We’re sorry to report that promoters of SpectaCross, the event held in conjunction with the New Jersey State Fair, were forced to cancel this year’s edition because of low rider pre-registrations. The event got a lot of things right in attempts to attract big fields, including offering equal payouts for the winners of the men’s and women’s races, running interesting experiments with seeding based on CrossResults.com, and featuring mixed-sex events, several clinics, Friday Night Sprints and even a PokerCross throw down. We hope that this is just a snag and that we’ll see SpectaCross come back to life during the meat of the ’cross season, when racers may be ready for a less traditional event to mix things up during the fall.
Official Statement from SpectaSport and NJ State Fair:
The New Jersey State Fair SpectaCross races scheduled for August 6-7 have been canceled due to lack of entries. The Fair’s management intends to replace the bike races, which were to have been a keystone of the entertainment program for the Fair’s opening weekend, with monster truck rides in the same arena where the races were to be held.
Upon further review of entry trends and other online data, the New Jersey State Fair / Sussex County Farm and Horse Show LLC and SpectaSport LLC have jointly agreed to cancel the New Jersey State Fair SpectaCross so as to give the Fair more opportunity to publicize the Monster Truck rides that will replace the originally scheduled cyclocross bike races.
According to Lou Casper, Outdoor Entertainment Manager of the New Jersey State Fair / Sussex County Farm and Horse Show LLC, “We enjoyed our association with SpectaCross and suspect we are victims of this year’s economy. Cyclists, like everybody else, are susceptible to the bad economy and many aren’t able to travel long distances this year. SpectaSport has been an excellent partner.”
“The handwriting was on the wall,” said Ken Getchell of SpectaSport LLC, the promoters of the event. “Despite a successful debut and rave reviews in 2009, entries for the 2010 race remained far below the minimum expectations. With two weeks remaining until the race, only 83 entries have been received, and only one entry was received in the past two days. I want to thank Lou Casper and the New Jersey State Fair for championing the sport of bike racing; not once, but twice for a period of four years. And I also want to thank all the racers who entered and also provided support and kind words over these past two years. I especially want to thank those racers who drove long distances last year and those who, up until a couple of hours ago, were spending their own time and money in self-created grass roots marketing campaigns to save the race. We will remember their commitment and enthusiasm. All entry fees will be refunded as soon as possible and SpectaSport is also making arrangements to refund all BikeReg online registration service fees paid by entrants.”
