Pablo.

"Starting out as a one-day race dedicated to the memory of Art Longsjo, over a half-century ago, the Longsjo Classic will return to its roots and again become a one-day race for the 52nd edition.


“While we are reducing the number of days of racing, it will allow us to pack the energy, excitement, and amazing history of the race into one day of amazing competition for the riders and fans.” said the race’s Executive Director, Ed Collier."

https://longsjo.com/Longsjo_Home_file...e%20092910.pdf

ridethecliche

Well, that sucks.

New England just lost one of it's biggest stage races, no?

mike868y

That does suck. I was looking forward to racing it next year...

Grumpy McTrumpy

fark

carpediemracing 

I've always thought that the stage race didn't cater to different types of riders.

In the case of Fitchburg, if you couldn't climb you were through. So, for example, the one year I went, I got eliminated before the crit, and my only goal was to do the crit (and the crit isn't flat anyway).

If they kind of reversed the order of the races it would have been fascinating. First up, crit (for folks like me). Second, Circuit Race. Third, Road race. Fourth, Time Trial.

Race would be much more open, flat landers would have a day for themselves (even the lead), etc. I have two friends that happened to get 4th in the 3s. They both got 4th in the TT, held on in the circuit and road races, and got killed (but lost no time) in the crit. Reversing the order, they'd have been way down on GC going into the TT and then, maybe, gotten a good time/place.

Also the TT would become a real race. In its current iteration it had no time cut.

As it is, the whole area is kind of depressing economy-wise.

cdr

botto 

pity.

glass is half full: it's still exists.

pjcampbell

More people will race now.. ive never done it because i cant take off in the middle of the summer.

err.. its just a criterium now.. yeah no.

Grumpy McTrumpy

No way am I driving that far for a crit.

We might do Coupe Des Ameriques instead next season. It's only 3 days but it looks good.

gsteinb

I'd do this race now.

nutterbutter

dam it. I was pretty excited to do that, more excited to hear it was one day, then utterly disappointed to hear it was a crit... no thanks

Spookykinkajou

Too bad, in my opinion. I was really looking forward to seeing how things went in the NRC stage race next year. I was in the cat 2 race this year and thought it was a great race, the area, not so much. Food choices were poor and there was pretty much nothing to do in the surrounding area.

Can't say I agree with the climbers only race by one poster. The circuit race had only one hill and it was short enough you could power up it. the TT was mostly flat and is what decided the GC for the most part in cat 2. the road race used to be hilly from what I hear, but this year was nothing much. I was banking on a huge climb and was disappointed to find just rolling hills.

Pablo.

Yeah, Fitchburg in the past 2 years (don't know about years prior to that with the entire Wachusett Mt. climb) was never a climbers course. The main climb in the RR only takes like 8 minutes.

Staying in the dorms was cool and the cafeteria food they provided wasn't too bad. But gotta agree that's its a pretty *****ty town.

bostongarden

See y'all there.

CaseLawZ28

I liked visiting the town this year and used more efforts to find good places to eat. It is very pretty up there and different buildings and architecture than I am normally used to seeing. The nice weather this year really helped with the cheery mood too.

Plus I thought the event was run very well and provided a great experience for all categories of racers. I'm sad to see it return to a one-day event, but hope it can rebound when the economy picks up.

EventServices

I can understand the downsizing. For one, sponsorship is scarce in a town like that. And it gets harder and harder to find volunteers and staffers for events that have been around that long in towns that size.

Scaling back to the original one-day format is the smart thing to do. It does nothing for the sponsors to hold a road race and TT in the woods, and it burns through your volunteer base as well.

One of my favorite announcing gigs was the Longsjo TT in 1994 (?). For many reasons, it was one of the most exciting races I've ever called. Yeah, a time trial!

Grumpy McTrumpy

As I mentioned in the other thread, this year at the crit there were hardly any spectators and all the shops and restaurants were closed (except for one).

If the town is not willing to step up to the plate even when it's free, I don't see much future in it, even as a one-day race.

CaseLawZ28

That was strange. The only thing I saw open was the bar at the north end of the crit, and I think the pizza place was open.