COS 3 - FMVC 0....damn that hurt

So as I kick here on Monday night waiting for the guys to show up for Buy a Glass and keep the Beer night, thought I would update the blog.  First, James at the Cheeky Monk is a great guy who has some killer specials.  Just got this for the collection. 

First we will recap and put to bed the ACA vs USAC thing.  We voted "NO" but the Yes vote won out.  For the teams that voted for this, they are big, have aspirations of sending full teams to nationals or thought the time had come for reintegration.  That is cool.  We dont have a big enough team for those goals.  We love to race, drink and heckle but not in that order.  We can still do that but it will just cost about 10 more per race over an entire season now.  The other downside to this, the profit that ACA will now have to work with is $1700.00 instead of the multi thousands of dollars in the past.  

Racing weekend before thanksgiving in the south of Colorado was great.  Saturday's race was a great course, great venue but parking and getting in and out of pits were an issue.  But the biggest issue was the high speed crash that I took and tore up my knee.  Seven stitches later and my knee is coming back together.  The worst part is the growing of skin.  Damn, that hurts and now it itches.  Brian also crashed out at COS.  His brake lever blade fell out and he came to a screaching halt.  Conejo also flatted and crashed but still stayed in the race.  He finished 4th in the 35 open.  Brian was in second when he tumbled and I was in 6th when my day ended.  That is racing though.

Cleaning out the knee and getting ready for hook needle and thread

They were nice enough to use Belgium Blue for the stitches

Brian is currently the majority stock holder in Tagederme for the team

Sunday brought the course of climbs down at Castle Rock.  Castle Cross was a huge success for the Frites team.  John Haley pretty much put the course together and you can complain to him if you didn't have fun.  Brian finished 17th on the day.  Conejo was 8th and Coco was 5th and some of our new recruits, who will still go nameless until Jan 1, rode well and had top 25 finishes.  The season is truly winding down though.  I hobbled around and supported the guys as much as I could.  Currently I have parted out my bike so my teammates can keep racing. 

I am looking at getting back to racing this weekend over at the CX race in Highlands Ranch on Sunday.  Let's see what is left in the tank.  It's tough to be forced into a week off but I didn't have much choice.

While laid up with the bad knee, it never hurts to have some of this laying around to help the pain.

Money, Money, Money.....MON-EY!

Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash - Pink Floyd

Friday, Friday, Friday.  Get there early.  Choose your seats wisely.  Hit the concession stand before the house lights go down.  You should only need to use the edge of your seat for this one.  With USAC CEO Steve Johnson making the trip North to grace his with presence, this should be fun.  

USAC is ready to start playing hardball and the showdown is here.  These are the brief highlights, I mean lowlights of joining "the firm" from the South.  This is all available on the ACA website if you want to read more.

So reading over the documents that were sent out, how can you even think about voting for this crap?  First off, USAC will not be able to give ACA 20k per year for 3years.  There are legal issues with this for starters.  Other local associations will want the same sweetheart deal that we are getting.  That aint gonna happen.  That should make the rest of the discussion a moot point. It has been bantered about that we will be giving up more than 100K in revenue in return for "joining" them and they are giving back on 60K?  That is fuzzy math that every liberal or repub can see is a bad deal.  But if you are in congress, maybe that is a good deal?

Second, the fee's that are going to be collected could wipe out the debt of small countries.  It now costs your team $100 bucks for dues.  Going forward, it will be $275 bucks.  Want a license, pony up that platinum card to the tune of $120 clams.  That is $60 bucks to the feds for either a road/cross or cross/mtb license.  Wanna race one of the disciplines that you didnt buy a license for, that will be $30 more.  Add on the "BRAC" part of for another $30 bucks. Currently license are $45 dollars and good for a full year from date of purchase.  USAC license will be good for only the calendar year.  

Wanna have results, ask the wife for another loan.  $35 bucks for your BRAC timing chip or $38 if you dont join them.  Now it talks about leasing the chips.  Does not say how long the lease is good for, but this is USAC so figure you get to lease that guy each year.  Also, D&L are upping their rates from $700 to $800.  Wanna put on a race without USAC but have cool results, that will be $1200 dollars for them to come out.  Want D&L to type in everyone's name on race day, add $250 more to that total.

Another casualty of this could be the ROL Wheels neutral support program.  They are willing to grandfather in all officials but have said nothing about the mechanics.  If you have raced a crit in the last 5 years, you have seen these guys sitting around waiting for you to show up with your flat tire, twisted seat or bottle cage falling off.  A "yes" vote will probably see this go away also.

Where this is really going to be a cold shower of reality is for the promoters who want to put on any race.  Your race has a prize list more than 2K, feel free to donate 7% of that to the feds, in CASH$$$, they aren't going to take your merchandise. Wanna put on a race in that open date on the calendar and it is less than 6 weeks away, that will cost you $100 dollar late fee plus the standard processing fee.  Where is the incentive to join these clowns again? 

The other major failure is with juniors.  They will be eliminating the 8-9 year old category. Please tell Muffy and Buffy why they cant race next year while they have been watching their siblings race for the past 3 years and they will be turning 8 at the beginning of the 2012.   They will be putting in jr. gear restrictions.   Make sure your roll out is correct at home or pay the penalty. 

I truly hope that Alpha Bicycle Co., Boulder Jr. Racing, Boulder Cycle Sport, Blacksheep, ICCC, Dawson Cycling, Peak to Peak Training, Ridge View Acadamy, Green Mountain Sports are all going to vote "NO" on this Friday night.  These are just the teams that I know of that have JR. racers.  

As you might understand, I have not pointed out any positives about getting back to somebody that was kicked to the curb about 10 years ago.  I have also heard rumblings that USAC has also come to OBRA and they told them to take a hike, we are not interested.  I think this is the same thing we should do.  

Do the right thing and show up and vote on this.  Stand up, be proud of your vote and and say it with authority.  Just remember, everyone will be watching you.