Redundent yes but, I am copying these last 2 from my comments section. Joel and I chatted about it briefly in the Stumptown coffee shop the other morning. Portland (read: the entire west coast) is too far away to draw the larger, well funded cx teams right now.

Fidea, Sunweb, Rabobank and co. are not going to be excited to fly 9+ hours out to the east coast for one World cup. They have to do it though. You can not just skip a WC.

Vegas? Maybe. There is a lot of hype about it, and I am all for it. But I am going to be amazed if anyone besides Nys and Vervecken come over for the Vegas cx. Too far, too expensive. You must remember these guys have RVs with their faces on them, 2 bikes in each pit and 3 mechanics in each pit too. They do not travel more than an hour for most races all season long. There has be a huge fiscal incentive for them to come over.

Maybe though… just maybe. Those guys race for the $. And if they are getting any less than the 5000 Euro or so they are accustomed to start a race and then risk getting sick and tired from travel. Well, Vegas does have a lot of money. Maybe Wellens will come over, it will make for a good episode of “Wellens and we”.

Parbo points out below, in 5 years, the US CX scene should be exciting. If USAcycling does not fuck it up. We need to build on the recent cx success and keep up the momentum. You can count the number of potential international US cx stars on one hand. And all of them are limited by their road team contracts which are the bread and butter they survive on. (they do cx in the “offseason” and the road training and camps start up in January, smack in the middle of the cx worlds race period) USAcycling did little more than give Jon Page a skinsuit to race Worlds in. (please correct me if I am way off on that one) The “cx camp” seems like it is one man’s passion for cx that is loosely tied in to the USAcycling structure. At this point, if you are interested in pursuing a cx career, it is totally DIY.

Not to hate on the USAC but, I am a critic at heart. I realize that they have a limited budget and a lot of other talent and bases to cover.

Again, hats off to Page for fully committing himself to his dream. So working class. So tough.

In the long run, Katie and Jon and Danny getting podium results at worlds this year almost means more to the US racing scene than to them personally. The top US professionals now have something to aspire to. It IS possible to be competitive in Euro cx. Whether you live there or not. I was not around when Lemond won the first of his World champs and Tour de Frances. But he opened doors and look at the Euro ProTour peloton now!

More US riders than ever! A US rider on almost every team! Maybe in ten years cx will be saturated as well.

Joachim Parbo says:

US Racing will be H-O-T !!!

I will try to see if I can out together a substantial US campaign in 2007. US racing will be HOT in the next 5 years.

Today, I spoke with former World Champ, Ronald Liboton. He was psyched about the fact of a Cross Race in Vegas in conjunction with InterBike. See http://www.dbcevents.com. Promotor Chris Grealish spammed key europe cross personel during the Worlds, so the word is out…
Snow sucks - mud rocks !!!
/Joa

Joel BlackbirdSF says:
now to just see if the courses can be kicked up that extra notch they really need to be on par with euro courses… most everything ive ever seen (mostly west coast - though nor-cal courses in the 80s were pretty nasty) has had *way* too much open space to string a group of euro pros out - itd be cross racing with a serious peloton, and bunch sprints. ugly. but the potential for taking us cross courses to the next level is immense - id love to see more brutal technicality, and less rolling/flat noodling-around-between-the-trees type stuff… the closer i can come to wishing i could die during a race, the better at interbike? awesome idea as far as getting stars to come (early season, promo opportunity…), but cross in vegas in september? UGH. brutal dust-fest in potentially boiling temps. not *my* idea of fun. but then, i think the cross season starts too early and wastes too much time with the lousy august-september-october weather anyhow these days

i still vote for a uci world cup race in portland in the mud! weve got the terrain - i always tell people that this region of oregon reminds me a lot of belgium… (except hillier)