I'm crushed ...

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
This evening, I opened my email and the first message I saw was a notice of partial refund from Paypal for the TS Epic. Then a moment later, I noticed there were half a dozen more similar notices. I started to get a pretty sick feeling in the pit of my stomach and a moment later, that sick feeling became a full-on broken heart: the last message I received was from Mike saying that this year's TS Epic is canceled. The reason? I kind of already knew having checked the reg with regularity over the last month or so: only 29 people had registered at this point, just two months from the start. That had seemed really odd to me, and I have to admit I wasn't too surprised. Of course, I get it: this is waaaaaay too big of an undertaking to put together when less than 30 people have committed so close to the start. I'm not angry about it. I'm just really, really, really disappointed.

I'd been wanting to do this race for so long, but my schedule at work just never permitted it. The timing was always terrible. But this year, I finally said screw it and blocked off my end-of-May calendar all the way back in December. I was so excited registering on New Year's Eve. I waited to see how many other SSers would join me in grabbing the early discount and was curious who I'd be racing with. But no one else registered in the SS class that night. Or any other. As of this morning, I was still the only SSer in the 5-day race. I'd even commented on that to a few people over the last few weeks - where were the other racers?

This really sucks.

Oh well ... just needed to vent a little. Not sure what my plan for the year will be now - this was obviously my biggest event of the year. I don't even want to think about it right now. I don't even know whether to keep that time for vacation or not ... goddamnit ...
 

Juggernaut

Master of the Metaphor
Total raw deal.

+1 for sucks.

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Sorry man. That really does blow.

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.
 

JDurk

Well-Known Member
Feeling crushed all night too. Totally blows. I was being very productive at work, then got the email. I'm still taking vacation that week. May go up to Rothrock area to camp and ride some of the courses from previous years. Participated in the 5-day event in '16 & '17, was really looking forward to this year. Mike (@kuhndog) and Dave do a great job with all of their events.
 
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Mitch

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Bummer dude. Come to Dirt Fest instead and have fun riding your bike. TSE was such a unique event, sorry to see it go. Hopefully Mike can resurrect it for next year. Truthfully I heard no buzz or remember seeing anything about it this year on FB.
Don't be so bummed, you still have old ,slow me to beat up on tge trails
 

Robin

Well-Known Member
Wow. That's a true bummer - I've wanted to do it but with my teaching schedule/not allowed to take off, I was never able to. Hopefully this is just a "break" and it will return in the future. Hopefully there will be other events around that time/week to focus on. Keep pedaling!
 

xc62701

Well-Known Member
Sad to hear this too. It's been on my radar for a while but that time of year for a teacher is definitely a no-go. Maybe they will try a new date in the future. If it's during my summer I'm there.
 

1speed

Incredibly profound yet fantastically flawed
Sad to hear this too. It's been on my radar for a while but that time of year for a teacher is definitely a no-go. Maybe they will try a new date in the future. If it's during my summer I'm there.

Mike has a survey that is asking why people didn't sign up. Maybe you can reach out to him and fill one out with info that you'd like the date moved.

I think part of what happened here is long-term and part is more specific to this year. The weather this year has been awful, and a lot of people may not be thinking of racing at all yet. But then I think there is also the possibility that this is a continuing trend and XC and even endurance racing in general are declining because it's just too much of a hassle for promoters and racers. A lot of events have disappeared from the calendar over the last few years, and even those that haven't are not getting the numbers anymore. Why would promoters put themselves out there for small fields that barely cover costs? I think we've seen a growth in MTB "festivals" - the crowds are going to these places where they can demo bikes and hang out on casual group rides with friends. People have limited time to give, so they're choosing to use it for those type of outings rather than racing. Makes sense.

Personally, I have no interest in overcrowded festivals that put tons of riders on limited trails moving along at leisure pace. I'd rather just go find my own adventures. I'm thinking right now that I may do something like that rather than try to find other races. I may just hop on my bike and go exploring for a bit with the time off I reserved for TSE. I had a lot of fun riding solo from DC to Pittsburgh in October, and there are plenty of rides like that all over the country. And I've been eyeing up the possibility of doing one long "hit 'em all" ride for the trail systems in my region for a while now. I could basically start from my house and keep spiraling outward to hit everything from Wiss to Blue Marsh to Fair Hill in one big multi-day bikepacking excursion. Or maybe something else. I don't know. At the moment, though - and I'm sure this is largely just disappointment talking) I'm kind of thinking that the juice might not be worth the squeeze for continuing organized racing. There's a lot of other ways to get my fix that don't rely on other people wanting the same experience.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Bummer.
Stage racing is tough, there is a limited pool of folks who sign up for this type of stuff and with a 1 and done mentality, it seems like it's only a matter of time before you run out of participants.

With racing in general, it appears that they trend, peak then decline. Its vital that new promoters jump in with new races as well as exhisting promoters coming up with new races. Nothing lasts forever, except for love, love will keep us together.
 

Pearl

THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING
What’s crazy is people travel from that same PA region to do those NC/VT races. Or maybe it’s just the one and done aspect as mentioned before... crossing off one day for VT50 versus a week for TSE. Bummer to hear though.
 
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