Time will tell if the long course is a hit with the racers. I'd bet you it will not be a hit with spectators. Lap times will be too long, taking what was an exciting race to watch into a snore-fest for the spectators.
Agreed we had problems with the mixing of the fields, but with the orginal course, that does not happen as much. Plus we would not have been racing through the turn around when another race was starting. I think yesterdays course is harder than the orginal. The fully closed course was nice. This course with a few tweeks would be great. Getting neutralized is a price we pay for race tactics that play out on the road. If we were going all out all the time.. there would be fewer crossing of the groups. If a race winner was up the road with a different group, then in is the motos responsibility to separate them, if the winner continue to use a different group, then he should be DQ'd.
It was a difficult decision to make and we hope we made the right one. We know there are a bunch of racers that love the fast and punchy short course. Thanks for coming out and racing anyway, we hope you'll like the long course and even be surprised by it. It's actually got a nice variation of tight/technical and wide open so it should provide opportunities to riders of all styles. Cheers!
Because the city put pressure on us to shorten the race day (due to Jazz In The Park) we are running 35+ 3s and SM3s at the same time but they will be scored separately for awards and BAT.
I believe the City Park crit (circuit?) will combine the 3s and 35+ 3s exactly how you describe. They will be scored separately even.
It was definitely a mess between categories. In the end even the motos had to give up trying to sort out who was who in the 3s categories. I would definitely direct frustration at BRAC not the organizer, as BRAC stipulates categories and exerts pressure on promoters to run them all.
I still had a great time out there and kudos to the promoters for finding a course so we could all race given the circumstances. It certainly kicked my butt.
Props to WOL for making lemonade out of lemons. The course was challenging, safe and made for good racing. Who would have thought the wall was going to be the "easy" part of the course (due to tailwind!) That said, it was a bit of a joke with that much wind to have the groups so tight. I was just on the Iron Horse Website and it looks like they've got a different take. I mean does it really matter if you're 23 and putting out 400 W or 38 and putting out 400W? Ability, not age should define the cats. BTW - history aside, I think the 100% closed course with the wall is more fun/safer than the full Morgul. Might be a happy accident!
The 3s passed the 35+ 3s (why are they starting in front of the 3s?) and the 35+ Open race. When the race-winning move was made, the 3s were all tangled up with some other field and there was no way an organized chase was going to happen (it's the 3s, so the likelihood was slim already, but still).
If BRAC can't lift the restrictions forcing Cup Races from having all these races, maybe we can combine the fields and score them separately. For example, race the 35+ 3s with the 3s, and score it separate.
BTW, yesterday was cake (in terms of congestion on the course) compared to cyclocross. Too many categories is a mess in every cross race.
And 35+ 1/2 ???
Time will tell if the long course is a hit with the racers. I'd bet you it will not be a hit with spectators. Lap times will be too long, taking what was an exciting race to watch into a snore-fest for the spectators.
Agreed we had problems with the mixing of the fields, but with the orginal course, that does not happen as much. Plus we would not have been racing through the turn around when another race was starting. I think yesterdays course is harder than the orginal. The fully closed course was nice. This course with a few tweeks would be great. Getting neutralized is a price we pay for race tactics that play out on the road. If we were going all out all the time.. there would be fewer crossing of the groups. If a race winner was up the road with a different group, then in is the motos responsibility to separate them, if the winner continue to use a different group, then he should be DQ'd.
Same start/finish and direction.
It was a difficult decision to make and we hope we made the right one. We know there are a bunch of racers that love the fast and punchy short course. Thanks for coming out and racing anyway, we hope you'll like the long course and even be surprised by it. It's actually got a nice variation of tight/technical and wide open so it should provide opportunities to riders of all styles. Cheers!
Because the city put pressure on us to shorten the race day (due to Jazz In The Park) we are running 35+ 3s and SM3s at the same time but they will be scored separately for awards and BAT.
I believe the City Park crit (circuit?) will combine the 3s and 35+ 3s exactly how you describe. They will be scored separately even.
It was definitely a mess between categories. In the end even the motos had to give up trying to sort out who was who in the 3s categories. I would definitely direct frustration at BRAC not the organizer, as BRAC stipulates categories and exerts pressure on promoters to run them all.
I still had a great time out there and kudos to the promoters for finding a course so we could all race given the circumstances. It certainly kicked my butt.
Props to WOL for making lemonade out of lemons. The course was challenging, safe and made for good racing. Who would have thought the wall was going to be the "easy" part of the course (due to tailwind!) That said, it was a bit of a joke with that much wind to have the groups so tight. I was just on the Iron Horse Website and it looks like they've got a different take. I mean does it really matter if you're 23 and putting out 400 W or 38 and putting out 400W? Ability, not age should define the cats. BTW - history aside, I think the 100% closed course with the wall is more fun/safer than the full Morgul. Might be a happy accident!
http://ironhorsebicycleclassic.com/Durango-Coca-Cola-Road-Race
The 3s passed the 35+ 3s (why are they starting in front of the 3s?) and the 35+ Open race. When the race-winning move was made, the 3s were all tangled up with some other field and there was no way an organized chase was going to happen (it's the 3s, so the likelihood was slim already, but still).
If BRAC can't lift the restrictions forcing Cup Races from having all these races, maybe we can combine the fields and score them separately. For example, race the 35+ 3s with the 3s, and score it separate.
BTW, yesterday was cake (in terms of congestion on the course) compared to cyclocross. Too many categories is a mess in every cross race.