunched nor bowed: think neutral and natural! Similarly, don’t stick the pelvis bone out nor pull it in.
  

What goes up, must come down!

• Coming into a corner going downhill – look past the corner! 
  
• Keep the outside foot down (or, inside knee up)
  
• Don’t initiate the turn with the handlebars -- angle the bike slightly in to the turn
  
• I’ve been practicing pushing into the outside (low) pedal for added stability and keeping my torso more upright than the lean of the bike

Putting on the brakes: 

• For emergency braking, brake hard with BOTH front and back brakes and throw your body weight back behind the saddle
  
• For bikes with v-brakes, braking off the drops gives significantly more leverage/strength of braking than from the hoods – test out both in a safe spot to assess the effect! 
  
• For bikes with disc brakes, the stopping power is about the same from either hoods or drops
  

Fuel on the go:

• Practice drinking and eating while in motion: 
  
• Start by moving hands “in” and “out” on handlebars
  
• Progress to taking each hand off
  
• Advance to touching the water bottle in the cage
  
• Then, pull it out and put it back in without looking
  
• Finally, alternate hands
  
• Tip: keeping shoulders relaxed and not putting a lot of weight on handlebars allows for steadier ride while fetching a snack or a drink! 
  

When things go flat:

And finally, we spent a session learning how to pump and change tires and bike tubes. We all did it! And, it was my first time ever doing it by myself -- though I must admit, I still rely quite heavily on the cell phone as my main tool in my toolkit. Jokes aside, having a spare tube, a patch kit, levers and a pump or CO2 cartridge would get you to safety/home if there is a poor reception/no cell phone coverage. 

All in all – a great line up of tips and tricks from the experts and I hope you enjoyed coming along for this ride with me!  Now, let’s go riding!

Photo: Me (waving) on my latest EVCC ride, the "200 Glaciers" on July 29, 2023

Tech Tips by Lyle Opseth

After last month’s rather lengthy tech tip, I promised to make a brief one this month. Do you know that some bike lights can be controlled by compatible bike computers and by Shimano’s Di2 shifters?

I’ve seen several club members with bike computers that can control bike lights and I’ve seen them using compatible bike lights that can be paired together – but they haven’t done so and are unaware that this can be done. For two cycling seasons, I was one of these club members. We would manually turn on the lights at the start of the ride – if we remember – and turn them off at the end of the ride - but only if we remember.

Often, new bike computers are purchased for the larger screen (as we can no longer read the tiny screens of smaller computers), or for some of the advanced features such as route mapping and directions, enhanced training features, and so forth. Users don’t realize that they can pair their bike computer with their bike lights! I certainly didn’t. All I needed was to take a minute to pair my lights with my bike computer and my problems were partially solved. (I say partially because I still need to remember to recharge the lights.)

Compatible devices

Riders with a Garmin Edge 820 or higher bike computer can configure compatible Bontrager Flare RT and Ion RT lights to turn on automatically when they start a ride. And the Edge will use its built-in ambient light sensor to adjust the brightness for the conditions. The Edge can also work with Varia bike lights and GPS giant lights via ANT+. Newer models of lights and computers come out all the time so check with the manufacturer’s instructions to see if they support this feature.

If you are using Shimano’s Di2 electric sifters, you can also control the lights with proper programming using the Si2 Shifter’s buttons in the hood. I don’t do this as I use the hood buttons to manage the Edge computer which is simpler than trying to use the buttons or touching the screen on my bike computer as I can keep my hands on the handlebars.

How to… 

I’m not going to provide detailed how tos, as this is dependent on your particular set up. I will say that pairing my lights to my bike computer was a simple as pairing the cadence (for my cranks) and speed sensors (on my wheel).

Finally, you can visit the article "Garmin and Di2 Can Now Control Bike Lights" (https://www.bikeradar.com/news/garmin-and-shimano-di2-can-now-control-bike-lights/) for more information. 

Or check out the article "Why Would I Need an ANT+ Bike Light?” (https://seesense.cc/blogs/hub/why-would-i-need-an-ant-bike-light).

Tech Tips by Lyle Opseth

If you use a Garmin Edge bike computer like me and you like to pre-load EVCC route maps for navigation, you can do this wirelessly without having to load it from your computer via a USB cable. I can load a route in the parking lot right before we start the ride.

All you need is to pair your bike computer with your mobile phone, and install the RideWithGPS (RWGPS) app on both your phone and your Garmin cycling computer.

Many use the RWGPS app on their mobile phone for navigation. However, there are some advantages to using your bike computer. When using your phone, you may need to have your phone mounted on your bike handlebar and not everyone has the room. Navigation can significantly shorten the life of your phone's battery, and it may require data usage on your phone where many plans don't allow for much data and extra data may be expensive.

Once you've set up your phone and Garmin Edge bike computer, these are the steps to load a map wirelessly. I can do it in less than a minute. 

1. Open the EVCC Wild Apricot member app.

2. Find your ride under “My tickets”.

3. Click on “SendToDevice” on the map. RideWithGPS should open on your phone and automatically pin the map. If you touch “Open Full Version” instead, you will need to pin the map yourself (described below).

4. Go to your bike computer, open the RideWithGPS app, find the ride under pinned routes and download onto your Edge.

5. You are ready to navigate!

In this tech tip, I'll give a quick overview of the steps required to set up your phone and Garmin computer to wirelessly load routes as described above. It took me just a few minutes to install, set up and test. It could take longer if you haven't been keeping the software up to date and especially if you haven't been updating the maps on the 800 and 1000 series bike computers. This is a great time to also ensure you have the latest software and maps installed.

Compatibility

Before you begin, you should ensure that your computer is compatible with this feature. The Garmin Edge 1030, 1030+, 1000, 520, 530, 820 and 830 bike computers support this.

Step 1: Installing Garmin Express on your computer

To manage the software, maps and apps on your Garmin device, you will need Garmin Express installed on your computer if you have not already done so. You can also use this to manage software, maps and apps on many Garmin devices, including other bike computers such as the 500 series computers, car GPS navigation computers, Garmin smart watches, etc.

Follow the instructions on this web page to install: Garmin Support > How do I install Garmin Express? 

Installation should take about a minute.

Step 2: Updating your bike computer software

Make sure your bike computer has the latest software update installed. You should be doing this occasionally anyway. While you are at it, update your maps on the 800 and 1000 series computers. I recommend updating maps at least yearly because of changes to roads and pathways in and around Calgary. You can also install additional maps, including free open-source maps, if you are cycling outside North America though you may need to at least temporarily delete North American apps if your computer doesn't have enough space for everything.

To do this, connect your Garmin to your desktop/laptop computer with a USB cable, and start the Garmin Express app. It may take a minute or so for your computer to read the Garmin device. The Express app will show that it is talking to the device and will check for a software update. If an update is indicated, click install.

Step 3: Updating your bike computer maps if supported (Optional)

Update the maps on your Garmin Edge bike computers if you haven't done so recently (520/530, 705 and higher series). If you haven't been updating maps, this can take awhile so only proceed if are not in immediate need of your bike computer.

Click on the “Manage Maps” button in Express. Express will display the maps installed on the computer and additional maps that you can install. It will also indicate if installed maps may be updated. Click “Install” next to the map you wish to update.

You may also install or update maps without Garmin Express if you have acquired other maps. See the following for details: How to install free maps on your Garmin Edge

Step 4: Install the RWGPS app on your bike computer

The RWGPS app on your bike computer works with the RWGPS app on your phone to wirelessly install maps. The RWGPS app for Garmin is free.

Step 5: Install RWGPS app on your mobile phone if not previously installed

If you don’t have the RWGPS app on your phone, add it now. 

Go to the Apple Store or Google Play store on your mobile phone, search for RideWithGPS and install it.

Step 7: Disconnect your Garmin from your desktop/laptop computer.

Wait for your Garmin Edge to start up.

Step 6: Make sure your phone and bike computer are connected via Bluetooth

If you haven't previously done so, you need to connect your Garmin Edge to your phone via Bluetooth. This varies between devices, so follow the instructions in your Edge owner's manual.

Step 7: Pair your RWGPS Edge app with your RWGPS mobile phone app

Disconnect your Garmin Edge from your desktop/laptop computer and wait for it to start up. Once the Garmin is running, in the lower right corner (on my Edge 1030+) of the home page, IQ appears. 

Touch “IQ” and the installed apps should appear including “Ride With GPS”. Touch “Ride With GPS”. You will be asked to pair with your phone. Follow the instructions. Your bike computer will give a number that you must enter into your RWGPS app on your mobile phone to complete pairing.

You can also initiate pairing by opening the app, touch “Settings” and touching “Pair Device” if it is not paired.

Loading Routes onto your compatible Garmin Edge

From now on, you should be able to easily install maps wirelessly onto your Garmin. You can load rides that you have pinned in your route library or the EVCC library or you can load recent rides that you have opened in your RWGPS account on your computer or phone.

I will describe one process to download a route on a Garmin 1030+ as that is what I use but the process should be very similar for the other supported Garmin Edge devices. (I described another way using the club's Wild Apricot app on your phone at the start of this blog. Follow the steps below to install other maps you may wish to use.)

1. Open the RideWithGPS app just like you need to open apps on your phone. Touch “IQ” which opens a screen listing the installed apps on your Edge. “Ride With GPS” should appear in the list. Touch “Ride With GPS” to open the app.
   
2. To load a recent route, just touch “Recent Routes” and the list of the ten most recent routes will be listed. Select the route you wish to load if it appears and select “Download” or “Download & Ride”.
   
3. To load other routes, you can pin them. In your browser or on the RideWithGPS app on your phone, open the route and “pin” it. On a browser, you will see “Pin” in the upper left-hand corner of the route. Click it to “pin”. On your phone, use the RWGPS app to select routes you want to load. In the Apple version of the app, I click on “Save” at the bottom of the screen which subsequently allows me to either pin or unpin the route. Pinned routes will be displayed if you touch “Pinned Routes” on your Edge.
4. Note that only the ten most recent routes or the ten most recently pinned routes will be displayed on your Edge. If a pinned route doesn't appear, you can quickly unpin and pin it again to get it to appear.

Please note that you will need wi-fi or cell-service with a data plan to get full access to your Ride With GPS account and the EVCC route library.

While my writeup suggests this is an involved process it really isn't if you have previously been keeping the sofware (and maps) on your bike computer up to date using Garmin Express and you have had the RWGPS app on your phone and paired to your bike computer. I found the whole process straightforward and only took a few minutes. If you haven't, there are more steps involved that I've included in this writeup but it is still straightforward.

I recommend that you keep your bike computer software and maps up to date. You should also have been running the Garmin Connect app on your phone to assist with this. The Garmin Connect app also allows you to wirelessly load completed rides to the Garmin Connect app and to Strava but that is a tech tip for another day.

You can also review the following URL for additional help and an alternate way to install the RWGPS app on your bike computer from your phone rather than your computer. My wife used this method but found it wasn't as straightforward as I did from my computer. 

RWGPS Support > Garmin Connect IQ

By Tanya Colwell, EVCC Program Director

The club is run by cycling enthusiasts that accommodate many different levels of riders and organize various social events. We continue focusing on our core urban and road ride events, we are also looking into adding more multi-day trips, more mountain biking and perhaps even gravel rides.

In mid-March, we were excited to gather over 50 club volunteers at the Coordinator's Kick-off meeting in March to get organized for the season. We talked about coordinators' responsibilities, planned the rides for the months of May and June, and brainstormed about possible training for coordinators and participants. 

Some suggestions included:

We will be following up on these ideas at a later date.

Keeping our rides safe 

As coordinators, we want to provide a safe riding environment by:

With safety in mind, please update your emergency contact on your EVCC's profile page. We recommend having a local Calgary contact and not somebody who is on the ride with you.

Volunteer rewards

Volunteers with EVCC get a free membership for the following year if they coordinate 5 or more events. They get to choose the routes and distances they want to ride, and get a team of like-minded cyclists to ride with them. Thank you to our many volunteers for being a part of EVCC. If each ride coordinator posts just one or two rides a year we will keep Calgary rolling and smiling!

Tanya

Tech tips by Lyle Opseth

EVCC provides two apps for your mobile phone, one for general members and a second one for coordinators.

Each app provides features for members to manage their registrations and coordinators to manage their rides. These apps do not provide a complete set of features available on your computer browser but, rather, provide complementary features you can use when on a ride or away from home. While these apps require a data plan to work best, they can also be used for reference without a data plan with a little bit of preplanning.

Find it on your favourite app store

There are Android and Apple iOS versions of these apps which you can find on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Search for “Wild Apricot”. Download and use is free. Members should install the “Wild Apricot for members” app and coordinators should also install the “Wild Apricot for admins” app.

The apps require you to sign in with your id and password, the same ones you use to login to the EVCC website on your browser but you should only need to do this the first time you open the apps.

The following discussion provides an overview of the features of each app. This description is not complete but outlines the most used and useful features. I use the Apple version of the app so the features may be slightly different than described in the Android version.

Wild Apricot for Members

Use this app to ensure you are registered for a ride, find the start location, find contact information for the coordinator or other ride participants, get the latest ride information, and to display your club membership digital card if you need to show it at a participating retailer for a discount.

When you open Wild Apricot, you will see four tabs at the bottom: “Members”, “Events”, “My Tickets”, and “My Profile”.

Feature #1 - Members: This lists the club members and their public information. You can use this to find the phone number of a member to contact them. For example, if you are going to be late to the start of a ride (e.g., got lost finding the start or held up in traffic) or you lose the route on a ride and there's cell service, you can look up a coordinator's phone number and call them.

I recommend that coordinators review their public information to make sure their contact information is correct and that your mobile number is provided rather than your home phone number.

Feature #2 - Events: Events lists all public upcoming club rides. You may use this tab to register for a ride, look up the start of the ride (if you can't find it), and review the ride description details and registrants.

Touching the start-location field from the overview page will open the map to show the location of the start. While the ride description may include the Ride With GPS map as a convenience, you will need to load the map onto the Ride With GPS app or your bike computer to get ride guidance. You cannot load the map onto a bike computer from the Apricot Map. Review the “Ride With GPS” information on the club website for information on using Ride With GPS maps.

While you can register for a ride on this page, you cannot deregister. Go to the “My Tickets” tab to do this.

Coordinators should review the location field of their rides in this app to ensure that the start location is properly displayed in a map. Sometimes I provide the GPS coordinates to avoid ambiguity. (This can be easily determined in Google Maps when creating your ride. I can provide help if needed.) A location description like “Train station in Banff” is too vague. Do you mean Banff townsite, Banff national park, or Banff Scotland? Apricot doesn't know. And even when using the location “Railway Ave., Banff”, Apricot may confuse it with Railway Ave in Canmore or some other town with a Railway Ave.

Feature #3 - My Tickets: Use this ticket to find all the upcoming rides for which you have registered. Use this page to deregister from a ride. Your contact information is also listed. Review it to make sure it is correct so the coordinator can contact you if needed (via text, email, or phone), or to get your emergency contact information.

Feature #4 - My Profile: This shows your public and private profile information for review. You can select “My Card” so you can show your club membership card. This can be useful to get discounts at partner retailers.

If you don't have a data plan or the start of the ride doesn't have cell service, you can preload ride information such as a map to the start location or the coordinator's contact information before leaving home in case you may need this information.

Wild Apricot for Admins

Coordinators can use this app for managing their rides. This app cannot be used to create or edit rides but it is useful for managing the participants registered for a ride. This app opens with four tabs listed at the bottom and the “Events” tab is the opening default. Coordinators will mainly use the “Events” and “Contacts” tabs.

Feature #5 - Admin - Events: The “Events” tab is used to find any ride. Rides are normally tagged when created and you can select tags as a filter to find a ride. Usually I just select “Upcoming Events” and then scroll to find my ride. Rides are listed chronologically. 

When you display a specific event, it will display similarly to the members app version with some additional information (e.g., the waitlist).

Selecting the “Registrations” tab displays the registrants and allows you to mark the attendance of each preregistered member. I sometimes use this to manage ride participants rather than a paper copy. If the start location doesn't have cell service or you do not have a data plan, you can preload this page and leave it open to manage attendance.

Feature # 6 - Admin - Contacts: You can use this tab to find the contact information and emergency contact for participants of your ride.

No Cell Service or No Data Plan

You can reference a page in either app even if you don't have cell service or a data plan if you open the app to the needed page and leave the app open to that page. For those with limited data plans, the data usage of the apps is minimal.

Dreaming of cycling season? So are we. While you wait for the snow to melt, gear up with this guessing game.

All of the photos below were taken either during an EVCC ride, or on a familiar EVCC route. How many can you identify? Share your guesses by clicking on the three vertical dots at the top left of this blog post, and selecting "add comment". Be as specific as possible and let us know if you have any great memories of riding these routes.  

Have fun!

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Order your new EVCC jersey today!

We are excited that our new club jerseys are ready to go -- along with matching shorts, bib shorts, arm warmers and leg warmers.  Our new kit is made by Louis Garneau and is now available for ordering on our website.  Order deadline is midnight on February 27. This deadline enables us to get 20% off the regular prices. Order Now!