The Chevron Manhattan Beach Grand Prix has a well deserved reputation as one of the finest bike races in the USA. The race is steeped in tradition, history, and even a little folklore. We are fortunate to have a great course at a beautiful location. The City of Manhattan Beach has been extremely supportive. The thing that really distinguishes this event above the others is the volunteer efforts of the South Bay Wheelmen, their friends, and fellow cycling supporters. Year after year, we have over 100 SBW members and friends working on race day doing a variety of jobs. We ask that you work as long as you can. A minimum of four hours is needed for SBW members. We try to make allowances for our members to race in one of the events. This is also a requirement for race reimbursements and for SBW voting rights. As a volunteer, we will feed and clothe (safety vests) you for the day...lunch, and a T-Shirt. We also will ask you to sign a volunteer release form that holds the parent cycling organization and insurer harmless (USAC), and protects volunteers in many circumstances. Some volunteer work starts a day before the race, Saturday, for 9a to 3p setup of the finish line truss. See the other menu item Volunteer Info for more details within a couple weeks of the race. Setup on race day Sunday starts at 5:00 AM. MB police shut down the streets and the work begins. Tow trucks may hook up remaining cars without passes and tow them. The fence gang starts erecting the fencing and another group starts hanging the banners. Registration is set up and the first racers start signing in at 6:00 AM. The start/finish truss is moved into place, video equipment positioned, balloons and flags are positioned. Cones and barricades are put in the corners. Vendors set-up their booths. Course marshals take their place, and at 7:00 AM, the chief referee fires his gun and the first of 8 races begins the race day. In a very short two hours, Valley and Ardmore are turned from streets into a world-class race course. After the end of the last race we have just minutes to tear down the Ardmore portion of the course and return it to the patient residents of Manhattan Beach. Some volunteers remove banners from Valley fencing. We immediately shift to Valley fencing teardown and removal. Vendors tear down near the green belt, and we do a thorough job of cleaning the entire area. When we leave at 4:30-5 PM, you would never know there was a race - "The road is cleaner than it was before" has been heard from city workers. The MBGP Race Committee thanks you for your efforts on race day. You will be contacted shortly by the Volunteer director or the person that is in charge of the specific venue you want to work. Please remember that we are always looking for people to house some of the pro racers. This will satisfy your club volunteer requirement. Volunteer Opportunities and required number of volunteers (to make our goals, please work more than one job, or a couple of shifts on a specific job):
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