Evan Plews
I think that this has gone a little to far. The facts: Spring Thaw is one of
the longest running XC races in the state if not the country. It was a
"classic" race when I did it the first time in 1995. I haven't been able to
make it every year due to time conflicts and location. However, it is still
worthy of the "state championship" from time to time.
Thanks to SOMBA for a great event. Probably the only negative side was that
it was in conflict with the NMBS series and we were missing some of Oregons
top riders for the Pro categories.
Bottom line it that the championships SHOULD move around and that this is a
"free market" sport. We are all pay-to-play athletes. If you have a
conflict, or can't afford it, or don't like it, don't do it!
To bag on a venue for your own personal reasons is a lame thing to do.
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Evan MacKenzie"
To:
Subject: [OBRA Chat] State Champ races
Date: Mon, 14 May 2007 08:20:13 -0700
This may have been addressed before or after the Spring Thaw, and I KNOW
people were all over this list last year after the hillclimb champs at Mt
Ashland, but I?m going to add to the fire one more time.
I?m not concerned so much about out-of-staters racing in our state champ
races, but I am concerned about Oregonians even being able to make it to the
race.
In the future, can we have State Championship races in a more central
location? In fact, I would even recommend that we just have them all in the
Bend area. It?s about as central as you can get in this state.
Ashland is an 8 ? hour drive from Baker City?not much less from La Grande
and certainly not less from Ontario. That means racing in any race in
Ashland is pretty much a three-day commitment and 17 hours in the car from
out here on the east side. Uh, yeah, not going to happen.
Now I am not opposed to racing in Ashland. I did the Super D last year and
loved it (of course, that was when I lived in Portland). And I am in no way
suggesting the people down south reduce their local calendar. But?would it
be really tough to combine the XC and DH into one day so people traveling
from far away could do both? Or?move the Spring Thaw to a later date and
then do the Super D that day in the afternoon or the next day? Now that
would be worth driving for.
I also noticed that the crowd at the Chainbreaker last year was quite a bit
larger when it was the State Champ race. That?s too bad, because it was just
as fun this year. Thanks to Web Cyclery for putting on a great race.
Just my .02 for this morning.
-Evan
Evan MacKenzie
Planning Director
City of Baker City
PO Box 650
1655 First Street
Baker City, OR 97814
541-524-2030
www.bakercity.com
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