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4873
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6/26/2009
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Boise, ID
US
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Edited Date/Time
8/1/2022 10:26am
Tyson Henrie of Outlaw racing is going above and beyond, trying to unify the USDH scene with hopes of improving racing in the states through USAC. Ideas like a national points series and regional race organization are among a few on the plate. He's put together a google doc/form presenting his goals and solutions and is looking for your input, too.
Share your input or give support here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScN0wgI5yq0ziD0Qj6b5sXirJu3cUX…
Some excerpts
Mission Statement: To prioritize the long-term development of gravity riders and to provide or support club development and athlete development pipelines to the Elite levels of Downhill and Dual Slalom.
Vision: Establish USA as the best in the world in Downhill and Dual Slalom within 5 years based on World Cup/Crankworx standings.
Share your input or give support here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScN0wgI5yq0ziD0Qj6b5sXirJu3cUX…
Some excerpts
Mission Statement: To prioritize the long-term development of gravity riders and to provide or support club development and athlete development pipelines to the Elite levels of Downhill and Dual Slalom.
Vision: Establish USA as the best in the world in Downhill and Dual Slalom within 5 years based on World Cup/Crankworx standings.
From my experience dealing with them as a former racer/club organizer/race promoter it seems like the only priority to USAC is master road racing and getting the highest ROI possible
Pro GRT, Maxxis Eastern States Cup, NW Cup, Downhill Southeast, Downhill Rockies, US Open, etc.
The pieces are all there, they just need to be unified and organized.
I think the biggest problem is right there in the title....USAC. They are the only connection to the even bigger *hit show that is the UCI.
What really needs to happen is for Crankworx to become the new premier global DH racing promoter, then the UCI and WC racing as it is now with all the issues (like Andorra) can all go bye bye.
The fact that the WC riders are forming a union is pretty telling.
Then go soliciting for sponsorship once you’ve shown what the system can do.
But kudos: we need to build this ourselves !!!
You need the sanctioning body of USA cycling to get anywhere internationally in the current situation.
But they do next to nothing.
While I know many many dh racers past present and future appreciate your efforts, working within the usaC/Uci points system will only take you to their stage.
Ultimately I misunderstood your vision.
Ultimately (imho) it will be alternates that usurp the stagnant and non contributing global points lock system that the Uci has implemented and proven to be the barrier.
But doing what y’all doing domestic is a great honest effort to make the current system work for Americans. And yes. That is exactly what DD AND PROGRT was an attempt at.
Americans don’t quit. Nice work.
But also: crankworx and red bull.
We have the venues, the racers, and it seems, a handful of hungry race promoters and regional series to tie together again.
I’m super pumped for the next phase of GREAT US DH RACING TO BEGIN.
But it does seem possible to make us racing great again and not necessarily need to go “bigger more global” for that recognition.
We just need to tie them together and promote and film…… make the USA the premier racing venue
I'd also like to talk about the DS course this year. I'm not risk adverse, but that course seemed pretty damned hazardous in design... and from what I understand the design was necessitated by USAC needing to take some of the width of the course out to make more room for the XC course.
I gotta think Barry is right tho. With such a vast geographical area, it’s a large financial burden for (personally) race dads (and moms) to bridge.
National Points system is the answer to that.
How to incentivize the corporate media outlets to make coverage of us national events is a major challenge.
NORBA (sorry for the swears) had the venues abs organization to eclipse the World Cup.
If USAC can’t embrace that potential, maybe they lose the dh community entirely.
But we have seen that NOT happen twice now
The rising race entry fees have kept myself, along with many others I know from participating in the larger race series. $200 for an entry to race at a venue that is free to the public to ride is mind boggling.
Instead of having multiple series that all think they are the best, why not come together and join forces to create a National MTB race league that focuses on growing the sport instead of making it even more of an elitist event than it already is. The more people that attend means more money for the local
Businesses and in turn, more exposure.
Even if nothing comes about, UCAS needs to realize that holding nationals at altitude isn’t helping. The highest World Cup race is Andorra, which is only at ~6k feet.
Anyway, there are plenty of large venues with mountain biking infrastructure that can accommodate a national championship level event that aren’t at 10k feet.
What would it take to create a 2nd sanctioning body? Like BMX had ABA and NBL at the same time.
Anyway, we are compiling all of the responses and organizing them to create a rough draft proposal for a dream athletic development pipeline for DH/DS. This will be on a living document that we will post links to on our Instagram @outlawtribe_ and hopefully on Vital. Lots to do, but I'm hopeful it will improve our athletes success rate on the world stage, create more interest in DH as a viable business opportunity for host sites and organizers, and keep our riders safe to ride another day.
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