Here's some deets for y'all!
1. you need to buy a wristband for $15 to get onto the grounds. Mine is still on my wrist and hopefully will be until the weekend. Cash or charge.
2a. There is no parking on the course side of 91 for us mortal souls.
2b. There is a bag drop tent where you can drive in and drop bags, bikes, bodies, whatever, located by club row/power washers.
2c. You park on the other side of 91 and traverse the foot bridge. It's kinda neat and only moderately a PITA. It probably goes up 5 or 6 stories via ramp or stairs. I made it with 2 bikes my giant bag and a rear wheel, albeit clumsily. HUGE fenced in lot, free to park. There was a cop car chillin while I was leaving which is a welcomed sight.
3. Number pickup is upstairs in the boat house. They give you all of your numbers for the week, don't lose them and take all of the pins because there are TWO numbers for your back AND shoulder numbers. What??? Yuh. FOR EVERYONE.
4. The power washers are really really good. Never used such a great power washer before.
5. Porta-Johns galore. There are maybe 3 or 4 cells of crappers located in pretty good places. Even a cluster of 6-8 at staging!
6. Beer tent, $5 Sierra Nevada tall boys, Torpedo, Pale Ale and two others. Not sure if you can leave the tent or not, standing room only.
7. Trainers- There is a large tent of trainers located on the left side of the S/F to use for free to warm up, complete with skewers.
8. Food Trucks, more coming, brazilian red one was decent. Coffee tent was lit, $2 12oz, $3 16oz.
9. MUD?! Plan accordingly. Have warm dry clothes ready and waiting.
10. Venue Flow: Just as a side note venue flow is pretty solid, it's a long course but ya figure you're going to just want to be down by the levee anyway. There is also some great stuff to see by the gazebo.
11. Results: Via email, and posted on the glass of the doors at reg.
12. Expo Space: more vendors/brands should be coming in as the week continues.
General feel of the venue is impressive. Yesterday probably had the perceived foot traffic of maybe a small to medium UCI event, but the infrastructure was overall very impressive. Lots of porta-johns, lots of white tents, double USAC course arches, much of the course uses 2" wood poles, double tape, lots of ski fencing, most of the orange fencing has signage on it, huge pit, two power washers stations, people running around in press vests. This is my first national event and I'm impressed by it being not just a race but a full production. KMC does a decent job but this is truly bigger and feels much much much more prestigious. I'm very excited for this weekend to see full traffic.
Open to field questions the best I can if if I missed any points of interest! Course description can be found in my recap, though it will most likely be changing through the week for a few different reasons including lap times.
