Thursday, May 11, 2006

MTB Nationals Moved to Cougar/Infineon

Wow. I am not sure what to think here.
Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, Calif. will host the 2006 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships July 13-16 as part of the Infineon Technologies Cougar Mountain Classic.

Originally planned for the following weekend, the 2006 USA Cycling Mountain Bike National Championships have been moved up one week after a record amount of snowfall forced the event’s relocation from Mammoth Mountain last month.

Initially designated as the fifth round of the 2006 National Mountain Bike Series, the event has been removed from the series calendar and will no longer factor into the overall series standings. Instead, the event has been designated as the stand-alone, American-only national championship for all levels and disciplines of mountain biking.
Read the full details here.

UPDATE: Okay, I've thought about this. This sucks. Not only does it shorten the season by two races (the national championship and cougar mtn) since I probably won't qualify for nationals, but it takes away a really good race in Sonoma. Combine that with USA Cycling moving up the dates by two months and they have basically halved the racing season. I must say I am very disappointed in USA Cycling's decision. I really thought they were going to get back on track this year, but I am sorely mistaken.

UPDATE 2 (05/18/06): Lee Likes Bikes has also weighed in on this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You can qualify at the Bigfoot Classic. The biggest bummer is that Mammoth is a world class venue and Sonoma can't compare. Still, NorCal will have a chance to shine on home turf. The course doesn't suit me like Mammoth, but the commute sure does! You can't fault NORBA for 660 inches of snow, but I wish Nats were in Mammoth too.

/k said...

So I don't fault NORBA for Mammoth being snowed in. However, there should have been a real contingency plan in place -- Tahoe and Mammoth have had snow in July more than a few times in the past decade. Smart planning would have had another resort or world class course as a plan b. Especially since they moved the date up from Sept last year. Oh well.

As to the course, I agree. I like Sonoma/Cougar Mtn, but it isn't the best of courses (i.e. no mountains and no trees). Certainly not world class. Fun, but not world class.

Not that this will probably disuade (sp?) me from trying to qualify . . .