Saturday, October 8, 2011

Response from Doug Green

Looks like I got a counter response from someone I called out, Doug Green. I would like to first preface this post by saying thank you to Doug for A: responding and voicing his opinion and B: being the upgrade guy and taking shit from people like me and people who have been denied upgrades. I've held a similar position and well it's not all the fun but someone has to do it.

Posted below is Doug's email to me about his position. Read it and voice what you think. It is nice seeing someone taking the time to rebut my posts. 

So before I paste his email, I have a few things to pick at. Doug, you say that you take it to the book and give upgrades solely based on points. Cool that is fine, that is the way you want to do it. But then you also say that you don't like to give out automatic upgrades. Wait a minute! You said you give out upgrades straight to the book. If you were to go straight to the book, then you would give out auto-upgrades. 

Read the email, see what you think and please comment.

There is no further commentary from me below.

I can’t seem to post a comment on the blog so I thought I would email it to you instead.  You can post this if you like, let me know if you have additional questions.


Not sure this is the best forum for the discussion but I’ll respond.  It’s a thankless and unpaid job being the upgrade coordinator and I am sure there are some that are not happy regarding their upgrade requests being denied.  I have heard from quite a few already.  All I can say is that I try to be fair to everyone and I am simply following the requirements set out in the rules, it’s not personal.  Upgrade requests are handled through the user’s accounts on the USAC website to maintain the integrity of the system.  The first step is always up to the rider so I would encourage every rider to take a look at the following links so that they have a better understanding of the requirements.  If they have additional questions regarding their requests being denied then they can send me an email and I will be more than happy to discuss it further.  I tend to be brief with the initial responses but generally try to give the basic reason for the denial.  Riders get an email from me after I respond to their upgrade request.   We try to avoid automatic upgrades especially in circumstances that would prevent the rider from winning an overall series.

I am not sure how my presence at CX races would improve the upgrade process.  In my view the upgrade point system, while not perfect, is pretty straightforward.  The rules state the number of points or races required, the rules do not say “almost” X points or beat the field by X minutes.  These are subjective measures and simply impossible to apply consistently.  Again, the idea is to be fair to everyone.

USAC Rules: http://www.usacycling.org/forms/USAC_rulebook-1.pdf (upgrades start on page 11)

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