Beat the Clock in danger of being cancelled...

Carola · Cat 4 Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

I figured I should post the story on a public forum, open for discussion, input and ideas. Long, very annoying story somewhat medium, Beat the Clock is a charity event series of training rides with NO prizes, and the "fee" for participating is a donation to the Lance Armstrong Foundation helping cancer patients. URL is here: http://www.scaledup.com/beattheclock/. Most local people know and participate in the event which is organized by one of my best friends, a cancer survivor herself. Patt has put a LOT of effort into this, raised a ton of money in the past years. It would be very sad and a shame if this series were cancelled. It is in danger of being cancelled.

We had one local resident, who is the "president" of an organization known for trying for decades to get bicycles off "their" road (which happens to be a public road), complain about a specific event of the series, already last year. With the result that we had the mayor come out and watch the event who could find nothing wrong and in fact was impressed about how smoothly we handled everything. This year that person used a different approach and sent an information "package" to all the Beat the Clock sponsors containing outdated (traffic analyses from 1980) and/or false information and painting a whole wrong picture about the event. With the result that USAC chose to not insure the event series as a training event any more, although our events clearly fall into this category. Another sponsor backed out as well. We NEVER had a single incident or disturbance of residents, cars, pedestrians,... World champion medalists, district and national champs use our event as training, novice racers get introduced to the sport in a safe manner, we include HPVs, unicycles, teams, tandems, juniors, you name it, we require that every participant respects the rules of the road, and on top of all that we raise a ton of money for a cause that affects many many people -- the fight against cancer. When I say we, I mean mostly Patt, who has done an enormous amount of work to make this happen. It is very sad that one highly inaccurate letter can ruin all the good she's done in one sweep.

I'm just putting this out here because I think people should know about this story. Any and all help and good ideas are appreciated.

Carola

jens · Cat 5 Joined: 12 Jun 2007 Posts: 1

Is the Old La Honda or the Canada road event at issue, or is it both?

I've watched this event grow since 2005. In addition to raising substantial funds for a great cause, it has provided an enjoyable experience for 100s of cyclists of all abilities. It would be tragic to see it go away.

Maybe we can figure out a way to allay the concerns of the particular resident(s) -- basically ask them what we need to do for them to be comfortable and happy about the event. For example, maybe each participant can add an additional $10 fee that would be go to the resident's favorite charity. I would happily do that (and more) to keep the event alive.

-jens

mvracer · Cat 4 Joined: 22 Nov 2006 Posts: 21

It would be a shame to lose this event. It **is** a great venue, and a fun way for riders to train for TT's.

Perhaps one solution would be to reverse the course, so that the turn around would be down near the residential area. That would eliminate the cars and the traffic (which I assume is what the complaints are over). The start would be up by HWY 92 - pleanty of parking, and no homes.

Carola · Cat 4 Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

The complaint has been about Old La Honda, of course, where residents are known to have been trying to get cyclists off "their" road since the 80s. A false picture was painted about the event which lead to the story being blown out of proportion.

Basically, the problem is that USAC is now treating the series as a race (which, by their own rulebook, definition 1A1, it is not), instead of a training series, no matter where it is held (incl. Canada road) thanks to the false image they got through the above person - if you want to read said complaint to judge for yourself, PM me privately. Now, this classification as a race would require a prohibitively expensive insurance from a fundraising point of view and an increase in the entry-donation-fee which now almost entirely goes to the Lance Armstrong Foundation, an official present at each event, and a bunch of other hoops to jump through, like a license for every participant. I'm not even sure there exist USCF licenses for HPVs and unicycles...and probably many first-timers would be scared away by a "license" too. One sponsor also backed out officially, but inofficially is still supportive.

Currently, thanks to the help of a lot of people, it looks like the Beat the Clock series is going to happen as planned no matter what. But the last word has not yet been spoken. Registration is open again --
http://www.bikereg.com/events/default.asp?ns=beat+the+clock&submit1=search

Thank you for your support!

Carola, for the Beat the Clock team

Carola · Cat 4 Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

This just in: it looks like we managed to convince USAC that at least the rides on Canada road are training rides, not races, and the Canada event is secured. The hillclimb is still in limbo, but will happen with high probability as planned.

Your continued support is very much appreciated. This is a victory for all cancer victims/survivors and all cyclists.

Carola

WarrenG · Cat 1 Joined: 20 Dec 2005 Posts: 478 Location: Sunnyvale

The daily permit fee for a race with no prizes is $50 and insurance is $2 per rider. Don't you think the riders can absorb these costs through higher entry fees?

Carola · Cat 4 Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

That was precisely the problem. Thanks to that misinformed resident USAC got our event confused with a race with prizes and whatnot. This seems cleared up now, at least for the Canada portion. The OLH portion is still under review.

Carola

Carola · Cat 4 Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

Latest breaking news:
Thanks to Woodside ex-mayor Deborah Gordon, and the city of Woodside who supports our event in general, and many many other people, the June 30th event on OLH is a go!!
Register here: http://www.bikereg.com/events/register.asp?eventid=4389

Thank you everybody who stepped up to help!

Carola

Carola · Cat 4 Joined: 03 Mar 2006 Posts: 37

For those of you thinking about doing Beat the Clock this Saturday --
we have decided to dedicate the Beat the Clock hillclimb on June 30th,
Saturday, to Corinne Crawford, and in general to all the (too) many
cyclists who passed away during the last couple of years due to
traffic accidents.

Register here:
http://www.scaledup.com/beattheclock/registration07.html

Info about Corinne:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/corinnecrawford

And remember, all proceeds of the Beat the Clock series go to the Lance Armstrong Foundation helping cancer patients.

Thank you,

the Beat the Clock team