"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - So the last stage of my race this weekend was cancelled due to "weather"...

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It rained about 3 hours before the last stage (short, typical TX quick afternoon storm), by 1 HR before race time roads were 25% dry, by race time roads were nearly totally dry.

I may be a bit bitter since I was sitting top 5ish, 30sec out of a podium and I'm an all arounder (leaning slightly towards climbing based on where I live), and the last stage had a short steep hill only a few miles from the finish that I really think would have played to my strengths (racing against flatland "locomotive" types).

Just want to vent more than anything.

/whining

Bummer.

which race?

King of the Causeway. (Scheduled) 3 stage race on & around South Padre Island.

Not exactly a state championship or anything, but it was my first race in several years - my triumphant "return to racing" after life had side tracked me for the last few years, and *I* was excited about it at least.

Some drops of water might have got in your eye, distracting you, and causing you to crash and take out the field :rolleyes:

Or the organizers didn't want to get wet.

Years ago, our state RR was 105 miles in 45 degree rain. That was fun.

I just entered my first race on the 8th and it started at 9:30 with TTs and right till about 12-1:00 it rained, and in the morning it was raining crazy hard. During the TT it was spitting and then by race time (2:30) the roads were all dry and the sun was out. It was never cancelled. That sucks that the stage race had to get cancelled, doesn't make sense.

Just for rain??

Race organizers in my area must be die-hards. I have never seen a race canceled due to weather, and it isn’t as if there is any lack of weather here in the Northwest. My first race was in a hail storm W/ 30 mph winds and temps in the low 40s. The race was called “tour of the frozen flatlands”... in such a race though, I guess they expect that people are prepaid for some weather.

A few years ago I won States at Ft. Hood in a pissing down storm. On the other hand I broke three vertebrae this year in a pissing down storm.

It could be worse, the last two years fires cancelled Ft. Davis mid race.

Just for rain??

Yup. No thunder, no lighting, no heavy winds, nothing. And that was earlier in the day. The rain was gone, skies were blue, and roads were drying an hour before the race was scheduled to start. As I said, several hours before the 6pm start time it was raining, but even that rain was very calm by TX thunderstorm standards.

The race did involve crossing the causeway to the mainland (about a 2 mile bridge). That's the only thing that I can think of from the organizer's perspective that could have made them worry about safety - maybe high winds on the bridge? But really, it's always windy down here, people know how to deal with it.

If the decision to cancel the race was a judgement call that the organizers made due to safety concerns, I understand that. I will respectfully disagree, and argue that it was not necessary to cancel; that we pride ourselves in riding in adverse conditions and that they should have let us race, but ultimately it is their decision and we just have to deal with it.

I guess the thing that annoys me more, and that I think is the REAL mistake they made, is that they made the decision so early, and not closer to race time. Conditions change (especially down here, a short afternoon rain isn't uncommon - this scenario being the perfect example) that I think it was definitely wrong to evaluate weather conditions at 2pm or 3pm, and cancel a 6pm race.

Also annoying was that there was no notification of cancellation, and the organizers weren't at the parking area to tell racers of the cancellation. There were a handful of racers milling around when we pulled into the parking lot, and they told us that the race was cancelled. They had heard it from the few people that we hanging around when they arrived. So we stayed for a minute until another couple cars showed up, and told them about the cancellation, etc. I thought that the organizers should have at least stayed around at the start/parking area to give people the news straight from the official's mouth.

Fwiw... this is more of a tour / rally that has evolved into an unsanctioned race... it's not being run by USAC standards, which may have something to do with how it was cancelled.

The bike tour spawned the race as a separate event, they still have the "for fun" bike tour, and a triathlon too. (not sure if you were saying that the race had evolved from, and replaced the bike tour).

But that is true, it is not a sanctioned race. I had not considered that, and I could definitely see it playing a factor in what the organizers/participants are willing to deal with in terms of weather. good point