Saturday, March 21, 2009

items of interest

Board Meeting Highlights
  • The MTB report was submitted to the Board - it was basically a copy of our draft minutes from March 10.
  • The poster is ready for distribution, you can find a link to the poster here or under the links of this blog. If you would like a PDF copy of this poster send me an email at hal_loewenATshawDOTca.
  • There was discussion about possibly tightening up the amount of categories for the cup series. There was discussion that there are too many categories and therefore too many cup series jersey's floating around - this will be on the agenda for the next meeting.
  • Let Ron Brown know if you, or anyone you know, is interested in sitting on the Sport Manitoba and Sport Manitoba Hall of Fame boards.


Marathon Race Rules

Here is what Shawn has put together (thanks Shawn)

MCA Enduro Circuit Rules (Draft)

Description: The enduro circuit race is a short course multi-lap time based event. Event duration is decided by the organizer with popular formats being 8,12,and 24 hours. Standings are determined by a combination of lap count and time on the course.

Course: laps should be configured to be between 35-45 minutes for the elite/expert riders. Course must be properly market as per cross country race rules. A feedzone/pit area must be available that is not located on the course or in the Start finish area. Only registered racers and support personal are permitted on the course during the event.

Categories: All racers must hold a valid Manitoba Cycling Association Race license to compete.

Solo
  • solo racers must be 17 years of age or older
  • events that are 12 hours and longer events solo riders must submit a resume and selection is based on qualifications

Teams
  • configuration and number of classes or teams is determined by the organizer of the event.
  • One team member will be permitted on the course at a time.
  • Each member of the team must complete at least one lap
  • Identifying number plate must be visible on each team members bike while on course.

Support:
  • Teams must designate one and only one pit area. Teams may bring as many support people as they like however their support is limited to the pit area and not on course. Racers may change or repair any equipment in the pit area including entire bikes.
  • On course support can only be supplied by other registered racers.
  • Food and drink can be supplied to any racer by anyone, anywhere on the course.

Start/Finish:
  • to be at the same location
  • all racers must check-in each lap at the start finish/line as per organizer.
  • if teams are switching riders this must be done at the start/finish line as per the organizers instructions.

6 comments:

Dave J said...

I would change the "Food and drink can be supplied to any racer by anyone, anywhere on the course." to being only allowed in the feed zone. We do not want to have numerous people at numerous locations able to feed riders.

If the suggestion is from a safety concern, then it should be allowed but only if the rider accepting outside of the feedzone is prepared to DNF.

halloewen said...

Thanks Dave, good suggestion. If we are having "short course" courses for these events, say, under 1 hour laps, then one feed zone makes sense. If it is a longer course over there should be a feed zone for every hour on the course, e.g. Reach the Beach.

Kevin B said...

maybe the rules should be that if the conditions require additional feeding/drinks, racers can take feed from the organizer/marshalls anywhere on the course.

this would address the situation when we have a very hot day and dale is handing out water bottles at different places on the course.

i am a little worried about one set of rules for enduro races and another set for other races. creates a lot of confussion, specially if we don't communicate these things well with the racers.

regarding less jerseys / categories... could you clarify? is the problem the number of jerseys the MCA hands out, or is it the number of categories we have?

i would think that it needs to be address VERY quickly since people are already registering for the existing categories. this should have come up in fall, not 1 month before the race season.

halloewen said...

I don't think we can or should do anything about the jerseys this year.

It was commented that mountain bike seems to have a lot of categories and therefore a lot of jerseys going out. Some felt that it appeared like half the riders we have are cup series champions. I don't know if I agree with this or not, but said that I would bring it up with our committee. I can't remember, do we jersey sport 30+, 40+ and 50+? Also, do we jersey the 15 categories we have for provincials? Another thing that it might be good to discuss is the number of people it takes to qualify for a jersey; if a category only has three racers, is a jersey warranted? I don't know the answer to this but the way I tend to think is that you need to encourage people to participate, but some things should be worked hard for and the test should be steep.

What I am going to do is survey those that have won in the past and see what they feel. I just want to make sure that the committee has consensus on this.

Kevin B said...

the details about jerseys as i know them.

first off, we have a couple LESS adult categories with the new system that we did with the old.

we have given out jersey to all the youth category winners... no matter how few racers. that makes for a lot of jerseys.

this last season (08) we gave jerseys to each adult category winner based on the new categories.

so it was only men's elite, expert, comp, sport, women's expert, comp, sport. i don't think we did for citizen. actually, i don't even think any elite men or women qualified.

so probably only 6 adults jerseys in 08. but it could be as high as 8 if we had enough people qualify. rob n could clarify this for us.

i will keep the rest of my comments on the jersey for the next meeting.

halloewen said...

Okay, then I don't know what people are talking about when they say too many jersey's. The only thing that might warrant discussion is a minimum number or racers in each category to get a jersey, otherwise it is good the way we have it.