[NMCycling] food for thought

[biobiker--- via Bike-racers]

It's that time of the year when everybody is starting planning the "next season", either on the road or on a MTB, or on both, for the lucky talented ones...yes I am talking about you Damian Calvert.
When I came to NM and started riding and racing there was a useful web site, there were a couple more races, we had our "end of the season party" with the jersey ceremony. I don't know who was in charge, sorry about my fragile memory, but I think it was pretty good for a State with not a huge cycling community.
Two years ago, or so, we had NMBRA was born. Recently I saw that there are a lot of "vacant spots" on the NMBRA board, so I have started wondering what is the function of the association but also why we need so many people in such a small State.My very superficial impression is that NMBRA activity in the State is mainly about officials and taking care of the "series jersey". I personally don't care a lot about the series, the points and the jersey, especially if we received it in the middle of the following season. In my opinion, the all point of the jersey was the party where they were delivered at the end of the season: a good occasion to meet the people you had been riding with the all year not wearing a cycling bib and to listen to them telling you "you will see...next season I am gonna crash the Gila"...
I know that criticizing is very easy, but in my view a Bike Race Association should help developing a "racing scene" around the state, and given the constantly decreasing number of races I don't think the one in NM has done a good job. I came across this article that might be a good starting point for a new discussion about how we might try to make racing in NM interesting again. 
http://us11.campaign-archive1.com/?u=b10eca767f8d8b2917ad0ab26&id=a5a3614531&e=c72a5dda34
We are definitely not in New England, we definitely cannot afford a full time person to deal with the association but there are some interesting points.
I think we have some great terrain for road and MTB racing, we have some great talent around, but it is unfortunate that we don't have room to develop it. Besides the enormous effort of some very passionate race directors, that every year promote their races with a lot of effort, and who I deeply thank to allow me to race my silly bike in my Lycra bibs, when I talk with other riders or people into cycling, even with potential race promoters, they always tell me that "there is no support to our ideas" and, most depressing, there is the spread sensation that in a couple of years we will not have any races in NM.
If I sound bitter, or over-criticizing, or too arrogant, or any nice attribute you want to give me, you might be absolutely right, it is just that I like to ride and race my bike and it would be very unfortunate if I were not able to do it in a place that I have learned to like quite a lot.
Fortunato Ferrara
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