When 14-year-old cyclist Sebastian Sleep took the U20 men's second place spot on the podium at the Canadian Cyclocross Championships recently, it was the last race of the 2006 season and the end of an era for the On The Edge Race Club (OTE).
The highly successful team is retiring the red, black and white OTE Maple Leaf and looking for a new title sponsor and a new name.
Brad and Loraine Proctor from the On The Edge bike shop started the team in 1999 as a way to help some of the local young racers take their sport to a higher level. What grew from that was the OTE Race Club, a non-profit society, that provided coaching, travel and training assistance and, most importantly, a team atmosphere.
The club flourished. OTE Race Club quickly became known across Canada in the cycling circuit for their strength, with riders finishing on the podium in nearly every race and nearly every category. On The Edge is a respected name, well known to any racer and announcer. Members of the club worked hard - every one of them earned that respect. Brad and Loraine will continue to sponsor the Tuesday night series of training rides. Each week the team meets for the dirt crit, time trial or the ever-popular hill climb. This year they hope to add a cyclocross race to the weekly series as well.
"It is time for the club to move forward as we continue to expand," said club president Bob Stanhope. "Although we are a Coast-wide club there was a mistaken belief we were Sechelt based. We're looking for a more 'Coast-wide' look to the team. We hope to ignite sponsorship and membership interest from all over the Coast."
"We have several logo and team colour ideas from club members and would be interested in looking at ideas from the public as well," added club vice-president Steve Sleep. "We're looking at the Team Squamish concept to see if that might work for us. They had some serious interest from Greg Gardner, a local car dealer who put up considerable seed money and then worked with other local sponsors to round out the financial support. First we would need that major sponsorship commitment to make it work, and that's what we're looking for now."
As a show of respect for their many years of support and dedication, the club executive voted unanimously to provide On The Edge Bike Shop with a spot on the new 2007 team jersey.
"Of course, we will size it down" noted Stanhope. Sleep added, "We'll give it a place of honour, maybe on a shoulder."
On the other shoulder, the club hopes to see the logo of Spin Cycles, the other bike shop on the Coast.
"I bounced the idea off Paul Rudolph at Spin and he was very interested in the Coast-Wide team idea," Sleep said. "Spin has helped young cyclists in the past with race sponsorship but Paul admits they 'just weren't set up to sponsor a team.' I've always wanted to see both bike shops on the team jersey and maybe now it will happen. Maybe it will make the local cycling community even stronger."
The team would like to congratulate Katherine Short, whose amazing dedication and skills have landed her a spot on the Giant Bicycles Women's Team. Katherine took first place in the U20 women's category at the National Cyclocross Championships.The club's success is a result of passionate volunteers, committed athletes and committed sponsors.
If you are interested in more information about the club or sponsorship, or would like to suggest a new name for the race club or share a logo idea, please feel free to contact Bob Stanhope at [email protected] or Steve Sleep, [email protected].
