BAY AREA SUPER PRESTIGE SERIES
Saison Cinq for Bay Area Super Prestige Cyclocross Series
Our final prep for the 2007 season is in it’s penultimate stages and we’re looking forward to another great selection of events for Northern California Cyclocross players. 4 of our favorite courses are returning in this year’s presentation – Candlestick Point (our 7th race there since 2004), McLaren Park in San Francisco, our newest course and a spectacular location, Golden Gate Park which will also be the site for the final event of the brand new “Nor Cal Cup”, and Coyote Point in San Mateo, returning to the lineup for the 10 th time since 2002.
Brand new for 2007 and still partially under wraps with last minute insurance negotiations is Sierra Point in Brisbane . Many of you remember 2003 where we kicked off the first Bay Area Super Prestige Series on land fill adjacent to San Francisco Bay and the local yacht harbor. This course is nearby and will feature some marvelous woopty-doo sections as well as a tight 6 minute circuit. Our history at Hellyer Park was short lived – we knew from conversations with the Park Rangers that a bike trail extension was be installed in 2007 just behind the track and we had plans to incorporate that with this year’s event. However, a permanent wire fence accompanied the bike path with no gateways to the upper section of Hellyer – and that means no ‘cross course any longer.
We are pleased to announce a new partner joining the Bay Area Super Prestige Cyclocross Series - Voler will be helping us provide something very new to the podium presentations – Series Leader’s jerseys and all of our category sponsors – who have supported the events since inception in 2003 – will be prominently displayed during “Saison Cinq” award ceremonies.
We have a slightly revised schedule for competitors this year – and 1 new category. We will officially recognize our U14 athletes this season and they will be racing with their older Junior (U18) buds and with Category “C” Women completing that heat. More details can be found on the Pilarcitos website. Racing age for athletes is their age during the 2008 season – if you’re going to be 10 years old in 2008 you are eligible for the U14 fields.
With 49’er football season at Candlestick Point, soccer season at both McLaren Park and Golden Gate Park, and popular picnic ground use at Coyote Point measurably dictating our available event dates, this season sees minimal conflicts with the far-flung US GP Crank Bros. Series schedule and we hope to present our talented “A” category fields significant competition opportunities.
At our first race of the season our Catgory "A" fields will enjoy Top-10 front line call-ups based upon 2006 Series results. After the first race at Sierra Point every subsequent race category will have call-ups based upon Series standings.
2006 saw 721 different competitors participate during the series. We plan on continuing the day-of-event registration style we’ve pursued since 2002 but realize some categories (“C” Men with 139 different racers and a max. field size of 80+ at Golden Gate Park) may see field limits established in the future which would require on-line registration. Our aim is provide the best racing experiences possible for all entrants, including adequate parking, toilets, prompt results that allow prompt podium ceremonies, and plenty of neutral spare wheels. In addition to our traditional “Ritchey” wheel pit, we have added a 2 nd neutral pit on course featuring “Williams Wheels” that will allow competitors the chance to finish every event. ‘Cross is 40-60 minutes inside the Red Zone and it’s supposed to be fun, too. It’s no fun if you can’t finish your race and extra neutral wheels go a long way to make it possible. Enormous thanks to Ritchey and Williams Wheels.
We’re very happy our ace timing and officiating team returns for another season. Casey Kerrigan has signed on as Chief Referee and brings Ryan Fu, Barry Parks, Jin Mei Lun in the scoring department and Tom Simonson keeps the vintage 1988 Osborne portable computer firing on all 8 cylinders producing results, finish times, and overall point standings.