At the first annual Cyclocross Promoters Summit held at Tony Rome’s in January 2013, there was discussion about creating a race series that would connect each of the individual races currently held in Buffalo and Rochester.

Goals for the 2013 series:

• standardize categories using USAC format between races to permit series scoring.
• create a points scoring system for series scoring.
• seek sponsors to provide prizes for the series winner.
• improve participation at all races by raising awareness through the series and web-site.
• create a leaders jersey to be worn each week or to be won by the series winner.
• create a promotional T-shirt with events and sponsors.

However, there are a number of logistic and political challenges that remain to be resolved:

• get all promoters to adopt USAC permitting.
• get more racers to purchase annual USA Cycling licenses instead of one-day licenses.
• find sponsors for the series that don’t conflict with existing independent promoters sponsors.

If you have solutions to these issues, share your opinion on our contact page.

Mountain bikes are permissible and welcome at cyclocross races, as long as they do not have bar-ends (also called extenders or cow horns) attached to the bars. While there are always a few mountain bikes at every cross race, the majority of riders use either cyclocross specific bikes or modified road bikes.

So we’d like to hear from all of the WNYMBA and GROC mountain bike racers: Would you attend a CX race if there was a separate mountain bike race? Typically, most cyclocross races in WNY have been two-start events, with 11am and 1pm starts. Since mountain bikes run slightly slower than road bikes, they might be more suitable for starting with the womens and single speed events.

Creating a third race start at 9am for women, single speed and mountain bikes (each with their own starting time, 1 minute apart) would relieve the congestion from the larger 11am category 4 race, and would create the opportunity for mountain bikes to have their own race start. For the more ambitious, it also creates the opportunity to double up and enter two different races at the same event.

Visit our FaceBook page “wnycx.com” to participate in the poll we’ve posted about this issue, or use our contact page to send us your opinion.