A threatened boycott of Pro-Am Cycling races seemed to be having an effect - but not a universal effect - on registration for Saturday’s Brownstown Road Race.
Early this afternoon, following this morning’s posting of the list of confirmed riders on the BikeReg.com event registration website, only 60 riders had registered for the race, which begins at 9 a.m. near the village of Talmage.
Yet, that listing showed riders from several area and regional teams participating in the event. Riders from the local Spinners Cycling, Shirk’s Racing presented by Trek Bikes, Allied Milk and the Era Cycling teams are registered. The listing also includes racers from the Philadelphia and Allentown areas.
Some racers had called for a boycott of Pro-Am events, organized by race promoter David Butterworth, following the sudden collapse of RedRoseRace.com earlier this month. Butterworth is the controlling partner in RedRoseRaces. He announced the company was losing money and cancelled the remainder of the season’s races. The calls for a boycott are both an expression of anger at Butterworth and support for RedRoseRaces founder Rich Ruoff.
“There are some people who are vindictive about it and want to see racing in Lancaster fail and others who don’t want to get into the middle of it,” Butterworth said this morning of the attempted boycott.
The registration falls far short of the as many as 450 riders who registered for RedRoseRaces events early this season.
Butterworth hopes additional riders will register before online registration closes at 8 p.m. Thursday. There is no same day registration.
If there are no further registrations, Butterworth said he has already arranged for the staff and vehicles and the race would be held.
“We’re going to have a race either way,” he said.
