Ride On
Posts:537
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| 01/11/2015 12:05 PM |
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http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/usa-cyclo-cross-championships-delayed-24-hours |
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Ride On
Posts:537
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| 01/11/2015 12:07 PM |
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| I feel for promoters , it's a thankless job and some days it just sucks |
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longslowdistance
Posts:2886
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| 01/11/2015 08:40 PM |
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Forumite poll:
Who has run a race, not a just for fun race, but a significant race with cops involved, etc.?
I did it once. It was fun and rewarding, but it took a ton of time.
In our litigious society, I would never do it again. Too many soulless trial lawyers out there happy to screw anybody anywhere anytime for a dime. |
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Inferno7
Posts:344
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| 01/11/2015 10:18 PM |
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| Huge blunder by USA Cycling to have this race in Austin in the first place. The course is a joke. |
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THE SKINNY
Posts:506
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| 01/12/2015 09:42 AM |
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| zilker park used to be a pretty nice place. i'm guessing it still is. cx races are brutal on the terrain. they should've had it at lance's ranch (if he still owns it). |
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| How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/12/2015 10:32 AM |
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@Inferno. I raced Wednesday and Thursday, watched the races Fri and Sat. The course was AWESOME!
Parking was run superbly, the vendor expo was great (handing out free food, trinkets, swag). One of the better venues I've seen.
Ran into a fellow VN Tech Talk forumite and cheered for him during his Masters race. Had a buddy go down in a massive pile up in the 40-44 Masters cat. He was near the front and someone came over his front wheel with 135 guys right behind him. He loaded up and drove 11 hours back home after racing 150 meters 
IMO the blame should be shared by the City of Austin for not disclosing the city code of Heritage Tree protection and USAC for insufficient due diligence. Major screw up here and there should be several people unemployed by the end of the week if there is any accountability…. which with USAC there never is.
After the notice of cancellation/ postponement we loaded up and drove home-- glad to roll in at 9:30 pm Sunday instead of 5:00am Sunday but still bummed we didn't get to see racing on a epic CX course
Some of the Twitter stuff I saw was Lance calling the city and the parks dept to help work out a solution.
Several people passed the Paypal hat to raise money to help juniors and others with unexpected expenses. Lance (and you know how much I disdain him) offered housing for people who couldn't extend the stay at the rented condo or hotel. Tim Johnson offered to feed juniors and their family dinner Sunday night
There was plenty of whining but after the anger subsided the cycling community really pulled together. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/12/2015 11:16 AM |
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Here's why CX Nats were postponed and the course altered.
Link here--> http://www.austinheritagetreefoundation.com/Tree_Alerts.html
Plenty of finger pointing opportunities here. Me? I'll be watching the live feed of the Elite men later today
Link here--> http://www.procyclinglive.com/livestream/ |
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ChinookPass
Posts:809
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| 01/12/2015 12:47 PM |
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Let's hope the Richmond road WCs go a little better. If USAC is involved though, I wouldn't bet on it.
Way to represent Dale!
The best CX venues tend to be on private land or on public land so wretched and undeveloped that the public doesn't care about the damage. Usually promoters get to use a nice city park once or twice and are asked not to come back. Sounds like this was a case of the perfect storm and wishful thinking on the part of the promoters. |
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Orange Crush
Posts:4499
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| 01/12/2015 01:00 PM |
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What Chinook said. It's plain stupid to hold this in a place with heritage trees.
For the Belgian champs they had to use heavy equipment to keep course ridable and clear away excessive mud (think knee deep); no complaining about damage to terrain there. |
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SideBySide
Posts:444
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| 01/12/2015 01:17 PM |
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Why weren't the tree people involved in course set-up, or wasn't it approved in advance? I am not particularly an environmentalist, but 300 year old trees in a town park are irreplaceable and do need to be protected.
A friend of mine was in the masters pile up. He finished, but his front wheel was pretty messed up. |
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THE SKINNY
Posts:506
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| 01/12/2015 04:37 PM |
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| has austin never had a cx race before? maybe just not at the park. i bet there was a lot of good beer there to help drown those sorrows. |
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| How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. |
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jacques_anquetil
Posts:245
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| 01/12/2015 04:56 PM |
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thanks for the onsite insight, Dale!
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SideBySide
Posts:444
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| 01/12/2015 05:36 PM |
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| Austin has a pretty good local scene, at least they race often. My friend in the masters race lives there. |
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Dale
Posts:1767
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| 01/12/2015 05:59 PM |
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Skinny, Nats in 1978 were in the same venue-- Zikler Park. I don't know what the conditions were or how "weird" Austin was at the time but I suspect the tree preservation society was much less influential at the time if they even existed. Had it not rained I doubt there would have been much of an uproar this year.
Poor planning and due diligence by all concerned. Glad the race wasn't cancelled but I hate missing the race live
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THE SKINNY
Posts:506
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| 01/13/2015 08:54 AM |
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| i watched it last night. that looked like an awesome venue. i'm all about the trees though. they don't make 100 yo live oaks any more. |
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| How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. |
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