JeanVallery

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dminor 

Wow, you have an ambitious project ahead of you.

One thing I would suggest, unless you already have your own mechanism set up, is to use a third-party registration service like bikereg or active.com. I recommend active.com because it is large, national/international and has an excellent race director interface. They have the tools in place already for a USACycling event; i.e. - online waivers, etc.

For computerized timing, you might check with Eric at Milliseconds Sports Timing if you want to/need to go the chip-based route - - your event's far enough out so you should be able to secure a date with them. At least contact them and get a bid; they're pretty competitive price-wise and they do events all over the U.S.

Seems to me that some of your logistical questions as far as porta-pot, route marking and medical are covered somewhere in the USA Cycling promoter guidelines aren't they? For medical, since you are in an area that doesn't probably have a nearby volunteer ski patrol to tap, see if you might be able to involve a 4x4 offroad club to help. They have the rigs and accessibility to difficult terrain and they generally all have at least CB radios for communications.

I don't have experience with such a large event; but I am a co-organizer of our local NORBA state championship downhill race that is going on its third year. Feel free to PM me if you think anything that I can contribute might help.

And good luck on securing UCI sanctioning.

EDIT= Forgot to mention: I do feelance graphics work (kinda what got me sucked into the race-promotion gig); could send you a short portfolio of race/event poster samples if you want.

apclassic9

RE finding Sponsors: Start local for the small stuff.... for larger sponsorships, companies pretty much decide their next year's sponsorship in the Oct - Nov-Dec timeframe. Start now - if you're looking for the big bucks, you'll have to have a personal relationship with somebody at the particular company - otherwise they would have sent the $$ to MY race! (tee hee!) Seriously, though, talking money out of companies is not as easy as it used to be. Look around your area for a MTBer who just happens to be a CEO of a profitable company who is looking for some advertising directed toward your target group, or, since you're in CA, find a producer who needs a reality film.....

dminor 

I don't know of one; but here is where I might start: Contact Wendy at Round and Round Productions in Spokane, WA. wendy@roundandround.com She can probably answer most of the questions that you have. Round and Round is the Pacific Northwest regional NORBA race promoter and they have years of experience hosting both road and off-road events. They handle the yearly Washington State Championship 24-Hour race and have hosted two NORBA NMBS Nationals besides all of the regional events that they do. Wendy is a goddess of logistics and details.

apclassic9

pm me your email & I'll try to give you some details - I have volunteered at races in WV since 2000, and pretty much have it down.....