[trumpetman]

US Cyclocross Nationals

For the last several years weather has overshadowed the racing at cross nats. I think the time has come to strongly consider the southeast for nationals. From personal experience I can strongly recommend that Hendersonville, NC as having the necessary ingredients to put on a great national championship race. Hendersonville is just south of Asheville, a major tourist destination with plenty of hotel rooms and just north of Greenville, SC, host to this years road championship race. Both Asheville and Greenville have airports with major airline service. Both have easy interstate access. Both are very hip small cities and Hendersonville is a progressive small town with a great ambience.

The promoter of the NC cyclocross series, Tim Hopkin is an excellent masters cross racer who has established the NC series as a very consistently excellent series over the last 10+ years. This past season he passed a significant test promoting 2 UCI C2 races. The course for the UCI races was at Jackson Park in Hendersonville a Henderson County park. The park has it all - great terrain - a wall - and most importantly of all Tim is the Director of Parks and Rec for Henderson County. To quote Tim - "I can do anything at the park I want" - not many promoters can match that!

I put this out there just to see what the reaction would be and to see if we could begin a grass roots movement to move this most important race to an area where weather is not likely to dominate the event.

John

 

[Rollo Tommassi]

Let the best rider dominate the event

Let's not run the Tour dF through the mountains, or the Vuelta through the really hot southern part of Spain. Sometimes it snows during the Giro, too, so that should be moved to August.

No Roubaix in April, how about in June?

Of course, I'm old fashioned, and am against astroturf...and the Super Bowl in Florida.

Everything you say about the venue sounds great, I hope your man Tim puts his hat in the ring with usacycling. Let the competency of the promoter and the track record of his/her events be the qualifications.

Hey, wait a minute, isn't that hurricane territory down South?? Tornadoes??EEEEEEEEEEk!

 

[euro-trash]

I'll 2nd Tim as being a great guy to work with, he'd put on a great event. That having been said, Nats are already spoken for until at least 2008 (KC) so this is a long-term goal. Your point that he has complete control over the park is a good selling point.

I promoted cross races in Boone, NC starting in 1996 when I was 19. Tim let me put my grassroots (that's a generous description) race in his NC series and he was a real help and a joy to work with ( It evolved into a real event, but the first year my wavier consisted of a sheet that said, "I promise not to sue". My course design: I would get drunk and set-up the course the night before the race. When I was done, to ensure it wasn't "jungle cross" I would ride the course on my road bike, drunk, in the dark with no light. If I could do that, I figured it wasn't too technical despite the brutal run-up. Fun times.). That series sure has grown through the years and a lot of it is because of his hard work putting on excellent races and offering clinics etc.

I also agree Ashville would be a good place. Bad weather, when it arises, is part of cross, but that doesn't mean you have to seek it out every year for nats.

 

[trumpetman]

CX nats

Rollo (if that is your name),

Your points are well taken. Certainly anyone who has raced cross since 1990 as I have, starting out in the Seattle series, would acknolwedge that cross is a fall-winter sport. Conditions be damned. Actually I loved the race in Portland...even with the mud...personal circumstances prevented me from racing in Providence but I certainly was tempted to try to get to Belgium for Masters Worlds, regardless of the conditions.

Part of the issues of who-where is qualified are based on perception. The racing here in NC is very good...cross birthplace of Trebon...stomping grounds of Brookwalter...Storm...Hamblen...winter training grounds of the Wells Bros. and many others.

The weather in Dec. is normally cold and wet - just not insane. Of course with global warming who is sure what next year will bring.

John

Let's not run the Tour dF through the mountains, or the Vuelta through the really hot southern part of Spain. Sometimes it snows during the Giro, too, so that should be moved to August.

No Roubaix in April, how about in June?

Of course, I'm old fashioned, and am against astroturf...and the Super Bowl in Florida.

Everything you say about the venue sounds great, I hope your man Tim puts his hat in the ring with usacycling. Let the competency of the promoter and the track record of his/her events be the qualifications.

Hey, wait a minute, isn't that hurricane territory down South?? Tornadoes??EEEEEEEEEEk!

 

[Rollo Tommassi]

Freakish weather!

The year we go to Asheville it'll be minus 20; if in Chicago (where I'm at) it'll be 70degrees.

Has the SE not been considered? Just curious. All the more reason for Tim et. al. to elbow up to the bar, so to speak. Perhaps be a part of the Crank Bros. GP or Supercup, if that comes back.

I think what makes US cross so exciting is the myriad variety of conditions across our large country. I'm all for more races in every state, wouldn't it be a dream to have regional championships? That way it's not such a big stretch for people to fly coast-to-coast for the 'big' race. Vaguely divide the country up by usacycling regions? Then more promoters get to strut their stuff.

Rollo (not at all my real name)

Rollo (if that is your name),

Your points are well taken. Certainly anyone who has raced cross since 1990 as I have, starting out in the Seattle series, would acknolwedge that cross is a fall-winter sport. Conditions be damned. Actually I loved the race in Portland...even with the mud...personal circumstances prevented me from racing in Providence but I certainly was tempted to try to get to Belgium for Masters Worlds, regardless of the conditions.

Part of the issues of who-where is qualified are based on perception. The racing here in NC is very good...cross birthplace of Trebon...stomping grounds of Brookwalter...Storm...Hamblen...winter training grounds of the Wells Bros. and many others.

The weather in Dec. is normally cold and wet - just not insane. Of course with global warming who is sure what next year will bring.

John

 

[cantdog]

Weather overshadowing racing?

Wait, when I signed up for this whole thing I thought weather was part of racing. If I wanted to ride in sunshine all day I would of moved to southern california.

 

[crossbishop]

just a hunch..

With nats in kc until 08, i think the next stop will be boulder, colorado. They picked up some crank bros races this year and seem to have some momentum.

 

[Dwayne Barry]

I've heard great things about that NC venue. To host nationals is a bid process. There is no grassroots action that needs to take place beyond the people who want to put on Nationals putting together a bid. Until the folks down in NC are willing to do that and step up, nothing else matters.

 

[Gripped]

I can strongly recommend that Hendersonville, NC as having the necessary ingredients to put on a great national championship race

Yeah, and I was born there! Nats in Hendersonville or Asheville would be great. It would be an easy sell to my wife to travel all the way across contry since we could visit family at the same time.

 

[atpjunkie]

well I know many guys

who missed Nats this year snowed in airports. Portland was wet and muddy but at least you could get there. Napa, same and that was a rare storm. SF the year before was nice. I'd love to see Nat's there again. NE in Dec seems pretty crazy, what are the odds at that point of heavy snow? I mean I'm all for racing in nasty weather but when the odds are it is so bad racers are getting hypothermia and others miss their event being snowed in,it seems a tad extreme. I could see something a wee bit further south.

 

[kajukembo]

Seattle

Why not Seattle. All the races I've done up there have been great. The Emerald Series folks run a tight ship. Non stop flights from just about anywhere in the county with abundant and inexpensive lodging.

Also, like the Netherlands, they have courses that have a sand base and hold up very well in the rain.

 

[jroden]

Freaking stupid hotel rooms in those west coast cities are very expensive--I thought about the SF race a few years ago until I priced it out, forget it. The Kansas site was outstanding in terms of affordable rooms and places to eat, easy to get to, etc., shame about the weather. I would love to have raced this year's Nats course on a normal day, it was very well designed to support the large fields that we had, even with the weather there always seemed to be passing room, I just lacked the ability to actually accomplish it.

 

[whoawhoa]

For the last several years weather has overshadowed the racing at cross nats. I think the time has come to strongly consider the southeast for nationals. From personal experience I can strongly recommend that Hendersonville, NC as having the necessary ingredients to put on a great national championship race. Hendersonville is just south of Asheville, a major tourist destination with plenty of hotel rooms and just north of Greenville, SC, host to this years road championship race. Both Asheville and Greenville have airports with major airline service. Both have easy interstate access. Both are very hip small cities and Hendersonville is a progressive small town with a great ambience.

The promoter of the NC cyclocross series, Tim Hopkin is an excellent masters cross racer who has established the NC series as a very consistently excellent series over the last 10+ years. This past season he passed a significant test promoting 2 UCI C2 races. The course for the UCI races was at Jackson Park in Hendersonville a Henderson County park. The park has it all - great terrain - a wall - and most importantly of all Tim is the Director of Parks and Rec for Henderson County. To quote Tim - "I can do anything at the park I want" - not many promoters can match that!

I put this out there just to see what the reaction would be and to see if we could begin a grass roots movement to move this most important race to an area where weather is not likely to dominate the event.

John

Excellent! Maybe not nationals, but hopefully a U.S. GP in the next year or two! I personally enjoyed the Hendy courses way more than the nationals course (which would have been awesome at speed).

 

[argylesocks]

who missed Nats this year snowed in airports. Portland was wet and muddy but at least you could get there. Napa, same and that was a rare storm. SF the year before was nice. I'd love to see Nat's there again. NE in Dec seems pretty crazy, what are the odds at that point of heavy snow? I mean I'm all for racing in nasty weather but when the odds are it is so bad racers are getting hypothermia and others miss their event being snowed in,it seems a tad extreme. I could see something a wee bit further south.

oh, you fair-weather 'cross racers.....

just kididn

 

[TOZOVR]

who missed Nats this year snowed in airports. Portland was wet and muddy but at least you could get there. Napa, same and that was a rare storm. SF the year before was nice. I'd love to see Nat's there again. NE in Dec seems pretty crazy, what are the odds at that point of heavy snow? I mean I'm all for racing in nasty weather but when the odds are it is so bad racers are getting hypothermia and others miss their event being snowed in,it seems a tad extreme. I could see something a wee bit further south.

I dunno...this thear someone put a voodoo curse on someone else...because aside from that storm we've had crap for snow (inflected like a guy who bought a new snowplow this year )