Kristin
I agree! Then couldn't people drag their kids along for some family-friendly
camping? When it's finally not raining?
2008/6/5 Craig Austin :
> Maybe if the promoters would ever try STARTING the season a little later
> they'd find that it's not just a summertime vacation issue, it might be that
> we're tired of racing mountain bikes by then. It might be that we've
> replaced our derailleurs, chains, and cassettes a couple of times already
> and don't want to spend more on repairs. It might be that we've raced all
> spring and don't have particularly fond memories of mountain bike racing a
> certain course because it hasn't been fun (as fun as it could be under
> better conditions).
>
> Look back at the mountain bike "season" in the last five years. The first
> race of the year:
>
> 2003: March 29
> 2004: April 4
> 2005: March 26
> 2006: March 26
> 2007: March 25
> 2008: April 6
>
> You don't have good data about turnout in later races, because you've never
> tried moving the season back to find out. The complaint we used to hear from
> promoters was that the Bend mountain bike races got much better turnout.
> There's a reason for that; they were held in raceable conditions. Spring
> races can be great in Bend; if it's not snowing, the trails are very
> rideable. Not so on the west side.
>
> In 2005, the year Kevin only had 97 racers, that was already the 10th XC
> race of the year (not counting the TOE or creampuff). In 2005, we'd had four
> XC races by May 1. I don't know about the rest of you, but I love to race
> 'cross--just not on my mountain bike. I love mud, and I love muddy courses.
> And we get plenty of that in the fall and winter. Oregon is blessed with
> wonderful trails and great weather in the summer; I for one would love the
> opportunity to enjoy both at the same time.
>
> Even 'cross can only sustain the fever pitch for about 10 weeks. Those guys
> have done a great job of giving the people what they want, when they want
> it.
>
> Start the mountain bike season in late May or early June; let the roadies
> have the Banana Belts and the early season stage races. Mountain biking is a
> summer thing. I know I'd be at a lot more races.
>
> Craig Austin
>
> ------------------------------
> *From:* obra-bounces@list.obra.org on behalf of Randy Dreiling
> *Sent:* Thu 6/5/2008 1:11 PM
> *To:* kevin thompson; obra@list.obra.org
>
> *Subject:* [OBRA Chat] Mt Bike race number
>
> As a promoter of over 10 years.
> Kevin is 100% correct after June numbers drop big time, even if there is
> no other event the same day
> I think we have had this chat 20 times now.
> It has nothing to do with promoters, nothing to do with courses, nothing to
> do with cost...remember as I always point out it was the same cost to race
> the oakridge ftf last year as it was in 1992, even cheaper for JR's.
> The bottom line is people stop showing up after June
> We can go round and round about it and why it happens, but the answer is
> people stop coming.
> This is a BIG part of why there is no oakridge ftf this year, when I was
> not allowed by the forest service to host the event in May and instead I
> would have had the race in July I decided to pass for this year, as it sucks
> to put a bunch of effort out to host a race for 50-75 people no offense and
> at the end of the day loose money.
> I miss not seeing you racers this year, but I can't afford to loose money.
> As before think about the LONG list of races that are no longer around.
> Take care
> Randy Dreiling
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: kevin thompson
> To: obra@list.obra.org
> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2008 12:56:06 PM
> Subject: [OBRA Chat] Falls City Firecracker AWESOME
>
> John, and everyone else who is interested,
>
> I am speaking for myself, none of the handful of other mountain bike
> promoters have said they agree with anything I am going to say here.
>
> This year was my 6th year running the Firecracker. Of course I want more
> people there. It takes just as much work to put a race if 10 people show
> up, as it does if 200 show up.
>
> Several years back, Shane Young was doing the OBRA rep job at the mountain
> bike races and one of the things he did to entertain himself was to track
> attendance through out the season. The conclusion that he made was that
> after school got out in June, that fewer racers showed up to race. After
> reading John's email today, I went back to look at my history in the OBRA
> arcives. My data backs Shane's data up. I checked the old schedules to see
> what conficts where happening on the dates the Firecracker was happening.
> This is what I found.
>
> The most surprising to me was in 2005 the firecracer had an entire July
> weekend to its self (just what John seems to want). I had 97 racers.
>
> The complete history is:
>
> July 2003, Brownsville crit, and state track on the same day, 115 racers
> July 2004, Silverton rr, firecracker is the xc state champ, 89 racers
> July 2005, no compitition the entire weekend, 97 racers
> August 2006, Woodland rr, 75 racers
> May 2007, Swan Island, 158 racers
> June 2008, Silverton, 170 racers.
>
> The last 2 years, the race was before school got out and I almost doubled
> participation.
>
> I tried for 4 years to promote a race in the summer, it was not really
> worth my effort.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> See you all at Pickets.
>
> Kevin
>
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