jyl

Cyclocross nationals in Austin TX, today. Cancelled by Parks Department due to heavy rain and concern for damage to park. Incredible.

Austin cancels U.S. cyclocross nats due to rain, fear for park - VeloNews.com

The course does look pretty plowed under, but did they expect anything different when they agreed to host the event?

yochris 

Rescheduled for tomorrow at noon with some course modifications...

79pmooney

A CX race canceled because of mud?!

I see this as at least partly the responsibility of the organization at the national level. It has to be known what 2000 riders do to the earth when they all take the same path. This has been happening for decades. Now, different parts of the country and even different locations in say the same city will have very different tolerances for this kind of abuse. So, my opinion is that it is up to someone at the national level to sit down with the host of the event and make sure they know just what kind of abuse that many bikes will do. Also that the local organizers keep in mind what details of the course could do.

Enough time, money and training go into this event that it should happen with no risk of cancellations. Also, CX should not put itself in the position of being an unwelcome visitor. Sounds like here, the outcome will be OK except that bit about time and money. And some competitors probably having to leave because they actually have lives.

Here in Portland I have seen a couple of CX courses the next spring. The ability of the land here to bounce back is amazing! But then, rain does that. It is easy for me to see that Austin could be in a very different situation re: long term damage. So I say a few more "what if"s should have been asked, maybe before selecting the location

Ben

Jakedatc

Yep, i've seen it said that the grass will come back even better in the spring. Other courses look the same way and are fine. Organizers in TX should have known what was coming and planned for it or not put in a bid. The lady on the press conference sounded like this came out of no where.

I'm guessing some heavy hitters showed them the amount of lawsuits that would come down if they didn't put it on tomorrow. lost wages, lost revenue, travel costs etc etc... would have added up big time.

Bandera

Zilker Park, where the 'Cross Nat'ls, are being held/not-held, is much beloved by Austin-ites:

Zilker Metropolitan Park | Parks and Recreation | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin

The environment here in our drought ravaged Hill Country is not conducive to a quick recovery from a wet or dry 'cross course, bad project planning all around.

-Bandera

SirHustlerEsq

lol @ the "damage" which halted the race. Supposedly tomorrow's course will be redesigned and not go under any tree canopies
Tree Alerts


From what I've read, it look s like two trees caused the stoppage.

This was permitted and contracted with the city; any concerns should have been addressed prior to awarding the permit for the event. I am not very happy about blowing my money on travel and time from work for this. I hope it does not additional damage to CX in Texas as well regarding permitting.

FBinNY 

There's a difference between postponed and cancelled. Events are postponed or even moved to new venues all the time. That's not a big deal.

However, event hosts should be aware of the possibilities when agreeing to host an event, and if damage is expected, budget for recontouring and replanting the site if needed. If the area is too ecologically fragile, then they shouldn't host the event in the first place. I have no idea how extreme the weather was, or if met the level of being unforseeable, but it seems that the storm over this issue may be worse than the actual storm.

SirHustlerEsq

This event was permitted by the city, end of story. The weather was not severe and I seriously doubt USAC would hold Nationals with a weather cancellation stipulation consistent with light to moderate rain. I suspect that the city shut-down all parks departments to somehow contractually permit them to stop the event, but that's speculation regarding why the entire city park system was closed.

FBinNY 

Based on this (and accepting it as factual and accurate), is sounds like some city bureaucrat getting cold feet or some kind of bug up his ---. We shouldn't be too surprised, and certainly can't get to upset at the various non-city agencies involved since it's out of their hands. It's a good argument for avoiding cities, and trying to find private venues more likely to honor contracts. But it should be noted that not all cities are this way.

Jakedatc

https://twitter.com/lancearmstrong

Folks on here may hate his ass but he does have a good side and he helped pull **** together today with his contacts and even put some people up for the night.

There is still a lot of $ out there that needs to be refunded and such for the Park's screw up. USAC can be blamed for picking a stupid venue but they got royally hosed by a bunch of selfish ****** in Austin.