RD Challenge

Gotta post something or be culled from the Pru-Dogs blog.

There are so many good bike routes that have great potential to have races on that require way too much staff to properly man - and racing suffers as a result. Many of the courses we race on year after year are plain boring. Of course my definition or interpretation of racing may differ from yours - I like a challenge, both from the individual racers & the tactics, as well as from the course itself.

Look at the recent Boston Harbor CR to pick an example. Just 4 simple corners with a few rollers, but could be expanded to utilize much more of that great portion of the northern Olympia area, but would require more corner marshals.

More corners, more hills, more variety - instead we settle for a decent course designed for safe racing for all categories making due with what's available. Of course if they'd expand the loop then we'd call it a RR instead. Ravensdale same thing - not the 4-corners race, but the simple loop (which you do enough loops and it's long enough to call it a RR); though it's just an expanded Seward Park (which requires minimal staffing).

We need more turns, more hills, on challenging roads - along the lines of races like the Independence Valley RR which is fairly simple to staff and has good variety while being quite technical. Though if it's too tough people won't show (look at what happens when they go up the S curves at PR), unless it's got a fun factor (the difference between Crystal Mtn Hill Climb & Mt Baker).

We need to break out of the mold to discover new courses or a makeover of some present ones. I think RD's get lazy and offer what's been successful in the past without thinking of how to keep things fresh. Same thing for some area Crit's. Of course attendance is maybe the bottom line and whatever gets folks to sign up & race with the minimum effort is the means to an end.

When I looked at the Glenwood RR course I could've gone for the simple 10 mile loop and settled for the 3 corner option and a boring false flattish sprint finish. It would've required 6 corner marshals. Instead I spiced it up and we have 7 corners over a 15+ mile loop which require 14 marshals and a challenging little ramp for the finish. Is it perfect? Not by any means; too much traffic on a few roads. Not a friendly course for Juniors or those who get dropped outside the confines of the rolling enclosure. And I need to find a better feed zone.

So I've been looking to tinker with it, maybe run it backwards, do a figure 8, or shorten it to a CR with the 5.5 mile loop on the east side of Glenwood keeping the same finish and all the short rollers with the one fast flattish section by the old Pt Orchard Airport. Maybe getting a couple of different west side courses set up for a new CR series.

I've got ideas - and like a lot of other RD's I just don't have a lot of manpower to staff some of the expanded courses as I'd like to really run. Is there a solution to the manpower issue? One idea I'm looking at is getting some non-profit groups and their members involved and committed for the long term for a piece of the cut and not relying on various bike racing teams themselves. Friends & family you can only tap into for so long. Without a big budget benefactor hiring manpower is not an option. If I can get the bodies I can do anything.