Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Start Position at Nats

Even if you're on the fence about going, registration opens Sept 15th @ midnight CST. Start positions are largely determined by order of registration. The B and masters races fill up the fastest. Two years ago, I waited 30 minutes after registration opened and ended up with the 86th start position in the 30+ race. By the time I worked my way up to the top-20 in the race, I was cooked (and the race was almost over). Hope you have a fast connection.

But of course if you finished top-10 last year or have UCI points, then you can go to bed early on the 15th.

CORRECTION: Only the past national champion will be called up. I respect both Jeff and Bill, but they don't see eye to eye on start positions (not a short joke, Bill). In a pipe dream USAC would get off their duffs and add cyclocross to their ranking system and keep it updated for assigning start positions at nationals.

CORRECTION #2: Juniors 10-16, Junior Women 17-18, U23 Women, and Masters: (1) The first rider called to the line will be the defending National Champion from the previous year if still in the same class. (2) The next riders called to the line will be the previous year's second through eighth finishing positions. If a previous year's champion from another age group moves to a different category, that rider will displace the eighth placed rider. If any of the aforementioned riders are not participating, those spots will be filled by order of registration. (3) All other riders will be staged in the start grid by order of registration.

I won't be there, but Gammer will be.

-Ryan Rish

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