First, I want to say that I'm disappointed in the changes that are occurring at Turkey Mountain. It seems that the area we had for so many years, which was well-suited for putting on racing events, is being morphed into something more suited for wheelchair races. I'm not sure how we're going to pull of the DoubleShot Duathlon this year at Turkey Mountain (October 10). Another thing that burned me was the destruction of our course. I marked the course with ribbon a couple weeks ago, and then Kari and I went back out on Saturday to put up more ribbon and caution tape. Sunday morning when I went out on my bike to make sure the markings were still ok, I found that probably over 80% of the caution tape had been torn down. I can't begin to understand why people would do that, but I do understand the amount of work involved in putting it up and putting it back up and putting it back up. Maybe our wish to have more people using Turkey Mountain has led to it being an inhospitable place to have races.
I heard complaints throughout the day that caution tape was down on the course. And that people were cutting the course. I don't think there was any confusion where the actual course led. I'm pretty sure that even if someone broke some caution tape during the race, you could see where it was supposed to be. So I assume that if someone was cutting the course, they were doing it on purpose. And there's NOTHING I can do about that. There must've been 100 different ways you could cut the course, if you knew the trails. And if you're going to cheat, you're going to cheat. If you see someone cheat, I guess you should point the finger.
I'm not saying that I don't think people cheat. I do think people cheat. And I don't like it. I hope they get caught. And I think there should be a year suspension from racing in USA Cycling events if you are caught cheating. But I hope no one is cheating.
We worked our asses off to put on this race. And hopefully we didn't lose more than a couple hundred bucks on it. If you have comments about the race, feel free to post them here or drop me an email: Brian@DoubleShotCoffee.com
If you'd like to see pictures from the race, they are posted online thanks to Candice Steichen.
I'll try to post a link to results as soon as I get them from the USAC official.
Now, on to the DoubleShot Duathlon.
The first race of the series is in two weeks. August 8 at Keystone Lake. I'll be blogging details here as usual. Stay tuned.
7 comments:
Thank you for putting together a good race. To everyone that helped, thanks for giving us your day to make the race better! I had a good time. I will be back next year.
Ryan
Brain and all the rest of the Six in the Sticks volunteers: I thoroughly enjoyed the race you guys put together. Also love the wife beater - I wore it yesterday with pride! The Beer & Hot Dogs you got were also the best - Really liked your promoting to everyone to get a "hot dogs and beers" all day. You totally were cracking me up with the rest of your shananigan comments to the roadies passing by... Anyways, it was a heck of a day and you guys deserve a 'double' pat on the back for your efforts. Thanks you and the rest of the voluteers for sacrificing so much for the love of our sport. I hope you guys sponser it again next year, b/c I want some more of that Ice Coffee on the trail!
Andy
Brian, bottom line is we would not have events like Six in the Sticks or the off road duathlons in the Tulsa area without your efforts. You put on good, hard, honest races (they're not supposed to be easy, right?) and have a great bunch of volunteers.
I hope you continue to persevere through all the negatives that you encountered on Sunday.
The racers appreciate it!
Raton Parmain
Brian, focus on the positives. You made a lot of people hurt Sunday. I personally haven't wanted to quit a race so bad...ever! Thanks! Hope that makes ya feel better about your efforts.
Rode/ran Keystone yesterday. It's in decent shape. Dusty. Needs to be ridden. So...get out there and ride, people!! Looking forward to the Du!
Renshaw
Thanks for the positive comments. I was just saying this morning, if I'm not going to make money at this and people are going to bitch about it, maybe I need to make the courses HARDER so that I can at least enjoy the fact that I inflicted great pain on them. :)
The other thing I'm pissed about is the fact that I cracked my frame Sunday morning and I've been trying to deal with Trek: http://mtbnemesis.blogspot.com/
Anyway, on to bigger and better things. Keystone Duathlon. Should be fun, I hope. We're working our asses off in preparation for it. So yes, get out there and ride.
Cool race, I was just a spectator but its exciting to see you arrange events like this. I took some photos while I was there: http://photos.robertdx.net/2009/07/six-in-sticks-photos.html
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