allawayr

Interesting conflict. Sad if the Boulder Roubaix promoter really believes that.

https://www.facebook.com/loganvb/pos...50897755509256

wens

Because cycling in the US really needs to kill one of the things that brings people into the sport. I can see his point though, the ranks of juniors are overflowing, and if the juniors don't register as soon as registration opens, they're closed out of the juniors race all the time.

colobrio

Wow. Grealish puts on great races, it's a shame to hear he's such a whanker. I'm happy to ride "underfunded" collegiate races, and started off my season at D.U.'s crit. I've also always enjoyed DBC's events, but will have to rethink that. There's really no place in amateur cycling for one promoter to try and force out another, particularly a college club just trying to pull its weight.

Hopefully with the integration in place, this kind of scheduling conflict won't happen in the future.

badhat

yeah this got ugly.

but its pretty much leveled off and its time to focus on the racing and not the drama.

BR is a great event but the Cobb Lake Race on satuday is a super-cool course. i'll be there. not out of protest, but in support of racing i can ride my bike to, and the continued growth of Northern Colorado cycing.

theres enough people covering enough area in Colorado/BRAC that its probably time to start to consider deliberate counter programming of events on the same day, but we need to do it smarter- not having two roubaix circuits on the same day, but running a TT in Fort Collins against at crit in colorado springs, for example.

mollusk

The kids from UF put on a race weekend every year in Gainesville trying to be both a collegiate event and a USAC event. There is not enough daylight to get all the races in that everybody wants, so they cut the Junior events. It sucks, but they have to host collegiate and they have to make money or at least break even. All of the juniors can still race "cat" if they want to, so they are not closed out from racing.

kindablue

Lol, nobody shows up to races down here.

Fwiw the AFA RR is a blast, all should come.

badhat

i loved AFARR. i got 9th in on the ACA course in 2010... the long course at the collegiate version was harder. way harder.

its not happening anymore though is it?

my point with counter programming is that i think Denver/Boulder folks take for granted how nice it is to be able to ride to your races most weekends, rather than, as we in the springs and NorCo and summit county know, its a drag to spend the day in the car for a 50 minute crit.

i think the region would benefit from counter programming 3 weekends a month, but doing it with dispiriate disciplines, so that people who wanna race TTs can drive to do TTs but people who wanna stay local can do that to. then keep having the big summer SR/omnium events once a month where everyone converges.

i think it'll grow the sport better, and whats more, i think sponsors will like it. i know that most of the FC teams sponsors (rio, peloton, proVelo, etc) are local business and bike shops who love to see results in out of town races, but from a promotional perspective, dont really get ANY ROI on us racing out of town. whereas they get great visibility from local events.

kindablue

The "Frontrange Classic" is happening (the college sponsored one) on the 14/15th of April; but I think you are right, the ACA one is off. It still is a PIA to ride on the Academy, we still need a military ID to vouch for civilians to get to 2/3s of the course .

Its kinda weird. I moved out here from the Midwest and thought racers would be allover the place in CO. Turns out it is Denver/Boulder or bust.

Funny thing is that COS has some of the most amazing riding that I can imagine. Earlier this year one of my teammates from Boulder (Denver based team) asked me if there is any good riding in the springs... my jaw dropped. I have Garden of the Gods less than 3 miles from my apartment, a mountain pass to climb less than 15 miles from my apartment, countless local climbs, and plenty of flat to rolling terrain to the east and to the north west from where I live.

On a side note I keep thinking how cool it would be to stage a circuit race of Garden of the Gods. Logistically a feat, would be scary as hell around some of the corners, but that should bring down every serious racer on the frontrange.

Anywho I agree with you badhat, I'd love to see some planned diversity in our race calendar, with racers traveling to wherever to hit up their type of race. Granted the ACA and USAC just merged this year, but I hope it works out for the best.

p.s. I'll be at the CSU RR and crit too. Hoping to rack up some points to work towards 3s.

badhat

the scene in FC is pretty good and getting better all the time:

we have grassroots racing every tuesday (crits, TT, CX, XCmtb, short track, HCs), hard group rides w local pros and elites every wednesday, the FC Cycling Fest, the CSU race weekend, the 2012 CX state championship, 40 in the Fort MTB race, 5 weeks of quasi-track racing on the CSU oval. hoping to get the USAPCC up here in the next couple of years as well.

carpediemracing 

I can't believe that guy is a race promoter. Race promoting is a service oriented business. Would any of you shop at a store where they treat others like that?

If he represented a "large" company (I consider his race promotion stuff "large", but compared to a Target or Home Depot he's not that large), he'd be fired. Imagine if the spokesperson for, say, Home Depot, said something disparaging like that about, say, for example, a small town independent hardware store. It's their competition but it doesn't mean that Home Depot should call up every mom & pop store and tell them to shut down their business and hold a ****ing bake sale.

I would never, ever knowingly enter a race that guy promotes or helped promote. Ever.

I would also tell others to never, every knowingly enter a race that guy promotes or helped promote.

By supporting his races you condone and support his statements like telling other race promoters to go hold a ****ing bake sale.

If you think that's fine, okay, fine.

If you think that having someone walk into your workplace tell you that you suck at your job and you should hold a ****ing bake sale instead, fine.

But if you don't think that's okay, to treat other people like, that, then you should absolutely stop patronizing the guy.

I can't believe that racers are glossing this over. Around here the big deal was the Battenkill thing, where people were complaining about the entry fees and such. But as a "secondary" promoter, of a much smaller race, I never got a disparaging note from the Battenkill folks telling me to hold a ****ing bake sale instead of a bike race. For all the negative press he got around here, the Battenkill guy seems like he works within his own territory, not pissing on other people's heads on the side.

It's one thing to be cut throat or competitive. It's another to be a demeaning.

kindablue

I should mention the CSU events were fun.

Yes there were baked goods for sale at each race, a jab at the promoter perhaps?

My only complaint is it would have helped to better sweep some of the corners (Hope the Pimzilli 4 who went down is okay), and maybe some sort of primes during the crit. I know $$ is tight, but it would have spiced up the pace somewhat. Some local gift certificates, socks, etc. The 4s will sprint for anything.

miwoodar

It's funny because the guys I ride with usually feel like the majority of the races are north of Denver. Louisville...Boulder....Mead...Fort Collins...Longmont?

QFT. I was planning on racing the Boulder Roubaix but my e-mail to the organizer went unanswered. I decided to swap it for another race instead and I'm glad I did now that I read the provided link.

badhat

yeah i guess really its more that everything radiates out from boulder.

miwoodar

Pffft, Boulder. How many stoned, drunk, celiac vegans who drive their parent's leather-seated BMW's can you fit in one town anyways? (It's about time somebody called a spade a spade.) I would choose Fort Collins over Boulder any day even if it meant driving a little further to my races.

badhat

we're workin on it