Dan H
While not a "real" MTB race, I enjoyed the series Brad Ross put on at PIR a
couple years ago. Close to town and cheap. No big climb though and for
some reason I can't figure, poorly attended. I'd like to see something like
that on a more challenging (with a hill) course.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brandon Reed" <brando-@member.aiche.org>
To: "'obra'" <ob-@topica.com>
Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 8:07 PM
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Mt Bike racing attendance
In Oregon last year I participated in one MTB XC race (Firecracker), one
Endurance Race (Creampuff), and the Eugene TT series, I also went to
Tucson
and did the 24hr race while I was there. This year I did the eugene TT
series and the 12 hour event at Willamette pass. A big reason I don't do
XC
races is that there is only so much time to ride and paying $35 to $45 to
race for 2 hours along with the other issues (Time and $$) associated with
driving half way accross the state every time is just too much. Consider
the
time to do a race... for example to do a race in Bend would involve about
3
hours of driving to get there, up to several hours of standing around
after
registering, a couple hours of racing, more standing around, then finally
another 3 hour drive home. So the time balance is really bad (6-8 hours of
not racing for 2 hours of racing). It cost roughly the same amount to do
the
12hour as it would to do a single XC race, and I got in 3x as much racing
(2
person team).
Cyclocross has a huge advantage by simply being close to population
centers
(short drive) instead of in far-flung locations. I feel that if there were
"local" races that were lower pressure (and lower cost) there would be
more
interest in MTB racing. In other parts of the country the "XXXday night"
race series works well. The course is well known, close to a population
center, and relatively cheap to participate. Often these are pretty short
courses which is less intimidating to the beginning racers. By the time
you
add up the costs of doing an XC event a beginning racer has a hard time
justifying the cost, and to do a whole series can cost as much as a new
bike.
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