Marty, I think SSS was referring to paperwork and red tape not the legends who organise the races for us.
One plan is to start an SSUK cycling club, membership would include the weekend event. We affiliate the club with another cycling organisation for a few quid and then we have liability insurance for our event. Throw in a risk assessment and we in.
This would allow us to run Reliability trials, and time trials for up to 200 people. This means we wont be tied to private land, and have access to rights of way. This is the format of the wiggle off road sportives, where 1,000 riders will be going down my local singletrack in November.
And here is a thought… If the ss community wants to get together in a field and compare themselves to each other (as I write this I know what the posts that follow will be like, but hey ho, let’s go) in a way the replicates or is typical of the riding most ss folk do, an XC race is not typical, a reliability trials over the hills and byways taking in cake shops and houses of refreshment is more typical.
Once I have sorted the SSUK cycling club out, it and all the insurance etc stuff is already in place. So if in 2014 and beyond, our xc race falls through like this year, there will be a structure in place that will allow folk to put on an event more easily than a full on XC. It might turn out that the sportive reliability trial format is more appreciated?
What do you guys think about this SSUK cycling club thing?