Originally Posted by
ljrichar
Urban hipsters? Kids with skinny jeans & fixed gears don't wanna race in the mud with freewheels.
Obviously you haven't been to Portland.
What I don't get is the association between "taking CX to the next level" and who's making money. Is that really the next level?
There are a few pockets of high CX participation in the U.S. but my understanding is that it isn't entirely ubiquitous. To me the next level would be that everyone near a significant metropolitan area anywhere in the U.S. would be able to race CX every weekend from September to January if they chose to do so.
I've raced 30 times this fall and I only had to drive more than 45 miles twice (and one of those was because I chose the Cross Crusade races in Bend over a more local option that weekend). I'd like to see that be possible all over the country.
BTW, Deschutes Brewery is one of the major sponsors of the Cross Crusade series here. Three of the nine races in the series this year were/will be held at the brewery, and you can't even imagine how much beer they gave away.
Anyway, regarding growth of the sport I think there are two opposed approaches competing right now. Tilford seems to be approaching it from the side that sees success of elite level athletes as an indicator of the health of a sport. That's natural enough. He's an elite level athlete. When you listen to the rhetoric coming from USAC it's all about how they need money to develop elite racers (at least that's what I get from it). The other approach is to make the sport more accessible to the average Joe. I like this because elite athletes are, by definition, a very small group. If the growth of the sport depends on convincing a lot of people that they could be the next Jeremy Powers, we're in trouble.
I guess it's a question of what the goal is. If you want to see cyclocross become the kind of sport that fat guys all around they country sit on the couch and watch on TV every weekend, I guess the USAC approach is the way to go. If you want to see cyclocross become the kind of sport where fat guys all around the country squeeze into spandex and race every weekend, then check out this link:
http://www.roadbikereview.com/review...th-usa-cycling