Early season crits

Thanks for the info! @dhellman @bobmac

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Really bummed looking at this USAC info for my area (Chicagoland) as there appears to be absolutely nothing on the calendar through June of next year for road clinics, training races or training rides. I suppose that could be due to COVID though as Chicago is heading into another resurgence. That kind of volatility certainly makes it hard to put this kind of thing on.

Hoping the La Bagh Woods Tuesday night crits start up again in the spring at the very least. Was planning to do those every week this past year, but obviously all of those were cancelled due to the pandemic.

Highly doubt it. I think the calendar is a best case scenario but I don’t think there will be racing for at least the first 6 months.

The calendar was put out there because we normally start putting things on the calendar now, and there are so many events, if we don’t put a stake in the ground at the beginning, we lose the weekend we want. And so what will end up happening is that if races can’t be held because of COVID/permitting issues, either they will be canceled or the promoters will begin talking amongst ourselves to figure out if something can be worked out to swap dates. Many promoters really want to work with each other; there are a few who aren’t as flexible, but the ones I’ve talked with tend to be really great.

I suspect that you’re right and we’re going to see a rush to try to shift some things towards the second half of the year…

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Thank you @dhellman :+1:t3:

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I pondered this exact same thought with Covid pushing everything out. I did a test event calendar of Crits over 8 weeks (as a stage event) to see how plan builder handled it - basically it treated the duration as full of races even if a staged the events a week apart.

Great topic will use the information in this thread to look forward to 2021.

Any updates? The spreadsheet hasn’t been updated in awhile, there was more info on https://www.velopromo.com than in the spreadsheet. Looks like March at the earliest. Not sure I want to do any races for several reasons… And apologies if its on FB because I refuse to use FB.

FYI, they locked the spreadsheet so only the owners can edit it; the race directors/organizers can’t make changes. I can ping the owner about updating the spreadsheet, but I think the only update I’ve seen officially is that all early birds have been cancelled (both the ones in Fremont and in Clovis). The San Bruno Hill Climb (traditionally 1/1) was cancelled awhile ago. (I don’t even remember if it was on the spreadsheet.) I am not sure what races will get permits, but if anything does, they will be out in the rural areas first, not closer to cities. I think it’s sadly a wait-and-see-what-actually-happens… although I can tell you that we are planning to move Cat’s Hill to September. We just haven’t officially done it yet.

And no, nothing is on FB at this point either. You’re not missing anything; there’s just silence.

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Thanks D! Not sure what I’ll end up doing, but that helps with planning. I can still get dropped every Wed night :joy: but right now those knuckleheads are riding too fast on dark rural roads for my sensibilities! The plan is to be ready to get my a** kicked come the first week of March… and then some organized TTs sound interesting, I’ll rock those Merckx class and get passed by the field :rofl:

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Heya… I checked in with the owner of the spreadsheet. He’s updated it with January updates, and any other updates that have been announced (Pescadero is cancelled). Things in yellow are uncertain, things struck out are canceled. Basically, it’s what I had mentioned… there’s a lot of uncertainty and race promoters are doing their (our) best. No one has really made announcements other than that communication from VeloPromo and Pescadero. Sorry I don’t have anything more…

Thanks D! I’m helping out our 80+ year old neighbors and being super conservative on my bubble. Last week I pushed any possible group riding/races/events on my calendar out into summer.

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@dhellman @bbarrera looks like norcal racing is resuming slowly. I saw on the NCNCA page that early bird crits are tentatively scheduled for May.

As mentioned earlier, the draft spreadsheet doesn’t seem to have the latest info yet. In fact, NCNCA is posting screenshot from a different spreadsheet they seem to be working off of.

Yes, Early Birds are currently scheduled for May, and it sounds like the VeloKings are planning a couple more crits in the central valley. Sky Express will also have some crits in Livermore, but it looks like these won’t be through USAC. If you are only racing for USAC upgrade points, that won’t help you, but they will still be incredibly useful to get racing experience and practice. Regarding the spreadsheet, I think they decided that it was easier to just start a fresh spreadsheet for 2021 because things are so weird. I think they’re planning to get the NCNCA website updated soon, but you can also check BikeReg.

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I emailed the Sky Express guy about a TT that was on the schedule for April 18th, and he was unable to get a permit.

Thanks! I’ve never raced or done a group ride so I’d like to get some training races under my belt before I dive in.

If you are interested in a specific race just look at that spreadsheet and email the organizer for an update.

Just did :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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YES YES YES. Very frustrating to see guys go out and try to MUSCLE their way through a crit. It doesn’t work and usually ends up in more crashes.

@victormora FYI, the NCNCA just announced the calendar is updated as much as possible. Also note that I heard the Early Birds finally received their permit from the city of Fremont, so the first one is a definite “go” on 2 May. Definitely check the notes for all upcoming races - it looks like many are ONLY pre-reg - and no day-of registration - due to covid protocols.

@bbarrera, @DylonFujifilm tagging you, in case you’re interested and don’t know about this.

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Thanks D!

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