NEWS RELEASE
COLLINGWOOD COLLECTIVE RACING
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Collingwood Collective Racing (CCR), a competitive cycling team for youth, exceeded expectations for 2024 on all counts.
The youth cycling initiative, conceived and brought to life in 2022, is a not-for-profit endeavour created to develop and support local youth cycling. An equally important goal was to put Collingwood/Blue Mountains/Clearview back on the map in the Ontario bike racing scene.
The 11-member CCR racing team did some early spring work, then kicked off the mountain bike race season on May 4. Many races later, after provincial and national championships, on Sept. 23 most of the team switched gears and traded mountain bikes for cyclo-cross bikes, attending provincial championships and then national cyclo-cross championships on Nov. 14-15 in Lévis, QC.
In that span of time, the team accomplished more per racer than any youth team in Ontario with 275+ race entries, 155 podium finishes, 57 first-place finishes, multiple provincial championship medals and two national titles, just to sample a few highlights. That’s a threefold performance increase over 2023, a stellar year in and of itself.
Two CCR athletes will continue racing into the winter season at a national team program in Belgium and world championships in Belgium and France.
“2024 was a good year and well-balanced,” says Bruce Zigman, Collingwood Collective founder and owner of Summit Social House, a coffee shop and bike store in Collingwood. “We’ve found our stride and plan to repeat the same programs. We’ll keep slowly growing the team with new racers. Maybe get some new sponsors on board!”
Kids on Bikes on Monday Nights
Kids on Bikes, a big success in 2023, grew marginally this year from 60 to 70 families.
It’s a five-week mountain bike training camp for kids up to 11 years of age.
“The program is very important to the future of racing in our area,” explains Erik Lehmann, head coach for CCR. “Those kids having fun, learning basic skills, that’s where our future racers are going to come from.”
Lehmann notes that there was high demand for the program, but that its growth was dictated by the number of CCR teenage racers, who act as coaches. “We only have so many,” he smiles.
New Learn-To-Race Youth Development Program
For the 2024 cycling season CCR expanded its racer development initiative with a new 10-week ‘race-ready’ program. It serves tweens and young teens who want to develop their skills and are interested in getting involved in mountain bike racing.
This program is also supported directly by CCR youth race athletes, who are qualified coaches and volunteer their time to run it. Also a big hit.
3x O-Cup Races Hosted
In 2024 CCR successfully achieved its goal of hosting 3 Ontario Cup-sanctioned races in the Clearview/Collingwood area.
This brought over 450 registered racers (and their entourages) to our area, hopefully stimulating the economy. In addition, more mountain bike trails were built, maintained and ridden than in previous years, helping to give back and to grow the local cycling community.
Our Sponsors Make It Happen
The success of Collingwood Collective Racing would not have been achieved without the support of our sponsors.
Their funding is essential to making a pricey sport more attainable for young racing hopefuls. It pays for race-entry fees and offsets the cost of race clothing, in-person coaching and travel expenses.
Pivot Bikes also provides racers with race-caliber bikes at a substantial cost savings through Summit Social House, which also provides racers with bike-tuning services at no charge.
More info: https://www.
To express interest in Collingwood Collective Programs, join as a sponsor, or support our local sanctioned races, please email collingwoodcollective@
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