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Topsport Stage Race/March 27th and 28th Update.
Thu, 03/04/2010 - 7:15pm
Hi everyone, wanted to check in and give an update on the race. Due to the race being fairly early in the season and being a first year event it has been a work in progress dealing with the permits.
I'm happy to say We got a course change approved and now have a great circut/crit course replacing the first days road race stage. The loop will be 5.5 miles starting in the town square and exiting out onto the open(closed to traffic) roads for a rolling 5 miles before returning to the town and going through the town each lap in criterium style. The circut part of the course is a nice rolling terrain with perfect pavement on a divided section of road that we will be using both sides of. We made this course change because we felt it was not only an improvement in the course but also would provide a more spectator friendly event and increase the safety for the riders.
The other courses (TT and RR) are going unchanged and are great rolling courses that will tire the legs and hopefully cause some selection.
I would like to get everyones thoughts on the race up to this point, and also what do you think of the changes?
Did you know about the race?
Will you/will you not be attending and why?
Alot of effort went into putting this race on and I'm left scratching my head at the present registration numbers. I've raced the other stage race numerous times and felt like we needed more of these races, and a better quality event as well. I will be updating the site over the next couple of days with new GPS data and also I put together some video's (editing now) so that you can get an idea of the courses ahead of time.
We are in the process of adding some food and other vendors and a live band for saturday. Saturday at dusk the calaveras county Recreation Department is bringing out their inflatable big screen and we will be showing a cycling related movie also. Popcorn and drinks will be available and the coffee shop will be staying open late as well.
Please come out and support the race. I know myself and my team will be heading to Chico to support their new race in April as they are ours. Thanks.
http://www.topsportcycling.com
Lee Shuemake
Topsport
i will say that there is a killer ice cream shop in the new copper townsquare where the new stage takes place.......!
CPhipps wrote:As someone who has been saying and hearing for years "we need more stage races in northern California", I am really looking forward to this event.
I do know that several teammates & I as well as some guys on other teams are planning on racing in the 35+ 1/2/3. As a group though, we're often lazy about signing up real early, as are the P/1/2's since there is almost always plenty of room for us to sign up in the last week or 2.
Since my parents live near the course, I know the TT & Sunday race courses, but I' not too familiar with the circuit race course. Though it looks like the change removes the steep little kicker hill that I was planning on attacking on every lap, so I can't say I'm too excited about that. :D
Chris Phipps
Haha, yeah..sorry about that Chris. I knew the climbers wouldn't like the change much but the reason I made the change was due to some residents complaining and for safety. The longer course had alot of intersections and driveways and it was going to take 30+ volunteers to keep it safe and I was losing sleep over it. The new circut course is great..you won't be able to tell as much on the video but it has a nice roll to it with perfect pavement.
I'll be sending out an update via email to everyone as soon as I get everything on the website updated. Still working on the schedule change with the new course and TT with my chief official.
As someone who has been saying and hearing for years "we need more stage races in northern California", I am really looking forward to this event. Thank you for your efforts to put this race together!
I do know that several teammates & I as well as some guys on other teams are planning on racing in the 35+ 1/2/3. As a group though, we're often lazy about signing up real early, as are the P/1/2's since there is almost always plenty of room for us to sign up in the last week or 2. (edit: I just registered)
Since my parents live near the course, I know the TT & Sunday race courses, but I' not too familiar with the circuit race course. Though it looks like the change removes the steep little kicker hill that I was planning on attacking on every lap, so I can't say I'm too excited about that. :D
Chris Phipps
Chris
http://twitter.com/cpbike
Thanks Ron, appreciate it. I'll be looking for feedback after the race as well so we can make improvements for next year. I will try and get those video's up today, i'm not a computer whiz so I will do my best, but I thought since it's a first year event it will give everyone a chance to actually see the courses without having to drive and pre ride it unless they want to. GPS data shows you the terrain.
Lee Shuemake
Topsport
Your courses sound great. I'm already doing Madera, and am limited in the number of weekends I can go to SRs. Scheduling further away from Madera (i.e. summer) might help next year. New races always seem to take a couple years to build bigger reg numbers. I hope you can continue another year or two as I think your numbers will get better each year.
I am in and looking forward to it.
My goal this year is to hit as many new races as I can. I like variety, it gives contrast to the races that have been around a while.
See you there,
Ron
Right, yes I'm aware of that issue. Outside of that however i'm trying to get a feel of what everyone is thinking regarding this race. Wards Ferry isn't a huge race and Warnerville is only in it's 2nd year. Of course I would have preferred to have the entire weekend with no other races but that is difficult at best to achieve. Next year We will try hard to atleast not compete against road races.
one issue on your reg numbers may be that you are competing with more established races in the same general area (foothills) that weekend (Wards Ferry and Warnerville RR)