Tour de Tysons

[VikingMariner]

@MattAune 89267 wrote:

How so? If you would like elaborate a little I will gladly see what we can do to make it better next year.

Okay. Thanks. Hope these half-baked notions are seen as constructive:

Encourage bike shops to advertise a bike sale at the race and bring bikes for sale. They do this quite randomly on the W so why not at a race?

Expand the list of vendors to include restaurants, supermarkets, massage/spas, fitness gyms, insurance firms, sports medicine doctors, etc.

Seek out a bank and major non-profit sponsor (for example, cancer foundation).

Recruit major local celebrities to attend, speak, and/or race for free.

Never return to the current race location for vendors as it was not a warm, inviting venue. It was a semi-construction zone. Seek our a grassy knoll-type venue.

Consider pre-race events/activities and press event at the Galleria.

Invite local TV news crews. Tell them there are spectacular bike crashes and injuries. They’re sick like that.

The police need to do more than direct traffic. They need to have a tent on bike safety. Local politicians (including federal and state) need to help man it as an opportunity for them to recruit voters.

Set up family biking games, for example, a precising auto-cross like course. So many new riders cannot ride in a straight line, hold their bike motionless while clipped in, or negotiate tight turns. They could learn and practice at the venue under the guidance of experienced riders.

Bike maintenance and repair seminars taught by non-cycling shops. The repair times at shops are a joke (too long); people would be interested in doing their own repairs and saving cash (good attendance selling point).

F1 car races have a festival-like atmosphere that keep people there at the race. We should try to create that too.

Alcohol and her friends should be invited after 11 AM. Belgian Ale should be the Master of Ceremonies.

A race route that includes a residential area may draw in more new people.

Emphasis that the race is free to observers. Many of my neighbors thought it was not free and although they bike ride, they never heard about the race from any of their normal sources of info.

Hope this helps. Forgive me if any of these things happened and I did not realize it.

[Dickie]

Sounds to me like VikingMariner is volunteering his time next year… awesome job!

[MattAune]

VikingMariner, there is a lot of good stuff in there. Thanks for the feedback, especially when it comes to vendors and crowd interaction. I don’t know if there was any discussion about a beer tent for this year, but that is something that I would love to see next year also. Maybe that my inner cyclocrosser speaking.

Unfortunately, the venue and the actual race course is one area that we are extremely limited. I thought that this years course was much better than last years course. But there is a lot of uncertainty about potential construction next summer and what that might mean for the venue.

[hozn]

So I was only there first thing in the morning for the cat 5 race, but I thought the vendor presence that was already there was great. I’m comparing to other cycling events, never been to an F1 race, etc. I suspect that level of vendor interest may be a little less for the local crit than a globally televised event There were far fewer people in the AM and no food trucks yet (sadly), so I’m guessing it only got better later in the day. Certainly I thought from a vendor perspective this was as good or better than the Air Force Classic. Of course things like the announcer/podium/and general race demarcation etc. was a little more pro-level at the AFC, but one would expect that.

My only feedback was that it would have been nice to have the Cat 5 results posted up when the others were posted on Sunday. (The Cat 5 results were just posted last night.) Not a big deal.

It was a fun course, though. I look forward doing it next year.

[VikingMariner]

@Dickie 89380 wrote:

Sounds to me like VikingMariner is volunteering his time next year… awesome job!

Damn you.

[Rockford10]

Hey, I was there from pretty early (9:15 or so?) until about 1:00 and had a great time. I’m not sure if my expectations were in line with the actual event or what, but I thought it was fun.

In an attempt at being a good citizen and advocating for bike infrastructure, my family and I tried to make the FABB bike train out of Vienna. A flat tire on my dad’s bike and my inability to inflate the tube (damn micro pump!) caused us to miss the train. No worries though, once the tube was inflated, we rode my almost typical way to work, then Gallows and down International Dr. Sunday morning is lovely in Tysons!

We got some coffee and snacks from the Ritz Carlton booth (thanks!) and sat down and watched some riders. Then we collected some swag and I talked to someone about riding from McLean to Tysons. I don’t think we were talking about the same thing. I am still convinced you can’t do it without going through Falls Church or Arlington! Next were juniors races and more snax. (The juniors were hilarious. The winner kept thanking his teammates “guys, I couldn’t have done it without you” and the kids in kits were priceless.

We then attended the Commuting seminar put on by FABB and eminva. It managed to be fun and informative at the same time. I kept trying to get my father to pay attention! “Dad, we’re on this page.” My younger son exhibited some pout and wouldn’t get his helmet adjusted. Older son stepped up to represent dad’s helmet adjustment ability.

We then watched a race (go green helmet!!) and the kidz got even more snax.

I think at about this time DKel showed up and we went on the FABB course ride. Older son (without kit, but with new road bike) floundered and only completed a few laps. I was about done at one lap, but felt like I needed to stick with younger son. Younger son stepped up and powered through (maybe) 6 laps and was devastated he couldn’t go for 10 laps when time was called (I admit I lost count at one point, but we are sticking with 6). After some crepes, we headed home around the mall and via Gallows. Younger son, on the heavy MTB said, I can tell I’m getting stronger. Maybe younger son will compete next year…

My only constructive complaint is to have the announcer where it makes sense. I didn’t understand why he was on the side away from the finish.

You could add a kid area, but I almost only suggest this because there were lots of kids there that were incredibly bored. Either siblings of the racers or kids of the racers. Lots of boredom.

Oh and beer.

[hozn]

Good point about the announcer! That didn’t make sense to me either.

Yes, and beer. I think beer would have been fantastic — even at 8:30am.

[dkel]

@hozn 89648 wrote:

I think beer would have been fantastic — even at 8:30am.

That’s what stout is for (especially oatmeal stout). I brewed a porter once with coffee in it: kill two birds with one stone in the a.m.

[Author]

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