Nashville Cross Series

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Booksy on December 8, 2008 at 7:01am

Well, no one may be reading this, but I'll go on ahead anyway.

I've been snooping around, looking for some support to make a Nashville Metro Series work and I've found that there's already an individual who's planning on 5 weekends, October-January next winter. 10 race Nashville Series. Hard to beat. I'll keep this thread updated.

For now, this is the best place I've found to try to unify Nashville Cross Riders, hopefully more of us will stumble upon it.

Permalink Reply by Patrick Koetting on December 9, 2008 at 9:41pm

Booksy,

Good luck. I am about 4 hours away in Missouri but have made that drive plenty. The series in St Louis (2 hours the other way) ends in early Dec. If you get some post Nats races down that way, I would love to load up some guys and come down and get my ass stomped.
Getting the ball rollin is tough. I have put on a handful of races myself. Now, I treat it more like a pirate endevour. Cheap entry fee, one race (no category splits), beer, chili and bike shop swag. I put the course together the morning of the race and with about 6 guys helping, the course is torn down in an hour or so. I am in and out in about 7 hours and if the weather is dry there isn't much to notice in a week or so.

Good luck and keep me posted.

Cheers,
Patrick

Permalink Reply by Booksy on December 10, 2008 at 7:37am

We've actually got a bunch of nearby races in January and February of this year. Check TBRA.org for more info. It's under the schedule heading. There's three weekends in Columbia TN, three weekends in Knoxville and one weekend in Chattanooga. Nothing here in Nashville, but it looks like that'll change for next season.

Permalink Reply by Dahron Johnson on December 21, 2008 at 9:07am

Booksy, All:

I'm up for the challenge. I'm working on an entirely new East Nashville venue for the '09-'10 season. The permissions are the holdback, and a little different to negotiate than a park. But, let me say this, if it goes through, the course could easily be 75% steep camber or hill.

Not that I'd be that heartless . . . or would I?

Can you drop some more hints? I was curious that I saw on mapmyride, someone had charted out a course in a park in the Goodlettsville area very recently. You know anything about that?

Until the next time, then, don't forget to:

Ride smart, stay safe, have fun.

DJcontraption

Permalink Reply by Booksy on December 21, 2008 at 3:05pm

I'd love to check the venue out sometime. Let me know if/when you'll be poking around out there and we can meet up. I'll also let you know when/if I'm doing laps over in Charlotte Park, you can see what I've got going. It's pretty much the opposite, mostly flat, but twisty.

Permalink Reply by Dahron Johnson on December 24, 2008 at 8:28pm

Hint: Think SBI.

d j c o n t r a p t i o n A T a t t D O T n e t

Permalink Reply by Dahron Johnson on January 18, 2009 at 8:04pm

Another more visual hint:

For reasons this photo might make obvious, I'm going to call this part of the course "The Bunker."

DAJ

Permalink Reply by Ryan on December 16, 2008 at 3:28pm

I agree. It is hard to contest the TBRA points from the corner of the state...especially the south western one (Memphis). The best-of-10 for the points is a great thing, but it would awesome to have more going on in mid-TN. There is almost no chance that I will go to Knox (5 hours) or to JC/Bristol (~8 hrs) for a race. I don't even do that for a road race unless it is big.

Permalink Reply by David Hutton on December 25, 2008 at 5:54am

If I were you I would chat with the guys running the TBRA series. I really appreciate the effort they are putting into cross, but I really think people in tennessee are already overpowered by not only the HUGE amount of TBRA races, but also the competition of MuddSweatandGears, as well as the convenient proximity to some of the Georgia and North Carolina races (which are bringing in very large turnouts). I wanted to talk to the people running both TBRA, Georia Cross, and NCCX and talk about possibly creating a SOUTHEAST series similar to that of MAC of OVCX that would have a series overall competition, UCI race (in form of NCGP), mid season double points race, and an end of season championship race (similar to that of a state championship only the entire southeast!).

I am looking for contacts now, and could really use some help. Again good luck if you go through with it. Knashville has some great potential for cross, the only real hinderance I see is the overabundance of tennessee races already. I would just hate to see cross get chocked out because there is too much success and people not putting stuff on appropriately. If it's done right then awesome.

Until later

Permalink Reply by Dahron Johnson on December 27, 2008 at 7:16am

David (if I may use the more informal address; German habits die so hard), All:

I'm no Tim Hopkin or Dan Werle, but I agree with you that coordination of races across the state is becoming a tricky affair--and the numbers of events are exploding. Coming from NC, and seeing an uncoordinated scene in TN as far as cross goes even before I moved here in 2004, I tried to replicate the NC Xross topica group I started ( ) for TN ( ) (unsuccessfully) to get some statewide conversation going. Johnson City was really in its early stages, there was Memphis, and maybe or one or two other events. Of course, in the short amount of time since then, cross has exploded in this state, but in regions. Even with the much-needed and much-appreciated work to coordinate the schedule for cross in TN by TBRA, things are getting kinda wild west out there.

However, even though NC, Georgia, Alabama are around us, those states have a distinct advantage in a way that is often overlooked in working to coordinate a state-wide series. Quite plainly, they are limited by distance from one end to the other in a way that TN is not. Even NC, as long as it looks, is functionally much shorter: Asheville to Raleigh, or thereabouts (the Fayetteville race is a Winter Cup event, and a new one at that), so a long drive is 4.5 hours. Georgia and Alabama are much the same. In TN, though, where are the two longest running pre-Nats events (setting aside Columbia for a moment)? Memphis' Outdoors, Inc. event, and then Johnson City. Oof, that's a looooooooooong haul.
If one were to just keep the drive time to a fairly aggressive 6 hours, then the I-40 E-W poles of Knoxville and Memphis would be the markers.

If we think of "Nashville" cross instead as a way to make a more accessible group of races--say 2.5-3 hours from Nashville, which is rather conveniently a nice E-W center point--that would help coordinate the overall TN scene, and I think, increase statewide participation to boot. What about Johnson City and other such places? Make them destiantions: Eric Wondergem and the first UCI races for TN, a week before or after Hendersonville, for example? Making the state champs in Memphis made a lot of sense--though a double race weekend for the locations out at the edges makes more sense, and gives people more rationale to travel the distance (we'll worry about making the course there something more than a grass power crit later; lol). Finally, I agree with double point races--maybe for new events or events at the greatest distance from the "center" would make sense? I'll also note that NC broke out the Winter Cup as a separate series to give the fall events more prestige, and because, quite frankly, the Jan events were getting nowhere near the numbers of the fall ones--though that's changing. Would doing something like that make sense here?

NC and Georgia have been working their series for a long time, and I know Tim tinkers, and has tinkered, a lot season to season to get the mix right. TN is growing up fast 'xross wise, so it seems more urgent to get something workable right away. But hopefully, the sport will continue to grow in popularity, and allow us to make running changes to find a mix of events and guidelines to pull things together. TBRA and Dan started that process, and conversations like this will only help to move things in the right direction over the long run.

So, any thoughts?

All the best, and of course, don't forget to:

Ride smart, stay safe, have fun.

Sincerely,
Dahron Johnson
Nashville, TN

Permalink Reply by Booksy on December 27, 2008 at 10:34am

That's a lot to think about...

I will say it's unfortunate the state is so long and that most people have given up on cross come January. It's kinda strange that someone who busted their ass and racked up points against solid competition in the fall could get ousted late season by someone who suddenly had a whole lot of free weekends in January (like me).

Maybe the state should be divided into three zones, races in the east and west zones could happen on the same weekends, races in the central zone (east of Nashville, Knoxville) would be worth more... State Championships should happen in the middle or rotate. The East scene seems to be a lot more hardcore, though I haven't actually raced out there.

I think growing the sport is priority number one and TBRA allowing multiple races on opposite ends of the state on the same weekend would be a means to that end. Nashville to Johnson City and back in a day? Bristol to Memphis? Might as well drive to Chicago...

Permalink Reply by AndyB on December 27, 2008 at 12:47pm

Dan Werle and I were talking about this a couple weeks ago. He suggested that although we have these separate series (Fayetteville, MSG, Knoxie, Chickasaw, Chattanooga in addition to a few one-day races), maybe only some of them are set apart as TBRA points races. I think it's a great idea. That would give folks the incentive to drive, especially if they're Saturday/Sunday races. Even though I live in Nashville, I'm still not going to drive to Johnson City for a one-day deal, but I'll definitely do it for a two-day event. So, maybe we have 35 races next year, but only 10 are TBRA points races, and they're all two-day events scattered around the state. And they'd have to be publicized as such in advance so people can build their season around it.

I agree re: State Champs race, it should rotate every year. Any idea where it will be for 2009?

Anyway, the guy who is spearheading the Nashville series for next year seems to really be on top of it. I had been thinking about putting on a race weekend myself, but I think it's probably better to throw support behind him and help him with stuff. With 10 races planned, he's going to need a lot of help, unless he doesn't have to work for a living. I'm already looking forward to it - it's going to be yet another great season.

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