By now nearly all of our blogs readers should know about The Nittany Stage Race. If you haven't I would encourage you to please visit any of the links found at the bottom of this post.
As most of our blogs readers are close friends of the Penn State Cycling Club I would publicly like to share some very important updates regarding the race. Most importantly is that as of June 4th the race is still on track to happen even after encountering some setbacks! To make this easiest on me I'm going to write the updates in an outline format.
- Beaver Road
- Following the three crashes that happened in April at the Nittany Classic Bill Muzika and I have attended multiple meetings to discuss the race and decide on the best course of action.
- In late May the race was actually set to be canceled due to the lack of feedback from PennDOT.
- On Friday May 29th a prominent political leader in the Centre Region made a call to PennDOT which led to immediate action on the part of the district 2 supervisors. Billy met with one of them in Black Moshannon on Tuesday and as of Wednesday Andrew can confirm that major repairs will be made to Beaver Rd in time for the August race.
- Centre Bike Festival
- A number of tie-in events are being scheduled in the downtown by local businesses to build off of the excitement of a PCA(Pennsylvania Cycling Association) State Championship being held in State College.
- Centre Bike is a local group that works to grow and advocate for cycling throughout Centre County.
- At Centre Bikes regularly scheduled meeting on Monday June 8th they will decide on how involved the organization will become with the race.
- The current plan is to build a festival similar to a smaller version of the bike festivals seen at the Cyclocross Worlds event in Louisville or the Parx Casino race in Philly.
- In attendance will be local food trucks, Ritas italian ice, radio stations, and vendors from the cycling industry. The festival will kick off officially at 3pm at the criterium, but a "soft opening" will begin earlier. The event will run until the completion of the criteriums family fun ride.
- Funding and finances
- The race is currently about $6,000 in the red. The reasons for the present situation are not complicated, but it is a sensitive subject to talk about on a public blog so I won't be listing them here.
- As the race director I am in a very tough spot. Over the last few months many cyclists throughout the northeast have voiced a lot of interest in the event. Furthermore the race is gaining more and more attention locally, both in the news, and with residents of the Centre Region.
- As a working adult I have some money available to put towards the race, but in doing so I will not be in a comfortable position after I graduate. However, until the race is completely funded I will personally see to it that the race can still happen.
- To help fund the race, the Penn State Cycling Club is going to work with a brand new program at Penn State called USEED. USEED is Penn State's official crowdfunding platform and has many advantages over Kickstarter, IndieGoGo, and Go Fund Me. One of the highlights for donors is that USEED contributions are completely tax deductible!
- YOU can help move this campaign forward by reaching out to me at TheNittanyStageRace@gmail.com and by keeping watch on social media for updates about the status of our crowd funding campaign.
- On July 1st the campaign will go live. The campaign team would ask that you share the link with everyone you know and then some. The more people that see the good our club is doing for the Centre Region the better. Please keep in mind that all profits from the race are going to help those in need locally. No promoters are making any money off the race.
- The most epic race in Pennsylvania
- Even with some setbacks and new challenges the Nittany Stage Race is moving along. A great feature article will cover the race in July's issue of Town & Gown, in addition to these stories below:
- In addition to the great print media coverage a number of radio interviews are upcoming in July as well. If you know of anyway to record a live on air interview please let me know!!!!
- If you're going to be around for the race please let me know so that I can add you to the list of VIP call-ups at the start of each race.
Andrew Artz
Club Secretary, Penn State Cycling Club
ada5145@psu.edu
(717) 841-4621
