Yeah. I don’t know how though. I could just start clicking buttons and see what happens.
C’mon, you’re a MOD!!
(don’t forget us plebs that put you there…)
If a mod deletes a post you can trash the notification that a post was deleted as well.
Registrations are starting to come in. Not sure if anyone from N. Nevada is coming. Only two person signed up for elites. I’ll probably end up signing up, along with another teammate, even if to just round out the podium.
Well, it happened. The event went off well, with some minor hurdles that we had to cross:
-Working with the promoter from S. Utah has proved to be difficult. We had talked to her about helping us throw this race in that she would bring some of her supplies and manage registration/timing/results. She wanted to run the entire thing off her race schedules, which does not work with usac/state champ categories.
-Essentially she just let almost anyone register for anything they wanted, save for the elites at the end of the day. This was super frustrating and the usac officials were kinda like “WTF? okay…”
-Registration was a mess because she did not get there until the races nearly started and we had to push back everything 1/2 an hour, right off the back. It being usac meant our numbers were verrrrry bottom heavy, so registration was even more congested for the first race of the day.
We had 87 individual registrations with many, many people racing multiple races. Our 2 USAC officials (1 local to us, one we had to bring in) were cool as hell and them being cool as hell convinced my #2 in doing all usac next year. We got enough monetary support to be in the black without registrations. Overall, it was great. I designed the course and got a lot of positive feedback on it. We had rain on Thursday, so the ground was pretty moist in some sections, which was great. Little undulations made for great turns and the one real hill made for some great action, although it would be better if it was closer to all the other stuff. Sandpit was a hit. We built a ramp down into it and made it turn 90 degrees to the exit. It was actually a bit tricky and you had to slow down for the turn. I wish we would have raked the sand after each field.
Things we need to get dialed:
-Registration. Open up earlier, have all systems go. Possibly have early number pickup on Friday. Get an iPad/tablet with internet set up with square. I missed a bunch of calls with people trying to get ahold of me while out on the course finishing up, making tweaks/fixing sections because my phone was the one at reg with the square reader.
-Printer. OMG, this would have been a lifesaver for the officials, results, and podium.
-Radios. This would have helped so much.
-Volunteers. We had some, but not enough for course crossings. We didn’t have really any issues, but it would be better if we could be more legit. Also, Shirts for volunteers so that you can recognize them easily.
-PA x Wireless Mic collabo. I was going to head to a store and get a mic on Friday, but just ran out of time after course setup. We had a DJ, but he was closer to the start than to the podium and we used an extra set of headphones to speak into. It was difficult to manage any announcing, podium, etc.
-Course Setup. Move this into 2 days. We spend 10 hours at the course on Friday and there were still things that could have been done. We can also become a lot more efficient. I had to go back and re-tape sections because whomever did it in the first place either had never done it before or just didn’t care. Also, we need to setup the course from start to finish. We started by doing the features and then moving into different sections. It mainly meant a lot of extra walking to get more stakes, tape, etc.
As for my race, I got 2nd in ss to my teammate who is having the season of his life. I held a solid 7 second gap to him the entire race. It would come down and go up in sections on the course. Being that we ride so much together, we know each other’s strengths and weaknesses and he went hard where i had trouble and visa versa. Then the last few days caught up to me during the Elite race and I was donezo. We wended up having a few more people show up and then I got last. I was fine with it.
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Sounds like an overall success. If it’s anything like our experience, it will surprise you how much faster year 2 will go.
My wife and I traveled to the PNW to visit family for an extended weekend, and while we were here we managed to find a team to adopt us and lend us their B bikes for the Natz Practice #2 race at Ft. Steilacoom Park. The WA scene was pretty chill and the Egencia team was pretty accommodating.
I didn’t really get a chance to pre-ride so I was on a totally new bike, warming up and testing stuff out for the first lap. I mostly found out that I couldn’t shift into the big ring most of the time, and then my shoelaces got caught on the chainring and untied, so that combination had me losing a few places. Still finished 5th over 9.
I loved the sketchy, swoopy down hills, and it was a nicely balanced course with enough tricky sections, power sections, and features. We’re hoping to get back for Nats next year.
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You were there Saturday? I was there on Sunday. Didn’t race, just supporting my team.
Those downhills were getting really gnarly at the end of the second day. Braking bumps were serious. Some hard crashes eralier in the day and some folks were running down. I likely would have. I can’t imagine what they’ll look like after a week of preriding next year.
Yeah, I posted earlier about it here, but got no bites.
Glad I got to ride the downhills this time around, cuz that’s always fun. There were some people who were running it still. The kids were just dropping like rocks with no fear, which is terrifying and inspirational.
We were tempted to go back Sunday, but since we were visiting family, we figured we should probably hang out with them for a little bit.
Dang. Was busy Saturday anyway.
I looked at a video of Saturday and it looks like a lot of the upper section was different. Not as much long gravel climbing. Not sure which version will be used for nats.
Hope to see you next year. There will be carnage on those hills for sure!
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US Nats course is a shit show.
I’ve seen Bill S’s track walk–seems like they’re TRYING REALLY HARD to make the course, um, interesting.
has it gone slick now?
what resource are you looking at?
It’s super muddy and I guess it’s just a ton of running
edit–got it now. Holy crap. No planning for mud, seems.
Lots of dumb turns.
I don’t really know what we do wrong with tracks. I think maybe we have this idea that tracks should be “neat” with all sorts of cool features. We don’t want to accept and use the features that are already there. Or maybe it’s because our announcers make a big deal out of the dumbest things. Like, why are those stone stairs something that anyone actually talks about?
We also don’t have access to many places to put courses. We can use public parks (sometimes, with lots of restrictions) and maybe some folks will let us use their private land. Euro races go through the middle of towns and through people’s yards and farmer’s fields. And they can do that because they’ve been doing it forever and because they get lots of money from admissions.
I’m pretty excited about next year’s Nats in Tacoma. The course seems to use some really good terrain features and the ground drains pretty well so hopefully no mudfest course like this year.
I’m still amazed at the world’s louisville hosted. On TV, you could hardly tell it wasn’t a euro course.
I’m rambling. Ignore pls
I mean a week of wet racing on a single course would probably turn even a place that ‘drains pretty well’ into a mudfest.
Eva bandman (where worlds was hosted) really has one feature: the levee that you go up and down a few times in one lap. Otherwise you are on a flood plane. For what they had it was still pretty fun to race. I wonder if the stone steps are just a thing they like to put in Louisville courses, because Eva Bandman had them, too.
That must be it. The world’s course may have only had one feature, but they used it well. And they used the flood plain well.
Bringing up that the course gets raced on for a week, I think that’s a big part too. We let too many people ride the elite courses. In Europe, it’s like 4 races, with maybe 60 per race. Here, we let everyone, their 10yr old kid and their grandparents, race the same course (with slight changes). I’m all for inclusiveness in local races, but nats is different. We keep thinking that participation is important, even slow people get to race for a national championship because it would be mean to be exclusive. Though I guess it’s all about the crowds. Lots of people wouldn’t show up if their 10yr old wasn’t going to be allowed to race and they couldn’t themselves compete for the Masters 45-49 title even though they’ve never won a local cat 4 race.