Nashville Cross Series

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dahron Johnson on December 27, 2008 at 1:48pm

Booksy, All:

Thanks for the reply. Reading yours, I realized a couple gaffes in mine.

First, parenthetical links to those old Topica groups got lost in the translation. The groups are still functional, just not very active (a move to Google Groups might be in order):

--http://lists.topica.com/lists/NC_Xross_Scene/

--http://lists.topica.com/lists/TN_Xross_Scene/

Second, though just to make sure, when I was talking about double race weekends, that would be doubling at the same location or close-by. So, Jackson on Saturday, and Memphis on Sunday, i.e.; a double UCI weekend in Johnson City; etc. That way, if one does decide to come from end to the other, s/he would have the option to make a weekend of it. Heck, I did it for road omniums all the time, so why not cross?

The long season thing is tricky, but they've had to come up with some solutions for long seasons point battles on the road for TN. I'm sure there are plenty of people not racking up point in all the early season stuff, and then doing what they can over the summer--or vice versa. What lessons can we take from that model?

The zones idea is interesting, especially with what you suggest as far as scheduling. However, my gut says locations at a distance might be the best served by hosting series finales, state champs, etc.--because more people would be motivated to drive the extra for something like that.

My extra two cents, as it were. But as always:

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 Brian on January 5, 2009 at 10:33am

Hi all!

Travis, thanks for getting this discussion going. Sorry I'm late to the board. I've been subscribing to the mag for a while but didn't think to get on the boards until this morning. Travis and Andy, it was good to meet you on Saturday down in Columbia.

I've got a lot to catch up on with this topic, so excuse the length and randomness of this post.

Just to introduce myself, I'm the guy doing five weekends in Nashville next year. My wife and I are planning on a series within Metro Parks, much like the ones that Dan Werle put on in 2006 and 2007. We are planning on making them Saturday and Sunday events for a total of 10 races. The series will be part of the TBRA series, but will also be a series within itself with overall series winners for individual categories. We'd also like to have a series ending party where we crown series winners and hand out prizes, though we've yet to figure out the logistics of making that happen.

I've emailed with several of you over the last couple of months about these races and I appreciate the support that you've offerred. I just heard from Dahron this morning and am psyched about the potential to have another race in Nashville. As I emailed to Dahron this morning, I think that Nashville could have an oustanding series, be it part of TBRA or not. If some of you guys are wanting to put on races as well, that'd only make it all the better. Or, for anyone that just wants to make sure there are races in Nashville, I'll take all the support and help you wanna throw my way.

Dahron appears to be on track for a cool sounding venue over in my neighborhood and I'd be willing to help out as much as I can with that race(s).

In terms of the TBRA calendar, it's definitely full already, but with lots of races occuring in far east TN, I think there is room for races on the same weekends here in Nashville. That being said, I know there is concern with over saturating the schedule and that brings on the questions of whether a given race will be a TBRA race or not, how will they be scored, will they have field points, etc. Dwayne Letterman is the CX Director for TBRA going into next year and he is available from the TBRA website. He also puts on the MSG series and is a great resource for info, particularly on the subject of the schedule and conflicting races and what not.

My thoughts are to allow races to happen on either end of the state on the same weekend and make them both TBRA races. As some of you have pointed out, the east TN races are reportedly pretty stout compared to the rest of the state's races. We could equalize this to some degree by using field points. If someone's already discussed it on here, forgive my overlooking it, but for those of you that aren't familiar with it, it would work as such:

For your TBRA race, each rider placing within the top so many places would receive X number of TBRA points towards the TBRA series, as is the norm with TBRA races. In addition, you would receive a point for each person that finished behind you in your field. So, if you raced in a field with 40 others finishers and you finished 10th, you would get your TBRA points, plus an additional 30 points for the 30 riders that you finished ahead of. Since the east TN races typically are pulling much larger turnouts, this would help acknowledge the increased difficulty of their races. Several promoters are already using this strategy and have been for a while. This is one way that TBRA is looking at working with such a full schedule, though there've also been discussions of making a race in east TN the TBRA race for a given Saturday and making the Nashville race count for Sunday.

My preference would be using field points. Using field points would help in three ways: (1) reckognize through points the larger fields (and difficulty) in the east TN races, (2) give racers a choice as to which races they attend, and (3) allow more people the opportunity to race more consistently by not having to drive all the way across the state on any given weekend.

Some say that filling up the schedule and using field points hurts the promoters, but I think that if we can put on quality events, the races will eventually grow and be successful. Allowing the schedule to fill up helps the racer in giving them more freedom to race as often as they want and to also maybe race closer to home. For me, I LOVE the thought of being able to race cross in Nashville over MANY weekends. I will drive to some races, but I won't regularly drive to east or west TN because it's more than I can do and I think that there are many out there in the same boat.

In terms of linking a southeastern season and maybe having more UCI races, that would be fantastic. The OVCX series is becoming HUGE and it would be great for the southeat to have something similar. That might be worth making those long drives for. In the long run, my wife and I would very much like to see a UCI race in TN and would fully support that effort.

All in all, having visited Portland, OR on several occassions, I'd love to see Nashville be able to support a similar (albeit smaller) culture of cross and cycling in general. I think what is missing to some degree is people that focus on cross as their season. My wife and I are starting a team in the very near future that will do just that. We'll have people racing road, mountain (xc and endurance), and whatever else, but they'll beusing those races to peak for cross, not just to stay in shape over the winter until next years mountain or road season. Maybe with everyone's continued help and support on this and other boards we can eventually make more people look at cross that way. Maybe?

Thanks and please let me know your thoughts,
Brian Gant

Permalink Reply by Booksy on January 5, 2009 at 11:01am

Hell Yeah!

That's basically sums it up for me, but I'll continue:

Field Points should be standard. Period. It just makes sense. Those guys out east beating 25 people in a CX3 deserve more points than someone beating 4 or 5 guys out here (and when our races grow, we'll get more points).

SouthEast Series is a Must. I raced one of the OVCX series races and it was great. Lots and lots of riders and quite a few spectators.

I agree that we'll need to see more people who focus specifically on Cross and further I think we need more mountain bikers to come check it out. I think making sure that the courses are difficult and require some bike handling skills helps make it more interesting for the racers (specifically the mountain bikers) and the spectators. (is it obvious I'm not a roadie?)

What can be done to improve the spectator scene? How do they draw so many people in the Northwest? Do they have beer gardens? Concessions? Do they do races in conjunction with other things like Octoberfest Celebrations?

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