Voices of the Nor'easter

All of the key staff for the Nor'easter Festival are contributing to a project called The Voices of the Nor'easter, where we explain our role in the process and how we're contributing. You can see a few of the past entries here:

NE2C: http://ne2cproductions.com/blog/?p=1103

EMS Pro climbers Joe Kinder and Dave Graham: http://vimeo.com/14235984

Here's my contribution:

Quite often, success is simply about being prepared for and able to recognize opportunities when they present themselves. Some people call that luck, but I see the key there being the first part of the equation; the preparedness and recognition. In one way, you could say my preparation for the Nor'easter began when I put on my first cyclo-cross event twenty years ago. When Pete and NE2C approached Cycle-Smart with the opportunity to bring 'cross to the Nor'easter, I recognized the chance to really do something special.

One of the most exciting things about this event as an organizer is breaking the mold of what we do, and what we think a 'cross race should look like. To have to balance a music and climbing festival on top of a bike race required my crew and me to throw out a lot of our expectations or ideas about how things have to go. It's quite scary, in fact. What I hope, though, is that the folks coming for the bike race also have their eyes opened to what this event encompasses, and take advantage of everything it has to offer. It may take a year to really achieve that. This isn't a normal 'cross race in that it's part of a bigger entertainment package and we have multiple events to work around. It's been great, actually, to have some freedom to structure the day in a non-traditional way. Pete has a very big vision, and there are a lot of considerations. Learning about what I need to do to make his event successful overall has been a new challenge for me.

An example of those challenges has been the course itself. Because we're in the basin of a ski area, the course is very difficult by default. It's shaped like a huge half-pipe, with steep climbs at either end, separated by fast, flat sections in the middle. All of the course winds its way through the festival, so there will be literally thousands of spectators lining the tape, and one end even winds around the concert's main stage. The race is going to be incredibly unique in every way. The combination of music, climbing, and 'cross, all packed into the same venue, is going to make every racer, down to the beginning categories, feel like a true performer, part of a much bigger show.

Since this is our first run through, I've been mostly focused on putting on a good show for both my racers and the potential spectators. I think there are almost limitless possibilities to bring 'cross to new people with this event. There are always big risks in the first year, but we wouldn't have signed up for it if we didn't see long-term potential. Working with Pete and NE2C has been good for our organization, because it's helped us raise our game and see the areas where we can improve what we do. The collaboration has really benefitted both groups, and I'm really hoping we can have Pete get more involved in our other events.

What I'm looking forward to and think of as success would be in the crossover between athletes and attendees. I want to bring my 'cross community over to the rest of the festival as fans of climbing and music. And I hope the folks there for music and climbing see cyclo-cross and have their minds blown. If that happens, I think there are real opportunities to bring in more sponsorship, better athletes, more spectators, and raise the standard across the board.

At the end of the day, I consider myself an evangelist for the sport I love. I don't want to hoard it; I want to share it with everyone and watch what it does to them when they fall in love with it, too. I've been trying to turn that act into a job for the past 10 years, so I suppose you could say I've been attempting to build a mega-church for cyclo-cross. The Nor'easter is going to an opportunity for me, Al Donahue, JD Bilodeau, and the rest of my staff at Cycle-Smart to do that.