Post
by Andy Bittner » Tue Feb 18, 2003 2:24 pm
For whatever it's worth, I really dislike the notion of pre-publishing racing courses. It's one thing to pre-publish the nature of the race (TS, Slalom, GS, etc.) but, otherwise, show up and race. Wesley used the word, "practical", to describe the idea of pre-publishing courses. C'mon?!! Practical? Let's see... in order for us to make things practical and preferable for Wesley, someone has to go out weeks or months in advance and spend the many long hours or even days that it'd take to create a detailed topographical and obstacle map of BOTH lanes of a dual racing set-up that's somewhere around 600' long. Let's use Morro Bay as an example, and not even consider that I'm on the east coast. Let's consider pre-publishing a Morro Bay course, even for a local. In Morro Bay, on Main St., the issue is not traffic. It is illegal to skate Main Street, Morro Bay at all times other than the race. So there's no riding and imagining a course, even in the middle of the night with no traffic. Then, realistically, just how long do you think an unpaid person is going to want to spend crawling up and down Main Street, Morro Bay with a tape measure, creating a grid of every stripe, STOP letter, ridge, groove, utility cover, etc.? ...and all for what?? SO, people like Wesley can, "love to know what I might be driving 500 miles to experience." Wesley... you CAN'T know what you'll be driving 500 miles to experience from a course diagram. Drive 500 miles for a race, not a course.
What real benefit is there to knowing such specifics in advance anyway? If Wesley Tucker or anyone else thinks they can judge the quality of a course, on a hill they've never seen, on pavement they've never ridden, to the extent that they could tell the difference between a subtly poor course and a spectacular one, I'm saying they're full of it. What's would be the point anyway? Are people suggesting that they would make a decision to attend or not attend a race, based on a pre-published course diagram? Obviously, if the course were absolutely absurd, it'd show up on paper, but subtleties won't. Besides, the way I see it, anyone who'd pick and choose their races based on specific course design is a poseur anyway, not a racer.
Furthermore, if there's anyone out there who believes that they actually benefit from taking a pre-published race course, setting it up on some other venue, and "practicing" specifically for an upcoming race; I'm telling you that you're sadly mistaken. The more likely scenario is that people who take a pre-published course and attempt to "practice" it for a specific race, will only screw themselves up by "dialing-in" on a course that is different from the actual race course.
So, pre-publishing a course takes hours and hours of serious work, won't provide any reliable GO or DON'T GO data and won't provide any valuable, course-specific training information. What is practical about that? That's not practical. Pre-publishing courses really only serves the weaker minds that seem to get some kind of ethereal, security blanket-type of reassurance that they'll be able to attend a race and not upset their own delusions of being "cool", by not being able to complete a course. That's not practical. That's weak.
Now, here's another personal point... another of the reasons I am so against pre-publishing courses is that they start to get used over and over again. WEAK! Gilmour has a new, never used venue in Boston, and he's going to set up a course that was already contested elsewhere? What's the point? Was the Folly Beach course SO unbelievably spectacular that we should just give up creativity and replace it with repetitive boredom, or is this just an easy solution for a lazy race organizer? Let's face it... most of the people who want courses in advance are most concerned about being able to show up and not make a fool of themselves. Unlike real racers, who show up at races and race on what's set in front of them, these pre-published course advocates mostly seem like people who are so unconfident that they feel they need extra time, in advance, to make sure thay can even complete "the" course, so they don't show up and look like the Johnny-come-lately, "I used to be REALLY good," poseurs that they actually are.
FYI, JG, I will NEVER travel to race on a course that is simply a re-set of the "same" course from another race, and I, as a non-drinker, will also never attend a race where 25% of my entry fee is going to go toward plying the drinkers in the bunch with alcohol. I, for one, think that those are two, really bad ideas. Count me out.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Andy Bittner on 2003-02-18 08:33 ]</font>