No one ever said that downhillmike would have to run it this time. There are plenty of people in that town who know how to run such events. Finding dozens of organizers would be as simple as a local phone call. If one is going to switch locations, then whiteface would one of the best places to pull off an event like this on shorter notice. Of course, while they might be able to, it doesn't mean they will.
East Coast World Cup??......maybe
- Thread starter DylanDeanDesign
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That is basically what I said, but Fraser did assume that Mike would probably be trying to work it pretty much alone, or with a minimal staff and that is why I mentioned ORDA. www.orda.org
You might be suprised at how few people in Lake Placid there are that would be able to run such an event the way it should be. In reality no one there could. Sure there are plenty of people and organizations with timing equipment and so forth that have put on various different types races and events, even huge nationally and world wide recocnized events. But mountain bike races are an entirely different beast and they require much different equipment and organization. For instance, the timing equipment alone needs to be much different. Typical ski racing equipment can handle 1-2 racers on course at one time, maybe 3 or 4 AT MOST. Bobsled, Luge, Skeleton equipment handles 1. Mountain bike races are much longer courses, and typically run at much shorter intervals than ski races. Take a 4 minute race course and run it at 30 second intervals. That is atleast 8 people on course at one time at a minimum, more likely 9 maybe 10. Then when you take crashing or mechanicals into consideration there could be even more. In ski racing if you crash, 95% of the time you are done, you ski out and DNF. Typically mountain bike racers will pursue the finish line with a little more effort. If we crash we usually get back up and keep going. Or if we sustain mechanicals we will usually atleast try to make the finish. This could put even more people on course and screw up timing, start times, and overall event organization even more. And that is just timing equipment, there are many other factors that would be much much more involved than that. Upgrading the timing equipment can be done but it is extraordinarilly expensive and for a local company doing this for one race, one event is just not practical.
They had course marshalls at pretty close intervals for the 5k race. I have never been at another race that had so many. They even blew whistles as we passed. Other than running a 7 and a half minute race on 30 second intervals, it was a very well put on race. The timing equipment was high dollar ski stuff and worked excellent. 'm going to try and make it again next year.
i think the biggest pain in the ass for getting a world cup to any eastern venue would be having to build a 4x track... sure the mountain is there for an awsome dh, but no 4x tracks exist anywhere (let alone one of world cup quality)... whiteface has the perfect slope for it where the "terrain park" was lasy year, but when you factor in labor and the dirt that needs to be trucked in you are talking $50-100,000. that is a lot of money for a side show event (hence the need for big $$ sponsors to run WC level events)
This is a problem that I have also thought about. But.............
This is one case where being run by the state of NY is a good thing. All of their employees, especially the ones that run heavy machinery, are union workers who are paid through the summer anyway no matter what they are doing. Unless they are cutting and shaping a new ski trail or installing a new lift they are usually pretty slow during the summer. They even have plenty of ther machinery to make a good course. And they have loads of dirt around that could easily be used to make the majority of the course. A nice high quality top soil would be needed for the top layer but a great course could be built for relativley cheap.
The biggest problem I see is getting the mountain managment to collectively cooperate. Some of them are all for stuff like this, and some of them are totally against it and will make extra efforts for stuff like this not to happen. The only way I see to get them to cooperate would be to design something that could be permanant and could also be use in the winter time. Meaning when the snow flies it would need to be easily incorporated into a winter terrain park. Luckily their terrain park does end near the base of the mountain. Unfortunately it would be fairly steep for a proper 4X, and shuttling to the top would be very difficult. There are a few slopes with perfect grades for a 4X but they are the heavy traffic slopes in the winter and they are very against digging or adding any dirt to them.
I am going on the assumption that the event would be at Bromont, as there has been grumbling about returning there, and Gestev has promoted there before.
Dave brings up an excellent point about 4x though, I know Bromont has started a "bike park" but there is no 4x track right? Bromont has everything, including a velodrome...
Dave brings up an excellent point about 4x though, I know Bromont has started a "bike park" but there is no 4x track right? Bromont has everything, including a velodrome...
Banked turns already there! Make some wooden jumps! Instant 4x track.
Hey, as long as a WC is on this coast, that's cool with me. An east coase US WC would be awesome, but Canada is good too. I just hope I can go.
At the Vail worlds 2001, a 4x course mysteriously appeared aprox 1 week prior to the event and vanished within days of the finish. It was placed in one of the highest traffic beginer ski school areas on the mountain. I can't imagine that 4x would be any issue.
Border Cross?
Me too and I will not get sick next year. A WC level race course would be sweet and get more people to one great mountain.
Pretty much none of the venues that hold world cups have year round bike parks or 4x tracks. A competent crew can build one in a week if the designer has been in to scout the location in advance. What is needed is guys to run the machinery, and as heikki said, placid has this covered.
When I said something about DH Mike running things, it is because he is running their program. The promoter MUST apply for the race and have it approved. You have to show you have the venue, the backing and the volunteers/organization up front befoire it will be granted. He can't apply for it and THEN have ORDA or whoever come in and help out. It would all have to be planned well in advance. If he has done this, awesome. It just didn't seem to me like too many people down there were interested in helping him, as he was doing much of it on his own as it is.
I would love to see an event at whiteface. Bromont would work as well, but I've been to world cups and other big events there. It lacks a lot of the infrastucture that somewhere like Ste Anne or Livigno has. There is no onsite village (2 nice hotels, a bunch of ok motels nearby, barely any restaurants) and Bromont sure as hell will not shut down the mountain to get a race on, and it is usually JAMMED mid summer with longish lift lines. They could of course run both lifts, but with the alpine slides, it'd be chaos.
Bromont opened a new side of the mountain this year and are dumping money into the place hand over fist. A freight train/a line style run is going in under the new backside lift. Th ebike park is being "redeveloped", so it is possible a 4x track will be going in there - they have been discussing it for years. The old WC 4x/duel track area now has ginormous waterslides tube things on it.
When I said something about DH Mike running things, it is because he is running their program. The promoter MUST apply for the race and have it approved. You have to show you have the venue, the backing and the volunteers/organization up front befoire it will be granted. He can't apply for it and THEN have ORDA or whoever come in and help out. It would all have to be planned well in advance. If he has done this, awesome. It just didn't seem to me like too many people down there were interested in helping him, as he was doing much of it on his own as it is.
I would love to see an event at whiteface. Bromont would work as well, but I've been to world cups and other big events there. It lacks a lot of the infrastucture that somewhere like Ste Anne or Livigno has. There is no onsite village (2 nice hotels, a bunch of ok motels nearby, barely any restaurants) and Bromont sure as hell will not shut down the mountain to get a race on, and it is usually JAMMED mid summer with longish lift lines. They could of course run both lifts, but with the alpine slides, it'd be chaos.
Bromont opened a new side of the mountain this year and are dumping money into the place hand over fist. A freight train/a line style run is going in under the new backside lift. Th ebike park is being "redeveloped", so it is possible a 4x track will be going in there - they have been discussing it for years. The old WC 4x/duel track area now has ginormous waterslides tube things on it.
That would be one very nuts MTX course.
Heikki, i was more referring to frasier than you, you have some good points.
BX courses are much different from the type of course you would need for 4x. Much bigger, much higher corners, different style jumps etc. It would be mach 1 if you tried to use a BX course for 4x. They are built to keep speed up under sloppy, wet snow conditions on a vehicle you can't propel on your own. The good ones are wicked steep.
I have raced BX for years - they would need to heavily modify (read - almost completely rework) a 4x course to make it into a BX course.
But maybe Mike's just enjoying the rumors 
Yup, we're sure getting buzz up about the place as well as pointing out all of the merits of Whiteface that he has been talking up for two years.But maybe Mike's just enjoying the rumors
apology accepted
