There are many ways in which I don’t support my alma mater. This is not one of them.
I heard Loyola was putting together a club cycling team and naturally wanted to get involved. To my surprise, they put my actual face (and former internet avatar) on the kit. This is pretty much the coolest thing that’s ever happened.
Hey, remember when I wrote that post the other day about how next year’s UCI calendar was confusing? Good news, it got even weirder.
Point 1: Trek Cup (Madison) is a C1 again, but is now on the same weekend as east coast favorite GP Gloucester, after losing it’s usual date to the Montreal World Cup. Except wait, that isn’t the date they asked for:
The requested date would put the race on the same date as Ellison Park (Rochester), which is no longer a C1. It would also allow riders racing the first two World Cups to continue moving east from Montreal to either Gloucester or a rest week before the KMC (Providence) C1, instead of a travel schedule that goes from Vegas to Montreal to Madison to Providence.
The tweet from the Trek CXC promoter raises an interesting question, though. If the requested dates were October 10-11, how did the race end up scheduled for September 26-27?
Point 2: Charm City (Baltimore) is also a C1 this year, currently scheduled for November 14-15. Which was evidently also a surprise, as they similarly requested October 10-11:
So what happened? Folks that were actually AT the promoter meeting indicated to me that the schedule, as it came out, was a total surprise and a departure from what was agreed to at the USAC meeting. So, it’s possible the blame here lies with the UCI, not USAC, as the agreed-to US schedule was passed on to the international body for final approval.
Point 3: Basically any time a C1 has to move (or a race becomes a C1) it will have to compete with a C2 somewhere else. It’s a fortunate/unfortunate function of growth in our sport. There are only so many dates on the calendar. Also, non-World Cup racers sometimes forget that it’s against the rules to run a C1 on the same date as a World Cup. This knocks out:
9/16 – CrossVegas
9/19 – Montreal
10/18 – Valkenburg
11/22 – Koksijde
12/20 – Namur
12/26 – Zolder
1/17 – Roubaix
1/24 – Hoogerheide
Granted, the last two are irrelevant to our domestic schedule, as the US contingent stops racing after Nationals (and really, after mid-December). Also notable is that Zolder appears to be both a World Cup standalone event AND host to the World Championships. But that’s not a topic for this post.
The point is, there are a limited number of places for a C1 to move on the US calendar.
Point 4: The UCI calendar changed since my initial post. There are now TWO dates with three North American UCI events. We already discussed the December 5 weekend, which hosts NBX (Rhode Island), Jingle Cross (Iowa), and Ruts and Guts (Oklahoma). Now, in addition to the Gloucester/Wisconsin conflict on September 27, there’s an additional new race in Whistler, BC. The Pac-NW has been asking for, and deserves, more local UCI racing. But with the pros being pulled eastward, I hope the local UCI/amateur racer pool is large enough to make the race economically feasible.
Also, in response to my original post I got an explanation as to how the December 5 weekend happened: Jingle Cross had to move because of football (“sportsball”) and NBX tried to accommodate by moving up to the now-empty Thanksgiving weekend, but the venue was unavailable. Closure.
Other new things: Boulder is indeed back, but not a C1, on October 17-18. Bellingham, WA, home of pro Courtenay Mcfadden, is hosting a new race on October 24/25. I had discussed with her the idea of promoting a race out there, so I’m curious to know if she was involved in getting that on the map. If so, Chapeau. AND Waves for Water, the race that replaced Bend, is back on the weekend of November 14/15. That’s FIVE UCI race dates for the Pac-NW. Impressive. Add in CXLA, back for the weekend of November 21/22, and the West Coasters have a full slate of races available to fulfill Elite Nationals qualification requirements, a sore point from last year.
Cliff Notes:
1. The schedule is still weird, maybe weirder than it was a few days ago. Even the promoters were surprised.
2. World Cups and football wreak havoc on the domestic CX schedule.
3. The West Coast got the races it desperately needed. Cross is less New England centric and more national.
4. There’s still hope of luring Euro-pros to Gloucester with start money (more on that later).
Full North American (non-World Cup) Calendar
THE FACCONE ZONE 