Madera

Mad Axeman · Cat 1 Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 456 Location: Livermore

I know this is on deaf ears, and with people flocking to races even if it is nothing more than a few cones set up around a pile of...(use your imagination), I am going to mention it anyway.

Madera about the only stage race we have in California has the potential to be made into something so much better than a low budget throw together race.

I'll never understand how the same mistakes and carelessness continues year after year. Or maybe it is simply the lack of interest to make something better than it was the previous year. Is it the thought or mentality of "why should I bother making the product better, people are paying and showing up".

Every year these low budget races with poor promotion have the feel like it's the first time the race has ever been put on and the promoter is dealing with a learning curve.

I am not mad or disappointed in the race, I am just saying it's a shame. Lots of potential, and no apparent desire to reach it.

Whatever.

Thank you to the officials and workers that came out to the middle of nowhere and endured the heat while we road our bikes around in circles.

-R

bafmco · Cat 5 Joined: 03 Mar 2008 Posts: 6

GFMeilahn · Cat 2 Joined: 15 Mar 2006 Posts: 293 Location: Antioch, CA

If you you are looking for quality and quantity of prizes, that same weekend had another stage race /omnium in southern California run by the San Diego Cyclovets. Top notch announcer even at the time trial and cash prizes each day as well as for overall placings. And you're done with the time trial by 10:00 am Friday, which allows for some sight seeing before Saturday's road race. My Sunday crit's results were posted by 3:40 pm (20 minutes after finishing), which gave us plenty of time to return to the bay area before midnight.

Mad Axeman · Cat 1 Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 456 Location: Livermore

That is the problem, it is a typical VP event.

Suggested improvements are far too many to list, and 20 years overdue.

Go up and do a stage race in Oregon. Then you will say "oh...I see".

There is no reason Madera couldn't be done well and even at NRC level, or blimey here is a thought, make it an NRC event.

Promote the race, get the crit off of the business park, and get the town involved.
Several hotels were packed with cyclists, the better restaurants as well.
Get them involved, and create a real prize list.

Prizes should be 20 deep in all categories for a stage race, with 20th at least making back his/her registration fees.

For most it's not that they race for the prizes, but it makes the event. Heck, there is enough of Road 28 1/2 laying around loose that VP could have made trophies out of it.
And I am not talking about having a teenager standing behind a card table shelling out prizes. Do it right and have a podium and awards presentation.

It's nice that VP provides so many races, but is it really that hard to create one that you pull out all the stops and make it a real event?

Think about it, nobody in other states is telling their cycling buddies "dude, you gotta go out to California for the Madera Stage Race, it's awesome".

At least my experience this time (my last) with the event was not as awful as past years, this being the 3rd time I have gone in 10 years.
I wasn't really disappointed, because I didn't expect much. Lack of hope for something better or improvement is a sad state though.

-R

velogirl · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 2:48 pm Post subject:

Isn't it the promoter's perrogative to create the type of event they want to create? If VP wants to put on a low-key stage race, then that's Robert's choice. If InfoVista wants to put on an NRC stage race, more power to you.

When you register for a given race, especially one that has a history in the district, you should have an idea of what level of "event" to expect. I can't imagine anyone is surprised that most of Robert's events are low-key. His mission is to provide lots of racing opportunities (more than any other promoter in the NCNCA) -- not to spend all his time securing sponsorship so his events can be NRC events.

If you want bling, there are lots of bling events. If you want lots of racing, VP is going to provide that for you.

jonathan · Cat 4 Joined: 24 Feb 2006 Posts: 60

casey · Posted: Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:00 pm Post subject:

So any ideas where Velo Promo can get the $25,000 in sponsorship needed to make the men's race a NRC stage race? If you can't come up with that much in Sponsorship money then you could go for making the women's stage race an NRC event for $15,000 in prize money. In addition to the prize money sponsorship don't forget the extra money for brining in an out of state results company that uses a Finishlynx system since that type of system is required for a Cat A or NRC level event and we don't have a CA based company that can do this. Then there are the extra costs of announcer(s), the additional permit fees ( 7% of the total prizelist), the increased officials fees ( higher pay scale and more officials will be needed), higher police fees for either fully closed courses ( for all stages) or at least a rolling closure for the RR. for the Men an NRC level race is Cat 1/Pro only.

Velo Promo has said it many times in the past. They can do a lot of races with little to no sponsorship and prizes or they could do a couple of races each year with larger sponsorship and prizes. In cases like the Giro, where a co promoting group brings in sponsorship, you have the best of both worlds and you get a bigger prizelist and enough people to have a better production event. Hanford is a in between event. The race has additional sponsorship with good prize list but not a lot of additional bodies to help run the show. Note that in a case like Hanford if the sponsor wants all the sponsorship money to go to prizelist ( or primes) Velo Promo can't simple divert money from the prizelist to hire additional staff.

stabybrian · Cat 5 Joined: 21 Aug 2007 Posts: 3

I just wanted to say "thanks" to Velo Promo and all the people that put this race on. A special thanks has got to go to Jim at Davis Bike Club for the follow car on the Pro 1,2 RR. I flatted twice and he was there both times for support. DBC is a well run program and they are consistently out at races providing support, not only for their team, but also for others in the race, like myself. Thanks guys and keep up the good work.

Brian Staby
Team Norcal Bike Sport

bootsie_cat · Cat 5 Joined: 13 Jan 2008 Posts: 4

A race does not need to be an NRC to be a great race or be well attended. In many ways the NRC status can kill all the other categories.
However, improvements can be made that cost no meney.
1.) Accurate directions to the courses- Madera directions have been hard to decipher as long as I have been racing.
2.) Better marking for flat tt- seems like people are still going straight past the final turn and out to the prison- I did that years ago.
3.) Taking the time to make the flat tt start reflect the gc from the day before- this makes it a better race. You know who you are "racing against"
4.) tt starts at 30 seconds instead of 1 min- this lets good tt riders catch more people- its only math!
5.) I agree that a better crit would help the event
6.) Posting results online in a timely manner as soon as they are calculated- again, it is nice to know who you are racing against. In this day and age of technology it no more difficult to upload the results that you just created so people can view them online. Gotta be someone at Velo Prom with some computer skills and the internet is everywhere.

And not relative to Madera- many of the early season weekends could be made into stage races or omniums by adding a tt on Friday afternoon. People would come. tt's are easy to put on. Everyone could improve their tt's with more opportunities.

merkeley · Cat 5 Joined: 01 Jan 2006 Posts: 9

Having done both San Dimas and Madera in the last 2+ weeks I have to agree that stage races are fun and I wish we had more low key events on the calendar.

While Madera can seem campy, I really enjoy it because it is accessible to everyone. San Dimas was more polished (nice race bible, results posted quickly, lots of motos and follow cars for all categories) BUT they also had time cuts and VERY short races for the lower categories (25 minute crit for women's 3/4?). If you missed the time cut in the road race you spent a lot of money for a very short race.

They each have their place...enjoy them for what they are.

roadie4life · Cat 4 Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 50

musclhd5268 · Cat 4 Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 32

I personally put one of the races in Northern Cal and it take alot of work. I think Bob and the rest of Velo Promo do a great job. Yes the Venues aren't the greates neither is Paris-Roubaix. I think if you are new to racing these courses are tough but they are NCNCA classics in away. People who have been racing for at least the last 20 years all talk about the same courses and Velo promo (BOB) name comes up in almost all of the talks. I think if there was a Hall of fame for Northern Calif. cycling Robert would have to be one of the greatest promoters around. Robert and Velo Promo you do a great job and keep it up. Thanks

Kyle · Cat 4 Joined: 14 Apr 2008 Posts: 10 Location: Merced, Ca

I think while we all like to see races have more prize money and atmospheres like you see at races like Merco, Tower District or the classics like Cats Hill, Burlingame and Davis. However, if you have ever put on a race (especially a higher quality) than you know the amount of time that goes into it. Our race is Merco and even though I put in little more than some phone time and the typical help with set up and tear down, I watched Doug Fleutsch who has been the promoter up until this year spend enormous amounts of time through out the entire year getting this going. I think Bob does a good job for the quantity of races he does.

jonathan · Cat 4 Joined: 24 Feb 2006 Posts: 60

We put on a 3-day/3-stage stage race two years ago for 5 categories. The Central California race ran well but the amount of time (and money) needed to make things "go" was staggering, much more than anyone outside of race promotion would think.

Someone help us secure at least $75,000 in sponsorship dollars (per year for a multi-year deal would be great) and we'll put one on again, and include more categories and more courses / days. Our budget three years ago exceeded $100K, and things haven't gotten any cheeper.

j

bootsie_cat · Cat 5 Joined: 13 Jan 2008 Posts: 4

No offense to Joanathan or Bob, all of the suggestions that I threw out would cost ZERO additional dollars except for adding another stage to races.