Event Prize Money

[Rapunzel]

Firstly, please note that I'm very grateful for prize money where there is as it goes a long way to covering the cost of racing. That said, I'm quite perplexed at how prizes are allocated.

 

Surely if there are 250 people in a category, there should be more prizes / prize money available than if there is a category with only 10 people?

Wines 2 Whales have just announced an increase in the purse but categories with 7, 8 or 9 participants are eligible for more prize money than categories with 60+ participating teams. Mixed category in particular also has a lower purse than any other category.

So the veteran ladies who come 3rd out of 7 get more prize money than a mixed team coming 3rd out of 60. Doesn't make too much sense

[Mousea]

I TOTALY agree with you

[gtr1]

In other words, chose your category wisely :-)

[TALUS]

You mean like Comrades ladies get the same as male winners or Wimbledon ladies get the same for 3 sets as the males for 5? That type of thing...

[DieVlieg]

Related but off the subject. I recently entered a race to improve seeding two weeks later the race results have not been handed over to SASeeding. 

 

I also have gripes with how prizes are advertised. It seems like a total purse is advertised but it seems to me like medals to finishers are included in the total purse up for grabs.

 

It also seems that some races wait till closer to race date to see what the uptake in ticket sales is to release prizes

[Kranky]

Surely if there are 250 people in a category, there should be more prizes / prize money available than if there is a category with only 10 people?

 

OK, make the Men's 30-40 or 40-50 in the 45km distance the new Men's Elite

[Rapunzel]

You mean like Comrades ladies get the same as male winners or Wimbledon ladies get the same for 3 sets as the males for 5? That type of thing...

Not necessarily. I totally understand men's elite prizes being of a (much) higher value as it attracts a better quality field and better coverage for sponsors. But if there's no depth to the field in other categories, rather offer fewer or smaller prizes or join the groups together

 

OK, make the Men's 30-40 or 40-50 in the 45km distance the new Men's Elite

lol! you can take your helmet off :-) The men's fields are generally large enough to offer 3 prizes per category (U23, elite, sub vet, vet, masters) but the ladies field is another story. There is also an assumption that elite riders are faster than other categories which has resulted in some strange outcomes (eg elite rider comes 3rd overall and qualifies for a larger prize than a vet or sub vet who came first).

[Omar]

there is an easy solution to this - scrap age category racing and follow the rest of the world and introduce category racing like the wpca do with their league events. only have age category racing at provincial and national champs.

use the ppa seeding or whatever criteria to categorise riders to compete against riders of the same standard, forget age.

[Spinnekop]

Only Elites should get prize money.  The rest of us do it for fun.

 

Only in SA do you get amateurs that race for money.  If you are not a Cat 1 rider and compete for the win, why should you get prize money?

 

That is just my humble opinion. 

[patches]

If only there was another reason for us to want to ride our bicycles... maybe something like "fun"...

 

...who am I kidding! "Riding for fun" sounds ridiculous!