rondot@spiritone.com
Some of us were talking and I stated it was much more fun during the race than when I did pre-ride. I think living on the edge as we do when racing is what made it fun for me. I would have been fine with way more mud, but maybe still the nice sunshine for bell ringing!
ron
From: joshua liberles
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 8:11 PM
To: OBRA List
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Victims of Success
That's funny--I actually thought it was more 'cross like and less mountain bikey than many of the courses I've seen recently. Different perspectives, of course, (and from a roadie) but I like the crazy MTB-style too. Heck, I even like jungle cross on occasion... But I thought Barton was awesome!
--- On Tue, 11/8/11, Steve Lacey wrote:
From: Steve Lacey
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Victims of Success
To: "Jake Rosenfeld"
Cc: "Obra List serve"
Date: Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 12:05 PM
Thanks for the explanation, Jake. I understand constraints imposed on promoters by venue managers and appreciate the work promoters put in to make great smooth running races.
Steve
------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Jake Rosenfeld
To: Steve Lacey
Sent: Tuesday, 8 November 2011 5:24 AM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Victims of Success
Hey Steve,
I know an email like this has probabally been brewing longer than just from sunday but I have a fast and dirty answer for some of it.
Barton for all it's wide open space actually has a lot of constraints for the promoter. The gully which used to be a favored feature became off limits several years ago for in the name of 'runoff concerns' from the owners, the same thing is true for some of the other 'invisiblely sensitive' areas of the venue.
The trip down the fence line and around the back had to be abandoned due to dozens of flats from blackberrys.
In the past we wern't allowed to use the trip thru the RV area at all, we can now but then this year they took away the mud-flats exit from it too.
Whadda ya do?
As to the extra sections for the upperclassmen, I agree but thinking back I believe that every course so far has had a section added in at the start of the A race to make it longer and to add a few turns.
I know there is no perfect answer to all your questions but hopefully this helps with some of them.
See you at Pir!
jake
From: Steve Lacey
To: Obra List serve
Sent: Monday, November 7, 2011 10:42 PM
Subject: [OBRA Chat] Victims of Success
After racing at the terrific venue of Barton and being disappointed with a course that did not employ some of the great and challenging terrain present and used in courses years ago, I'm wondering if we are not experiencing a dumbing-down of Cross Crusade courses due to its incredible popularity and number of racers.
I certainly can understand from Brad's perspective designing less technical courses reduces the potential for delays and more importantly less trips to the emergency room. This is my conjecture and don't know if I am off the mark, but it is a logical analysis. It just seem like technical terrain is being avoided that was used in years past. With over 200 riders on the course keeping them upright and moving is a compelling argument for any race director.
This is not a criticism, but if this is a rational analysis, I guess one could look at this as an opportunity for the Saturday promoters to up the ante for venues with crowds at half the size of Cross Crusade races and make them technically challenging as there are far fewer racers on the course. I know I would certainly make the Saturday races first priority.
Not being a promoter I don't know the answer to this, but I suspect it would add enough complexity to the circus so as not to be realistically considered given the number of racers. But here goes, what about taking cues from mountain biking where Cat 1 racers sometimes have an alternate route that is more challenging? Brad and team could have technical sections looped into the course for A and B racers. It might take some rescheduling of particular races but...
Nah, just ravings from a jaded mountain biker who thrives on technical and is looking for any advantage to compete against the roadies' power.
Steve
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