Great Lakes - Vernon Hills Grand Prix

I was the 50th rider to register for the Cat5 field and closed it. I saw that MJH2 was in the 30+ 4/5. I was considering doing the 30+ 4/5 as well but have yet to convince myself.

http://www.illinoiscycling.org/modules/rds/

Am I dead to you?

;)

I was the 50th rider to register for the Cat5 field and closed it. I saw that MJH2 was in the 30+ 4/5. I was considering doing the 30+ 4/5 as well but have yet to convince myself.

http://www.illinoiscycling.org/modules/rds/

This shall be my not-so-triumphant return to the scene of my first USAC crit a year ago. I would sign up for another, but apparently the good folks at RDS cycling aren't aware of the poor economic times. $55 for two races is just crazy talk... Especially when I have the opportunity to do 6 races for $54 this weekend!

What's with the $5 discount for a second race? Given that there is an insurance charge of $2.50 or so per racer, that does not apply for a second race, plus bikereg fees will be much lower, then the promoter is taking in the same amount. i.e. there is no discount for a second race. Could afford to be a bit more generous with the "discount".

Would like to race twice but not for $65. Don't know if the 350 mile round trip is worth it to go round in circles for 35 minutes and see XXX go 1,2 again.

What's with the $5 discount for a second race? Given that there is an insurance charge of $2.50 or so per racer, that does not apply for a second race, plus bikereg fees will be much lower, then the promoter is taking in the same amount. i.e. there is no discount for a second race. Could afford to be a bit more generous with the "discount".

Would like to race twice but not for $65. Don't know if the 350 mile round trip is worth it to go round in circles for 35 minutes and see XXX go 1,2 again.

Agreed. RDS never gives much of a break for second races (and, I think, also charges the $5 "unattached" fee), but he does an otherwise good job with his events. That being said, the price isn't completely his fault... I thought the $30/race fee was settled on by the ICA for all the cup races and includes the "mandatory" bikereg.com juice.

All I know is that if the second race were $15 I'd be in with no questions asked. if all the 4's fields fill, then that's no skin off the promoters back. If they don't, that's $15 they're missing out on. I suppose we'll see how it goes.

agreed. Rds never gives much of a break for second races (and, i think, also charges the $5 "unattached" fee), but he does an otherwise good job with his events. That being said, the price isn't completely his fault... I thought the $30/race fee was settled on by the ica for all the cup races and includes the "mandatory" bikereg.com juice.

All i know is that if the second race were $15 i'd be in with no questions asked. If all the 4's fields fill, then that's no skin off the promoters back. If they don't, that's $15 they're missing out on. I suppose we'll see how it goes.

+1

I haven't done an RDS race before, but if the promoter goes that extra mile to pull off a good event with that race feel, then he deserves support. I'll probably do just the one race then, even though I'm lousy at crits. I agree with MJH2 that if the cats are full, then the promoter has made a good business decision. If not, then more fool him - that's $15 he's missed out on per person.

The ICA added a $5 fee to each Illinois cup event, this includes the bikereg fee (some of which is kicked back to the ICA). According to the ICA minutes the promoter gets about $1.20 of that. The rest goes to bikerag and the ICA.

I think the unattached rider fee is a great idea and fully agree with it. Cyclists should be encouraged to join a team as soon as possible. Teams run events, volunteer and give back to cycling, plus making cyclists safer - in some other countries it's difficult to enter events if you're not attached to a team.

[QUOTE=carlosflanders;8733861]I haven't done an RDS race before, but if the promoter goes that extra mile to pull off a good event with that race feel, then he deserves support. I'll probably do just the one race then, even though I'm lousy at crits. I agree with MJH2 that if the cats are full, then the promoter has made a good business decision. If not, then more fool him - that's $15 he's missed out on per person.
[QUOTE]

If I recall correctly, last year had both an announcer (which is always a nice touch, I think) as well as flowers for the podium finishers. Registration was old-school (meaning no computers to mess things up, just paper, pencils, and a well organized system), and quick. The only weird thing I recall is that registration was in a little building that was up the course a bit from the parking lot and you could not really ride there but had to walk up.

Either way, the Cat 4 race is currently at 9/100 with only 4 of those 9 being from the pool of masters 4's. Something tells me that if race 2 was $15 they'd already have 30 guys in that one.

As of today, there is approximately 41 riders that are doing two races. 14 are cat 4 doing the 4/5 and 20 Cat 5 doing the cat4/5. The remainder are in other races. The 30+ 4/5 has 65 riders registered and 34 are in a second race.

Oh yeah...I missed you PSI in the first check of registered racers!

I registered.....I swear I did....I'll go check...

Oh...I'm registered. I'm like the 5th guy on the masters 4/5 list. Just counted we have like 7 racers for BH. Not everyone has the team listed. TQ is on there and he's not even 30+ Shhhhhh...don't tell anyone.....

I know like 90% of the field listed. This will be a fun race. Let's go kick some ass.

TQ is not even 30? He looks like 50. WTH? ;)

So, how did everyone do? PSI, MJH2??

Cat 5…I sucked and did not stick around for the results. Joel from Bicycle Heaven took first . I finished way off the back but at least in the same lap. The field was split in half by the finish with three of us bringing up the rear of the main pack. The course was nice but had two somewhat dicey turns (corners 2 & 3). They were dicey depending on who was next to you. Both had meridians in the middle and went to a single lane. If you were not paying attention, you were into the meridian. One guy in our field bunny hopped the meridian on turn 3 and ended up on the other side and was able to rejoin down the course. I held with the pack for the majority of the race but with less than 4 laps remaining, a rider shot up the left side before turn two. This made the field accelerate into turn two. The guy next to me squeezed me into the meridian and I had to brake. The back straight was a slight uphill with the wind from the side. Just as the group was accelerating, I was braking. I could not bridge the gap and it slowly grew. I hooked on to the wheel of a young Bicycle Heaven rider and tried to recover except the kid was too skinny to effectively draft. We picked up a third rider; it was the guy that did the bunny hop. The BH rider move on leaving the two of us to complete the remaining laps. I did the majority of pulling and at the end he just let me cross the line ahead of him.
I feel that I’m doing worse than last year. My legs die before my cardio gives out.

So, how did everyone do? PSI, MJH2??

Cat 5…I sucked and did not stick around for the results. Joel from Bicycle Heaven took first . I finished way off the back but at least in the same lap. The field was split in half by the finish with three of us bringing up the rear of the main pack. The course was nice but had two somewhat dicey turns (corners 2 & 3). They were dicey depending on who was next to you. Both had meridians in the middle and went to a single lane. If you were not paying attention, you were into the meridian. One guy in our field bunny hopped the meridian on turn 3 and ended up on the other side and was able to rejoin down the course. I held with the pack for the majority of the race but with less than 4 laps remaining, a rider shot up the left side before turn two. This made the field accelerate into turn two. The guy next to me squeezed me into the meridian and I had to brake. The back straight was a slight uphill with the wind from the side. Just as the group was accelerating, I was braking. I could not bridge the gap and it slowly grew. I hooked on to the wheel of a young Bicycle Heaven rider and tried to recover except the kid was too skinny to effectively draft. We picked up a third rider; it was the guy that did the bunny hop. The BH rider move on leaving the two of us to complete the remaining laps. I did the majority of pulling and at the end he just let me cross the line ahead of him.
I feel that I’m doing worse than last year. My legs die before my cardio gives out.

Yea, it kinda sucks to try to draft off of me lol.

So how was the event? C'mon ... throw us a bone! Good turn out? Good course?

I've been working too much to really post anything. I will get a report out soon.....