TWW April Rant by Peter "Big Racer Boy" Donohue What the hell do we have racing licenses for? Let' see - drop $20 for the privilege of joining USA Cycling, so you can spend an extra $15 to join NORBA for the mountain bike races and another $15 to join USCF for the road and cross races. That's a lot of money to spend before we even get to give a promoter our entry form and wads of cash. But, it seems that about half the races in the area aren't NORBA or USCF, but instead Northern California Nevada Cycling Association. The NORBA and USCF licenses aren't good at those races. So we've dropped this cash just so we can get into maybe half the races out there. WTF! NCNCA has been great in the past, providing a cheap source for promoters to get insurance. Hell, we used them for some of the TWW crits and they were great. And they did all of this without forcing riders to get a license. But, looks like NCNCA has taken a cue from NORBA and is heading down the same road to uselessness. NCNCA has formed its own licensing now. So, anyone who races a decent amount will now need to carry three licenses around with them, as if two wasn't two too many. This is so bogus! Now we have to drop even more money (another $20) for our cover charge, and we still have to pay for the drinks. What do they do for us? What do we get for all of this cash we have to lay out? 1. They rank racers. Oh, boy, I get to find out that I am ranked 2,473,897 out of Northern Californians who race in my class by NORBA. And 3,254,867.5 by NCNCA. That's REAL useful. Glad I found that out. 2. They provide insurance. What? No they don't. The promoter is paying a buck or two to insure me - why do I also need to pay these faceless folks an annual fee for the privilege of entering the race? And I have to pay both organizations because our local promoters can't decide which organizations to use? Plus, this insurance only covers me if I don't have insurance myself, so it really isn't giving me anything anyway. 3. NORBA provides discount coupons to carry your bike on flights? Ok, we get something for this, if you do fly on some vacation or out to some race. But you can get the same deal through IMBA, and at least they are doing something for mountain biking (and they charge much less!). 4. You get a magazine that lists all the races you wouldn't want to participate in, and none of the ones you want. And this doesn't even come for the $20 you drop for NCNCA - you have to pay an extra $12 for it. 5. They provide a way to allow people to move into classes, yet there is so much sandbagging that the ranking system is useless. The person who wins the beginner class at a race would have likely beaten many of the experts. Yup, I am glad that they rank us. Might as well let us self-choose what class we want to be in - that is basically what happens anyway. 6. They don't work together. So each has their own ranking system and upgrading requirements that look alike, but are not at all connected together. I can race beginner in one and expert in the other. That's not much for all of this cash - definitely doesn't seem to cover the cost of the entry… Let's get NCNCA to dump this licensing requirement and go back to the old way. Then let's get all the promoters to dump NORBA/USCF. Peter You can contact Peter Donohue at peter@singlespeed.org. Please, no firebombs or tee-peeing the house. Thanks!

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