T. Kenji Sugahara

>From Lillian Schiavo:

It is with our sincere regret that we must cancel the second race of
the Moore Cowbell Cyclocross series for 2013. We fully intend to
continue the event in the future, but for reasons outlined below, we
need to take a step back and make some changes to ensure that we have
a fun event that is prosperous for all.

It is not a secret that our first race was hit with extremely severe
weather. This is the first year that we've had weather of this
magnitude. Cyclocross being the sport it is, the event did not suffer
in attendance. For that we are grateful to everybody that came out to
participate, volunteer or spectate and our sponsors. We are
perpetually surprised by the support that we get for this event.

What came out of this culmination of weather and normal attendance was
significant amount of damage to the turf in the park. There are areas
where ruts, caused by heavy bicycle traffic, are inches thick and span
for very long sections that the course was on. While this should heal
back to it's normal beautiful self, it will take a notable amount of
manual labor to ensure this. Further, any more traffic on these areas
could compromise the full and healthy return of the grass in these
areas.

The City Parks Department has been very generous in the amount of
support that we have received over the five years we have run this
event. It is safe to say that we cannot do it without this help. This
damage has incurred unexpected labor costs for the city to make these
repairs. In their usual gracious way, they have not come to us to
cover these costs. They have merely expressed concern over the damage,
asked us for volunteers to help with the labor and want a contingency
plan for future events.

It is important to note that the City Parks, nor has any other
faction, asked us to nor pressured us to cancel our event. We made
that decision internally for a number of reasons.

The first and foremost, is that this event is run as a fundraiser for
a non-profit that supports and upgrades the park. We have always
thought of ourselves to some degree as stewards to the park, being one
of the few sources of income for this group. We cannot think of
ourselves as stewards if we knowingly run an event that could
potentially damage the park. Considering how spread out the damage is
in the park, it would be difficult to use any of the turf in the main
portion of the park without further damaging it before it heals.

The second reason that we have chosen to cancel our event is the lack
of a good contingency plan. The City Parks wants assurance that the
same thing will not happen again in the future. For that reason, we
need to have a second course in mind for inclement weather. In the
time between our two races, we cannot easily come up with a course
that is fun, safe and will completely meet all constraints the Parks
Department have laid out. We will come to the event next year with a
proper "Plan B."

Lastly, we chose to cancel our event to help stem any complaints or
bad press that we might receive from this situation. We never intended
on doing any damage to our beloved park. It is the most important
asset to this event and our community. We feel that if we do not
cancel this next race, that it may look as though we are neglecting
the damage. If we do that, we may loose any community support that we
harbor.

We plan on taking several actions in lieu of running our event. We
will be refunding the entry fees for the second race to anybody that
has paid for both. We will be awarding half of our cash purse and
merchandise prizes to the winners of the first event. We will
personally be helping with many of the repairs and will be gathering
volunteers to expedite these repairs. Finally, we will be exploring
options to fulfill the requested contingency plan.

We appreciate your understanding in this matter. It was not an easy
decision to make as we enjoy running this event as much as you enjoy
participating. Please contact us with any questions or concerns.

--
Kenji Sugahara
Executive Director
Oregon Bicycle Racing Association
Phone: 503-278-5550
http://www.obra.org