Marek Litinsky

I'm just going to throw it out there one more time before heading to the annual meeting.
Btw. The email below sounds very reasonable to me as it does admit road racing is really hard and you can't fake it.

There is a magic silver bullet that can help to solve all of our road racing troubles with simple administrative initiative.

We can reach and absorb few hundred of not thousand people into our folds by making "fondos" and "grinders" REAL races with points for upgrades, BAR, Oregon Cup etc.

We can introduce racing and path to racing to people who just by already having the right equipment and gear just might be into racing. Heck, they already lined up for fun race to give it a shot.

We can help develop our junior riders by letting them race in large fields. There's so much to be said about that. So important for anybody trying to progress.

We can showcase racing and our sponsors on our jerseys to crowd of people that are into racing and are lining up to fun race.

We can help promoters who permitted, insured, organized race that we are for some reason scoffing at as not "real" race. I can tell you they are real and they are fun and hurt as much as any race.

Nothing needs to change. 1/2/3 field does the longest route. Junior and 4/5 field does the medium route all these events already have. We already have existing rules that govern upgrades and scoring for combined fields.

I can go on and on because I can't think of easier way to reach out to the wide public, help our sponsors with exposure and magically create about half a dozen road and mixed terrain road races on our dwindling race calendar.

Now off to the meeting

> On Jan 28, 2017, at 10:21 AM, Silvernail via OBRA wrote:
>
> I just read Chad's post; although none of what he wrote was news to me, it's good to have it all put out there for the good of the racing community so everyone understands the hurdles.
>
> The old saying goes something like,"opinions are like anal orifices, everyone has one" but I still would like to throw my perspective out there. I wish I had a solution to the decline, although the obvious and easy answer is to attract lots of young riders. Another observation is that there has obviously been a major shift from road racing to cyclocross. Cross is a much easier sell to folks from other sports like running or triathlon because you can race ccx at your own pace, and for that same reason is attractive to road racers who aren't in prime shape. Perhaps another solution may be a type of road race that didn't involve pack racing, where people could see measured results, and didn't have the attitude around it like road racing does. Time trials?
>
> So why did I stop road racing? I enjoyed riding but got tired of having to grind out miles upon miles on the bike just so I could hang with the pack in races. There were other things to do: running (gulp!), hiking, XC skiing, kayaking. I doubt that I am alone. In fact, I think that attracting bike racers may be especially difficult here in Oregon because there is so much else to do. To be a bike racer means you have to train. A person can train very little and still run a 10k race, but try to race your bike on two to three days of riding a week and you'll be otb.
>
> So, going back to the issue: road racing needs a constant flow of new blood (sorry, that may not be a good thing to write when discussing cycling). The solution lies in attracting riders and removing barriers. Much easier said than done. This isn't just my opinion: bikes are too expensive and bike racers are too unwelcoming. Someone can show up to a running race in jeans and work boots and no one cares. Show up to a bike race in the wrong jersey and you get roasted.
>
> Anyway, that's my perspective. Good luck!
>
>
>
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Dan Silvernail

I just read Chad's post; although none of what he wrote was news to me, it's good to have it all put out there for the good of the racing community so everyone understands the hurdles.

The old saying goes something like,"opinions are like anal orifices, everyone has one" but I still would like to throw my perspective out there. I wish I had a solution to the decline, although the obvious and easy answer is to attract lots of young riders. Another observation is that there has obviously been a major shift from road racing to cyclocross. Cross is a much easier sell to folks from other sports like running or triathlon because you can race ccx at your own pace, and for that same reason is attractive to road racers who aren't in prime shape. Perhaps another solution may be a type of road race that didn't involve pack racing, where people could see measured results, and didn't have the attitude around it like road racing does. Time trials?

So why did I stop road racing? I enjoyed riding but got tired of having to grind out miles upon miles on the bike just so I could hang with the pack in races. There were other things to do: running (gulp!), hiking, XC skiing, kayaking. I doubt that I am alone. In fact, I think that attracting bike racers may be especially difficult here in Oregon because there is so much else to do. To be a bike racer means you have to train. A person can train very little and still run a 10k race, but try to race your bike on two to three days of riding a week and you'll be otb.

So, going back to the issue: road racing needs a constant flow of new blood (sorry, that may not be a good thing to write when discussing cycling). The solution lies in attracting riders and removing barriers. Much easier said than done. This isn't just my opinion: bikes are too expensive and bike racers are too unwelcoming. Someone can show up to a running race in jeans and work boots and no one cares. Show up to a bike race in the wrong jersey and you get roasted.

Anyway, that's my perspective. Good luck!