Drama in Providence

[Bruce K]

Clement Taleigh announced that due to the 3 fly overs and what they consider dangerous conditions that they are planning to withhold Gloucester Day 2 winner Caroline Mani from this weekends races.

Much discussion among the pros about the design if the course

We'll see if anything changes by race time

BK

[e-RICHIE]

I personally think Divine Providence (sic) has taken what was once a decent
and UCI compliant course past 'cross and into the X Games realm atmo.

ps

arrange disorder

;);):p
;);):p
:cool::cool::)

[Lewis Moon]

'Cross is not a circus.

[bikerboy337]

Wow...planning to head over and watch tomorrow...


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[pinkshogun]

i did see a lot of wooden up and overs friday afternoon.

[jt2gt]

Would be nice if one or two of the cycling/cyclocross "journalists" would report on stuff like this.

JT

[bcroslin]

We have had some shenanigans here in FL with promoters trying to out-extreme each other. More sand! More running! More off-camber crap and chicanes that serve no purpose. I pulled out THE RULES on a promoter recently to ask that the course be changed. I felt like a schmuck doing it but the change improved that section of the course while still preserving the degree of difficulty.

Here's a question: what constitutes a great CX course? I've looked at the course design for Nats and CrossVegas and they seem to be pretty straight forward with no triple-fly-over-run-half-the-course silliness. They're fast yet challenging courses that don't threaten to destroy the competitors. Am I off base?

[abalone]

Totally agree. Cyclocross is such a beautiful subset of the sport. The effort, suffering, grit, and the best part for me is that the fans can get up close and see the sport. It's sad to see such tradition being lost to what e-Richie and others are saying is an x-games circus.

[shovelhd]

It's a double edged sword. The appeal of cross is that it's an oddball, borderline extreme sport. So where is the line between cross as we know it and some kind of Red Bull challenge? I think you'd get a lot of different opinions on this. Caroline was racing injured, wasn't she? She has a vested interest in keeping her UCI points. There's nothing wrong with that but again, where is the line? Who is she, or any of the others that "protested", to say where that line is? If the course is too far over the line, give up your points and sit the race out.

[Bruce K]

Well, in the end there didn't seem to be much, if any changes.

Caroline raced, flatted on the first lap, and soldiered on to finish.

I think the issue was that these flyovers were VERY tall, kind of steep, and covered in some kind of sheepskin rug material that became VERY slippery when wet.

Only one of the "up" sides had cleats of any kind and people who didn't quite have enough momentum were actually sliding backwards down them.

The "down" sides were sketchy when it rained and a couple of folks washed out on the way down.

I think that the other complaint was the gratuitous one at the beer garden that served no purpose other than to try and make rider catch air.

BK

[jr59]

I personally think Divine Providence (sic) has taken what was once a decent
and UCI compliant course past 'cross and into the X Games realm atmo.

ps

arrange disorder

;);):p
;);):p
:cool::cool::)

or not; copied from Richard's FB page;
Well I asked this morning about the hubbub regarding the course, since I read so much online before we left for the venue. Much ado about nothing atmo. We got there, parked RIGHT Next to the flyover, and I wondered what the fuss was. The track looked good to me, and typical for Roger Williams Park. All in all it was a good day.

[oldpotatoe]

or not; copied from Richard's FB page;
Well I asked this morning about the hubbub regarding the course, since I read so much online before we left for the venue. Much ado about nothing atmo. We got there, parked RIGHT Next to the flyover, and I wondered what the fuss was. The track looked good to me, and typical for Roger Williams Park. All in all it was a good day.

But how was the beer?