cool stuff -- developments teams in US

"John Forrest Tomlinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I'm most familiar with CRCA-Sakonnet but see Saunders has one and
links to others:
http://www.factorydevelopmentteam.com/devoteams.htm

If Eric Saunders is connected with it, it's probably something worthwhile.

On Feb 15, 7:45 am, John Forrest Tomlinson <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

I'm most familiar with CRCA-Sakonnet but see Saunders has one and
links to others:http://www.factorydevelopmentteam.com/devoteams.htm
--
JT
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dumbass,

since you've been lamenting the lack of cycling talk on rbr here's
something i could use some feedback on.

how should one go about structuring a local club team ?

i figure the cost per rider to race a season locally is about $2000
(license, fees, transpo), which is out of the question. my approach is
to open up the team to all applicants (providing they aren't a cancer)
and provide some clothing and set aside some funds to cover costs in
an egalitarian way.

in addition i would try to provide support, in the form of rides to
races (a lot of young guys don't hav transpo), feedzone support and
things like spare wheels.

a local team doesn't bring in any revenue, but it does bolster the
image of the club locally and helps attract riders.

email hidden said:

since you've been lamenting the lack of cycling talk on rbr here's
something i could use some feedback on.

how should one go about structuring a local club team ?

i figure the cost per rider to race a season locally is about $2000
(license, fees, transpo), which is out of the question. my approach is
to open up the team to all applicants (providing they aren't a cancer)
and provide some clothing and set aside some funds to cover costs in
an egalitarian way.

in addition i would try to provide support, in the form of rides to
races (a lot of young guys don't hav transpo), feedzone support and
things like spare wheels.

a local team doesn't bring in any revenue, but it does bolster the
image of the club locally and helps attract riders.

That all sounds good. I think you should either require riders to
participate in some certain number of events each year. Or else maybe
have them buy the clothes and then be re-imbursed after they do enough
events.

That said the other forms of support like help in feedzones, etc. is
really important. But it'll only work with some focus on the part of
teh team as to what races they participate in.

Just two cents from another dumbass.
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JT
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On Feb 15, 4:46 pm, John Forrest Tomlinson <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

email hidden said:

since you've been lamenting the lack of cycling talk on rbr here's
something i could use some feedback on.

Quoted message said:

how should one go about structuring a local club team ?

Quoted message said:

i figure the cost per rider to race a season locally is about $2000
(license, fees, transpo), which is out of the question. my approach is
to open up the team to all applicants (providing they aren't a cancer)
and provide some clothing and set aside some funds to cover costs in
an egalitarian way.

Quoted message said:

in addition i would try to provide support, in the form of rides to
races (a lot of young guys don't hav transpo), feedzone support and
things like spare wheels.

Quoted message said:

a local team doesn't bring in any revenue, but it does bolster the
image of the club locally and helps attract riders.

That all sounds good. I think you should either require riders to
participate in some certain number of events each year. Or else maybe
have them buy the clothes and then be re-imbursed after they do enough
events.

That said the other forms of support like help in feedzones, etc. is
really important. But it'll only work with some focus on the part of
teh team as to what races they participate in.

Just two cents from another dumbass.

The club I belonged to was/is (but I don't live in the
area anymore) sort of like that. People bought their own
jersey (not a big expense compared to everything else),
club funds went to communal expenses mostly. some loaner
clothing for people recruited in the middle of the season,
etc. No official requirement for doing races; gentle
arm-twisting to get people to help out with races we
helped organize. There were people who probably didn't
do any races but went on training rides, did handups
at races, marshalled - that's cool.

If you do a heavy road schedule then I guess it's more of
an issue where the riders want to have a reasonable number of
the team on the start line. We also did a lot of cross and mtb
races, where it's not so much how many teammates you have in
the race; but it's nice to have people to hand you up a
bottle and after the finish, to hang around and drink
(LIVEDRUNK approved) with, while heckling the people in the
next race category.

It is recreational for most of us, so IMO unless you are
really good, part of the club's function is and should be
social (and if you're really good, you probably don't need
to read my thoughts on cycling teams). Easy to say.
A problem is that generally there is a lot of organizational
work and it falls on one or two people's shoulders. I guess
most organizations, including cycling clubs, are like that,
reliant on a small core of mostly-extrovert volunteers
and hoping they don't burn out.

Ben