How to get more cyclists at Road races?

[MORNE]

7 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

A midpack roadie stopping at a water point ... Mon Dieu

 

 

Haha.

I always make a point to thank any ‘official’ i pass at any event. They are standing there for most of their day so i can plonk along on my bicycle and they appreciate a friendly ‘thanks for your time’ every now and then. Maybe it’s because i cant keep quiet for that long🤣

[stringbean]

With gravel races been added to the calendar riders are now spoiled for choice with what they want to do.A vast majority of riders own more than 1 bike so a weekend race can be road,gravel,xco or xcm or just cruising with my buddies.

Here in CT a road race in Wellington would cost me about R1200 ( me and wife,petrol etc) to go do the same boring route I’ve done 1000 times.Wife and I nowadays just  do a gravel ride to Wellington and spend the money on a lekker lunch.

As far as away events we would happily go to things like amashova or 94.7 but are less inclined to go to a area that is possibly unsafe or fly to do a race on pot holed roads with no road closures etc.Unfortunately road racing numbers are only going to get worse as more competition for events increases.Remember the old days of Knysna when it was a Argus seeding and thousands would be on the start line.

Organisers have to realise if the area you are doing the race is deemed unsafe and unpleasant you won’t get people coming from other provinces.Sorry if I’m giving Durbs a bad rap but organisers of large events need to get the municipality’s to realise people will just stay away.

Edited October 28, 2022 by stringbean

[Jewbacca]

In order to be better at racing, one has to race more.

The 'top' SA roadies need to race in order to grow. The aspiring guys need to race in order to learn how to race.

There IS a point to it. Coming from me, this is quite a statement.

How to get more people there? Make it more friendly. 

One of the biggest issues 'races' have in SA is the perceived level of base participant. Instead of the influential 'top' making the various disciplines seem friendly, accepting, attainable and worth a crack, there is always talk of how hard the racing was, how gnar the gnar was, how tough this and that was.... If you're on the fence, you will look at all those bedecked in their cutting edge splendour and say 'yeah nah, I'm not at this level yet'.

We need to take a step back and look at the fact that the top guys need the general participants at the mid/back end to keep racing viable. Much like the Epic is massively Pro-Centric in their coverage, marketing and racing, but rely on the slow back end to finance and contribute most of the grease to keep the wheels turning.

Make races attractive, welcoming and attainable for general public. The faster guys will enter, it's why they ride bikes. It's getting new/old/fence sitting markets involved that will keep the wheels turning

[WernerStrydom]

12 hours ago, mecheng89 said:

A local coach, former world class track rider called Jeremy Maartens is getting a crit series started. He's had a few (the first ones were in the Boksburg athletics parking lot, so that's covered lol), and has now moved to an industrial complex in Midrand. Beautifuly smooth roads, hard AF. 

Yes, he also runs an indoor studio in Benoni, awesome training. Bike Craft Performance Coaching.

[The Ouzo]

1 hour ago, MORNE said:

Midpack roadies are VERY serious people imo lol. No speaking allowed. You wont sommer make friends

have to agree with this. Since I'm very much one of the toppies that still go to the same races it also means I started riding when everyone on the road was still social. Now in person I'm a reserved quiet type, you dont find me making much conversation. Yet I seem to be one of the very few that do any talking during races these days. Mostly its chirps and wise cracks, some times you get a laugh from someone, most times you can just see the smirk on peoples faces and then holding back the laugh.

Cycling is serious bizniz.

[Jbr]

32 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

A midpack roadie stopping at a water point ... Mon Dieu

 

My riding/racing being on hold for a while I don't have much to say to this subject but your response reminds me of that time my boet and I asked 'what happens if we get a puncture' (was related to tubbies) and the rider told us in a serious tone 'that's when we attack' ...

Ok it was at the ladies and vets tour not just any old 'mix batch race'

I stopped at the 1st water point at 100 miler after losing one of my bottles 2mins in 🤣 The kind of moment you explain to the bunch you are not attacking, just taking a head start to jump back in later 🤣

[lechatnoir]

16 hours ago, Vetplant said:

Like one of these...?

exactly. and can it be 100% tailwind as well please?

[Vetplant]

30 minutes ago, lechatnoir said:

exactly. and can it be 100% tailwind as well please?

That one is easy.... but if you get it wrong it will potentially be 100% headwind...

[Bub Marley]

17 hours ago, Jase619 said:

Not sure if a different route is always the answer, the comrades has been the same forever, there is a lot of people that test themselves on the same route/distance and use it as a measure of fitness. I think the cost of travel and accommodation is 99% the massive issue here. For out of towners the cost of the event is a small percentage of the total cost of the event. 

Also, while I envy you and your ability to ride that route often, although technically not all of it, and I look forward to my planned move to the cape, please NEVER discount the absolute privilege that you have of being able to do that, and that most cyclists in the rest of the country come just to ride that route. 

I get that but Cape Town has loads of different routes that are quality beautiful. Also, I’m not suggesting change the entire route, but just certain parts. Switch it around a bit. 

 

As an example, instead of going left off the M3 towards Fishhoek, maybe go right and over Ou Kaapse Weg and then over Black Hill and then around the peninsula. Or climb Red Hill as an option. Or perhaps come over Constantia Nek as we did for a year. There are loads of things that can be tweaked just for some variety.

 

1 hour ago, MORNE said:

To be fair, That wasn't because of complaining about the hill i think…and more because vissershok road wont look too out of place at next years’s cape epic…

Maybe someone on the ‘route committee’ has very expensive carbon wheels that are not conducive to navigating potholes😅

that road is a mess.

Ps: i think it’s just easier to have the end of the race in a place that inconveniences the locals the least…like a school or just on the outskirts. Minimises traffic and resident aggro. I can think the finish up odendaal rd might have had some residents’ panties in a bunch in that regard.

The problem is they shortened the finish up Odendal as well. So you basically removed both climbs and that actually made the 99er a bit more unique than the other Paarl Wellington loops.

[shaper]

As an aside it is not only in SA.  British cycling which I follow, have very few road races or even tours these days.  They also tried to adapt by having crit racing around various areas/towns so to try to get crowds to watch (Crit racing also big in the US).  After a few years this also now seems to be dying and sponsors also pulling out.

So difficult in current climate and there does not seem to be the desire to race like it use to be.

[MORNE]

12 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

I get that but Cape Town has loads of different routes that are quality beautiful. Also, I’m not suggesting change the entire route, but just certain parts. Switch it around a bit. 

 

As an example, instead of going left off the M3 towards Fishhoek, maybe go right and over Ou Kaapse Weg and then over Black Hill and then around the peninsula. Or climb Red Hill as an option. Or perhaps come over Constantia Nek as we did for a year. There are loads of things that can be tweaked just for some variety.

 

The problem is they shortened the finish up Odendal as well. So you basically removed both climbs and that actually made the 99er a bit more unique than the other Paarl Wellington loops.

I agree, m3 is boring, id also prefer going over one of those instead. 

Re odendaal, i think they only shortened it so that they could have that spill out area at the parkie halfway up? But still no reason why they cant go all the way over the top and have it in the parking lot at the Spar/Ipic. I still think the residents maybe didn't like the suburb being on lockdown for so long over a weekend, especially considering odendaal is one of 2 or 3 other main arteries out of that suburb. 

[NeverNotRolling]

Why enter a race if you know you're not gonna win?                                         

[SoloCyclist]

45 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

I get that but Cape Town has loads of different routes that are quality beautiful. Also, I’m not suggesting change the entire route, but just certain parts. Switch it around a bit. 

 

As an example, instead of going left off the M3 towards Fishhoek, maybe go right and over Ou Kaapse Weg and then over Black Hill and then around the peninsula. Or climb Red Hill as an option. Or perhaps come over Constantia Nek as we did for a year. There are loads of things that can be tweaked just for some variety.

 

The problem is they shortened the finish up Odendal as well. So you basically removed both climbs and that actually made the 99er a bit more unique than the other Paarl Wellington loops.

Going over ou kaapse and blackhill............LOL

The original post was about getting more people to enter the races, not back out of them hahahaha

[Jbr]

12 minutes ago, SoloCyclist said:

Going over ou kaapse and blackhill............LOL

The original post was about getting more people to enter the races, not back out of them hahahaha

I wonder how the numbers were for red hill. Best race of the season if you ask me, it was so rad.

 

  

57 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

The problem is they shortened the finish up Odendal as well. So you basically removed both climbs and that actually made the 99er a bit more unique than the other Paarl Wellington loops.

Agree, 99er without Visserhoek is already disappointing, now you cut half of the other climb it's just another PPA Fun ride, not the 99er.

Edited October 28, 2022 by Jbr

[Skubarra]

13 hours ago, GLuvsMtb said:

Reduce the number of road races and make them really premium with full road closures, well thought-out routes that offers a challenge and decent scenery, Consider 2-day events (or even over a longer span), incentivise competitive riders with decent prize money / sponsorship benefits. 

TBH, road cycling is reflecting the poor state CSA and local governing bodies are in. On the MTB scene the “independent” and niche organisers seems to do very well. It is because there is perceived value. 

If I have to deal with oncoming traffic while dodging potholes in a bunch of 50+ riders, I’d much rather do a small group ride / go solo. 

Out of interest - few years ago when the Burger/Stellenbosch Cycle Tour still attracted something like 8K riders (and was probably the 3rd or 4th biggest cycling event in the country) organisers tried to get full road closure but the Stellenbosch and Paarl municipalities flat out refused. They couldn't be convinced even though the existing event already had the numbers to justify it. So I think the idea of more events with road closure is a non-starter.

Also something like the Langebaan race had closed roads for most of the route & interesting scenery as it goes through the nature reserve in spring - still died off due to lack of interest. Multi-day events like the Tour du Cap really struggle to attract numbers so I don't think that is the way forward either.

My slightly cynical view is that organisers are not doing anything wrong, cycling habits just happened to change over time. Casual riders now spend their time on trails and gravel roads and not the "boring" & unsafe tar roads. Also casual riders don't need relatively expensive events to participate. Road racing now appeals to a smaller niche crowd that just want to race and are less interested in the bells & whistles. I don't think there is any obvious thing road races can do to attract casual riders again, other than organising a gravel or mtb along with your road event.

[SwissVan]

IMHO it’s a case of over saturation, to much on the menu…. You guys in SA are spoilt with the amount of events on your calendar, the bubble has burst perhaps?

 

 

Edited October 28, 2022 by SwissVan