General Cycling Discussion - Really cool idea for a racing class -- has this ever been done? It should be!

Here in Austin Texas there is a annual race up Jester Blvd. which is a killer hill where you gain something like 400 feet in 4/10 of a mile. Its called the King and Queen of Jester with a male and female class and I don't know what other classes as well. I have never seen it and, sad to say, I think it has not been held for the last two years.

If this race were revived or something similar, I would put up prize money for a class such as is common in dirt track stock car racing -- a "claimer" or "bomber" class. There's a couple of ways this is done to keep racing fun and $$$ down. The top 3 or top 4 finishers are subject to claim and DQ if they refuse to sell their engine for a specified amount to another driver who finishes on the same lap as the 2nd place car and puts up money. At other tracks the entire car is subject to claim. I would implement yet another variation: Sell the spectators raffle tickets for $5 with the proceeds going to a charity. The winning ticket gets the first place bike! I'd pay maybe a $100 cash purse to the winner, $50 second, $25 third. The only thing that would not go with the first place bike would be helmet, gloves, shorts, shirt and rider. How cool would it be to see a bunch of hard core roadies sweating their way up a 20% grade in flip-flops on Wal-Mart Huffys or other beater bikes?

I know there are a substantial number of cyclists who consider roadies super snobs, but I have faith even the most elite would have enough of a sense of humor that they might go for it! Of course, the event could be won by some young BMX dude with multiple piercings!

Anybody ever heard of such a thing, or is this hare-brained scheme original?

Don in Austin

I don't get it. I win the race, I get $100, and I have to forfeit my bike? So the winner becomes a loser, right?

On the other side, you're raffling off a dumpster special for $5 a ticket? At the races here, they raffle off Madones for $1 a ticket.

Doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but then again, there's lots of other things that don't, either, that get done anway. But the way it's described is starting to sound the income tax instructions, and you need to keep it simple.

If it involves Huffies, don't expect it to be populated by hard-core roadies, either.

Doesn't seem like a good idea to me, but then again, there's lots of other things that don't, either, that get done anway. But the way it's described is starting to sound the income tax instructions, and you need to keep it simple.

If it involves Huffies, don't expect it to be populated by hard-core roadies, either.

You don't think they have enough of a sense of humor to participate in a novelty race on beater bikes?

I don't get it. I win the race, I get $100, and I have to forfeit my bike? So the winner becomes a loser, right?

On the other side, you're raffling off a dumpster special for $5 a ticket? At the races here, they raffle off Madones for $1 a ticket.

Still a winner -- you are on a $50 bike. My wife says the raffle ticket proceeds should be 50% to some kind of charity to make them sell.

You don't think they have enough of a sense of humor to participate in a novelty race on beater bikes?

Nope.

Still a winner -- you are on a $50 bike. My wife says the raffle ticket proceeds should be 50% to some kind of charity to make them sell.

So ... these racers would have to purchase a $50 bicycle first just for the purpose of doing this race? Then ride it, risking injury because the bicycle may not be set up properly for the rider or designed for a 20% grade. And then this $50 bicycle gets raffled off to some poor spectator?

My wife says the raffle ticket proceeds should be 50% to some kind of charity to make them sell.

Our $1 Madone tickets are 100% to charity--the local children's cancer unit. Trek donates the bike, and you're confiscating the winner's. Either way the bike is free.

Must be that, like everything else, suckers are bigger in Texas. ;)