What's In A Name?

By now many of you endurance freaks have seen the long awaited announcement of "Worlds". The 24hrs of Adrenaline has for years run a "world championship" solo compitition at Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Now, the announcement says that it will be held at the former location for the Olympic mountain bike race at Conyers, Georgia. Not only that, but it will fall within a week of one of the most popular 24 hour events, the 24hrs of Moab.

Besides the obvious conflict, besides the unfortunate circumstances, and putting aside the constant bickerings between the two organizations that put on "Worlds" and the 24hrs of Moab, what's in a name anyway? I mean........worlds? C'mon! Are you kidding me? Chris Eatough has won a spectacularly tough 24hr race in Canada for several years in a row now, but is he a World Champion? Is he recognized as such by his peers? Hmm.........I think that in the "world" of British Columbia in the fall the answer is yes.

To say that anyone that wins a single race that is not supported by a world wide recognized and respected sanctioning body (there's that word again!) is a "world champion" is just empty and devoid of meaning. At least in the traditional sense of world championship events. To say that somebody won a really tough and demanding 24hr race that is highly popular amongst their peers.........a "feather in their cap" so to speak: I'll buy that. But it's certainly not a crown.

Then add to the mix this years scenario where you probably will not have a representative field of the very best that 24hr solo racing has to offer because some of them will be at Worlds West and some of them will be at Worlds East. Well.........there you go! You could have the winner of each square off at another event for a knock down, drag out, World Championship, 24hr match race! How cool would that be! Then, instead of the winner getting a tatoo like they do at the Single Speed World Championship, the winner could tatoo the loser! Ha!

Sound preposterous? No more so than some promoter calling his event a "World Championship"!