How to get more cyclists at Road races?

[Zeffer]

Some really good ideas in this thread.

Clearly cycling is taking shots in all disciplines. Even the Trailseekers were sold out events few years ago - there was like a black market for entries the week before an event.

As for the cost of hosting a road event - many line items the single biggest being the cost of metro officials and they are smoking the organisers - you have little control over this - its overtime, etc. and I tell you what - you pay and regularly they late or dont pitch AT ALL!

Other items are not that large - where I do think an improvement can be made is on the race officials - they are there for the licensed groups only hence the licensed groups should bear that cost - might not be a lot but will tell the story.

 

 

[Bub Marley]

13 hours ago, PH said:

This is total shot in the dark, but wouldn't an event that starts with a roadrace, eg. 70km and then a transition into a 30km mtb race with proper elevation onto some of the surrounding trails, attract some interest..  

Sounds like a gravel race?

[Andymann]

1 hour ago, Zeffer said:

Some really good ideas in this thread.

Clearly cycling is taking shots in all disciplines. Even the Trailseekers were sold out events few years ago - there was like a black market for entries the week before an event.

As for the cost of hosting a road event - many line items the single biggest being the cost of metro officials and they are smoking the organisers - you have little control over this - its overtime, etc. and I tell you what - you pay and regularly they late or dont pitch AT ALL!

Other items are not that large - where I do think an improvement can be made is on the race officials - they are there for the licensed groups only hence the licensed groups should bear that cost - might not be a lot but will tell the story.

 

 

That's why when we organize the small Tri races they are all off-road to try and keep the costs low, or have very short road laps so you don't need as much Policing on the day.

It's just become such a mission to organize the policing it only works when big sponsors are involved or when someone knows someone and is able to get the right people by promising a little something extra on the day

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, Zeffer said:

Some really good ideas in this thread.

Clearly cycling is taking shots in all disciplines. Even the Trailseekers were sold out events few years ago - there was like a black market for entries the week before an event.

As for the cost of hosting a road event - many line items the single biggest being the cost of metro officials and they are smoking the organisers - you have little control over this - its overtime, etc. and I tell you what - you pay and regularly they late or dont pitch AT ALL!

Other items are not that large - where I do think an improvement can be made is on the race officials - they are there for the licensed groups only hence the licensed groups should bear that cost - might not be a lot but will tell the story.

We charge a different fee for the licensed groups, and the numbers have dropped in the racing categories too. As a result, the Official’s cost remains the same, and the cost per rider needs to increase.

 

Also, having to book a Cat-R1 event to get a 500km radius of exclusivity is also BS. That means a minimum of R50k prize money. The race calendar needs to be planned to ensure there is no overlap of events (even on the same weekend).

Events happen on the same weekend every year, eg. last weekend of October, but it feels like a dog fight to get our calendar entry paid,so far in advance, to ensure other Organisers don’t take the slot.

[Shebeen]

back in the day when i was a wee whippersnapper, the Argus was a huge date in the calendar. second sunday of march. 

every weekend from mid jan there was a PPA funride. most of them based in the south peninsula. They mostly ran from constantia village/false bay rugby club/that science school near uitsig and had cool names like the Cape cobra, rollercoaster, three passes. Many would start with the climb straight up constantia nek, that was the first route to disappear. There was the odd boland one too, the medallion mushrooms in stellenbosch comes to mind.

All run by rotary/lions and essentially charity events. pretty sure the traffic help was donated too.

 

how could you do that again? 

just impossible, things have changed. People are moaning about having to do the same route over and over again, try find another route that works with costs involved and go for it.

[Skubarra]

14 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

back in the day when i was a wee whippersnapper, the Argus was a huge date in the calendar. second sunday of march. 

every weekend from mid jan there was a PPA funride. most of them based in the south peninsula. They mostly ran from constantia village/false bay rugby club/that science school near uitsig and had cool names like the Cape cobra, rollercoaster, three passes. Many would start with the climb straight up constantia nek, that was the first route to disappear. There was the odd boland one too, the medallion mushrooms in stellenbosch comes to mind.

All run by rotary/lions and essentially charity events. pretty sure the traffic help was donated too.

 

how could you do that again? 

just impossible, things have changed. People are moaning about having to do the same route over and over again, try find another route that works with costs involved and go for it.

Yes I agree those days are gone forever... In the WC If you are a casual rider into road cycling join a club and do the club rides, serves the same purpose as a funride if you are not racing for time anyway. For the more serious riders there are still enough races to do between the WP League rides & the few funrides that survived until now.

[Bub Marley]

19 minutes ago, Shebeen said:

back in the day when i was a wee whippersnapper, the Argus was a huge date in the calendar. second sunday of march. 

every weekend from mid jan there was a PPA funride. most of them based in the south peninsula. They mostly ran from constantia village/false bay rugby club/that science school near uitsig and had cool names like the Cape cobra, rollercoaster, three passes. Many would start with the climb straight up constantia nek, that was the first route to disappear. There was the odd boland one too, the medallion mushrooms in stellenbosch comes to mind.

All run by rotary/lions and essentially charity events. pretty sure the traffic help was donated too.

 

how could you do that again? 

just impossible, things have changed. People are moaning about having to do the same route over and over again, try find another route that works with costs involved and go for it.

I remember these races well. There was one that went over the steep and short side of Ou Kaapse as well. I think the moment we stopped having fun rides in these areas and everything shifted to Durbanville/Wellington the interest has decreased as well.

 

Even the Burger/Stellenbosch cycle race is gone and that was pretty much a staple for so many years for everyone in Cape Town.

[DroppedRider]

Indoor training like Zwift has helped many raise their fitness levels. These days if the wind is a bit high I am on the trainer. If there is even a small chance of rain I am on the trainer. If the club is doing a route I do not enjoy- I am on the trainer.  It also lead me to be mentally burnt out after a while. Is there a possibility that Zwift and other indoor apps could be responsible for a small decline in race entries? 

[Paul Ruinaard]

3 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

I remember these races well. There was one that went over the steep and short side of Ou Kaapse as well. I think the moment we stopped having fun rides in these areas and everything shifted to Durbanville/Wellington the interest has decreased as well.

 

Even the Burger/Stellenbosch cycle race is gone and that was pretty much a staple for so many years for everyone in Cape Town.

Same in Jhb - Gauteng North rides on Saturday (them boys across the boerewors gordyn never raced on Sunday) and then club races or whatever grabbed your fancy on Sunday - all over the place - Hartebeespoort, Vaal Triangle , etc etc etc. there were lots.

But races grew in popularity, so what had 500 people all of a sudden had 3000, and the organisers had much bigger issues to solve than a couple of people waving flags and trying to control Sat morning shoppers. Next the riders grew more competitive and were all over the road and echelons etc in to oncoming traffic as the sport grew. Third the motorists in the area started to become a lot less law abiding and caring about other road users never mind cyclists.

the combination of all of this, seeding systems etc - cycling kind of exploded over the period when i started in 1997 to about 2010. That was when all this happened. Then the advent of multiday and MTB events as well on the tail end of this (S2C etc) all around 2005 and prices went up steadily as demand grew.

As per all things the arse had to fall out of the market - oversupply of similar events and the bubble burst.  the calendar slimmed down to a number of major iconic events.

Covvid and lockdown has done wonders for cycling again but prices are unrealistic and all of the above make hosting events prohibitive.

I was a regular at races on Saturday and Sunday for years. Now i wouldn't venture in to an event unless there is full road closure as a start , or solely off road.

my 2 cents worth - you are not putting the genie back in the bottle and the "psyche" of cycling has now moved on to riding with mates and away from the mandatory event participation. I think like me all of the people started ot wonder if their 10th 94.7 was going to be any different from their 9th or 12th - been there done that look for new ideas. the only one that has had the legs is CTCT owing to its location and some of the mTB events.

[dave303e]

my 2c about all events starting to have lower and lower numbers- It is all about the routes.

Boring same old same old road routes, mtb races are not doing much better either.

Trailseeker is a variation on similar routes for the last 5-10years now.

There was a road race using the R104 a few months ago, honestly I would pay entry fees not to ride that road. 1 is is just boring, 2 it is dangerous at the best of times in a car, never mind when you are the 100th cyclist to irritate the driver along the way. You can be certain if those event numbers dropped the organiser would ask why, even though it should be dead obvious.

I have honestly been more inclined to look at gravel events, mainly because they are a lot newer and there are routes that are not your everyday routes, or a retread of the same route for the last 5 years. 

We have a beautiful country with so many potentially epic routes(pun intended). But the reality is, with costs increasing all round, I pick and choose events a lot more than just racing anything and everything. It better be something new or something spectacular for me to be interested and I think a lot are on similar thoughts...

[Zebra]

23 hours ago, Headshot said:

…. Ebikes have also helped kill stage races I suspect. Now people can get up the mountain easily and because the bike works so much better than a marathon bike on the way down,  they are actually enjoying descending and maybe getting some skills training along the way. 

 

Would be keen for you to elaborate on this; I own an e-bike, 26’er admittedly, have never found this, so am keen to learn your thoughts…

thanks

Chris

[Headshot]

4 minutes ago, Zebra said:

Would be keen for you to elaborate on this; I own an e-bike, 26’er admittedly, have never found this, so am keen to learn your thoughts…

thanks

Chris

What 🙂 Must be quite an old eBike... Have you noticed that almost all current eBikes on sale are trail/enduro bikes with upwards of 140mm travel forks and 130 -160mm of rear wheel travel. That makes them way better descenders than frisky 100mm marathon bikes, would you not agree?

[Zebra]

12 minutes ago, Headshot said:

What 🙂 Must be quite an old eBike... Have you noticed that almost all current eBikes on sale are trail/enduro bikes with upwards of 140mm travel forks and 130 -160mm of rear wheel travel. That makes them way better descenders than frisky 100mm marathon bikes, would you not agree?

Thanks, my converted bike is indeed an OLD Specialized Epic, 100mm travel, it was the bike I did 3 Epics on, and could not bear selling it on for pennies, so converted it…

I get what you mean when you talk of trail/enduro eBike s, understood!
Cheers

Chris

[W@nted]

I also want to bring zwift into the topic. I could not find the exact numbers, but zwift members have grown through and past covid times. 
 

Zwift racing is getting more and more popular. Different routes, zero additional entrance fees, team racing. And most importantly, categorised racing. This allows anyone to have a good race against similar competitors. It really is a new/different discipline, but add the discord banter between teammates and even team time trials in the mix and it really makes it difficult to rather race outside. All the dangers/nuisances of racing have been listed already. 
 

Also, the races are seldom longer than a hour. It seems more people prefer these shorter races. Especially as amateurs, you do not need 5 hour training rides to be competitive in zwift racing. I am really enjoying it. 

[ChrisF]

1 hour ago, Shebeen said:

.... the medallion mushrooms in stellenbosch comes to mind.

All run by rotary/lions and essentially charity events. pretty sure the traffic help was donated too.

 

how could you do that again? 

just impossible, things have changed. People are moaning about having to do the same route over and over again, try find another route that works with costs involved and go for it.

 

Trip down memory lane 

 

Did this one a couple of times.

[Carla Gianchino]

I think some races should just be organized for racing snakes, like the rest of the world, however we need more sponsors involved and it needs to be attractive for spectators ... now that is the difficult part, we cannot expect the fun riders to subsidize these events in order to make ends meet. This model was sustainable in the past but no longer. 

Most of the older races that had huge participation, when I now attend only makes me sad an nostalgic, yearning for the glory days ... when it was quite a big deal. 

Perhaps less fancy events, but serious racing be promoted, yes I know it is perhaps a little too niche, however the racing is too slow for our local riders to get a taste of racing at international level and the racing is too short to prepare any riders with bigger ambitions, specifically referring to the  Junior, Elite and Masters racers.

This is a catch 22 situation, and I do not see an easy solution