since 2006
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Vote for Mike
The USA Cycling elections are underway and Mike Norton is running for the east coast slot. Mike narrowly lost to the incumbent last year. I've known Mike for 20 years. I hated him as a competitor, but loved him as a team mate. Mike is hands down the best race promoter in New England today, putting on the Palmer and Sturbridge races, along with Monson and the Stafford Crit. His ability to put on three top-notch road races a year speaks for itself. These elections typically have poor turnout, so every vote really does matter. Login to your usacycling account RIGHT NOW and vote for Mike. Don't accept status quo. Thanks for reading.
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No voting for catagory VIs.
ReplyDeleteI will try to get some VIP tickets for Open Wheel Wednesday. You bringing a date? I ain't heard from Big Bird.
No, that is the first day of school, I'll be solo. And I guess it's right around Big Bird's birthday too. He's got almost a month to arrange for this, so there's no excuse. If you can't get tickets I don't mind paying, but of course free is better.
ReplyDeletei got some departmental crap going on that day....
ReplyDeletewill see what i can do to swing it...
I'll call my dad to see if I can get some passes to the Viveiros Insurance event at least, comp tix at best.
ReplyDelete1 Solo Mofo
1 Big Bird
already voted for him...
ReplyDeleteSorry - can't vote for Mike...
ReplyDeleteYour choice CTodd. Without Mike, New England cycling would be a much poorer place. But at least don't vote for Miller.
ReplyDeleteNo worries. I did NOT vote for Miller.
ReplyDeleteI just disagree with some of Mike's views on racing and particularly how he views women's racing.
i've never even met mike, but i gotta agree with ctodd about the women's racing
ReplyDeleteMike promoted 6 races for women this year (elite and 3/4-40 at Sturbridge and Palmer, and 3/4 at Monson and Stafford). Who has done more than that? All promoters are somewhat limited in the amount of "affirmative action" they can take to advance women's racing, but since Mike is one of the most successful promoters, he can and does do more than most.
ReplyDeleteThe clubs with the highest numbers of women still must take responsibility for advancing womens racing. There is a sense of entitlement among bike racers (both men and women) and promoters are on the front lines of the receiving end, and this does affect their attitude. The bottom line to me is talk is cheap, actions speak louder than words, etc, and Mike is a person of action who is advancing the sport for the right reasons.
Again, it's hard to do anything wrong if you never do anything. Promoting has it's ups and downs. SRAM does not have enough cars to follow every field, and after that the promoter relies on volunteers. Naturally, the smallest field is going to get the short end, unless of course someone supplies a volunteer. FWIW, we take follow cars (and lots of other niceties) for granted here in New England, but when I've strayed outside the border, races just aren't big enoug to have these things. Norton has gone back and forth with including and excluding various fields. People complain no matter what they do.
ReplyDeleteThe Blue Knights who Norton hires for pace car services have lead men's races off course too. It would be nice if that didn't happen, but when you promote races with 800 participants and 7-8 separate fields competing, compromises have to be made. The alternative is to not promote races and let someone else do it, which is what 99% of the people do.
I take it the writer from twoadventures is from NEBC. They do an excellent job promoting, but also remember they are perhaps the largest club in New England, and have significant resources to lean on in promoting their races. Norton has been affiliated with BOB and Cyclonauts, both decent size clubs, but ones with few if any female members. I think he tries harder than anyone else, and would be a good person to have on the USCF board, someone who knows and cares about racing on the regional level.
what'r ya getting paid to lobby for Mike?
ReplyDeleteIf mike promises to promote a CX series here in New England in January... THAT would be a solid platform to run on!!!
jtheskier, since you never met Mike, I can give you some idea as to why some have strong feelings against him. I don't think anyone would ever call him "charming." But I think he would be "effective." It's too bad Americans (maybe others) seem to get more caught up in politician's personalities than they do their policies. One reason I'll never win any elections...
ReplyDeleteKerry,
ReplyDeleteit is pre-season...
check the rumblings - cross is around the corner...
the "PROs" have embarked and begun cross specific drills... introducing a bit of running, drills and what not...
It might be august 3rd, but it is not too early to start the focused Cross training...
and cross is in ya all year- ya care about cross year round...
well ya do if that's your passion...
don't you dare blaspheme cross, we'll sick the goofy Portland Cross Crusade bishops on ya if they ever make it back to New England!
So Mr. GePassion, tell us, exactly how many cross races have you actually done in the past 5 years? 3?, 4? Or is it a huge number, like 10?
ReplyDeleteI started racing cross 10 years ago... in michigan... when Robert Linden started promoting a series...
ReplyDelete1997...
passion firmly emplanted...
i raced that first year on a rigid Klein Adroit with Conti cross country 1.5s... a small frame shop offered us a deal and i got a custom steel cross bike made up (my croll)... race all of 1998 (might have missed one race) and then tried to do it in 1999 but i had started a 175 mile car bound commute... and my miles riding were not enough for it to be fun anymore...
Went to CX nats here (the snowbowl one) and a dormant spark flew... i set a goal to race at CX Nats next year.
I think i only did 12 races last fall? (yeah crossresults.com has me on for 11 and they didn't get southington's results...
I didn't race from 2000 until 2006...
and yeah, i raced a season on 10 year old parts... will be racing again on those same old parts...
the same old tired frame...
with a passion and a fire not fueled by prize lists or race results...
I ain't no paul c, tom s, adam m, i ain't been doing this cross gig non-stop for umpteen years...
maybe in 10 years i'll be as burnt out and unable to race it as you are Solobreak...
we'll just have to wait and see, won't we!
Hmm..I think the score is now
ReplyDeleteGe - 1
SB - 0
crap... double post bogey...
ReplyDeleteoh well...
So 12 races? That computes to 30 giddy cross mentions on your blog per actual race, or something like that.
ReplyDeleteIf we had a low-key series close to home I might get into it, but you're right, I don't have the energy for cross weekends any more. Proud to be a road racer.