Bethel Spring Series - 2010 is LIVE!

Oh, I love our rep in Colorado. Seriously, she got all sorts of things handled on the phone (rather than exchanging countless emails), all in a 30 minute conversation, give or take.

So, now, the 2010 Bethel Spring Series is for real.

Well, almost. I have to print and sign some papers and get them over to Colorado, then it'll be official. Everyone's already approved them, I just have to take that final step.

So now I can officially boast about our BikeReg page.

Yep, each event is there. On the first one, the Ronde, you can register for the whole Series. You can pay $12 per week for the six weeks of racing, or, if you want to do two races a week, it comes out to $11 a race overall.

In case you don't know this, it's a killer deal.

It's really a killer deal because we actually work with the racers with entries. We will bend over backwards to accommodate you because, frankly, you make the race. The Series is like a store, and you're the customer.

So, if you want to move a registration from one week to another, fine.

If a race is canceled, we refund you your $12 or $11. Or give you a race credit for a different week, whatever you want.

You want to help out? You race for free, depending on what you do.

Look, it's the way I'd want to be treated if I was paying a promoter to race. Of course, since I know what it's like to promote a race, I end up treating other promoters the way I want racers to treat me. For example, I usually write off a paid entry fee if I don't feel like racing, like when I wake up too tired to contemplate even driving to the race. But that's besides the point.

The point is that Bethel was started to be "A race by racers for racers."

There's no mention of keeping money that we don't deserve.

The only rule?

You have to ask for any changes before the race takes place.

In other words, if you want to skip a week because you got sick or something, let me know before race day that you want to skip that race and use the race credit at a later week.

Don't ask me after the fact.

Because, seriously, the one thing I won't do is bend over backwards for someone that overslept or partied too hard or something. Just give me a call or email me or something and let me know, and I'll move your registration back to a later week. Not a problem. Maybe a pain, but not a problem.

Ask me after the fact and it's a problem.

So, the race is on. We have some new stuff for this year.

I may have mentioned this before, but I want to say it again. For 2010 there will be some stuff that I really wanted to do for a while.

We have Leaders' Jerseys, thanks to Vergesport. They're yellow, cool, limited, and you can only earn one by winning the Series.

Very cool, right?

Well, when I see pictures of the Tour and such, the guys in the Yellow, even if they're just clinging to it by their teeth, they try and enjoy it a bit. They dress up in more yellow than normal.

Like shoe covers.

Ah.

Shoe covers. Yellow shoe covers.

Well, thanks to Verge and Navone Studios, we'll have three weeks worth of shoe covers. They'll match the Leaders' Jerseys of course, and they'll make you look all that more pro when you're leading the Series.

What's nice is that since we're getting more than just 7 shoe covers, the wearer of the shoe covers gets to keep them.

Like those guys that lead the Tour in the middle of the race - they have all that yellow kit stuff as a souvenir.

And, of course, you can't ride into Paris without a yellow helmet.

Likewise, the Leaders on the last day will be cruising around the course under a Leader's Helmet (made by Specialized, not the brand "Leader"), courtesy Outdoor Sports Center.

Incredibly, we have a full size run of a nice yellow, black, and grey helmet for all the Leaders on that last day.

Just like the shoe covers, the helmet wearer keeps the helmet as a souvenir. Since they'll have a pair of shoe covers, they get to keep them too.

Hopefully they'll get to keep the Jersey too, but it's not unknown for the Jersey to change hands on the last day. If that happens, the deposed Leader has the right to keep the helmet and shoe covers.

Of course the overall winner can negotiate. But that's up to them, not to me.

Pictures at some point, not now though.