Benicia Town Race- don't miss this!

[Bike Goddess]

Saturday June 27th 8AM-5PM

This is a new Downtown Route, right through the heart of Benicia. Team Ouch has confirmed participation, sending Floyd Landis (Tour de France Winner); Bobby Lea (2008 Olympian); Bradley White (Most Agressive Jersey Amgen Tour); Roman Kilun (multi stage winner). There will be 10 races, culminating with the Pro race.

We'd love for you to participate as marshalls. Let me know and I"ll get you the info. There are two shifts - AM and PM.

Otherwise, come and watch the folks race. This ia an opportunity to see some great cycling up close and personal! There will also be a couple women's races during the day and races for younger riders. There will be vendors here as well so you can shop for bike stuff as well.

If you've never been to Benicia, you are in for a big surprise!

[maillotpois]

Um... sounds cool, but what's the DATE?

[Bike Goddess]

Sorry folks, forgot to tell you- town race is Saturday June 27th.

Race for kids will be at 12:30.

Some of the day will be televised by KPIX- Channel 5. Be sure to watch if you can't come. (Probably on the news hour whenever that is).

[BikeMomma]

Hey Bike Goddess,

I wanted to race Benicia this year, but with the kids in various sports that limit my training time and with being sick here and there, my fitness wasn't "there" for this year (and it's even worse right now!). I'll try to make it next, though!

How did the races (time trial also) turn out? I'm curious to know if there were any problems, because shortly after Benicia's race weekend, I received an email from the City of Benicia's City Attorney's office asking for advice on how the City of Merced (where I work) handles liability issues for the Merco & Merced Crit/Snelling RR weekends (and this year, an Amgen TofC stage start city). Perhaps, though, the Benicia weekend is just getting more well-attended and the City wants to keep it under control (as cities do...). I've been wondering ever since their email!

Take care,
~Kim (BikeMomma)

[Bike Goddess]

Hi Kim,
Sorry you weren't here but family is a priority!

I'm not surprised that Benicia contacted you about insurance issues. They were so concerned this year about this that they issued orders that were beyond reasonable for how we could run the race. They made a rule that NO ONE could cross the street during a race (even when the flags were down) which made our downtown streets very unfriendly for pedestrians as well as racers who needed to get around. I pretty much ignored the ruling and let people cross when it was safe. Other marshalls finally let people cross intersections when it was safe to do so (flags down, etc.)but we were blamed for this instead of the city which was too bad.

The crit was not well attended by local people partly because I don't think they knew much about it. We did have Floyd Landis race with some of his team members this year. He liked the course and is planning to come back again. We'd love some more high profile riders as I think that would help with bringing in more outside folks to our town.

I didn't go to the meeting with the city after the race, but am under the impression that it will probably go on next year. The cyclists loved the course-it was technical and right downtown on our main street. There were definitely some logistical problems that need to be corrected. I have volunteered to be part of the organizers next year- we'll see if that happens.

The TT on Sunday was done on a county road and the Taleo team did a great job with the organization. Since it wasn't in the city limits they only had to deal with the county and the CHP.

I had that honor of working with Fred (Taleo guy who does a lot of starts for TTs). He called the shots and disqualified riders who showed up late, etc. Since I do most of the clockwork for our TTs it was a good experience for me to see how a "pro" works a race like that.

It was great to have Paula with us both days. She is just a neat lady. It was her birthday the day of the crit and I felt badly that the city treated her the way they did. But, she took it all in and accommodated them as best as she could.