I”d like to thank everyone who attended the annual meeting last week to help get the club plans for 2010 under way. We’ve laid a strong foundation for a great season, and I really appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm.
We have a new CBRC board member to welcome aboard – Liz Lukowski. Liz will be serving as VP for 2010 and has a history in the not-for-profit arena. She also had a quite successful CX season this past year. She’ll be a great addition to the club’s board.
In total the board for 2010 is:
President – me
VP – Liz
Secretary – Danny Goodwin
Treasurer – Harry Lentz
Thanks to everyone who has expressed interest in helping to run the club this next season. Although many of our most important volunteers don’t hold specific titles, you are all critical to the club’s continued success. Thanks again!
Here’s a quick overview of things to expect for the upcoming year:
Membership Renewal: Membership can be renewed online via bikereg.com right now at this link.
Clothing: Clothing will be available via bikereg.com as well. We’re finalizing pricing right now and will add that to the posting for membership early next week. I’ll send out a separate email with details on clothing as soon as possible. Please note: The deadline for clothing orders will be January 15 2010.
Races:
Johnny Cake Lane will be 3/20, 3/27, and 4/3. We need roughly 30 volunteers including marshals, drivers, set up/tear down crew and registration. If you volunteer or, provide a volunteer you race for free. So, volunteer at a race and get the next race free, or convince someone who’s not racing to volunteer each week and you can race all three for free! Please email Tom Butler to get involved at butlet2(at)empiresite(dot)com.
Capital Region Road Race will be August 14. Paul McDonnell is race director. We need someone to serve as race promoter, to garner sponsors and help raise the profile of the event. If you’re interested contact Paul at pmcdonnell(at)chacompanies(dot)com. Of course, we’ll need volunteer support for the event, but since its 8 months away, we’ll talk about that later.
The Bethlehem Cup will be on again in 2010 as well. The efforts of the CBRC volunteer army to put the grass back in top notch condition post race is greatly appreciated by the park, and for this reason we keep coming back. Nice work everyone. If you’re interested in helping out with the Cup, contact Chuck Quackenbush at qqcifer(at)yahoo(dot)com
Criterum racing is coming back to the Capital District in 2010 – We’re in the planning phases of reviving the “Tulip Fest Crit.” We’re no longer planning to hold the race during Tulip Fest however, so we’ll need a new name. None the less, we’re looking into putting on a race on the old Tuplip Fest Course in Washington Park in downtown Albany. We’ve saved 7/10 as the date, and are just starting to look into making it happen. If you’re interested in helping bring this once immensely popular race back to life contact promoter Connie Kontogiannis at ckontogi(at)nycap(dot)rr(dot)com.
And, there’s also discussion of bringing the Troy Crit back as well. Likely, it will either be the Tullip Fest Crit, or the Collar City Crit, as the NY Racing schedule may not have enough open weekends to add two new criterums. In the event that the Albany course is unavailable, we’ll look into using the Troy venue. Look for details to follow on both of these events.
There’s been talk of reviving the CBRC Time Trial Series for a few years now and this is the year its going to happen. Plan for 2 or 3 flat TTs in the 20k and 40k variety, and an uphill tt. Possibly the traditional locations, possibly all new courses. A couple things that are certain – they will be week nights like past years, they will be very low key, with cheap entry fees, and minimal categories, and they will give me an opportunities to ride a silly TT bike setup that looks super pro even when I’m going 19.5 mph. Look for more details on this as the spring arrives. If you’d like to get involved with TTs please email me at eric(d0t)k(d0t)schillinger(at)gmail(d0t)com.
Finally, the last new event idea is a low key week night criterum/circuit race training series that would take place during the summer. The basic plan is to host four nights of legitimate USAC permited races, at a safe, office park style venue still to be determined. This will give both new and experienced racers the opportunity to do some low stakes, but real races on weeknights in the summer. Most likely, the events will slot in following the conclusion of the Wednesday night Mohawk Hudson Rides led by Paul McDonnell from April through June. This plan is still in the basic formative process – if you have any ideas or suggestions (especially on a venue) please email me.
CBRC will also be primed for cyclocross, with its support of the NYCross.com Series and multiple cx races next fall. Look for more info on that come mid summer.
Teams and Development
We’re also working on further developing our sub-team program and junior development. The success of the NYCross.com / VO Max / CBRC sub-team this past fall has encouraged us to work on furthering the idea on the road scene. If you’re interested in getting involved with starting a focused team at any level contact me asap. We’ll have more information on the club’s support plans and development potential after the first of the year, so stay tuned on that.
If anyone has any ideas, questions, or concerns about the club, the state of bike racing, or really anything else let me know.
Thanks again for your support. A great season of road and cx racing is right around the corner!
Eric
