Howdy Y?all,
I?ve been getting lots of emails asking about the 2020 CTR, if it is happening or not. I am making the call and posting my decision at the end of May. This gives the world another month to maybe calm down and open up?! Or two months for folks to change their plans. I?m not giving a lot of clues, cause I just don?t know yet. But if I was traveling from afar or from out of the US, I would plan on waiting till 2021.
I will not give the green light if it is a detriment to the CT or CTR in the future. We can wait, it is just a bike ride after all. Please be respectful of the small towns on the CT Corridor. ITTs might not be out of the question, but be smart and respectful when making these choices.
I will post here, and at jwookieone.com and on the CTR Facebook page once I make the decision.
Hope you are all well and making big plans for 2021!!!
-Jefe-
I think everyone will respect your decision, I will. If I had to bet, I would bet that by the end of May, even if the course is open, there will be no way to tell if social distancing rules will be relaxed enough by late july to allow a 75 person group start, thus I foresee Jefe is correct in his advice to those traveling from afar. On the other hand, I think and hope conditions will allow Jefe to greenlight some itt's sometime this summer. But my main point here is that if this is truly the new normal, or is likely to occur again, we should come up with new ways to deal with it. For example, if social distancing guidelines prohibit gatherings of ten or more, groups of 10 could start every hour, thus preserving some of the grand depart feel. I don't suggest this as a way to exploit some kind of loophole, but rather as a way to show we are good ambassadors and obeying the letter of the law. I would even support running this or similar ideas by the cdphe to get their guidance and endorsement. Bikepacking is already a good sport for social distancing since the rules require 6' distancing (no drafting). Of couse, if this is not the new normal, it might not be worth the effort.
