Velochimp: Astrochimp on Cycling

My second year as race promoter for the Syracuse Race Weekend is in the books. The lead-up to the race was more hectic than expected as the wife was admitted to the hospital for fear of pre-term labor. So here I am calling people about things like insurance for firemen and last minute hay-bales while the wife is worrying about having a baby at 31 weeks. It was a hectic time and gave me major burnout to all things cycling for a few days after that.

Luckily the wife is doing well, the baby is still baking and will hopefully go to full term or close to full term. The Syracuse Race Weekend went off well with racers raving about the new Criterium course at the Inner Harbor in Downtown Syracuse.

After getting the hang of running the race last year, I decided to switch up a few things for 2008. This year I added a Time Trial around Song Mountain and switched the Crit course to the Inner Harbor venue. I also changed the race from and Omnium to a stage race format. And I moved the date up one week from Memorial Day weekend to May 17th and 18th. Just a few changes to shake things up…

Adding a TT was tough since I did not have the final course set until late. Originally there was an 8 mile course with 400 feet of climbing on the return. This would take place after a 60 mile road race for most categories and an 87 mile race for Pro 1,2 racers. Eventually I settled on a fun 3.3 mile tt around Crooked Lake in Tully. The course was a hit with racers only asking for a longer distance.

The new Criterium at the Inner Harbor was very popular with wide sweeping well paved roads. The only issue was that we had to pay for five police officers to close the streets. This was never a cost when the race was at Upper Onondaga Park which simply required course marshalls to make sure cars did not try to overrun the barriers.

The life of a promoter is constant stress about very little random details. I would constantly worry about hearing back from certain people, or making sure I had enough food vendors or that we had the sound system for the Criterium. Then I would watch the confirmed rider list on bikereg.com like a hawk. How many people registered? Are there any Pro 1,2 riders coming etc.

In the end we were down 100 racers from last year with no Pro 1,2s racing. We only had 3 pre-registered with a week to go. Originally I thought that a move away from Memorial Day weekend would bring out more Pro 1,2s, but I heard later that our prize payout was not big enough to attract any Pro 1,2 racers. At first I was taken aback by the prize list not being big enough, but it is a sign that the sport is maturing where Pros can sit back and chase the money.

Other categories such at 3s were down which prompted me to combine the 3s and 4s to one large 3/4 race. This was a great race to watch especially during the crit since they were going very fast. The Mayor of Syracuse Matt Driscoll made an appearance and told our club President Bill Goffe that he would like to see the Crit downtown next year. He seemed impressed by the whole event so maybe we can get some assistance from the city for the police costs? Maybe, maybe not.

While the Pro 1,2 men did not show the Pro 1,2,3 women came out in bigger numbers than we had with 20 women. We’ve had bigger women’s fields the last two years and I always like to see more women cyclist at the races.

Anyway, planning has started for next year where I may switch back to Omnium format and switch out a few other things. Next year I will try to get more folks in the club to help. We already setup a committee to help spread the work around. My wife-in-hospital ordeal may have signaled to some that we can’t put the responsibility of the clubs biggest event solely in the hands of one person. At least we can have others help out and know enough to keep the event running.

Lots of folks helped out especially on the days of the races. Once all of the road races were underway I just could stroll and make sure that things were set. My main tasks were done and the great volunteers took over doing some fine work. Onondaga Cycling Club put on a great race and I am appreciative of all of the volunteers who do a great job every year.