First Annual Tour of Nevada

The Tour of Nevada is a new race that I and a couple other people have been working on for some time now. It was originally going to be the Tour of the Golden Valley held in Clinton, MO. But the city of Clinton suffered from some lazy people. These people decided that we were not far enough along in our planning and shut it down. Since my team had put a lot of time into the race already we decided to find a new home. In comes Nevada, MO. A great little town just south of Kansas City, MO. There are some really excited folks in the Nevada, MO government that were all about getting a big race in their town.

My friend Eric lives closer to Nevada and he brought in a great third partner on the races named Christa. These two have been working really hard doing a lot of the ground work, finding the courses, meeting the the city, putting together proposals, and budgets. When we went to Nevada we told them we wanted to do something big, not just another small race that not many people would come to. But an event that people would be talking about. I think we are going to make that exact thing happen.

ToN is going to be two days of great crit racing. The is the Saturday Night Downtown Crit, a great course that is flat but very technical. You will see twelve turns on this thing with a long finishing straight that will be great for a strong sprinter with a good lead-out. The next day is the School Yard Crit, a four corner crit with a gain in elevation on the front stretch, and a loss on the back. This one will be a leg burner for sure.

We have been working very hard to get some top level teams to come and race at the ToN. We think we have a great payout as well as big cash primes for all levels not to mention the P1/2 fields. So if you have a strong P1/2 team please get a hold of me. We would like to try and help you find your way to Nevada, MO this July 13th and 14th. I think you will have a great time.

***$9,900 TOTAL Weekend PAYOUT***

Saturday Night Downtown Critirium Race

Category                  Distance                    Start Time     Entry Fee      Prizes Payout

Junior 12-18               20 Min                        4:30pm            $15.00             Medals 3 places

Men 4/5                       35 Min                         5:00pm            $35.00             Medals 3 places

Men 40+, 50+ *            40 Min                         5:45pm            $35.00             $700 13 deep

Women 4                     30 Min                        6:30pm            $35.00             Medals 3 places

Men 3/4                       50 Min                         7:15pm            $35.00             $600 12 deep

Women Open             50 Min                        8:15pm            $35.00             $600 12 deep

Men 1/2                       70 Min                         9:15pm            $35.00             $1,795 17 deep

*Masters 40+50+ will be paid out together but separated for MOBAR points*

**Additional races per day are $15.00***

****Day of registration will be $5 more for first race****

THE COURSE:

Saturday Night Downtown Critirium Race -  A 1.2 mile Criterium with 12 turns on a fairly flat surface and located in a  commercial district including the downtown area.

Sunday School Yard Critirium Race

Category                  Distance                    Start Time     Entry Fee      Prizes Payout

Junior 12-18               25 Min                        9:00am            $15.00             Medals 3 places

Men 4/5                       40 Min                       9:35am            $35.00             Medals 3 places

Men 40+, 50+ *            55 Min                      10:25am          $35.00             $600 12 deep

Women 4                     35 Min                       11:30am          $35.00             Medals 3 places

Men 3/4                       55 Min                        12:15pm          $35.00             $550 10 deep

Women Open             55 Min                         1:20pm           $35.00             $700 13 deep

Men 1/2/3                    70 Min                         2:25pm           $35.00             $1,845 17 deep

*Masters 40+50+ will be paid out together but separated for MOBAR points*

**Additional races per day are $15.00***

****Day of registration will be $5 more for first race****

THE COURSE:

Sunday School Yard Critirium Race -  A 4 turn short .9 mile course with a slight grade to the start/finish line and a fast downhill on the back side of the course that surrounds the local school.  Held rain or shine

REGISTRATION: Online Pre-Registration is available www.usacycling.org until Wednesday, July 10^th (Onsite registration will be $5 more for the first race)

Saturday Night Downtown Critirium Race – Registration opens at 3:00 pm and closes 30 minutes before the start of each race. Registration is located on the corner of Cherry & Cedar Streets, near the start finish line.

Sunday School Yard Critirium Race – Opens at 7:30am and closed 30 minutes before the start of each race.  Registration is located on the corner of Tucker & Hickory Streets, near the start finish line.

You must have your current USAC license. A one-day (cat V men, cat IV women) license is $10.00, available at registration. Each race has a field limit of 75 riders except the Men’s 1/2/3 is limited to 100.

DIRECTIONS: Nevada is located on I-49 (MO 71), 95 miles south of Kansas City and 65 miles north of Joplin. Saturday Night Downtown Critirium Race - take Exit 101 (Austin Blvd) turn north on Washington and use the bank parking. Sunday School Yard Critirium Race - take Exit 101 (Austin Blvd) turn north on Ash Street, west on Hunter Street, north on Tucker Street to park.

LODGING: Country Inn and Suites 417.667.9292
                      Americas Best Value Inn 417.667.6777
                      Super 8  417.667.8888

THE RULES: All USAC rules apply. Wear your helmet. Follow all road rules in Nevada while riding or driving. Promoter and officials reserve the right to adjust race times and combine classes. Junior Gear

Development Rules Applies. Riders under 18 must have rider release signed by parent or guardian.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Nick Hand, Quantum Racing LLC, Phone Number 217.390.6211, uofihand@hotmail.com

USAC Permit #2013-969

What a year!

I have not written in a long time. Not really sure why, I guess I just got back to a place where I didn't need to "vent". But for a little while I have been wanting to get back to writing and just putting down some of my life moments. I have been really busy for the last few months really trying to improve my place in life I guess you could say. Climbing the proverbial ladder.

This last year with my gymnastics has been a roller coaster. Mostly everything has been getting better and the only problems are learning how to deal with the success that my gym is having. Since I started at the team we have been steadily increasing in our numbers in the gym, as well as improving our standing gymnastics wise. This season my assistant coach and I were directly working with 20 athletes in the top two levels on our team. Now I know of teams that have more, and one that has a lot more, but not many. And for our gym, it is a lot. Just about every level in our gym this coming season is over full with athletes. I am serious when I say I have 3 openings on my entire team from pre team to level 10...... This was a problem when we first realized it. This Spring we realized that we had no place to put all these new kids we have moving onto our team and that we couldn't keep pumping so many kids onto the team. For the first time ever we actually had to cut the size of our pre team. Gym Centre has just really been doing a great job over the past few years and we are reaping the benefits now.
Some of my stress this year has been with preparing our new level 9s with competing this season. These are very talented young girls who have been dominant throughout their careers, and I for one was really looking forward to working with them. But things did not come so easily for them this season, and there was a lot of frustration from them and my asst. coach and I. What we thought was going to be a year of domination was instead a year of catch up and taking steps back to go forward. I the end all of the girls really pulled themselves up and did a great job at the end of the season. But it was far from where they could have been. I think a lot of it had to do with their naivete in what it would take to be a top level 9, and their belief, or lack there of, in themselves against their competition. I believe 100% that next year will be completely different for them. They are already training better than last year, as well as training skills over what is required of them. In my opinion this creates a feeling of mastery when competing skills easier than what they train.
Most of my level 10s were also very new as in their first year. I had 2 that were veterans, but they both ended up having very difficult seasons and neither ended up at Nationals. Our top level ten really struggled with a lot of issues this season, one being looked over by most of the colleges in the US for a scholarship. She is a great gymnast with high level skills and routines, but for some reason just didn't get on anyone's radar. She worked her butt of talking with lots of school however and earned a walk on spot the The Ohio State University. I am pretty confident that she will get a scholarship in the coming years and I am happy she found a school that she will have great memories of for the rest of her life. For all of my 10s this year, they all struggled with injuries at some point or another. For all of them these injuries led to a change in what was originally planned for them this season, but they all refused to quit or not give it their all. Each and every one of them did more with what they had than I had thought they could. I say every year that these girls continue to surprise me with what they can do. They are a different breed of what I have ever know before coming to St Louis.
Our biggest surprise came from a gymnast who had been injured since I had come to the gym. She is a special type of athlete. A coach I was talking to about her described her as a Ferrari. When you use it they are fast and do amazing things, but they can easily break down and are expensive......
This kid can do things that I have always been amazed by. This season she told me she was going to twist her vault at State during warm ups. She had trained it a bit when she could during training, but no where near what I would have really wanted. Did warmed up one and it was a bit scary but she survived. So she went for it and nailed it! I think even stuck the thing and scored huge! It was crazy. Well she was our only athlete to make it to JO's this year. From that state meet to JO's I think she did maybe 10 of those vaults. It is over a month from State to the National Championships. And at JO's she warmed up horrible. It was the last event and she was getting tired after a 4+ hour meet. The rest of our group were all great vaulters and our athlete was feeling less than par. But with a bit of encouragement from my asst. she did an amazing vault that put her 7th in the country. She ended up hitting all four of her events and getting a medal. It was my best result of an athlete in 11 years I think.
Gymnastics has been great, and there is a lot more going on, with starting a new business www.thecloudboom.com, and my racing team getting bigger and better, life is pretty fun at the moment. More soon.

The kid over the 8 is mine, she actually tied for 7th with 2 other girls.