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Greetings!
What a whirlwind! I hope everyone has had a fantastic holiday season and is super-charged to hit the pedals with high cadence and lots of power in 2013!
2012 is in the books, and we all survived our transition from being the independent ACA to being the Local Association for USA Cycling. We had more members, more events, and more racer days than 2011! Thank you all for your patience, commitment to our sport and this organization, and for racing your bikes week in and week out.
Awesome junior at the 2012 Boulder Cup. Photo by sportifiimages.com
This success was made possible by the incredible contributions and hard work of many people. When you see these people, please say Thank You!
Yvonne van Gent - our Membership Manager and The Rock of Colorado cycling
Keith Nordstrom - our Webmaster
Clint Bickmore - our Board President
The 2012 Board of Directors - Susan Adamkovics, Chad Burns, Chris Case, Peter Ismert, Tim Lynch, David Newcomer, Eric Perryman, Rachel Scott and Lynn Taylor
Alan Boisvert & Lima Beans Cycling - Event director for KHMTT and BCLTT
Ed Greivel & Schwab Cycles - Event support at the State Time Trial
Bill Sommers - Event Director of the Mini Classic
Adam Rachubinski and Alpha Bicycle Co, Aaron Bouplon, Rich Visscher and Frites & Mayo - Event support at the Kick-It Cross Time Trial
Topher Hurley - Director of the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference
Elizabeth Burt - Manager of the Junior Camps
Jon Heidemann - Head Coach Junior Road Camp
Ann Trombley - Head Coach Junior Cross Camp
Marty Albe - Event Support at Junior Camps
Tim Madden - Chair of our Technical Committee and world-class official
Our Technical Committee and others who form the 'Brain Trust' of Colorado cycling: Sheri Barr, Bill Barr, Brian Hludzinski, Chris Grealish, Jon Tarkington, Al MacDonald, Jim Wong, Kayla Thomason, Lynn Taylor, Lance Panigutti, and Dean Crandall Again, thank you all for being part of the Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado. We look forward to a great year of riding, racing, fun, competition and building friendships that will last a lifetime. Happy New Year, and here's to the future! Chris McGee Executive Director *** The 2012 Cross Season  Danny Summerhill lends a hand to the next generation at the 2012 Boulder Cup. Wow!! The 2012 cross season saw a 10% increase from 2011, which had seen a 10% increase from 2010, which had seen a 10% increase from 2009! We hit 12,000 racer days in cross in 2012 - insanity! We had world class racing at the Boulder Cup, the Colorado Cross Classic and the USGP, our first ever Thanksgiving Day cross race (which drew 49 one-day riders!), our first ever cross time trial, and our first ever urban cross race with a course suitable for adaptive athletes. The Back to Basics midweek series drew more than 1,000 athletes and the Boulder Racing Series drew about a million! Thanks to all our event directors for your incredible work to make Colorado racing so special! 
2012 State Champs. Photo by Mountain Moon Photography. We're eager to see how this translates to success at Cross Nationals in Madison, Wisconsin, and Cross Elite and Masters World Champs in Louisville, Kentucky in January and early February, 2013. For those going to these big events, here is the flyer for the January 5 New Year's Resolution Race at Valmont to help maintain your fitness. The 2014 Cross Nationals will be right here in Colorful Colorado. Yep. We got em'!  Routine Leg Work's one-love barriers. Photo by Mike Beck. 
Run up with the Colo flag. Photo by Mountain Moon Photography. *** Naked is the Top Women's Team in the Country  Naked mentors at the 2012 Louisville Crit.
Every year, USACycling recognizes the best cycling teams across the country. In 2012 Boulder-based Naked Women's Racing p/b TriBella took top honors in the women's category after scoring big points for recruitment efforts, the coaching available to its members, and its success in creating a positive image of women in cycling. Twenty-five riders strong in its second year, the group also makes its mark on the community with significant contributions to National Ride for Reading Week, Heels on Wheels, and the Women's Summit for Bicycle Racing Association of Colorado. This team features two BRAC board members: Rachel Scott and Susan Adamkovics. Congratulations! In 2013, the team's name will be the Colorado Women's Cycling Project. *** Upgrades - Time for a New Challenge
Many Category 4 riders are bumping up against the points ceiling for automatic upgrades, especially in cross in which the points ceiling is much lower. BRAC is working to make this transition easier in the future - please watch for changes in the 2013 Colorado Cross Cup regarding a split season for Category 4 riders and the creation of a SW 3 category.
Celebrate your hard-earned success like Amanda Bye of Team Naked. Here's how it's truly done - with a Cat 3 cake. 
Amanda Bye with her Cat 3 cake - congrats!
Photo by Naked Racing.
*** Event Profile - Mile Hi Urban Cross Chaos The First Ever Cross Race in the USA for Adaptive Athletes 
Imagine a scenario, fellow 'crossers & cowbellers ... you've got the fitness, the gear and just enough crazy bravado to give cyclocross racing a try. One problem: you simply cannot dismount, a key component of CX racing. Previously, that left racers with physical challenges, who pilot adaptive bicycles, out in the cold. Enter the first annual "Mile High Urban Cross Chaos", appropriately held over Veteran's Day. Blazing a trail in becoming the first 'cross race in the country geared for adaptive cyclists, many of whom are injured veterans, it also brought the mud and cowbells of 'cross racing straight to the big city. 
Promoter Deirdre Moynihan, Primal Wear, and The Natural Way Racing Team led the double-barreled challenge of creating a course that disabled cyclists could attack, entirely by way of 'up and over' rather than 'off and on', combined with an equally rare event, a cyclo-cross race held in urban Denver.  Colorful graffiti, train tracks, and a spectacular view of the city skyline from the emerging River North Art District set the scene. Brilliant elements included registration inside the toasty warm "Fat Bros Bar & Grill", where racers could fuel up on breakfast burritos and mingle with the neighborhoodies watching Sunday football. The pavement was icy in patches, with snow and mud all around, but volunteers pitched in, dropping rock salt and building fire pits. Moynihan says participation numbers were just right for the first outing, and that locals and businesses were pleased with the event. In a sport where the unique is applauded... we're already looking forward to the "chaos" this race serves up in its second year. - Kristen Palmer - Photos by Dee Moynihan *** Meet Your New Board Member Sue Lloyd 
Top step of the 2012 Masters RR podium. Photo by Ryan Fonkert. Many of you are probably familiar with Sue--one of our new BRAC board members. Her friendly face is everywhere within the cycling community. Sue's lifelong love of athletics led her to cycling in the early 1980s when she first became a member of the BRAC. Her involvement with cycling has evolved from road racing to include coaching and officiating. She is the current Colorado State criterium (2011, 2012), Road Race (2012), and Time Trial (2012) champion. She's coached at USAC and BRAC junior cycling camps, as well as many indoor and outdoor cycling classes and clinics, and has been an official since 2009, primarily judging at cyclo-cross events. Basically, she's even more amazing than you initially thought! Says Sue, "It's wonderful to see so many women coming out to race in all the disciplines. Women of all ages see bike racing as an achievable activity, so we're seeing new racers all season in our junior, senior and master's categories. As veterans of the sport, it's our job to create a welcoming, mentoring atmosphere for these new competitors. The last thing we want is to scare people away!" *** Miles for Smiles Fundraiser Restoring HOPE Changing LIVES
Mending Faces provides free surgical correction for impoverished children in "developing world" countries inflicted with cleft lip and cleft palates, who otherwise would not have a chance for surgery. The organization is holding a fundraiser in Denver this month - build your fitness and do good at the same time!
- Saturday, January 12, 2013, from 12 noon till 6pm
- Host facility is the "Colorado Athletic Club at Monaco"
- Give a gift that brings hope and one that really can change a life for the better. This will be a fundraiser for http://mendingfaces.org/ a grassroots medical organization of local and international affiliation.
- Over $2,500 worth of prizes will be given away.
- A chance to stay true to your fitness, your New Year's resolutions, a "GREAT" gift opportunity for family and friends, and most importantly, an opportunity to help bring a smile to an impoverished child.
REGISTER AT:
*** The Plan for 2013 2012 was not without its challenges, as we worked through an onslaught of interesting work: a - the issues of data (membership info from a new source, duplicates in our database, day-of-race registration challenges, and trying to create accurate cross call-ups based on mountains of info in the USAC database), b - our timing system, c - new permitting processes, d - new people, e - and fundamentally, adapting our organization to a new reality as the LA of USA Cycling. Through it all, we kept moving forward and stayed positive. We are implementing changes based on feedback from our members, racers, event directors, and officials. Here are some changes we are making to improve the racer and member experience: 1- We are changing our database so that the #1 identifier is your USAC number. This simplifies data transfer with USAC and makes race registration much simpler. (This process may inadvertently send emails to members, please discard - sorry for the inconvenience). 2- We are changing the model for our timing system. In 2010, our organization (clubs, race directors, athletes and elected board) made the decision to purchase a timing system in an effort to improve scoring for all athletes, keep lapped riders in events, and provide quicker and more accurate results. The implementation of the timing system was built around a membership model, in which chips were managed by athletes and labeled with membership numbers. For 2013 and the future, BRAC will manage the timing chips (rather than athletes), and timing chips will be labeled and linked to bib numbers in the timing software. This simplifies the data requirement during registration, and ensures that the right chip will be with the right athlete during every race. There will be no charge for chips under this new model. What to do with the chips that are out with athletes? BRAC will collect and manage the chips for everyone. Chip collection will take place through our clubs and events (starting January 5th at Valmont and the Cross Cup Party on January 19). Clubs will be sent the necessary information in the next weeks, including special incentives and prizes for chip collection. 3- To better handle race-day registration challenges, we continue to invest in laptops, registration spreadsheets and software, wifi capability, QR and barcode scanners, printers and power. We are working to refine these tools so that we can make registration faster, smoother, and more accurate. We continue to collaborate with race registration vendors to help generate validated race rosters prior to the event itself. Pre-registration greatly simplifies the race day. 4- We are working closely with the Rocky Mountain Collegiate Cycling Conference to coordinate the racing calendar, so that all our athletes can enjoy great racing across the state with minimal date conflicts. Many graduates from our Junior Development Program are now involved with collegiate programs - collegiate racing provides racers with a fun and fantastic way to stay involved with cycling. 5- We are creating the Colorado Track Cup with a balanced calendar of events between the 7-11 Velodrome in Colorado Springs and the Boulder Valley Velodrome in Erie. Stay tuned for details on racing and training at the venues - this is an exciting time for track racing in Colorado! 6- We have incredible support from staff at USAC who help with the permitting, data transfer, and insurance processes - Valecia Fraser, Tom Mahoney, Frederike Blattspeiler, George Heagerty and Gordon Weldon have all been instrumental in making 2012 successful for us. Many people thought that rejoining USAC would mean the end of our organization. We are happy to report that in 2012 we had 100 more members than in 2011, earned more revenue, held more events, and enjoyed a 35% increase in racer days (from 26,000 to 35,000 racer days). To paraphrase Mark Twain, the reports of our demise have been much exaggerated. Thank you all who worked to make this success possible! *** Please watch our Facebook (we're near 2,500 likes on our page!) and our weekly updates for the latest in Colorado cycling.
Thanks for sharing this e-newsletter with your
friends and family. A HUGE Thank You to Katie Macarelli, who has been instrumental in the creation of this issue of the Colorado Racing News. | 
