I raced the Eastern States Cup #5 at Mt. Snow this weekend, and I left the race quite disappointed. My mood at the end of the race was much stronger than just disappointed, and I couldn't wait to get on the internet to electronically bash the mountain at which the race was held. However, I do love our sport and instead of lashing out negatively, I'm going to take this as an opportunity to provide some constructive criticism, and hopefully improve things.
Mt. Snow has been frowned upon in the recent past for re-using the same race courses repeatedly, and I must say that someone has taken that into consideration, and I will commend them for putting together a semi-new race course for the event this weekend. The only problem with this new race course was that none of the racers in attendance this weekend actually rode it. Each racer rode his/her own version of the mountain because the course was not taped properly.
As tempting as it is to go off on a rant about every problem that a badly taped race course causes, I will have to restrain because we are all already well aware, and nobody needs to hear me vent. So instead I will say in a short and concise way that Mt. Snow's race this weekend was significantly less successful due to the lack of effort in taping the course, and I think a lot of other riders felt the same way.
What is most aggravating to me personally is the fact that this same problem occurred at the Eastern States Cup #3 race at Mt. Snow. The problem was eventually solved before race day at the #3 race, but you would think that Mt. Snow might have learned from their mistake last time and used it as an opportunity to improve. I find it pretty insulting when I travel there, spend $60 to race, and my money doesn't even buy me a taped course.
I'm making this thread because I would like to see Mt. Snow improve, not because I want to trash them. As of now I have to say in the most respectful way possible that they do a pretty poor job of hosting a downhill race, and it shows when you compare their attendance with that of other races. I would love to see Mt. Snow step it up and improve their operations, but in order to do that they are going to need to start looking at mountain biking a little more seriously instead of just adding it on as an afterthought.
To anyone from Mt. Snow,
Please take this as positively as possible and use it as constructive criticism for the future.
Mt. Snow has been frowned upon in the recent past for re-using the same race courses repeatedly, and I must say that someone has taken that into consideration, and I will commend them for putting together a semi-new race course for the event this weekend. The only problem with this new race course was that none of the racers in attendance this weekend actually rode it. Each racer rode his/her own version of the mountain because the course was not taped properly.
As tempting as it is to go off on a rant about every problem that a badly taped race course causes, I will have to restrain because we are all already well aware, and nobody needs to hear me vent. So instead I will say in a short and concise way that Mt. Snow's race this weekend was significantly less successful due to the lack of effort in taping the course, and I think a lot of other riders felt the same way.
What is most aggravating to me personally is the fact that this same problem occurred at the Eastern States Cup #3 race at Mt. Snow. The problem was eventually solved before race day at the #3 race, but you would think that Mt. Snow might have learned from their mistake last time and used it as an opportunity to improve. I find it pretty insulting when I travel there, spend $60 to race, and my money doesn't even buy me a taped course.
I'm making this thread because I would like to see Mt. Snow improve, not because I want to trash them. As of now I have to say in the most respectful way possible that they do a pretty poor job of hosting a downhill race, and it shows when you compare their attendance with that of other races. I would love to see Mt. Snow step it up and improve their operations, but in order to do that they are going to need to start looking at mountain biking a little more seriously instead of just adding it on as an afterthought.
To anyone from Mt. Snow,
Please take this as positively as possible and use it as constructive criticism for the future.