Agreed - amazed it wasn’t cancelled last night. Right decision was eventually made. When we were on our way to the expo at 3 pm and saw the initial big wildfire already shutting down the main road, which was only a couple miles off the north end of the course, I had a feeling it would cancel the race. 40+ mph sustained winds and super dry were bound to cause a disaster once the fires started. The wind didn’t let up much until 9-10 pm.
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I don’t know Bobby other than to have gotten a few hugs from him in the past (was not racing this year), but, I guarantee you that he wanted to and intended to yesterday.
However, he (and any other event promoter in a similar situation - flood, fire, pandemic, etc) was in a tough spot. Large events like this have insurance policies in place not only to cover liability issues, but also, event cancellation. The tricky thing though is that the event cancellation coverage often doesn’t kick in unless and until the organizer has been notified by local officials that the event can no longer proceed. If the organizer cancels on their own whim, coverage doesn’t apply,
In other words, Bobby most likely wanted to cancel but his hands were tied until he got official notice from the city, county, etc.
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Great point and it made me realize I didn’t phrase my previous post very well. It seemed I was singling Bobby out and that was not my intent.
My criticism re: not canceling earlier was directed towards everyone involved in the decision, including local authorities and officials. It seems pretty apparent that, even if the fires subsided overnight, official resources would still need to address the aftermath and putting on a bike race should have been a distant concern.
While Mid-South is a large event, while in the middle of an actual crisis I doubt the local authorities were terribly concerned about planning for tomorrow. They were literally in the middle of a large disaster, where people’s lives and homes were actively being destroyed. Having been involved in too damn many natural disasters, communication becomes focused on immediate concerns, especially in the very beginning of the event.
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