How to get more cyclists at Road races?

[_David_]

Spend some money on marketing and advertising? Word-of-mouth marketing is a powerful but will only get you so far.

[ALBERT MICHAEL]

Does everything need to be about race?!

[Paul Ruinaard]

19 hours ago, madmarc said:

1. reduce entry fees.

2. start and end at the same place.

3. permanent number boards that mount on the frame

4. dump the race number collection and goody/junk bag

Oh! and lastly a downhill route from start to finish.

absolutely agree with all of these. Stop the padding and gouging of cyclists by sponsors.

 

[Paul Ruinaard]

20 hours ago, DroppedRider said:

Recently the Tour Durban organisers have mentioned due to the low turnout they may reconsider hosting the event next year. If I am not mistaken the turnout at most road events have been down post Covid. Looking at overseas events this looks like a common trend globally.

What strategy would you use to get more people at road events again? Put down even your bad ideas. 

Here are my (might be terrible) ideas. 

- A problem is that many possible entrants are too scared to train on the road. They also not that invested in the sport to get a R10K smart trainer. A possible solution is for event organisers to partner with gyms such as Virgin Active, Planet Fitness and encourage them to get Wattbike Atoms or cheap alternatives so more non cyclists can get into Zwift Racing and structured training. This will hopefully lure people into entering races. Spinning classes tailored for specific events could also be used 

- Another problem is what are the actual benefits of getting into Road Cycling considering the constraints (Roads are dangerous to train on, equipment is expensive, cyclists are perceived as not being very open to new comers). A possible solution is for Event Organisers, Local Bike Shops and Local clubs should sit down together with a marketing agency in a workshop to look at common strategic messaging to put out on social media in getting more people into cycling. 

- Lastly, and I know this might be a terrible idea. There are some very scenic roads around the country to do long ride training on the weekends. Could clubs not sit down on a WhatsApp group and pool their resources to say right this Sunday all clubs in a city are encouraged to do x,y,z route. We will have 5 follow cars for different average speeds once a weekend say on a Saturday. This way people might feels safer on the roads and be encouraged to take up cycling. 

What are your ideas? 


 

Re-open the race tracks that used to allow cyclists to train on them - like Kyalami - evening riding was huge leading up to events. 

Do cycling advocacy in schools and get people involved at grass roots level. If you had to go out to the cradle on a Saturday morning on a good warm summers day you will see road cycling is alive and well. Its because it was safe there at a a time. There are hundreds of people out there running and riding. 

But events have become over done - seedings complex. roads dangerous and therefore you need to refresh the views.

 

For example - race around Kyalami - all safe. Races in the cradle - still much safer than other places. 

 

 

 

[SoloCyclist]

2 minutes ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

Re-open the race tracks that used to allow cyclists to train on them - like Kyalami - evening riding was huge leading up to events. 

Do cycling advocacy in schools and get people involved at grass roots level. If you had to go out to the cradle on a Saturday morning on a good warm summers day you will see road cycling is alive and well. Its because it was safe there at a a time. There are hundreds of people out there running and riding. 

But events have become over done - seedings complex. roads dangerous and therefore you need to refresh the views.

 

For example - race around Kyalami - all safe. Races in the cradle - still much safer than other places. 

 

 

 

Killarney here in CT has cycling on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Tuesday is PPA Thursday some night series

[Sid the Sloth]

Slightly off topic, but does anyone reckon there would be more interest in elite road racing in SA if guys could bet on the races? In Belgium the streets were packed with people for non-pro Kirmesse and lots of money changing hands afterwards... And these were tiny little races in the greater scheme of things. 

I also wonder if more live streaming of races would helpit. It is cool rewatching some of the racing on Toyota Cadence afterwards. Probably does not help that we race at the crack of dawn though. 

[Sid the Sloth]

Also, it would be so sick if we could do the $ road race for CTCT on the Saturday morning at like 8-10:40 am with a rolling road closure, and have the finish line at the same time as the expo. I know it won't happen, but it would be awesome. 

[_David_]

7 minutes ago, Sid the Sloth said:

Slightly off topic, but does anyone reckon there would be more interest in elite road racing in SA if guys could bet on the races? In Belgium the streets were packed with people for non-pro Kirmesse and lots of money changing hands afterwards... And these were tiny little races in the greater scheme of things. 

I also wonder if more live streaming of races would helpit. It is cool rewatching some of the racing on Toyota Cadence afterwards. Probably does not help that we race at the crack of dawn though. 

Sounds like a great idea.

[Mongoose!]

When I started to cycle (many years ago) we had a race every Saturday. Schools / churches local businesses hosted events for marketing purposes or fund raising.

Entries were cheap and bike shops had a table with entry forms at their entrances.

And then all of the sudden something changed.

A new partner joined the party...

Now it was not that easy / cost effective to host a small event.

Enforced by "law" - and all sports received such "partner" / aka governing body - saw it in tennis as well...

So this thread is 4 pages long and not one finger to C S A yet ? 😛

 

 

[Trashy]

Not a roadie but after driving past the Boland 100 miler last week, there is just no way I would ever pay to ride on open pubic roads.

[Paul Ruinaard]

Het hey its Friday.

TBH the rot in cycling starts at the top with CSA and the whole PPA Fun ride story. The blazer wearing CSA folks have no real appetite to do anything other than take home their pay. I think many of them last saw a bicycle when they were 15 let alone pedalled one. Until that is fixed then you wont see much happening. 

Cycling and the rides we have available are amazing. They just do zero other than steal premiums and take up oxygen IMNSHO. Our climate alone menas we ride the whole year.  Rides and races are also run by small operators and not well organised (at least some of the big ones are)

Again put cycling at the centre rather than charities or some other beneficiaries and then things will start changing. Lobbying etc - make if professionally managed and hire good people - pay them well. Not part time wanna-bees who couldn't hold down a day job or ex cyclists.

Its all about expos, charities, all sorts of non cycling related stuff.

Rant off.

 

 

 

[Frosty]

Cyclists want cheaper entries, and pothole-free roads. If the municipalities won't fix it, who will?
Some event organisers do fill the holes, other don't. tt costs time and money to fix, and the event organiser will recoup that from the participant. It's a lose-lose situation, as someone has to pay for it.

Anyway, here's our team prepping the roads for Sunday. We chose the route, so we're ensuring it's "safer than before".
 

[Frosty]

1 hour ago, Mongoose! said:

So this thread is 4 pages long and not one finger to C S A yet ? 😛

 

[JJDT]

Going back to the Tour Durban race. I used to ride this event a couple of times. I entered to do the race just before Covid which we know changed everything. My entry was carried over and then the organisers decided to change the date from a popular date(read long weekend) to a later date (normal weekend), the reason was that the organisers still want to host the event in the year, which was understandable. The new date now which is just a normal weekend will see entries decline in my opinion as it does not justify the costs to do a race 600km away from GP just for one day. The Amashowa race and CTCT is on normal weekends but I think the reason for the return every year despite costs is of the "cult following" most people do it every year. With a fairly new race (comparing number of races of CTCT and Amashowa)you will need something special for the another event on the same format to attract numbers, and I do not think that Tour Durban do have something special now.

Durban in my opinion does not have that many cyclists as opposed to WC and GP to hold a race with just local riders and still have a nice number of entrants.

The date used to be in the last long weekend in April, nice weather and with a long weekend you could make the most of it to justify costs. With a long weekend at the coast with good weather you will attract more people willing to go down to the coats to do the race. With a MTB event now also in the mix the organisers should re-think the date and move it possibly back to the old long weekend and maybe they will attract more riders for the MTB event and some will do the "double" MTB and road event. This might be just what the organisers need to get numbers for the race again.

 

[Wayne pudding Mol]

are there more or less people cycling on roadbikes?

Seems like cyclists have safer options and if cycling is a lifestyle more than a race, you can stretch your loot a bit further and include the family.  For us most places we like aren't down a smooth tar road

But as we are here flogging dead horses I would just like to say I really miss the fax machine 

 

 

[Bub Marley]

3 hours 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 dont think the idea is that farfetched. If you can climb over Chappies and suikerbossie then you can do Ou Kaapse and black hill.

 

I wonder if the reduced interest on the side of the more serious cyclists or the ones that come out of hibernation a month before the Argus.