notwist

super early but is anyone planning on doing KSR this year? last year i stayed home and did the crit-tastic Tour of Somerville weekend but am thinking about making the trip up north after having done Catskills last year and having a blast.

mike868y

i'm planning on doing it. it's a very well run race.

carpediemracing 

No Series in 2016 | Aetna Nutmeg Spring Series

Not holding the Series this year.

shovelhd

Good decision.

Homebrew01

Lazy Bum !

Harlan

Looking at what races will host what categories in the Tour of Somerville to see what we should plan on this year, I noticed there isn't a single women's 4 race. Kinda throws a monkey wrench in things. I hate make the Mrs sit on the sidelines for a weekend. I think it's mainly crits where I've seen women 4 excluded most often. Not enough people?

gsteinb

Limited time I think.

grolby

+1.

globecanvas

Obviously the right call for you, but sad nonetheless. Thanks for the sponsor shout-out though.

Looking at the calendar I realize I would have missed 2 weekends of the series anyway, the kids' spring break (aka easter) is early this year.

carpediemracing 

Keep in mind that Somerville didn't have a Cat 3 men's race for the longest time. Only in my lifetime did they slowly expand the menu. First it was Masters (and I did the race as an M35, shelled promptly), then, later, the 3s.

It's tough to justify even an open Women's race. I am semi-familiar with just one downtown crit's operating expenses and the road closures alone run something like $30k. Although it's obvious that you can't promote such a race on entry fees alone, the entry fees are the huge wild card for revenue. If you get 80 Cat 4 men or 30 Cat 4 Women, which field would you rather hold?

When I held an open Women's race in Bethel, about 30-40 women showed up regularly. That's huge for women. If that was the Cat 4 men's field, I'd consider it an abject failure. Realistically, though, at least from that field alone, it would have been better not to hold a Women's race. (Doesn't take into account that some men show up because their female friend/spouse/teammate has chosen my race because of the women's race.)

In road races you can start a W4 and W123 field together and just score them separately. One official's car, one wheel van (for the W123), just another lead car for the W4. This way the W4 doesn't cost much more to hold. In a crit it's hard to run two races at the same time. They do it regularly at the NYC park races (3 to 6 mile loops) but when fields catch one another it can get ugly. At Somerville it might be possible but I would be paranoid that the fields would eventually merge.

All this applies even more so for the Juniors, which is a pity. When I started as a Junior we regularly saw 50-80 rider fields. Now if there are 10 then it's great, and the stronger Juniors don't actually race at my venue, they just look after the younger/weaker ones. Therefore the ones actually racing are 12-14 years old, making the race good for them.

Having said all that the Somerville races are pretty exciting to watch. I was absolutely floored the first time I went to Somerville. I'd seen a fast race before (1983 Crit Nats in Nutley, with Davis Phinney and Rebecca Twigg and all sorts of 1984 Olympic team members) but I couldn't appreciate the speed because I hadn't raced myself at that point. When I went to Somerville I'd been racing maybe 15 or 20 years. I absolutely could not believe how hard they were going in just the first few laps.

carpediemracing 

I feel bad for not holding the Series but realistically I can't. And if anything happens again (I just spent 3 days in the hospital with my dad, aspiration pneumonia) then it would definitely be bad. I was sitting there in his room and thought, yeah, if this was March or April, forget it.

TheKillerPenguin

There's nothing to feel bad about dude, some things are way more important than bikes.

Homebrew01

And, CDR's done more for racing around here, than most of his registrants combined.

gsteinb

uh. that's a weirdly confrontational post.

grolby

#getinthevan

Harlan

I can always count on you to tell it like it is...I'm just frustrated because she needs to upgrade and has very limited opportunities to do so. I watched your video on Somerville last week I think. Always fun to sit in with you.

mike868y

Aki - I'm bummed of course but given your circumstances, I totally understand. Hope the series makes a come back in the future.

carpediemracing 

Thanks.

I hear you on the lack of races. I feel bad when parents come up to me with Juniors, asking where they can find races. They really can't, that's the problem, and it's because need some way of recouping some of the costs of holding a race. Any normal promoter that holds a Junior or Women's race, forget about Women Cat 4, are already losing money.

I know nothing about Somerville, and I'm sure that there are municipalities involved, but, still, time is money, and paying whatever number of police, plus road closures, plus moto refs, etc, for 30 minutes for Cat 4 Women doesn't make sense. Even the Masters race is pretty short, if I recall, and the 3s also were very short. Entries are pretty stiff as well. I'm guessing that at $60+ per hour per officer, times maybe 50? 100? officers, keeping in mind that supervisors make more, plus patrol cars cost money, that makes every minute of racing pretty expensive. There are maybe 75 portapotties, and that's not cheap. Announcer. Stage for finish line area. Banners. Dept Public Works stuff (road closures, barricades on the super long main straight, tents for registration. Etc.

DieterDrake

Aki - thank you for your dedication and time in promoting this series over the last 2+ decades. It's provided valuable racing experience for the region that, in turn, has benefited all other races including ours. Race organizers and clubs owe you a debt of gratitude for your support of bicycle racing in the Northeast.

FFJ

+1

mike868y

FYI: catskills is just a "grand fondo" now. road is dead, long live cx.

shovelhd

I'll make sure your Hilltowns registration gets "lost".

bostongarden

milmo

Last year for Battenkill, just got email and it's on website Tour of the Battenkill - Pro/Am. Wonder if that's like $15 registration fee increase for January, that wasn't.

Stas87

USA Crits is coming to Red Bank, NJ in August

https://usacrits.wpengine.com/