USAC Can Suck Our Sacks
The shit winds of war blow before every conflict……
I race bikes in Oregon. Poorly, mind you, but I race them nonetheless. I’m usually tacked on the back of crits, road races, TT’s, and some Cyclocross races just for shits and giggles, in the 3′s and Masters events. I race under the sanctioning body known as OBRA – Oregon Bicycle Racing Association (clever, I know.) I had lived in the Chicago area and the city of Milwaukee before coming out here 6 years ago, racing under USAC (then known as the USCF) and the grassroots organization ABR – which I liked much better, for the record.
Back in the 90′s, OBRA told the USCF to go piss up a rope, as huge sums of money were being sent to Colorado Springs for no return. Read about the origins here.
When I came here I found the racing organization to be top notch, and I still do. You name the amenity and it’s provided – from fantastic officials to expedient results, great courses, great attitude, easy event promoting, great everything across all disciplines. Really, if you want to have a blueprint for a sanctioning organization that knows what it’s doing, and provides the ground floor to be wide open to attract new people to the sport, simply follow OBRA’s plan. It works.
To stress the main factor: OBRA is committed to the sport on all levels, particularly junior membership to continue to propagate the sport, and their grassroots, all-for-one approach resonates through all teams of all disciplines.
So now, USAC wants back in. They just folded the poor Colorado based ACA in a somewhat hostile and contentious takeover, sending riders back to USAC like so many beaten slave laborers, back to the salt mines with their backs broken, handing over fistfuls of money to to mothership. It’s like a mafia shakedown.
Now those dickhammers, seeing OBRA’s success, have come around like neighborhood goombahs, looking for their piece of the OBRA pie.
Now, USAC does good things at the elite level. Can’t deny it. But their methods completely fuck up the pot up here. For instance: Cascade Classic, last year, when USAC originally started dropping nuclear grade farts in the elevator: a bunch of OBRA female Cat 2′s went to contest the matter. Being a UCI event, it needed dual licensing from USAC as well as OBRA. Not a big deal in and of itself, but USAC being USAC had to be complete fucktards about it. Their first move was to not recognize via reciprocity that our Cat 2′s were indeed Cat 2′s, so instead their solution was to make the OBRA Cat 2 ladies ride with the USAC Cat 4 field.
Pick your tongues up, put them back in your mouth holes, and keep reading.
Yeah, good idea USAC. Smart. That’s fair. Idiots.
So that was got smoothed out after executive directors, team managers, and every other manner of muckity muck made a stink about it, and the 2′s raced where they belonged in their right field.
That was sort of the first grenade of what was coming. ACA now back in the fold, it seems the lead dispshit Steve Johnson is taking a bunch of swings at OBRA. Now, rather than encapsulate the whole thing, I ask you to read these two excellent pieces by Josh Libereles (an OBRA racer himself)
Article one: calling bullshit on USAC.
Article two: USAC “responds”.
Now, let your blood pressures settle a minute. I know you’re asking yourself “just who the fuck does USAC think they are?”, and I am too. We all are. I note a couple of things about this “response”. Firstly, Steve Johnson doesn’t have the nuts to come out of his ivory tower and confront this shit head on. Maybe because he came off like a complete prick during the ACA meetings. Or maybe he’s a coward. Instead, they send this puppy out, who cries foul and basically calls OBRA’s opinions and the people they came from lies and liars. When you boil it down it read quite plainly as a money grab, plain and simple. A fucking hold-em-upside-down-by-the-ankles and shake all their money out of their pockets.
Who gets fucked? Riders. Promoters. You know, the lifeblood of any racing organization.
I understand USAC has to play ball with the Olympic committees as well as the UCI. I get that. And I get that this effects upper categories from a rider standpoint. And I get their good deeds on the elite level. But if they move in on the grassroots organizations and jack up fees to basically have the lower cats subsidize the upper cats with little or no return, then you, USAC, are pissing directly on the fire of grassroots. You’re shutting the door on the grassroots side of things, pricing people out of the game to do some of the marquee regional races. Also, you’re turning off promoters because (and I know first hand) your sanctioning paperwork is a complete and total clusterfuck, your fees outrageous. OBRA makes these things easy.You’re lining your own pockets firstly, then turning off countless thousands that under an OBRA approach might say “yeah, sure, I’ll try bike racing.” And you’re doing all of this while shoving a knife into one side, and removing the wallet from the other.
What would OBRA get? Higher fees, lots more hassle. What does USAC get? A lot more money. For doing what in the best interests for the sport as a whole? Nothing.
The whole thing fucking reeks of war. And I sure as shit know which side I’m fighting for.
The first battle lines are drawn at Cyclocross, it seems. And as is pointed out in the articles linked above “THEY’LL RUIN IT JUST LIKE THEY RUINED MOUNTAIN BIKING.”
Take heed, people. War is in the winds.
Amen!
Triflin’ ass bitches and scandalous hoes.
EVIL! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCBrQQlcPLw
To be fair, how is OBRA helping jr’s and U23 get to Europe? Is OBRA paying for them to get to the Europe CX camps? It appears to me that OBRA is not really supporting the transition form Local racing to National or international. Who do you thinks pays for USCF cx camps for jr’s and U23? OBRA sure in the hell is not. And how are the US cx racers going to complete at the International level if we follow the OBRA model? I think that yes some of the money from the mass’s of cx racers should go to fund the delvelpment camps for Jr’s & U23 in europe and at the national level.
Stop being such a cheap ass, spending a few more buck per race to help support CX racing at all level is need. Sorry if it cuts into your BEER fund.
Does anyone else want to turn the lights on this comment? I’ll wait before I do to see what folks might have to say.
@ FRANK: Right? USAC is paying for anyone to get to Europe? Let me guess, if they only had all that Crusade cheddar then everything would be flush and fair? Quit kidding yourself. Poor little Chris Jones will still have to kick down his $1000 for his kit to have the opportunity to ride the pine.
Also, that beer budget comment is just plain stupid.
Ok Frank, let’s take a look at what you’re saying here. OBRA does nothing to contribute to camps put on by USAC, ok, they don’t because it’s an exclusive camp run by the USAC. OBRA has spent member money to create a statewide HS ‘cross league to promote the sort from the bottom. Where the hell do you get off bitching about an organization that is built to promote the very base of the bicycle racing pillar, those new to bicycle racing. I spent $175 per year in WA for licenses I spend $25for here in Oregon. What did I see that money go towards in Washington? Not a fucking thing, no new categories, no upgraded facilities, no money to promote the sport from the bottom. You know what? Were there an Oregon racer with the opportunity to compete at the elite level in any discipline the members of OBRA would be there to support them, would USAC? Doubtful. They’ll sure as hell be there to take the check for their camp though, and where would that check come from? It would come from Oregon asshat, not from USAC, from fucking Oregon. So you are free to sit there and bitch about the most successful racing association in the country, the one producing the stars of the future of US elite racing (except you, Jacob Rathe, sorry we couldn’t do anything for you, anything at all). I’ll just sit back and support Oregon racing and shaking my head with the rest of the OBRA community about how stupid people can be. Also, the beer comment is just stupid, thanks for including it though, made it easier to disregard your opinion as worthless pixels on a screen.
Am I missing something? Is it really ORBA’s job/mission statement to help jr’s & under 23′s get to Europe? I always thought the O in ORBA stood for Oregon.
Let those who’s end game is crossing the pond race with USACK, or have daddy foot the bill. (I’ve seen the type; 12 y/o on $1500 carbon tubs, w/2 xtra sets in the pits) Most of the folks I know don’t have pro aspirations; they’re just out having fun on as little $ as possible.
I’m not trying to be a dick (this time anyway), but with entry fees, gas, & everything else going up continually, it’s hard enough to cough up $ every weekend, let alone give even MORE $ to an bloated, greedy, out of touch group whose main goal is their own existence.
And NOBODY touches my beer fund, motherfucker.
Send Huang to do your negotiations. He will glue Mr. Johnson’s eyelids open with superglue and force him to watch 200 motels on loop until his eyes dry out like raisins, or he sees things your way. I’ll get him in the ass and take pictures of his cock while all of this is going on.
Frank is troll,is troll!