So far I think I am doing a miserable job of adding to general promoting knowledge. Today I am going to try and start on the right track. Thinking back to the moment I when I realized I would be organizing the 2007 event, I had so many questions – all of which I did my best to repress out of anxiety, and in the spirit of procrastination. But all my initial concerns revolved around the very general question of “When you put on a bike race (that hundreds of people will likely attend!), where do you start?” The answer I realize now is that it does not matter a whole lot, so long as your race has been running for a few years. For instance, in February ’07, I got an e-mail from “Porta John” that said, essentially, “Dear Mr. Repka, [the previous year’s promoter] we are anxiously standing by to take your Porta John order for your event, Columbia University’s Grant’s Tomb Criterium. Will you require the same number as last year? Can we help you in filing any of your permits? It is our pleasure to serve you. Thanks, PJ.”

Photo: Stephen Chang

After having been held for many years, GTC is fairly well equipped to sustain itself in the years to come. But despite my It-Doesn’t-Matter-Where-You-Start-or-What-You-Know lesson, there are plenty of obstacles in the way of promoting a successful bike race. I had a hard enough time with years of history behind me – I imagine it is hugely more challenging for a maiden event. So, then, where do you start? The neophyte will be encouraged by how easy some of these first challenges are… What kind of race do you want to run – crit, circuit, point-to-point etc? Then, where and when do you want to hold the event? But even at these early stages there are important issues at stake, which you might not think of after a 2-month introduction to racing.

Photo: Cambridge College Cycling

Obviously the question of what type of race you put on will be intimately connected with where you intend to put it on. As much as I think it would be fantastic to hold a point-to-point road race across all 5 boroughs, finishing in Times Square… Well, maybe that kind of high-profile event is best left to the professional attentions of the likes of Dr. Frank Arokiasamy, Ph.D. and the Tour of America. OK so maybe that point was on the obvious side, even to our neophyte. But even if he is constrained somewhat more modestly to a criterium in Manhattan, there are still plenty of important considerations. Parks are popular places for races – PP, CP, Harlem Crit, GTC make this an easy trend to spot. But unfortunately, even those decisions come with a little logistical baggage.

The problems really start to rear their nasty little bureaucratic heads once you think you have a good spot, and then your nice, neat ideals get all bogged down in the real-worldliness of dealing with people and organizations. Pick a street in Manhattan, anywhere you like, and at the very least, you will have to deal with: the local Community Board, your friendly NYPD Precinct, the Mayor’s Office of NYC, and of course the USCF. You will need permits, no matter where you want to run the race – parade permit, sound permit, USCF race permit, and Community Board approval for the event (which can actually be the toughest part). Now, say you want to run the race around Marcus Garvey Park. Right away, another permit, another sets of meetings, phone calls, e-mails, fees, etc. And just hope you aren’t set on the idea of running the race around a National Park/Monument like Grant’s Tomb. Ahhh, a true, National-scale bureaucracy! It puts our puny little NYC system to shame! So when all is said and done, depending on your circumstances, there are at least 5 or so organizations involved, and none seems eager to do you any favors. My colleague this year, Isaac Dinner, has the honor of collecting our permits from these various sources. And he is already plenty cynical of the process of permit acquisition himself, “I’m trying to crack double digits – national parks, local parks, city, parade, community board, sound, university, USCF, etc…” Isaac is obviously doing the job well.

 So, having answered two of the Three Easy Questions, the neophyte asks, so when is a good time for my race? And he comes to the informed decision of March 15th!!! Perfect. Riiight. Well I admit to not learning the biggest lesson that last year’s experience taught me; I know precipitation makes for “sucky” riding conditions, I know that cold weather numbs the digits, and I certainly know that the combination of the two isn’t like in math where two negatives cancel each other out. Since I am trying to raise attention for the race and promote the event I am going to abandon that train of thought right there. I will simply suggest that perhaps Mike Green and crew for the Skyscraper Crit got it right, June sounds mighty nice. But, you should support CU Cycling! Support collegiate racing! Weather will be great! Our prizes are big! Our fields will be deep! The weather WILL be great!!!

That’s all I’ve got for this week. Sorry, I know there is a glaring lack of important conclusion at the end of the blog (or anywhere else), I am still working on that one. Please read next time and maybe I will actually get you to fall asleep.

In other news, registration has been postponed by a few days until Thursday, February 21th, at Noon. Also, we are likely going to slightly change the fields we will be offering in light of the comments we received to the last blog. I make no promises, but check it out over the next few days.

BikeReg Link here.

Thanks for reading! Cheers,

– A