I'm up in Colorado Springs this weekend for the annual USA Cycling Local Associations conference. Since USAC moved out of the Olympic Training Center last year and into their own building, most of the meetings are being held at the nearby Rodeo Hall of Fame. Friday night we had a reception at the new USAC offices, which are much, much nicer than what they had at the OTC. The new place includes a nice indoor training facility for staff, a really impressive collection of photographs on the walls, and a big and conveniently located western bar that occupies part of the building. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well because the sudden change to dry air, and perhaps some allergy issues, made it difficult to breathe. I woke up with a pretty good headache. Saturday morning the weather was just beautiful. Kind of cold, but clear and nearly windless. With the morning sun shining on the nearby mountains, I was really wishing I had a bike. It would have been a great day for a ride up to Manitou Springs or something.
We got started bright and early with some of the usual presentations by USAC staff. The one about insurance and liability is always a little bit frightening. We also went through all of the proposed rule changes, after which the Board of Trustees went off to debate them. We ended the meetings with presentations by two chip-timing companies, followed by a reception and dinner. Tomorrow will be similar, with the meeting starting at 8 am. I'll have to head off to the airport around 2:00, by which time I expect I'll be pretty beat. This meeting can be pretty humbling for those of us from the smaller regions. Like last year, there was a lot of talk about cyclocross because so many districts are in the middle of their big 'cross seasons where typical turnouts for single races are running somewhere around the total number of licensed LAMBRA riders. Anyway, it is certainly enlightning to hear about what's happening in the larger districts. Sometimes it makes me feel happy that we don't have quite so many problems to deal with on a daily basis.
I'm up in Colorado Springs this weekend for the annual USA Cycling Local Associations conference. Since USAC moved out of the Olympic Training Center last year and into their own building, most of the meetings are being held at the nearby Rodeo Hall of Fame. Friday night we had a reception at the new USAC offices, which are much, much nicer than what they had at the OTC. The new place includes a nice indoor training facility for staff, a really impressive collection of photographs on the walls, and a big and conveniently located western bar that occupies part of the building. Unfortunately, I didn't sleep very well because the sudden change to dry air, and perhaps some allergy issues, made it difficult to breathe. I woke up with a pretty good headache. Saturday morning the weather was just beautiful. Kind of cold, but clear and nearly windless. With the morning sun shining on the nearby mountains, I was really wishing I had a bike. It would have been a great day for a ride up to Manitou Springs or something. 
We got started bright and early with some of the usual presentations by USAC staff. The one about insurance and liability is always a little bit frightening. We also went through all of the proposed rule changes, after which the Board of Trustees went off to debate them. We ended the meetings with presentations by two chip-timing companies, followed by a reception and dinner. Tomorrow will be similar, with the meeting starting at 8 am. I'll have to head off to the airport around 2:00, by which time I expect I'll be pretty beat. This meeting can be pretty humbling for those of us from the smaller regions. Like last year, there was a lot of talk about cyclocross because so many districts are in the middle of their big 'cross seasons where typical turnouts for single races are running somewhere around the total number of licensed LAMBRA riders. Anyway, it is certainly enlightning to hear about what's happening in the larger districts. Sometimes it makes me feel happy that we don't have quite so many problems to deal with on a daily basis.
1 comment:
Great shot of Pikes Peak! I was up there last May and wanted to drop by the new USAC offices but ran out of time. The big news then was the possibility of the Olympic Center moving out of Colorado Springs but I guess that didn't happen.
We saw a couple of National Cycling Team members riding thru Manitou Springs in their kits and amazingly I wanted to ride right that minute! It's a great place to ride.
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