Max Plaxton (Sho-Air/Specialized) with a small lead on lap three. (Image credit: Dave McElwaine/trailwatch.net)
The US ProXCT series moved up its finale, from being run in conjunction with the Interbike Trade Show in September to being run during the Windham Mountain Resort round already scheduled for August 15-16. Windham Mountain will host not only the ProXCT series finale, but also the TrailWatch.net short track series finale.
Organizers cited feedback from several of the pro teams, the challenging current state of the economy, travel costs and schedules as reasons. "September is packed full of World Cup racing commitments and Interbike, so we felt it was best to conclude the series at Windham Mountain," said Ty Kady, US Cup Marketing Director.
"While we had a lot of the ProXCT riders and teams support the idea of hosting the ProXCT finale in conjunction with Dirt Demo [at Interbike], there were still some companies who were concerned that the Dirt Demo is their time to interface with the dealers, and they worried that if we put a race on, the dealers would leave their booths and focus on the race instead," said Kady to Cyclingnews. "We didn't want to upset them either."
"Also, with cyclo-cross season starting up on the 26th [of September] in Wisconsin, it put some of the pro riders in a pinch with scheduling conflicts. Racers like Georgia Gould, Ryan Trebon and Katie Compton want to race 'cross, too," said Kady. "So at the end of the day, we all agreed it would be best to make Windham the final."
"We talked with several of the pro teams and discussed some of the options and collectively we concluded ending the ProXCT at Windham would save the teams quite a bit of money on travel costs, as well as not conflict with existing World Cups or other racing commitments," said Kady. The US ProXCT teams and riders were already scheduled to attend the race in Windham.
"I'm looking into a similar approach for 2010," said Kady. "We may host the US ProXCT finale at Mount Snow next year. It could work perfectly to do Mount Snow (in Vermont), then the Windham World Cup (in New York), then the worlds in Mont-Sainte-Anne (in Quebec, Canada)."
The US ProXCT finale was previously scheduled for the Saturday after Interbike. It was then moved earlier in the week, to the Tuesday (September 22) just prior to the indoor Interbike Trade Show and in conjunction with the Interbike Dirt Demo.
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The US Cup, which runs a separate east and west coast series, will hold its unification round at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, California, on September 20 where, according to organizers, the facility and schedule are more suitable to host the finale.
"We already hosted a US Cup round at Bonelli earlier this year, and the venue worked out great," said Kady. The finale is not piggybacking on an existing race, but will be its own event and will replace what was scheduled for Las Vegas on Saturday, September 26.
Max Plaxton (Sho-Air / Specialized) is currently leading the series by 10 points over Jeremy Horgan Kobelski (Subaru / Gary Fisher) and Plaxton's teammate Sid Taberlay is in third. Catherine Pendrel leads the women's series ahead of Luna teammate Georgia Gould and Pua Sawicki (Mata).
Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews. She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.
