Hell no, this ain't no touchy-feely "Chicken-Soup for the Soul" post... It's Curly-Edjamacation time! Hope ya heard that the USAC gave back over 1 million to the local racing organizations. It seems that the effort to keep the local organizations from goin' "ASO-hole" on them has paid off. Except for the OBRA folks... and a couple of others. READ THIS How is the USAC doing in terms of meeting all of the "rules" they set out to accomplish with this program? Take a look at that list of things the "LA's" have agreed to provide... how they doing on that? Hi USAC... how about more tools for promoters? How bout' a resource on Guidelines (i.e. process map) to Run a Race (Crit, TT, RR or Stage Race). Now I know that the WSBA has that little Word Doc on their site. And it helps for planning purposes... then you can talk to the WA Powers That Be (WAPTB) and he'll give you a bit more. You can ask other promoters... they'll tell you some stuff.
You'd think that with the Internet and all that someone would have compiled all that stuff to help out the folks that make it all possible to even race a bike. C'mon... and the best we can do is publicize how great it was that we shelled out 1 million bucks to the businesses that distribute equipment and numbers because "they" brought in more racing license cash? Now, before ya git all bent out of shape, think about what I'm asking for... fricken help, fricken resources. Equipment rental is great (it'll cost ya $5,000 to $7,000 to set yerself up a stable of race goodies) All the while that this little program is going on, we have two major (maybe more next year) races struggling to even happen because of money... Alright... chew on that today. Prove me wrong. Tell me I'm so far off base it hurts you where the saddle resides.
OK... we gots bigger fish to fry for the rest of this post. The POLL to the right... Now this ain't no joke. We got us a local feller who can probably coach a thing or two and all that stands in his way is some web presence he can afford... that's right... I did it again. I said "... can afford" We're gonna make that famous. It's gonna help his business.
Speakin' of race economics and budgeting. Mrs. Curly has been doing some research into this bicycle racing thing and she swagged together some numbers.
Estimated cost of a year's worth of bike racing (for the Avg. Joe)
- $2000 to $4000 - Updated bike and equipment
- $60 - USAC license fee
- $15 - WSBA racing number and sundries
- $40 to $50 Club dues
- $500 to $1000 - New kit costs
- $600 to $800 - Race entry fees (includes weekends and 1 weekday race per week)
- $600 to $1000 for travel, food, supplies, hotels
- $60 to $120 - New helmet
- $100 to $1000 - Misc (all of the extraneous crap purchase like magazines, CyclingTV subscriptions, Unibet acct... etc.)
So at the high end they spend around $8,000 per year... low end $4000. Welcome to my household folks... welcome to my household.
What happened yesterday you ask. Well, it seems that Curly's customer has had an issue with one of Curly's peers on the level of "customer focus" they've been provided with on their project... I mean, "Ranching". Now Curly can appreciate the "customer" metaphor and all, but are they really a "customer" if they don't have to pay for a product that's for someone else, or bitch if they have to do a little work on said "Ranching"? Wait... there is a business model where this works... soup kitchens... It would be like a feller going into a soup kitchen to get free food for another guy who needs it and then when he delivers the food... he takes the damned credit for making it and bitches at the cooks and servers who provided it.
Here's another colorful metaphor for ya rancher... You ask us to deliver a pizza, but don't give us the address, or dough, or cheese, or sauce... You give us the box and expect pizza to appear for the real customer that really never ordered a pizza to begin with... They wanted a fricken hot dog and you couldn't be bothered to ask, but instead want to be mad when we try to ask them what they want. Alright... I said I'd focus my energy on positive things... Friggin Lumbergs.
Your Training: I want you to practice your tap dancing today. Why Tap-dancing?? 1) Cuz I said so and that's what you pay me for... and B) cuz we're gonna try a new victory salute this year and it involves getting off the bike and tap dancing across the line.
3 comments:
Hmmm, we exceeded our household racing budget this year just by buying the tandem. Does that mean we can't race? In our house, you'd have to add the monthly fee for cable internet because O.A.D. spends all his time online reading cycling stuff. Your kit costs are a little high, tho. I spent less than your min., and I joined a new team.
2 racing jerseys, 1 long sleeve jersey, 2 bib shorts, 2 socks, 1 vest... $500... of course that included dues and WSBA
I forgot armwarmers. Actually, that's alot of quality gear for the money... I try to call it... "Cost of Doin Business" although, I'm told that the business has been underperforming for a long time now.
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