Haters, Lovers, Fakers, and Takers

“Michigan Challenge is a NOTHING series” – What makes up a series that is something? You get $500 for being the winner? $1000? I can’t say that wouldn’t be nice and that would be great to offer. But my bet is that if you’re racing bikes, you’re not suffering financially or unemployed. You’re making some coin. Maybe not Koch Brothers league, but you’re not suffering or you wouldn’t be racing, really. Also, I’ve tried to get sponsors for the series. If someone has a sponsor that can cough up $10000, send them my way. Oh, and the sponsor can’t be in the cycling industry because every race has a local shop sponsor, so if Specialized wants to give $10000, three quarters of the events will opt out cause they’re sponsored by Trek or BMC or something. I’ve gone done that avenue and it’s INSTANT revolt by the 25 separate promoters.

If you got $500 for winning, what would that give you? In a couple of days that $500 would be spent and NO ONE will remember that you won. The prize for the MI Challenge is a custom wheel bag. Maybe you’ve seen them at races. Whoever gets one of those will cart those around FOR LIFE and they’ll sit there in the pits and when the winner goes to pick them up after the race 5 years from now in po-Dunk Michigan, maybe no one will say anything, but I do think someone will say – HOW’D YOU GET THAT and they say I WON THE F***G series in 2010, 2011 etc, etc. Then they’ll pump out their chest and strut down the street back to the car like a freeking peacock and that wheel bag will be worth 100x that $500 they would have won if the MI Challenge was a SOMETHING SERIES.


“The MI CHALLENGE structure discriminates against elite racers who travel out of town to race” – there were 21 events. The best scores for 10 of those events are counted for the winner. You could hit six events in just three weekends – West Branch, Mt P and Cherry-Roubaix. If you cared about the series, it is EASY to hit the races. But lets put it this way, you actually DO have to put some effort into it, not very much, but you do have to put some effort into it. So if you can’t plan around 4-5 weekends over a five month period, WHY ARE YOU RACING IN MICHIGAN AGAIN?

Look – if you’re a total stud racer and want to win something, show up for ONE race, they are called the Michigan State Championships – and win that one. You get a custom jersey and I think in the RR and Crit, you probably also got $500 (for Cat I/II, which I’m pretty sure is who is complaining about this).

I know it’s a bit confusing that on the home page there is a list of the leaders. Let me explain – during the year it’s just way too hard to track all the points. Since 10 events are what count in the end, you could be leading the series, but actually losing. Think about it, it’s just too hard. So we keep it easy, the person with the most points is considered the leader throughout the series. Then at the end the top 10 results are counted and the winner awarded. You can argue that by 18 events you should be able to figure that out, but you can’t. Plus there are 15 other categories all being scored. So for Cat I/II, Mac Brennan was considered the LEADER, and even on points for 10 events, he is still ahead, but he had to race a series TT, CRIT and RR. My bet is that he didn’t race a TT, a pre-requisite of a complete racer. So the WINNER is going to be Tom Burke in the Cat I/II. Look, if the Tour de France was comprised of 20 stages all finishing in uphills – Andy Schleck would win it. But it’s not. There’s a couple of TTs. There’s the Paris-Roubaix stage. You have to go out there and BATTLE. It’s not just handed to you or something that you can win by racing 2-3 weekends between races in OH, WI or CANADA.

Check out the series winners here:
http://www.mbra.org/indexx.php?module=p ... rs.inc.php

Complete categories standings can be found here:
http://www.mbra.org/indexx.php?module=p ... gs.inc.php


“The series doesn’t reward complete racers” – GET SERIOUS. You have to race a TT, Crit and RR. If you’re a good TT’er, you can score points in three events. If you’re great at crits, you can score points in something like 15 events. If you’re a 110 pound climber – MOVE TO FREEKING Switzerland!!! My god…….

The road races we have are HARD – I sick of people telling me how difficult road races are in CO or CA or AZ. I don’t know anyone from CO who has come to MI and totally kicked A$. Someone tell me about a Cat 2 who has come from CO to this state and kicked butt? Last time I think an out of state person came to the state and won, it was Meurig and he came from cold and rainy ENGLAND.


"The MI Challenge is a waste of time" - Look, no one makes any money promoting these races. So, there has to be a carrot that gets the promoters to agree to offer all categories. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT POINT. If you do the math, you can actually make some money if you offer races for only the following categories: Men Cat 4, Men Cat 5 (two fields) and Masters 45+. If you wanted to make money promoting races you would offer a great cash purse for a road race that only had these three categories. You could be done quickly - only three fields, you wouldn't have to close roads for 6+ hours and deal with parents of juniors or prima-donna-would-be-pros or the like. In fact - race promoters you can make quick money by organizing a race around just these categories. There - the cat's out of the bag. But does that help the sport? No. We need bigger junior fields and womens fields. The MI Challenge is the carrot that pushes race promoters to offer all encompassing categories. You want to be in the series, you offer all these categories. it also brings a level of standardization to a sport where there are 30 separate promoters, all with their own agendas. One club that has lots of masters racers may only want to promote a race for Masters, and they can, it just won’t be part of the series, which does still retain some prestige. That’s why promoters still want to be part of the series. Knock the series too much and you may end up with promoters realizing the way to make the easiest money is to offer races only for Men Cat 4, Men Cat 5 (two fields) and Masters 45+.


“Why are there track races in the series” - I’ll take the hit for that one. When I took over as Director Dale Hughes met with me and proposed having a closer working relationship. As Director I made an executive decision to add track events to the series in an effort to get more exposure for the track. Out of 21 events there’s one on the track. I’m not sure having the track in the series has helped, but I like to think so. Yes – it is somewhat unfair for racers who live in Travese City or else where, but it is just one event out of 21. Also, since the track has had an event in the series, they’ve had record junior participations and several Jr National Champions, not to mention a multiply time World Masters Champion. There’s also now a track race team that is one of the best elite teams in the state, led by Martin Vecchio and Brian Crosby . Ok – Dale will hate me for this, but I’ll take the credit for the MBRA (wink wink – I’m JOKING)


“The series is supposed to be a joke” – If racing full out from April to September, battling the whole way all over the state in so many different kinds of races is a joke, then this whole sport is a joke and why again do you even care about bike racing.

In 2010 Tom Linck beat Dave Baar in the 35+ category by something like 2 points. They battled each other from the Willow TT in April, through the dirt roads of Cone, the crits courses of Milford. I got dropped from the Cat 3’s in one of the later road races, I think Cherry-Roubaix and I got to follow the 35+ race for a bit and Dave was throwing EVERYTHING at Tom and Tom was chasing him down and attacking right back and it was CRAZY. I wish those two would write about their experiences. Someone contact those guys and get them to chime in just how much they suffered chasing that series title. It wasn’t decided to the very last sprint in the very last race.

This year the tables were turned and Chad Evarts beat Tom Linck with a 10th place finish on the final race of the series.

“If you’re going to do a job, do it right” – In theory, I agree with this, but I don’t live in a theoretical world, I live in the real world. I’ve already got a full time job. And a family and I want to race and train, so you do the best you can. I’ve had a blast over three years and if you open your eyes and see just how great the race scene in Michigan is, you’d know how lucky we are.

I took over the job of Director from Paul Alman who at the time had done it for five years. I think I’ve made a difference, but with anything, there surely are things I could have done better. There have been and continue to be a ton of people who have put in a ton of work. To name three – Paul Alman, who continued to officiate and organize races and helped me out enormously. John Laidlaw – who no one knows, but has put in 1,000’s of hours since 2004 as the webmaster and has done more to build the Michigan scene than many will ever know. John Sammut – who has single handedly saved more than a few races by officiating and organizing and sorting out all the crazy things that happen at a race. True story – I was talking to a guy who’s been racing in Michigan for years. Multiple state champion this guy. John Sammut had been organizing and training all the officials in Michigan for two years and had been the chief referee at probably 10 races in that season. This veteran racer was asking me how the MBRA organizes officials for races and I said “John Sammut does all that” and he said “John who?”. Now – Sammut must have stood directly in front of this veteran racer a dozen times and read the race instructions right in front of him and this vet racer was clueless as to who John Sammut was. The point is – OPEN YOUR EYES and see the people who are making this sport happen. Do you know any officials by their first name? Can you name more than two promoters? OPEN YOUR EYES. Make an effort and introduce yourself to other racers. Have some fun and you’ll meet some great people.

If you’re really passionate and have vision for the sport – I can assure you if you want to take the position of Director – step up, start talking up your qualifications and you will surely be elected. I’ve got to get all the details up, but I will and there will be an election in Oct. Note – votes go to 1) USAC Club presidents 2) Registered officials 3) A race promoter (club or other, each event gets one vote). The body of licensed racers do not directly vote. That’s how the bylaws are set up.