a very quick post to strongly encourage people to consider attending the race skills clinic that eli, sonoma the m street racing team have put together.  the schedule will cover a variety of useful topics.  Both the speaker and the people on the panel are very experienced and almost guaranteed to tell good stories. 

cycling is an unsual sport that has a long history.  as a result, there are endless stories of highly unorthodox approaches to racing and training.  so much of this is passed along as a kind of "conventional wisdom", absorbed uncritically and subsequently passed on to others.  stories like this are no substitute for a thorough understanding of the techniques for bicycle racing.

i was chatting with pete lindeman a few days ago down at hains point and he made a very insightful remark about someone who was riding with us: "he knows how to ride real fast but he doesn't know how to race his bike".  we all spend a considerable amount of time training our bodies and neglect some of the most important aspects of bicycle racing: psychology, proper tactics, anticipating events, watchign other riders, and maximizing the utility of one's existing skills. 

this clinic represents a remarkable opportunity to listen to racers and coaches pass along actual experience.  there are probably not many riders in the mid-atlantic who could not afford to miss a sunday ride, and who would not benefit from listening to the speaker and panel, asking quesitons and pondering some of the issues that will be discussed.

You can find out all the salient information about the clinic here:

http://www.sonomadc.com/RaceSkillsClinic2_5_06.pdf

hope to see many of you out there.

- - - posted by scott

For those that do not know, eric marshall is a well known promoter, rider and racer in the mid-Atlantic.  He has been involved in a number of events, almost all of them innovative in one regard or another.  this past weekend, he rolled out something really cool, and to my knowledge, this will be the first time it has been attempted.  as many of you may be aware, eric has been working hard on integrating his existing race-registration system with a bar-code scanning system.  simply put, the system scans the bar code on your license, looks up the rider's information in a database, and produces a completed (and legible!!) standard release with all the information.  It can also assign numbers, produce start sheets and allow for miscellaneous other functions as well.  promoters who have seen this in action are already expressing interest in it.  below is a brief question and answer with eric about promoting races, his new license scanning system, and other new technologies.  I've put a few pictures at the end of the interview as well.     -sg

Q. How long have you lived in the area? 

A. We moved from Philadelphia down to Herndon in 1987 because of a new job for me. Fortunately for us, the economic boom of the 90's made Northern Virginia a lot nicer place to live and work than Philly, and we've lived here ever since.

Q. Where do you work? 

A. I've been president of my own software consulting firm, EMI Software Engineering, for the past 10 years. It's a small entire (just me), but I'm still at the top, which I think is a lot better than the alternative!

Q. Are you in a family way?

A. If you're asking me if I'm pregnant, I'm not. If you're asking about my immediate family, I'll be Celebrating my 25th wedding anniversary in a few months and I have two older teenage daughters.

Q. What got you into biking?  Do you race actively?

A. I've always had a bike to ride, but the fever really bit me after we moved down to Virginia and I started commuting by bike. It was so fun riding to work that I started riding on the W & OD by myself a few times a week during lunches. I sold my commuter bike after just a year for a sportier bike. I rode with the Reston Bike Club for a few years before I tried my hand at racing, which I've been doing for 6 years now. I've been racing a full season both on the road and cyclo-cross, which is a total blast. I had been president of Whole Wheel Velo Club for the past three years, but recently switched to Squadra Coppi.

Q. How did you get into promoting races? 

A. I got into promoting races when I was president of Whole Wheel, as they already had an established race in place, the Quicksilver Crit, which needed taking care of. I did that for the past three years, which included the unfortunate back-to-back monsoon years of 2003 and 2004. The 2005 edition of Quicksilver was sunny and warm and we had over 500 racers, so I left on a high note. Just like Lance. I also co-promoted the only two UCI races in Virginia the past few years, the Capital 'Cross Classic, albeit I didn't do too much on it this past year as I did on the inaugural year before. Sorry Chip.

And of course I'm promoting the upcoming Quicksilver Winter Solstice Series, with the help of four local clubs (Evolution Cycling, Racing Union, Squadra Coppi, and Whole Wheel Velo Club) providing the race-day manpower.


Q. What's been your most successful gambit or idea as a promoter?  What's been your biggest flop?  What would you like to do that you have not accomplished yet?

A. Hopefully the best is yet to come in my bike race promotion career, as we'll be introducing two MABRA firsts with the Quicksilver series, drive-thru registration and license bar-code scanning. Last year at the summertime Quicksilver race we introduced the first, and perhaps only, MABRA Masters 4/5 race, which I thought was very well received as we received many complements on it. This year's only a couple of months old already but it's already bigger and better than last year with our latest race registration innovations.

Q. What's up with EMI Racing?

A. Although I was promoting the Quicksilver races with Whole Wheel, I felt I had a lot of energy I wanted to put into the local bicycling community that was outside of our club's boundaries, e.g., cyclo-cross events. Because I'm a computer nerd and can do such things, I've also written a bunch of software to help in the production of most of the paperwork necessary for the registration process. I've used the software in a half-dozen races so far and it's been an incredible time saver for the registration staff. I wrote the software as web Applications with the intent of putting it on the Internet for other clubs to freely use, but so far I haven't gotten around to sharing it. Perhaps this is the year.

Q. Why did you start the quicksilver winter series?  What are your goals in promoting that?

A. Just another megalomaniacal outlet for my energies. I hope it's well received though, as I think we have a lot to offer the riders. I put a lot of time and thought into providing the best racing experience I can for the folks that show up, even if that includes thinking outside the status quo. That's what motivated me to include a drive-thru registration in the Quicksilver Winter Solstice Series. Who wants to stand in long lines in the cold waiting to register? Not me! Unfortunately, I won't have time to enjoy the fruits of my own labor, but at least I can get a cup or two of our free coffee and hot chocolate.

Q. When did you get the idea to try electronic registration?  Was your background instrumental in your ability to pursue this?  Could anyone with initiative have put something like this together? 

A. As I mentioned above, I've already done a lot to address the inclusion of technology and automation into the registration process, but anything worth doing is worth overdoing! Because the new 2006 USCF licenses contain a barcode of the rider's license number on them, its obvious intent is to use it in some larger electronic system, so I did, and we'll be using it at the Quicksilver series.

Although USA Cycling is reported to be working with Sports Base Online to produce a Proprietary system that provides similar capabilities to what I developed, it's currently not available and will be quite expensive when it's delivered (their words not mine) sometime in the future. Apparently I even pushed the technology envelope *past* its limits. 

Q. I’m interested in the rough flow of how your system works. 

A. The basic flow is as follows: use a lap top and a handheld barcode scanner with a USB interface.  For the operational side, we will run our software on the laptop and produce forms from a printer; everything powered by a generator.  The prospective rider comes up, you scan their license, turn the license scan into a license number, lookup the rider’s information from a database, populate a standard release form with data, and then print out releases and get the “wet ink” signature.  Oh, and we'll give them safety pins as well

Q. What sort of logistical, technological, organizational or legalistic hurdles have you had to leap to get this off the ground?  Do you think it will fly for the training series? 

A. The scanner I finally decided on isn't wireless, but uses a standard USB cable. The guy I spoke with at Sports Base Online about their system says they're currently specifying a specific bluetooth-based barcode scanner, but because it alone costs $500 (!), they'll probably be looking for more affordable alternatives in the futures.

The first barcode scanner that I bought was the one I really thought would be the best one to use, which had the form factor of a pen. You just "write" over the barcode and it gets scanned in. It seemed like it would eliminate the trial and error of "shooting" the barcode with a gun-like scanner from a few inches away, which is the kind I ended up using. Unfortunately, the pen model just wouldn't scan the bar codes on the back of the new 2006 USCF licenses. It would scan plenty of other barcodes I found around the house, so it was working, but just not on the barcodes I was interested in.

I also tried scanning the new licenses on other barcode scanners I found in public, e.g., at my grocery store, my gym, etc. Most of those scanners wouldn't scan the licenses either, so I thought we might have to forgo the use of the barcode scanners. As this is my first adventure into using barcode scanners, I won't be pointing fingers at anyone about my poor scanning experiences, but I attribute the lackluster results to the low print quality of the licenses.

If you look closely at the fronts of the licenses, there is a high contrast between the black letters and the white background. This would allow for accurate barcode scanning. But if you look at the backs of the licenses, where the barcode is, you'll see that there is a lot of smeared gray within the letters themselves, and also between the bars within the barcode. I suspect that without a clearer delineation between the black barcode and white background, the other barcode scanners couldn't perform properly. Another success story for the lowest-bidder mentality.

I also investigated the use of a digital signature tablet, ala modern credit card purchases, for inclusion in our system. But after considerable investigation on the part of USA Cycling's legal department (apparently USAC has never thought about the idea 
before), they determined that the legal implications of electronic signatures simply aren't compatible with today's liability minefield. So it seems we'll all be stuck with "wet signatures" for some time to come.

- - end interview

i have a few additional thought on this.  eric’s plan for the digital signature capture was the most interesting from my perspective.  Eric envisioned a system from start to finish, in which the license was scanned and a digital signature was captured.  The true beauty of this system is that the promoter could print out the standard release at their leisure (say at the end of the race day or later than night) because all the data for the forms had been captured as well as a digital signature so producing a hard-copy of the forms could literally be done anytime.  I can also imagine a worst case scenario where part or all of the data is lost due to unanticipated circumstances (power outage, hard drive crash, etc).  But this is not unusual: finish line cameras have malfunctioned as well.  it’s part of relying completely on technology.  A truly robust system to be deployed in the field will need to be battle ready.  eric is probably 85% of the way there.

i believe that issues may arise with how any system like this interfaces with computerized pre-registration such as bikereg.com that is so popular with all the mid-atlantic promoters.  eric's system seems to thrive in an environment where there is considerable walk up registration, so it may not be of as much utility to a race which has sold out practically all of it's fields and can download and print standard releases automatically.  electronic registration has brought on it's own problems, as I documented so clearly here.  it's sometimes a race to the bottom as people clamber to fill limited slots.  but this is clearly not worse than the way things were before electronic registration where entries were mailed, and you sometimes gambled on showing up to a race not knowing if there were open slots or not.  each technology bring change in the way people do things.  it will be interestign to watch all fo these issues continue to evolve.

a few pictures: 

behind the scenes, setting up generators to power the equipment while the turkey fryer heats water for hot chocolate.   mmmm, hot chocolate.

the tools of the trade: the scanner scans, the computer computes, the printer prints. 

once the system captures your information, it populates standard releases and assigns numbers.  that informaiton is carried through to start sheets and can be ported to results as well.  sweeeet.

if you happen to see eric out and about, show him a little love.  he's done this whole thing on his own time and his own dime.  a large part of the "structure" of cycling in the mid-atlantic is driven by volunteers and people who go the extra mile because they love to see cycling thrive.  there is no hallmark holiday for these people. 

- - posted by scott

I rode better at this week’s Quicksilver Winter Solstice Series training race. We started with a little over 30 people for our ten-lap race. I stayed in good position for the entire race. After about five or six laps the field split with eleven in front. I stayed close to the back of the front group until about two to go, then moved up to the forth spot. Coming over the top of the rise after the first corner of the last lap, a group of three got away off the front. I knew something was going to happen at about that spot, but I was just in the wrong position at that moment and then hesitated too much to be with them. I tried to bridge up, hoping to latch on by the bottom of the hill before the end, figuring it was best to race for the win than settle for forth. I died mid-way across and most of the rest of the group came around me before the finish. I ended up ninth.

Much better then last week certainly, but still not a flawless race for me. I am not the strongest guy out there, so I’m trying to at least be the smartest. To do that I can’t miss the winning break if I can help it. One more week on this course until the real racing begins with Jeff Cup and Walkersville. I’m looking forward to it.

-michael

At long last, I am happy to unveil Racing Union’s jersey for the up coming season (and I guess every season (as our sponsorship is pretty settled (read the manifesto (unless, of course, RJR wants to sponsor a team or something (they’ve got the money for it (and they could use the good publicity)))))). And surprise, surprise, it isn’t red and black. No, gentle reader, we’ve chosen the color of money, because, well, it’s all about the cash.  Cold hard cash. Enjoy!

These will be manufactured by Hincapie Sportswear. Many of us have used Hincapie before and found that the kits they put together use high-quality materials and construction. Look for us out on the roads sometime in April.

-michael

Sim Green used to live and race in the US, but now lives and races in southern France. Read more about Sim here.

Finally here it is, Diary # 4.

In my last update, the team was doing it’s training camp, and we had completed phase 1.  Phase 2 didn’t go as well.  A freak snowstorm that had been causing havoc in the Ukraine, Russia etc hit France and covered the country in many inches of snow.  Naturally training camp was cancelled as we could even get out of the house.  So the few team members who had made it to the team house in preparation went cross-country skiing… the rest of us stayed at home and watched the snow come down.  I went back to roots of off-road stupidity and went out for some sliding fun on the Cyclocross bike.  I had a blast riding though totally white countryside and getting lost in the blanketed countryside. 

Apart from that there is fairly little to report on.  The usual early season stuff.  Licenses etc, I finally got my license from the British Federation, I was starting to worried it would never show up.  I still have a few tests and paper to submit to the BCF, but I have a little more time for that.  I have spent a little time doing a few tests on the Time Trial bike to get my position figured out.  I have got a new TT frame for the season, so I want to make sure everything is fitted perfectly and that it all fits into the UCI regulations for TT bikes. 

I’ve also been piling up the miles.  Nothing special seeing as I spend most of my days sitting in class, but I’m getting in some pretty nice 4 hour rides, so I’m feeling fairly strong, but we will only know once I start racing.  I did get my early season schedule the other day.  I will be racing the Grand Prix D’Ouverture de Castres, the Boucles du Vaurais, and the Boucles Gerssoises.  I can’t wait to get back out there racing, I only hope I’m in good enough shape to at least help the team.

The big news has been the arrival of John Parks.  He got here a little over a week ago.  We got in some nice rides before he headed off to yet another team training camp.  We put in a few pretty hardcore 4 and 5 hour rides. 

I like riding with John, because neither of us ever give up, and we just seem to push each other to the limit while both trying to pretend neither of us is feeling it.  Great fun.  We usually end up riding full blast, side by side as if on a little afternoon jaunt.  This time the team was meeting in Amelie les Bains in the eastern Pyrenees on the Spanish border.  Most of the team was there except for those of us that have school.  The team did about 100miles a day for three days, including some races in Spain that they used for training.  They rode into Spain to the races, did the races, then rode home to the hotel.  One day things got a little miscalculated and they ended up riding home to the hotel in the dark with only the following team car’s headlights as guidance… Epic story I’m sure. 

The week’s training camp then ended with the Essor Basque, the tour of the Basque country.  The team performed well on Saturday’s event with one of our young riders spending most of the day in the break with a Pro rider from Russian Pro team Omnibike, he was caught near the end and Julien Schick (ex Credit Agricole) finished 5th!  A great performance for our team in such big races with some competition that included some pro teams from France, Belgium and Russia.  Today (Sunday) was a double stage day including a mountain top finish.  I don’t know how the team did there yet.  I have just got a call from John saying things went OK, it was interesting.  He’ll be back here tonight, so I’ll find out more.

All in all the team have had a great training session.  Our Director Sportif would like to have our team do some races in the US.  Hopefully that will work out, though we don’t know which riders would be on the team yet of course.  Hopefully there will be more to read about next time.  I’m sure there are some epic race stories just around the corner.  Think of it as “suspense”, right now it is mainly just training and getting the season kicked off.

Thanks for reading.
Sim

mike rp had a remarkably good idea a few weeks ago.  we had completed the basic design of our 2006 clothing order with hincapie (and i'll try to get some images of our new kit up soon from the proofs) but we realized that the clothing might not be available in time for the first few races of the season.  we talked about a few different options such as picking up stuff from end of winter sales or doing a small order for generic stuff.  we also looked at a couple of small companies that do custom work in technical fabrics or wool.  given that we had already done a full clothing order, we wanted to keep the costs down, and we didn't want to go through the hassle of another round of graphic design.  so what's to do?  only one answer, make your own.  sound crazy?  it's really easy.  check it.

we got together at mike and laura and nils and mia and ari's house one day after work.  mike had tried to delegate the acquisition of a number of materials to me and i had turned in what can only be called a typical performance: getting nothing done.  mike picked up all the slack.  he got the materials and the tools together and laid it all out.

the basic plan was to use inkjet printable cotton and to find a way to produce a strip that we could apply to the front of the jersey.  this seemed like an intuitive approach so we opted for a few sheets of the printable cotton, some fabric bonding material which is activated by heat and some think black material for piping.  the initial plan was to just bond the printable cotton to the jersey.  there were two basic problems with this: the printable cotton is really thin and we were unsure that the heat and bond adesive would stick to the polyester fabric of the jersey.  a battlefield decision was made to cut up an old white cotton t-shirt and use that as a backing material for the printable cotton.  we ran several team logos off on a sheet of printable cotton and then used a fabric adhesive to bond it to the cotton fabric material from the t-shirt.  we then cut this into strips that could be attached to the jersey.

you'll note that we opted to run the strip right over the zipper.  these jerseys will mostbe b used for winter and spring races and rides and they are long sleeve.  there is sufficient "zip" to be able to remove the jersey comfortably.

once we had the basic stuff in place, it was a matter of attaching the new strip to the jersey for good.  although i have since been told by several reliable people that fabric adhesive would work, we opted for stitching.  i still think it was the right decision but may try some fabric adhesive on some additional graphics for my jersey at a later date.  laura did almost all the stitching.  there was some concern initially about whetehr we woudl break needles by trying to sew through printable cotton, backing, jersey and piping but once we got the machine set up correctly, it worked really nicely.

so there you have it.  a "works" project jersey.  want to see it in action?  here you go...  total cost was less than a dinner at most any dc restaurant.  it's got a cool retro feel, clean look and machine washable; that's a new feature my darlings. 

posted by scott with huge thanks going to out to laura for all the work she put into that project.

this is a follow up to my earlier post on rudy's rhetoical question.  this post showed up on the d20 list.  i want to take still more timeto address this because it's one of the things that's core to our approach and one of the things that separates racing union from most other cycling clubs.  i think the post listed below is wrong on a number of levels.

>>> -----Original Message-----

>>> From: Thomas Licker [mailto:NHVelo@yahoo.com]

>>> Sent: Tuesday, February 21, 2006 8:47 AM

...

>>> Final thoughts - What is your personal marketability in the sport? 

>>> What value do you bring to the team?  Running a cycling team is just

>>> as difficult as running a business.

only if you choose to run your cycling team like a business.  seriously, take the time to read those three statements and see how many logical fallacies you can spot.  running a cycling team is easy.  you submit the paperwork and remit a fee to the sancioning body for cycling and then you, and whomever else chooses to ride with you goes and races their bikes.  that's really all there is to it.  everything after that is window dressing.  you want to get a tight kit for the team to wear?  no problem, but it's not a requirement.  you want a hot sled for the team to tool around to races in?  no problem, but it's not a requirement.  you want mountains of swag for your riders or to give away at races?  no problem, but it's not a requirement. 

>>> Egos, politics, members jumping from team to team to get the best deal

>>> or ride with friends. 

this is more a statement about what sort of riders you pick to spend time with.  the conflation of money and sports has yielded a mindset where people feel some justification in shopping it around, asking for stuff.  when the stuff is gone, will they stick around?  everyone wants good results but is it a good idea in _amateur_ cycling to attain results by retaining talent with stipends, merchandise, etc?

>>> All I have to say is take a note from the Pittsburgh Steelers

>>> organization or other consistantly successful sports clubs. 

>>> Consistant, executible business plans, and a quality board of

>>> directors is what will make a team or if you have no plan, break a

>>> team and a loss of the sports reputation for additional sponsorship. 

the author of this note is conflating the creation and operation of a cycling team with the creation and operation of a business.  even if he is thinking about continental pro teams, this is still a bit of a stretch because those teams have a formal corporate structure behind them which (hopefully!) pays salaries, taxes, benefits, arranges deals, signs contracts, etc.  the team is a bunch of guys who ride their bikes.  they are supported by the structure behind it.  to contend that this must be true at the amateur level is to be actively misleading.  you know what it takes to start a cycling club?  $150. U.S. and this link is what it takes to start a cycling club.  no reason to fire up the lasterjet, print out the palmares and update the business plan.  gather up some friends and ride your bike.

>>> You don't have to have an MBA to run a cycling team and get

>>> sponsors.  Just a business plan and the skills to sell it and

>>> properly manage it.   

please.  it's stuff like this that convinces _amateur_ riders that they need to market themselves to teams and that they are entitled to a cushy ride.  and it's also stuff like this that convinces _amateur_ teams that they need to spend more and more time each year marketing themselves to sponsors and increasing the amount of revenue that they bring in.  it's an unvirtuous circle, a tailspin that takes your focus away from where it should be.

- - - posted by scott

Scott, Josh, Roy and I met up with about six other riders for a noon workout yesterday at Hains Point. We started with a handful of short sprints in groups of four, then on to “Navy chase” (an exercise for pairs working together to bridge up to a break), followed by bumping exercises and everyone’s favorite Bike Cage Match. For the cage match, Scott marked out a 20 foot square and essentially let us loose inside. The goal was to stay upright and inside the square while attempting to force everyone else out. This was of course great fun, and actually attracted bystanders.

All was good (and only a bit muddy) until I ran over a stick and bent my rear derailleur hanger!  It’s replaceable, though--unlike my old Kestrel--so all is not lost and I’ll be as good as new in a few days.

-michael

The second Quicksilver Winter Solstice Series training race took place today (the first race in the series was cancelled due to snowfall). I don’t know the participation numbers, but there seemed to be a good crowd. I rode in the “D” race (Cat 5) and did fine. I think we started with about 25 participants and did nine laps. I was in a good position until I was shelled from the front group with about two laps to go. Finished somewhere around 15th I guess. I think there were just a few too many accelerations for me this early in the season. I worked a lot harder then I thought during the race; when I got home I was very sore and passed out on the couch for about an hour. I’ll try again next week and hope to do well enough to be in the mix at the finish.

michael's post below is a very good one and makes the principal (and principled!) point.  in addition to that, i think it's useful for people to keep in mind that as a cycling district, it's not about talk, it's about action.  the uscf doesn't put on races in our area and mabra doesn't put on races in our area.  promoters and teams made of cyclists put on races.  and as bill indicated in the thread michael linked to, it's a marketplace.  promoters offer events on dates and with categories they think will be successful or will be in line with their unique idea about what a race should be.  for example, if you're hot under the collar about the lack of juniors races, don't complain.  to anyone.  period.  put on a race for juniors.  it's relatively easy.  the same thing is true for advocates of more women's races.  and the same thing is true for advocates of more men's-master's-37+-category-3-and-4-but-not-5-who-have-a-minimum-of-2-kids races.  think you can't do it?  think again...

i mean really, let's be serious.  even if you felt overwhelmed at the prospect of putting on a race, you could ask a more experienced club or promoter to help out.  or you could bag the idea of racing altogether and put on a clinic, or even a bake sale to raise money to put on a race.  whatever the case: don't talk about it, do it.  make rosie proud.  create an event that satisfies exactly what you think is missing in the current environment.  and to really emphasize michael's point, if you run the race this way, you don't care of it makes money or not because it's helping you meet goals that you are passionate about.  it really is a win-win situation. 

the initial email referenced in the thread seemed to be rhetorically rolling it's eyes at the announcement of a weather closure for the race that was cancelled.  (full disclosure :: racing union is one of the promoters of that race, and i personally think the series is a smashign idea!)  tony delnegro comes through with "This is another good reason to race in September/October instead of Feb/March...".   while everyone is entitled to their opinion (though some are clearly more equal than others) i don't think it's constructive to tear down anyone's race.  if you don't like it, don't go.  promoters offer races.  you do the ones you like.  you don't crab about the ones you don't like.  if there are insufficient races to suit you, rather than bitch about it, look at the glass as half full; there may be a niche where you could be a very successful promoter and help other people out.

eli follows up with a more thoughtful composure: "I've always wondered why the D20 schedule is empty during 2 of the
best-weather months in the mid atlantic - Sep/Oct - while packing races into cold spring and insanely hot, humid summer months. The 2005 Walkersville, Championship RR and Giro spring to mind as obvious examples.  I know we all like to suffer, but is there a reason for this, or did the race season just evolve this way over time? "

i think bill luecke give some well informed and thoughtful answers.  i will follow through with data as well, which is also courtesy of bill.

MABRA race history1.xls (177.5 KB)

this is a link to a spreadsheet with race event data from 1995 to current.  you should be able to get some sort of factual idea about when events take place by looking at this.  i believe that a detailed analysis will show that the schedule is becoming more front-loaded over time, though which races types and areas you include and exclude from your analysis will obviously have a tremendous effect on the outcome.  please note that there are a number of issues with this data that make very rapid analysis difficult.  there are a number of non-cycling events in the listing including various annual dinners, officials clinics and national events which people need to know about but that do not impact local cycling.  some years include abundant listings for races from outside the d20/mabra area and some years have virtually none.  in addition, there are many types of events and the explosion of cyclocross events and series in the last few years will produce will skew the race data unless you account for it. 

and even if you don't want to analyze the trends and patterns in race data, this list shows you what sorts of races occur at what times during the year.  I have stripped out the email addresses but most of these people are easy to get ahold of and can tell you a lot about the dynamics involved in putting together a specific race. 

bill luecke brought up the point about the mabra board specifying at what point in the year the district championships had the be held.  i don't believe that this was or is a very successful approach.  promoters are good at offering events.  racers, to a lesser degree, are good at showing up, paying money and having a good time.  in summary, i do not believe that there is anything wrong with the current situation: i think it reflects the vast majority of promoters and racers.  in my opinion, the only thing missing from the racing community (of which i am a member as well) is less bitching and more "thank you"s to promoters, even those whose races you choose not to do.

- - - posted by scott. 

update: on re-reading this post, i want to be clear that i am not calling out eli for his message.  eli does a lot for the local cycling community that people are probably not aware of: sponsoring teams, offering primes and prizes at races, organizing events, etc.  eli has earned the right to talk some smack.

In a discussion of early-season races filling up quickly, Bill Leucke responds with thoughts about why there are so few late season road races, especially considering how nice the weather is at that time of year.

Bill argues that the main cause the lack of road racing during September and October is purely financial.  Because no one has raced for several months, everyone is itching to get out, so early season races fill up in a matter of hours.  By the time the end of the year rolls around, most racers are just plain tired, leaving late season race attendance low.  He writes

The economics of event promotion are that the last 50 registrants are the profit margin, so there is a _huge_ difference between an event that attracts 175 riders and one that attracts 225 riders.  Most of the expenses in promoting an event are fixed: prize list, officials fees, police.  They all have to be paid before the promoter takes any $ out of the event.

He is, of course, right on the—um—money about this.  If I’m putting on a race to raise some cash, I’m going to do it when it’s best for me, not when it’s best for the racers or racing in general.

So what happens if there is no profit motive or prize money?  Obviously the costs for the race are lowered dramatically.  It becomes feasible to put on a race for 150 riders.  The happy result: more races, perhaps even at lower costs to the racers themselves.

Read the manifesto.  Accept the truth.

-michael

We had a really solid training ride this past weekend through some roads in Loudon County I had never traversed.  Exceedingly rolling and the pace was high.  It was the first real race simulation I have had in a while and it felt good but I am shattered this morning.  Training ain't easy.  It's mentally challenging, physically demanding and time consuming.  But when it goes well, it's rewarding in a way that few other things are.  Getting out with some teammates and tearing ass all over the countryside is just a lot of fun.  I'm beginning to feel strong and to anticpate the season, and that's a good thing.

We are now ready to initiate phase one of our master plan.

posted by scott

our forces gather strength and our numbers swell.  our message is irresistable, our spirit irrepressible.  the momentum is clearly on our side.  the people have spoken with a single voice, and chosen the message of the racing union as their credo.  we are...on the march!

the team is finally beginning to fill itself out.  we have less riders that I had hoped for, but more riders than I had a right to expect.  I am really excited about 2006 because the riders we have on board will form a very solid core around which we can begin to accomplish some of our indiviual and collective goals.  our clothing order will go in shortly and hopefully, Mike RP will post some graphic images of the uniform to come.  a huge thanks to Hincapie (http://www.hincapiesports.com/index.php) for cutting a very small, not-for-profit squad a more than reasonable deal on clothing. 

- - posted by scott

I'd like to offer a few random thoughts on electronic registration and racing in the mid-Atlantic.  I'll offer them at the end of this posting, but first, a brief re-capping of the events of the last few days.

Angry riders, shut out of the chance to participate in long, rainy, and miserably cold road races in March and April became enraged.  After flaming promoters and each other on email lists, they took their wrath to the streets.  Below is an artisits conception of what the great cycling revolt of 2006 may have looked like. 

cyclists were amazed that events with 100 rider field limits filled within minutes.  a pervasive fear settled over all: missing the first races of the season would set one hopelessly behind one's peers, in both fitness and BAR points, which was undeniably the coin of the realm.  new tires and fresh tubs of cytomax would go unused.  The wheel of emotions revolved steadily, from amazement to fear to loathing.  What happened next was utterly predictable.  Riders lashed out, attacking the server farm where bikereg.com maintained it's services.  Like the luddite rebellion that had gone before, these people turned against technology as a bane.

civil defense forces fought to maintain order and contain the damage of a mob of angry, spandex-clad cyclists.  fortunately, their unusual footware made escape difficult.  running was awkward and the clickety-clack of metal devices attached to their shoes caused many to fall and made them easy to track.

team vehicles were destroyed in wanton and wasteful use of moltov cocktails.

a view of the wreckage early the next day brought equal parts anger, frustration and exasperation.  this cathartic release of energy had done little to change the structural relationship between racers, promoters and registration services.  but then again, burning stuff has always been a popular initial response.

It seems clear that electronic registration is a huge plus for promoters.  it allows them to manage a lot of the complex transactions that are part of putting on a race.  it handles the finances, allows one to move riders between fields, issue refunds, and provides a relatively accurate source of data for pre-event and post-event processing.  anyone who has actually handled hundreds of mail in registrations will instantly be able to tell you what a quantum leap this is in efficiency.  similarly, it's useful for racers as they immediately know if they are entered in a given event, who else will be racing, etc.

however, there are some features that have the potential to cause problems.  whole teams can be registered with the click of a button.  This technology seems useful on it's face, but could also prove to be a tool in a race to the bottom.  in events with field limits of 50 or 75 riders, if you have teams registering 5, 10 or 15 riders with a single click, the available slots become exceedingly difficult to come by.  certainly, those that have the luxury of sitting idle by a computer until a particular race opens will have the advantage. 

this situation is hardly unique.  ask any runner who has spent hours on a website trying to register for the marine corps marathon, or a multi-sport athlete who tried to register online for last years reston triathlon, a cluster$#%@ of epic proportions.  I have heard people propose that teams only be allowed to register a certain number of riders for any given event but I'm not sure that is fair to the individual.  a better choice might be to have a pooled pre-registraiton: everyone interested in a particular event can submit an entry and entry fee and the field limit (and wait list) is then filled by random assignment with entry fees returned to those who do not make it into the event.  the nice thing about this is everyone who has an interest has an equal chance of receiving entry to any given event.  the whole process is transparent to the promoter as they simply get a check from the registration service and an electronic listing of the start sheets. 

there are also valid arguments that the current system is not broken but just adjusting.  I'll try to address those in a subsequent post.

- - posted by scott