Update on NWCCA racing calendar, 2020-21

We don’t need to explain that it’s been a strange year.  The situation regarding our sport has been unclear, at best, over summer, and since the initial lockdown restrictions began being lifted, then new restrictions came along, the situation has not helped our race organising clubs at all.  Ultimately, as you will have guessed, there have been cancellations, delays, postponements, and all manner of complication in between.

The current situation is that:

• Cyclocross racing can take place
• Like any organised sporting event, there are steps that need to be taken to ensure that the event is COVID-safe, including, but not limited to
  • Online entry only
  • No physical sign-on on the day, races are pre-gridded based on final online entries
  • Large campaigns to ask people to buy and keep their transponders
  • Removal of all pits for the season.
  • Adaptations to ‘congregating’ areas before and after racing to keep riders distanced
  • Regular reminders about social distancing outside of the race itself

However, we have the complex situation that organising clubs are rightly concerned about

• How organising mass-participation cyclo-cross races could look to the outside world (reputation of cycling is key)
• How much extra burden the COVID-safe event organisation places upon a race organiser.

Update on the racing calendar

In short, it’s a tough task to make events happen.  Some have decided to give 2020 a miss, some have decided to delay, and run events a little later in the season. 

So right now, no club is in a position to confirm any event date.  However, we will add events as they become clear, the CALENDAR page, and make efforts to update you through the site and through social channels.

Update on the LEAGUE

It should be obvious, but without a viable number of events, a league table doesn’t really have much significance. But we want to ensure that members of the league – and members who have supported the league in recent years – are prioritised with the selection for any events where entries are higher than the number of places (a number not yet finalised!).  We have never had to make a decision on what makes a fair league if members can’t get their entries in on time or are not selected for an over-subscribed event.  This is hard.

We also really need people to step up when it comes to the ‘helping’ duties. With less events, it’s plausible that we may not be able to do the traditional ‘help out to get your league position’ system this year. But this year more than most we will need MORE marshals, to ensure that people are observing the ‘rule of 6’ when not racing, and that means that we all may need to race a bit less and help a bit more.

More detail will be published on the league itself, when the first event dates start to be confirmed.  Please watch this space.