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US CX canceled due to rain

Oct 19, 2010
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That's a pity, but this happens almost every week with big events all over the world:

Here is a list of cancelled or modified races of past days:

cancelled:
- FIS Ladies downhill (10.01.15), wind rain
- FIS Ladiies super-G (11.01.15), wind rain
- FIS Ski flying (11.01.15), wind

change of competition, track:
- half of the stages of FIS Tour de Ski
- IBU Biathlon, Oberhof
- FIS Nordic Combined, France
 
Dec 7, 2010
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It's on for tomorrow. Noon. All categories.

I'm sure this is a major inconvenience for all involved (to say the very least).

I would imagine that some people simply can't stay the extra day (extra expenses, work or family-related commitments, etc).
 
Aug 16, 2011
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Pretty laughable to be honest, CX is almost built on the foundation of being a race to do in the rain.

USA cycling should make sure to check that ripping up the turf won't be a problem when selecting future venues.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Afrank said:
Pretty laughable to be honest, CX is almost built on the foundation of being a race to do in the rain.
Oh, for sure. It's a complete and total joke.


jaylew said:
A 2 minute bike ride from my house.
I'm wondering if you were there yesterday, and just what the weather was like this morning.

From the images I saw, it appeared to be more than acceptable. It wasn't even raining, and the overall conditions looked quite good. :confused:

Will you be able to attend tomorrow?
(I imagine that the crowd turnout will be pretty weak on a Monday)
 
Dec 7, 2010
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What a mess.
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/moving-usa-cyclo-cross-nationals-hits-young-racers-hardest

The cyclo-cross community was reeling from the decision which came at the hands of the Austin City Parks and Recreation department, who stepped in early this morning to call a halt to the race after claiming that more than an inch of rain had soaked the course overnight and forced them to stop the event in order to protect the health of a grove of "heritage trees", some of which are more than 100 years old.

Yet observations by the national and local weather services put the rainfall at just one tenth of an inch, and it is difficult to not suspect there is more to the attempted cancellation than just trees and mud.

Austin Parks and Recreation director Sara Hensley told the media during a press conference that she has been getting emails and calls from residents who are upset with the city for allowing the race to be held. Residents are afraid the park and its ancient trees are being damaged beyond repair. A local tree preservation group was particularly outspoken in their objections. "People are calling for me to resign or be fired," Hensley said. "But we've also been getting messages of support. This is what happens when you live in a city where everyone wants to give their two cents, so we have to try to balance that."
 
May 11, 2009
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I live about a mile away from a local CX course on a city park - the course gets really torn up in wet weather so is only used every other year. The course recovers over spring and summer. But then I'm in Colorado.

The Austin event organizers/city should have just moved the course in places where it ran over tree roots.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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What a colossal failure on the part of USA Cycling.

I would't pretend to know enough about the trees in that park, or the necessity in protecting them, but these things should've been sorted out long ago.

Katie Compton (among others) is placing the blame on the city for not having "done more research on 'cross and how the bikes effect the land when it rains or snows."
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/compton-its-unfortunate-for-everyone

It seems to me that the onus should be on USA Cycling to make it perfectly clear as to what a cyclocross race entails when negotiating these things. If the health of these tress is so critical (and I'm not suggesting that it isn't), then I don't really see how delaying the race 24 hours is going make a substantial difference to the potential damage anyway.

If these are legitimate concerns being voiced by the Austin Heritage Tree Foundation, then I blame the race organizers for not having the foresight to anticipate such concerns.

If they were just hoping and/or praying for good weather all weekend, then they are probably involved in the wrong sport to begin with.

I can already see a disaster-in-the-making with future venues. I wonder if they'll learn anything from this debacle. The federation and race organizers need to step up and accept 100% of the blame on this one. But I'm also curious to know who the driving force was behind bringing nationals to Austin.

The whole thing just resonates with so much entitlement that I see permeating the cycling industry. So much of it exist within a bubble. Did they really expect all concerned parities to have some sort of intimate understanding of what cyclocross even is? Most people don't even know that it's a thing, yet alone an actual sport.

Now the locals are angry, the riders are angry, and nobody wins. Hurray.
 
Granville57 said:
Oh, for sure. It's a complete and total joke.



I'm wondering if you were there yesterday, and just what the weather was like this morning.

From the images I saw, it appeared to be more than acceptable. It wasn't even raining, and the overall conditions looked quite good. :confused:

Will you be able to attend tomorrow?
(I imagine that the crowd turnout will be pretty weak on a Monday)

The weather was never all that bad and was actually great today. We really didn't even get very much rain, maybe an inch or two over the weekend and none today.

For some inexplicable reason, it seems like they just didn't truly understand the kind of damage that could be done. It really hinges on the root systems for some trees in the park. Sounds like they're dropping mulch in certain spots and altering the course a bit for tomorrow.

I'm definitely going to try and make it down for the two big races tomorrow.
 
Feb 1, 2014
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Bunch of bloody tree-huggers! Completely clueless. Photos of a huge Oak, how far do they think its root system speads, how deep & what % will be damaged?
Evolution has made plants resistant to such minor damage.
Typical stupid Watermelons, I'm amazed that they've not worked some "Climate Change" rubbish into their argument too.
:mad:
 
OffTheBackAdam said:
Bunch of bloody tree-huggers! Completely clueless. Photos of a huge Oak, how far do they think its root system speads, how deep & what % will be damaged?
Evolution has made plants resistant to such minor damage.
Typical stupid Watermelons, I'm amazed that they've not worked some "Climate Change" rubbish into their argument too.
:mad:

Apparently the promoter got served by the locals. Apparently no one was willing to pay them off.

USAC's facingbook posts are pretty fun reading.

https://www.facebook.com/usacycling/posts/10152630094806334

Apparently, the event was awarded to a first-time promoter. Another great job by USAC.

Apparently rider gear was stolen from the park after the local PD sealed the park. Now that really sucks.

Here's a summary from the local paper: http://www.austinchronicle.com/dail...sscountry-cycle-championship-because-of-rain/

USAC had a party anyway. https://www.facebook.com/events/599446510187796/?ref=3&ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

What a mess. But, I don't expect anything better than that from the federation.
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Now I'm totally confused. There was race coverage...

But that live feed is now saying that the race is canceled. Period.

But there's nothing definitive on the official USAC website or Twitter feed.

Way to go!!!!
 
Dec 7, 2010
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Jeremy Powers takes the win with a very impressive and dominant performance.

Jonathan Page in a very commanding 2nd.

Zach McDonald 3rd.

Cool course, good race. :)


Although I must say, USA Cycling did an ABYSMAL job at disseminating timely information about the race. With all the changes, delays, etc,. it was nearly impossible to figure out what was going on, and when, by relying on the "official" website or Twitter feed.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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OffTheBackAdam said:
Bunch of bloody tree-huggers! Completely clueless. Photos of a huge Oak, how far do they think its root system speads, how deep & what % will be damaged?
Evolution has made plants resistant to such minor damage.
Typical stupid Watermelons, I'm amazed that they've not worked some "Climate Change" rubbish into their argument too.
:mad:

They actually posted the parameters...it's science Mr. Dinosaur rider. The Austin officials authorizing the event should certainly consulted the Park officials about areas of protection; particularly specimen trees. It took 300 years to grow them and about 2 seconds for a cycling genius to discount their importance.
I really hope you were kidding.
 
Jun 19, 2009
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Afrank said:

In the typical Velonews style of hard research they assume a tone, ask questions and don't bother to actually follow up on research.
The reality is you can damage tree roots with 1800 cyclists doing multiple laps over them. No genius in that research just like no intellect applied in the planning between organizer and Parks/Rec. As a builder constantly working with Parks departments and City Arborists it seems like a major oversight not to start with natural obstacles that need to be avoided. Plenty of blame to go around but ultimately the organizer should ask the questions.
 
Oldman said:
Plenty of blame to go around but ultimately the organizer should ask the questions.

“In the end, it’s on us. I get that,” Rice said. “But I’ve been wracking my brain on what I could have done differently to avoid the cancelation, and I can come up with nothing.”

There's just no way this bid should have been accepted.

This was the organizer's first event, apparently the first time in the park too. There's a reason prior trouble-free events were experienced C1 promoters in an already-used location. Either Rice is given the location in a box and has to work with what he gets, or he along with others at USAC were just plain dumb about their abilities.

To the promoter's credit, it was a tough course and the rest of the logistics seemed like they went off without a problem.
 
Oldman said:
They actually posted the parameters...it's science Mr. Dinosaur rider. The Austin officials authorizing the event should certainly consulted the Park officials about areas of protection; particularly specimen trees. It took 300 years to grow them and about 2 seconds for a cycling genius to discount their importance.
I really hope you were kidding.

Yep. It's only a bike race. Hilarious to see so many people getting bent out of shape. It's not even in Europe. How important could it be? Seriously.
 

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