With three rounds in the books, the US Pro XCT has more than lived up
to the hype. The first three stops in Fonatana, Monterey, and
Birmingham have provided the best racing action US soil has seen in
nearly a decade. Stop four brings the circus to Colorado Springs, CO
for the Sand Creek International Classic. Short Track and Cross Country
racing await North America's best. You can be sure Cyclingdirt will be
on-hand to bring you the most complete coverage from the event! We'll
have all the photos, reports, blogs, results, and videos you could ever
want...
They had this massive heap at the 4:45pm Saturday start. Rows and rows of different riders and ages. Then they shot them all off at the same time ! It looked like an army going out to war. Chaos to the max ! No on knew who they were racing against and these guys and girls all paid endless amounts of money and effort and time to get to the race. It's only a Magic Marker guys. Not a big deal. When you do a mass start, mark everyones legs next time so your racers know who's racing/passing or getting passed by whom. This is racing basics 101 where we come from. The map given by the park was the highlight. It actually made sence. I give CTS credit for properly explaining the course in advance of marking it. However, in general, I know they can do much much better for thier racers.
I agree with alot of the below comments. It is a disappointment after driving 17hrs to try and get your pre reg packet from the UCI official who came off very rude to many riders and juniors and we wondered what was his problem?? Not a good thing for the juniors to see. Also I dont understand why only pros were timed ?? This really makes team big bear shine.
We agree that there were some issues at the Colorado race. Andy Bolhman, the promoter of this event and his staff tried their best, but were caught off guard by the sheer rider turnout this event produced.
Again this is the US Cup's first year and there are going to be some hick ups along the way. We hit some home runs this year, and you could consider this a ground rule double.
However, I think all of us can agree the facility and race course were first class and the racing action was some of the best of the season.
That said, if the US Cup does return to this venue for 2010 you will see a much more highly organized event as we will be providing the official US Cup trailer, staff, annoucing and scoring for the race to insure its sucess.
Thanks to everyone who came out to race and to those who have supported the US CUP series.
Sincerely,
US Cup Staff
Even though the Colorado event didn't live up to my expectations...give the US Cup and Sho-Air gang a break.
If it wasn't for them there wouldn't even be a National Caliber series and we would be racing in a field with a string of yarn for a starting line. No one can doubt their commitment and all the other California events I attended were off the hook.
I think the lesson learned is, don't hand a National caliber series over to some promoter who obviously doesn't know from apple butter.
And Stace is right, I'd rather be able to attend 3 or 4 killer US Cup PRO XCT events than try and chase a 20 race series where its hit and miss.
If you look at the US Cup races where Team Big Bear was in charge of scoring, everything went smooth-Bonelli, Fontana, Otter, Santa Ynez.
When you look at Bump N Grind and Colorado Springs, they had some serious scoring issues.
The event wasn't that bad and the course was killer, but I wish the people at the US cup wouldn't leave it up to these local promoters to try and put on a national caliber event.
In fairness must say the the cross country event went very well. The venue was perfect as well. Many of the bugs appeared to be worked out. Results for the media have been slow as the event website crashed from over-use.
-=Dave
Totally bogus; I agree. I watched the video and was thinking WTF ... this isn't a short track race. Didn't even look or seem like a national series race.
If you wanted to totally screw up a Short Track race, here is my master plan..
1. Do not publish directions to the race on your website
2. Have no clue about designing a short track course. Put in just one place to pass and no possibility of sprinting to the finish line.
3. Start racers four across
4. Have an announcer that has no clue.
5. Have a PA system that you can hear for only about ten feet.
6. Screw up the call-up of a former national champion
7. Have totally confusing lap cards. Mix mintues and laps remaining.
8. Do not announce any of the primes that were in the press release.
9. Have no discussion of "most aggressive rider" competition
10. Put registration on the other side of town.
I can tell you this.....NONE of this ever happened with Team Big Bear ran the short track races. What a mess.
-=Dave
US Pro XCT #4 Sand Creek International Classic
We agree that there were some issues at the Colorado race. Andy Bolhman, the promoter of this event and his staff tried their best, but were caught off guard by the sheer rider turnout this event produced.
Again this is the US Cup's first year and there are going to be some hick ups along the way. We hit some home runs this year, and you could consider this a ground rule double.
However, I think all of us can agree the facility and race course were first class and the racing action was some of the best of the season.
That said, if the US Cup does return to this venue for 2010 you will see a much more highly organized event as we will be providing the official US Cup trailer, staff, annoucing and scoring for the race to insure its sucess.
Thanks to everyone who came out to race and to those who have supported the US CUP series.
Sincerely,
US Cup Staff
If it wasn't for them there wouldn't even be a National Caliber series and we would be racing in a field with a string of yarn for a starting line. No one can doubt their commitment and all the other California events I attended were off the hook.
I think the lesson learned is, don't hand a National caliber series over to some promoter who obviously doesn't know from apple butter.
And Stace is right, I'd rather be able to attend 3 or 4 killer US Cup PRO XCT events than try and chase a 20 race series where its hit and miss.
They would be better off putting on 7 great PRO XCT events, then trying to produce a 20 race series, where 10 end up being mediocre
When you look at Bump N Grind and Colorado Springs, they had some serious scoring issues.
The event wasn't that bad and the course was killer, but I wish the people at the US cup wouldn't leave it up to these local promoters to try and put on a national caliber event.
-=Dave
1. Do not publish directions to the race on your website
2. Have no clue about designing a short track course. Put in just one place to pass and no possibility of sprinting to the finish line.
3. Start racers four across
4. Have an announcer that has no clue.
5. Have a PA system that you can hear for only about ten feet.
6. Screw up the call-up of a former national champion
7. Have totally confusing lap cards. Mix mintues and laps remaining.
8. Do not announce any of the primes that were in the press release.
9. Have no discussion of "most aggressive rider" competition
10. Put registration on the other side of town.
I can tell you this.....NONE of this ever happened with Team Big Bear ran the short track races. What a mess.
-=Dave