getting way behind

And so little time to catch back up. Or not.

This coming weekend is an off weekend. Have no plans to get in the car and drive a while to race. Need a break from the car or just time to get out for a long road ride and make the muscles do something more than intensity for 40-50 minutes.

We'll see what the weather does, but anyway. Providence Race weekend.

And yes. Totally don't get how it is the Providence Cyclocross Festival Cyclocross (#PCFCX) seems redudant but it sort of goes with the weekend. So awesome in some many ways, and so many routine details we take for granted or that seem obvious completely overlooked.

BEFORE I START THE RANT:
Bottom line. I love this race. I love the course, I have a great and deep appreciation for all that everyone involved in the event did. I just hope at least some of these 'issues' are addressed next year and years to come.



I'm going to complain for a second about what stood out as big issues.  The thing is these issues can be addressed and fixed next time.  However. If this happens again I predict a pile of people will pick NoHo or GMCX or Sterling or NBX to come up instead of doing PCFCX.

If you're going to have a race on Friday, AND clinics, get your shit together and have the course ready for the published start time. if you're going to have a fat bike category, and you only have 3 registrants in there, cancel it or offer for them to race with the next race (single speed). Saw a couple fat bike guys looking pretty dejected with their bikes. Sure I think it might be silly but I don't have one of those bikes and I didn't show up on course early and then have nothing happen (seemingly).
JD wasn't even finished setting up timing and scoring when the Single Speed race was supposed to start.

Single speed race was 20 minutes late because no one published a series start list, numbers were assigned by last name. Should have been series points. I recruited Tom Mosbey and his fruit phone to grab the Race predictor so Dianne could stage everyone. That worked but it was a mess. Officials were not super pleased with the total disorganization.

These guys running the event. This isn't their first time. There are all experience people there. They know what to do. And what should be done. And what is expected.

Sure it was over the top this year. A ton of new elements that were super cool. But Moving the barriers just before a race mid-day and the next two fields have no opportunity to pre-ride after the change. Or add the jump mid-day...  Not cool. At least the changes worked but it was totally not cool.

Those issues kind of paled with the timing and scoring clusterfuck that was caused by the biggest field of the day. 125 45+ cat 1/2/3/4 guys followed by 75 55+ 1/2/3/4 guys.  First that's 200 grumpy old dudes on course at once.  Second, too many of them are too stubborn to listen or learn how to pin a number on properly (yes there are plenty that do it correctly) and last, you've got a MASSIVE disparity in ability. The front end of the 45+ guys might as well race elites. They are fast enough to race in the scrub zone of a UCI race and not get 80%'d. Or very close at least. Close enough to be top 10 easy in the 35+ 1/2/3 race.

So you have widely divergent abilities, on a course that may not have been long enough for that many, with abilities that more or less cover beginner speed to elite speed and yeah well. The results were really really messed up. that's not cool. Yes problems. No question.

Who is responsible? Ultimately the promoter. It is their race. You have your biggest field. And you may not have intended to but you sort of said i don't care about the biggest block of paying competitors enough to take care of them right. I'd rather have a full field of 200 people on course that hour than to make sure they have an equitable race experience.

Maybe for something like this the cat 4s need to be excluded. Only have 1/2/3 racers line up for the 45 and 55. the Cat 4s can race in the 4/5 masters race. I don't know what the solution is other than to have smaller fields or longer laps or get really redundant with timing/scoring and going with chip timing to supplement JD's scoring.

These are observations. I notice shit. And often I say something about it. Esp when things potentially could be done/adjusted in the future to prevent it.

ONE LAST THING.

or at least the final thing I'll complain about in this post:
PARKING

RWP is a clusterfuck to attempt to park 1000-1500 racers. Like really challenging. Not only that but the road we race on and that gets closed all weekend, is a heavily traveled road used by locals. And when you don't POST MASSIVE SIGNS or station someone at the entrance to the back side or front side ALL DAY...  you wind up with lots of argy bargy going on. Pissed off people in cars who can't understand why they have to back up 1/2 mile to turn around. Can't understand why the park road is closed.

Not to mention the hilarity on Saturday of a giant stretch caddy SUV having to back up a LOOOONG way.

And that's without ADDING A GRAND FONDO THAT STARTS FROM THE PARK BEFORE ALL THE RACES START!!!!!

HOLY HELL WHAT A NIGHTMARE.

The Zoo/Carousel side of the place, was double parked on both sides of the street. THERE ISN'T ROOM FOR TWO CARS TO PASS EACHOTHER! So now we have a parking problem and ALSO a problem where no one can get through if someone isn't skilled enough to leave millimeters on mirrors to squeak through.

Move the Grand Fondo start to the Casino or something. ANYWHERE ELSE. Start it from J&WU Harborside campus or something. ANYWHERE but the park.

Minor details that blew everyone's minds. Most bike racers managed to deal with it. Of course. We put up with alot more shit than most, esp the CX crowd. Because the opporunities to race are unique, not easy to find and venues all come with their own challenges, and we usually make them work.

I'll keep coming to PCFCX as long as they have it because it is sooooo close to me. Home race almost. It is a great venue, they do a great job with everything outside the race, the expo, the beer garden, the production value.  All that is off the hook and so cool.

Time to bring the competitors experience level up to match everything else. At least that's my opinion after racing three days.  This is also the first year I have not volunteered, not spent two of my vacation days helping to set up the course.  I know the amount of work that goes into making this happen.  This year was even bigger. I know it was a monumental effort, and I would hate to see these issues become a chronic issue and eat away at participation.

The only other venue with that stacked of a 35+ masters field is at Nationals.

Bottom line. I love this race. I love the course, I have a great and deep appreciation for all that everyone involved in the event did. I just hope at least some of these are addressed.  (yeah i said it before, just saying it again, actually i said it here first then copied and pasted it up to the top as a preamble to the rant and leaving it here to book end the fact that I want to see this get even better, esp from racer perspective)

Heck I'll leave the juniors/35+ issue alone, that's a completely different subject but probably falls into the above...

hah - so much for writing the PCFCX SSCX report.

maybe later...

heddwch
G