Update: Some racers actually snuck under the tape and registered as early as 8:30 p.m. PDT for non-title categories. But by 9:00 p.m. servers were down again.
Masters cyclocrossers raced hard to register for Nats on Friday in attempt to gain a top start position, but Sportsbaseonline.com wasn’t ready.
The other categories open tonight at 9:01 p.m. PDT, or 12:01 a.m. Monday morning EDT.
USA Cycling told frustrated racers that they received an unexpected biggest flood of attempted registrations for a national championships ever, and that anxious racers hitting “checkout” too many times resulted in unexpected loads requiring reboots and 20 additional CPUs.
Cyclocross Magazine regrets is role in this problem, as it worked hard to spread the news of the National Championship registration date and time to social media and email groups early Friday (before it was listed on USA Cycling’s website), and the news spread like wildfire via twitter, facebook, groups and bloggers.
The high load, despite the last-minute notice of registration date and time, does not surprise many cyclocrossers. Cyclocross is enjoying tremendous growth and Nats has increasingly become the focus of many racer’s entire year of racing. Furthermore, other disciplines offer more opportunities to pass and move up after a far-back starting position with large fields.
Race today? Get your massage, take a nap, line up the Red Bull. Good luck!
To regsiter:
USAC lists this site, and it’s for Elite, Juniors, U23, Collegiate and Masters:
http://www.sportsbaseonline.com/events/index.xhtml?categoryId=13875
You can register for the national championships (B, C, singlespeed) here. Some have registered before the official start time, but currently it’s closed:
http://www.sportsbaseonline.com/events/index.xhtml?categoryId=16067
