Riding and racing.

Hohenfels and thoughts for next year.

I just downloaded my Garmin and from Saturday's Championship. The demanding and techincal course came in a almost exactly 5km per lap 870m of climbing.

The ODR folks are all meeting with INSCOM on Tuesday and will be discussing the MTB series with the intent to find ways to grow the series (and we can all agree we need more riders showing to races to make this what it once was) and other ways to make it better. So if you have any ideas pleas post them here and I will pass them along to for consideration.

Have a great off season and hope to see you all and many new faces next spring Aviano is only 7 months away.

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Chris Vachon on September 28, 2009 at 10:41am: I would like to see more weekend events like what Aviano put on. Road race/MTB race on the same weekend makes the long travel worth it. Spangdahlem should definitely be included in the MTB series. We have some good trails to offer and after feeling out the local support I think we could put on a great event. Aviano has event planning down to a science. They offered online registrations and blocked off billeting rooms; I think that should become a standard for the USFE events. I'm not sure how to get more people to the races. I think it's just turnover. The RACC was a formidable force the last few years but fell off the map this year, so I think it's mostly luck.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Francesca on September 28, 2009 at 12:52pm: I think the women should race for free like most German events we went.
That should make more women come out and try to race. It's pretty sad when you are the only lady on the course!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Justin Koppa on September 29, 2009 at 10:09am: The folks promoting these races need to advertise weeks in advance for their event. A mail listserve to keep everyone in the loop. The army/airforce europe cycling website should be the centralized point of information, with active links to the respective races with pertinent information. Women racing for free is a great idea. Organizers should make an effort to block off billeted rooms, or provide adequate options for motels/camping. Maybe there are too many races, or lack of quality races. The series point system should allow a drop clause, where only the top 5 or so races count for your overall score. Race fees seem a little steep, where is this money going besides the 10 dollar shirt?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andrew Overfield on September 29, 2009 at 10:18pm: Justin,

Great suggestions on the billiting, Aviano is the only place that I know block rooms and it is a great feature. The dates for the series was out in the early spring but you are right there needs to be consistant advertising throught the series (we had a tv spot last year and a much better MWR web site). I don't have enough experience with a point series to know how a drop clause works, perhaps you can flesh out your idea, there was some talk about adopting one for this year but the detials were never discussed.

Justin Koppa said:
The folks promoting these races need to advertise weeks in advance for their event. A mail listserve to keep everyone in the loop. The army/airforce europe cycling website should be the centralized point of information, with active links to the respective races with pertinent information. Women racing for free is a great idea. Organizers should make an effort to block off billeted rooms, or provide adequate options for motels/camping. Maybe there are too many races, or lack of quality races. The series point system should allow a drop clause, where only the top 5 or so races count for your overall score. Race fees seem a little steep, where is this money going besides the 10 dollar shirt?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Justin Koppa on September 30, 2009 at 7:45am: Andrew,

We could incorporate just an easy drop clause, say where a person's 7 best races count towards the final score. So if an individual did 10 races, they could drop their 3 worst races. And if a person can only make it to 7 races, they would not be penalized for not attending and not being able to collect points at every race.

I was aware of the general racing schedule when it first came out, what I think would be nice and helpful for those just arriving and unfamiliar with the series, is specific info about races (exact location, start times, costs, course and course distances, etc. when available). This would make planning to attend these races a little more comforting when you know there will be a race.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Brian Witty on October 6, 2009 at 10:32am: Thanks for all the input. I am compiling this input to be discussed amongst the promoters of next years series.
You will certainly see changes (improvements) for next year. Stay tuned.

The list serve is a fantastic idea for getting info out. I will endeavor to get one started- in the meantime, I will likely use this forum.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Hector Rodriguez on February 23, 2010 at 4:45pm: I haven't seen or heard of a schedule this year. Are we still on?; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Andrew Overfield on February 23, 2010 at 6:06pm: Hector,

On leave in the states, returning tomorrow it sounded like the folks at INSCOM were getting close to having something out. Hopefully I will find a schedule in my work inbox on Thursday, and will post anything I have on this site.

Hector Rodriguez said:
I haven't seen or heard of a schedule this year. Are we still on?; ▶ Reply to This