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RIP USACycling
Last Post 09/05/2022 10:43 AM by Orange Crush. 4 Replies.
Author Messages
Dale

Posts:1767

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09/04/2022 10:38 AM
The local Tuesday night series that for years has been a USAC event changed to a "Spirited Group Ride" that was basically the same race but no fee, no registration, no number, and no USAC.

Looking at the cyclocross races in Kansas City and St. Louis; all run this years without USAC structure. Same categories- 1/2/3, various Masters, etc but you self-assign where you want to race.

Gravel? ...please... they've eschewed USAC from the beginning.

RIP USAC, you had a good... ok, a fair run, but you're a relic that failed to provide value for us scrub amateurs.

Unless you're racing Nationals where a high call up is important there's not much reason to care.
Cosmic Kid

Posts:4209

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09/04/2022 11:46 AM
I would be interested to know what these local groups are doing for insurance, since they aren’t going through USAC.
Just say "NO!" to WCP!!!!
6ix

Posts:485

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09/04/2022 02:43 PM
This is definitely a big problem for amateur racing. Like CK mentioned, insurance will be an issue that will likely stop a lot of event promoters in their tracks.

One of the problems for budding racers is the lack of a proper way of achieving upgrade points. This will result in a LOT of sandbaggers destroying fields in the lower categories and riders in way over their heads in the elite fields. For the upgrade system to work, events need to be qualified (proper field sizes) and only one governing body.

I remember the mess ABR created in the midwest back in the mid 90's. You had a few guys absolutely demolishing races in the 3/4 fields but since these were ABR events, those points didn't get applied to USCF category upgrade points. Even if you raced a full season, pretty unlikely you'd ever get enough points to properly upgrade in both systems.
Dale

Posts:1767

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09/04/2022 08:16 PM
Insurance isn’t a big deal until it is. A racer in KC a few years ago hit a barrier and died from blunt trauma. His family sued, I don’t know the outcome but without a pretty substantial liability policy the financial hit would have been devastating.

The sandbagging issue is legit. There needs to be a nationwide system but for whatever reason local promoters aren’t seeing the value.
Orange Crush

Posts:4499

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09/05/2022 10:43 AM
So there’s no state level cycling organizations in US?

Here in Canada everything is run at Provincial level (Cycling BC locally) with provincial entities collaborating under a national umbrella that’s pretty hands off other than creating a coherent governance structure. Seems to work.

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