University of Minnesota Season Closer
It was about as picture perfect as a fall morning gets in Minnesota. Warm sunshine, leaves in full color and sweet, sweet racing action. Then it all went to hell.

Let me start by saying I understand how difficult it is to put on a race, so thanks to all involved for putting this together. That being said, I knew from the moment I registered that this would be anything but a smoothly run affair.

Despite the race flyer specifically stating that a NORBA license would NOT be needed for beginner-comp, Mr. NORBA showed up and decided that he needed an extra $10 from everyone anyway. Then there was the issue of the different race categories. A/B collegiate, expert/comp and sport/beginner. Sport and beginner rode an abbreviated course that was supposed to be clearly marked and manned with course marshalls to ensure people made the correct turns. More on that later.

Start. We get a 4 minute warning, then a 30 seconds to go announcement, then nothing and then all of the sudden, a whistle to start. No countdown or anything, nice. I gun it and try to get as far up as possible. Clayton is riding out of his mind and is up in 2nd. I ride like hell to catch his wheel before the singletrack, but end up about 4th or 5th into the trees. I pass a rider or two, and then on the climb out of the singletrack I pass Clayton. I hear a guy behind me ask how many are in front and Clayton says, "Just one". Sweet. So me and this guy are now 2nd and 3rd and on the hunt for the 1st place guy. We are drilling it and have a monster gap on the field. We come to the first course marshall, who points us to the right up into more singletrack. We plow through this section and when we exit onto the doubletrack we see a singlespeeder coming from the left. WTF??? We are sure we didn't miss a turn since the course marshall told us to go into the singletrack. We try to sort it out but don't and eventually we get around singlespeeder and begin lap 2. I told the guy who had been riding my wheel to get around me before we hit the singletrack, which he did. We were starting to pick up some of the racers from the other categories now, so I lost some time waiting for a place to pass. Suddenly I see a Birchwood jersey ahead of me and it's Clayton. Again, WTF??? I passed him almost exactly one lap ago, how could he be in front of me? We rode for a bit and then approached the first course marshall again. This time there is a sign directing riders the correct way. Great. He totally screwed me and the other guy on the first lap. Now I was pissed off, and rode like a madman the rest of the way to the finish.

I had ridden one of my better races only to get f'ed over by a course marshall. The guy I had been riding with got screwed as well. He should have been 2nd or better and I should have been 3rd or better. Instead I got 5th and I think he ended up 7th or 8th because he got screwed again on his second lap and was sent into the expert loop.

First of all, the course needs to be clearly marked and the course marshalls need to know who is in what race. There were 6 different categories all racing at the same time using two different courses. The collegiate racers had numbers below 100, everyone else had numbers in the 200's. They were all white number plates with black lettering. How did they differenciate? They scribbled in "x, comp, sport, begin" with a marker. In fairness to the course marshalls, how the hell are you supposed to read that from a distance and sort it out amongst that many racers. If there are going to be two different courses then the race bibs should be clearly identifiable to avoid confusion.

Then, why are we paying NORBA? The U of M must have had the insurance covered or they wouldn't have stated in their race flyer that licenses weren't needed except for collegiate riders and experts (exactly as it is for the MNSCS). And if it wasn't insurance that we were paying for what was it for? Officiating? Another rider was awarded 2nd place for women, which would have been great if he was in fact a woman. He had to drag the NORBA ref over to the standing sheet to have him correct that, but then also had to tell him to adjust the other women's results accordingly.

I'm left with the slight satisfaction that I had a good race despite all the bs, and a total confirmation of just how much NORBA blows. I'm surprised they didn't set up a checkpoint at the park exit and charge us an exit fee after the race, too.