Hi all,

I've been following this discussion and wanted to chime in. When I first started racing mountain bikes (1993), the tendency was towards longer single-circuit or at most two-lap races. Granted, I raced mostly in Northern CA, but I would also travel up to Ashland/Jacksonville for the Revenge of the Siskyous.

In the mid 90's there was a real boom in XC racing, and all of a sudden races were getting larger sponsors (Sobe, Nabisco) and a dramatic increase in attendance (I would sometimes race in 100+ person categories). In response, many of the UCI races were shortened to include more laps or more overlap for more spectator visibility.

Unfortunately, this was not enough for the sponsors, as visibility/spectator interaction was higher in other sports, no matter how much visibility you gave to the mountain bike races. So, a bunch of the sponsors pulled out and went to other sports like Rodeo.

In the mean time, many of the racers got fed up with the tedium of doing the same course multiple times over (or in the case of overlapping track - extraordinarily large amounts of drastic elevation gain/loss to provide more visibility). Plus, if even if you're at the front of the pack, you're suffering - a change in scenery would always be pleasant.

In conclusion, I think the ebb and flow of mountain bike racing has shown that the races are for the racers. Provide a truly kick-ass course, and the racers will come. The old races like Whiskeytown Classic, Rockhopper, Big Foot, Mad River, Lake Oroville Classic, Revenge of the Siskyous, the original Mammoth and Big Bear courses (20+ mile loops), were all a testament to that. In 1994 at Nationals, the Expert JUNIOR class had over 100 people competing, the Expert 19-24 class had over 200! We at OBRA can do our part, since we are still a major mecca of mountain biking - heck look up mountain biking on Amazon, and half of the books are about mountain biking in Oregon.

Thanks to all you promoters out there. Keep up the good work. It's truly appreciated.

My 2 Cents

-Andy Vaughn
mtnracer.com