We have heard all of your concerns and completely empathize with the situation of not only losing a day of competition, but also having a day sprung on riders and families who were not planning for it. The reality is that the final day was to be cancelled by the Parks Department and would not be able to be rescheduled for 48 hours to let the grounds settle, meaning it would be cancelled altogether. This was an absolute decision by the PARD as of about 7:30 a.m. this morning. At that time, police on site were instructed by PARD to communicate to all arriving vehicles that the event was cancelled and to leave the premises. USA Cycling was also instructed to relay this same information immediately. By 10 a.m Austin police began threatening arrests of those who remained in the closed park, forcing USAC to strongly urge participants to disperse and make the cancellation announcement. After more discussions, we were able to meet a compromise with the Parks Department to have the event tomorrow, which we are thankful for. Unfortunately, the prior decision had already been announced, causing confusion and the departure of many to head home. We wish the timeline of these events would have gone differently and did not intend to misinform during this very fluid series of events, during which we had no indication that the decision to cancel would be overturned. Our goal all day was to ensure as many riders as possible were able to compete. The only way we can do this is to follow the Parks Department’s guidelines and let the park dry for 24 hours while we lay mulch and treat the grounds. This, unfortunately, means it falls on a Monday, which we know is not ideal either. We again apologize for any inconvenience today’s events have caused. We hope you understand that this was a precarious situation and in no way intended to inconvenience all of you who worked so hard to get here.
Posted on: Sun, 11 Jan 2015 22:18:19 +0000
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