How to get more cyclists at Road races?

[Skubarra]

3 minutes ago, Bub Marley said:

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.

Will just say this - the reasons for no races happening over Ou Kaapse weg and black hill do not include "Nobody thought of this before" & "Peeps are too scared of the climbs"

[Yyyy]

3 hours ago, Jbr said:

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

 

  

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.

Thats the problem, i didnt even know about this race until after i saw people post it on Strava. I would like to think i am clued up with some of the racing happening but I can tell you most casual roadies in the Cape only know about CTCT, DC and maybe Durbie Dash or the old Stellenbosch Cycle tour.

Marketing is a problem. WP cycling events are the worse offenders when it comes to marketing their events. Which also leads to this elitist mind set that "only those who know need to know". Like its some sort of elite underground club

[Wannabe]

I, for one, was an avid road cyclist. I entered as many races as I could, in preparation of what I deemed the "big 3", ie the CTCT, 94,7 and Amashova.

Nowadays it is prohibitively expensive to enter road races, and the last road race I did, was this year's CTCT, and my next road race will probably be the 2023 CTCT.  Mtb races are also becoming too expensive to enter, and with fuel and other costs of traveling taken into consideration, unaffordable.

I do not even own a road bike anymore, and use my hybrid/homebuild Gravel Grinder to do road rides when there is enough other cyclists with me. Riding/training on the roads on your own is too dangerous. I am lucky in that I can get to our local trailheads by using the backroads through the suburbs on my Mtb.

Road racing has lost its allure for me, and I don't see how it can be won back.

 

[Yyyy]

1 hour ago, Trashy said:

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.

Didnt wana say it but Booland 100miler felt like the most unsafe race i ever did. Dont this road users were even aware that there was an event on. It felt like we just a bunch of riders getting together and deciding to ride 150km on public roads

[DieselnDust]

6 hours ago, Jewbacca said:

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

I agree 100% with this. I am going to add to this not because I wish to knot pick but because as I read through the posts this one is worth elaborating on because its not just about the perceived knar knar or the how far far, but the issue around "influencing"

the key influence for the road fun rides is CTCT seeding. Ninety percent of the rides from C group back are focussed on seeding i,e. getting to A batch. So its cat eat dog. Riders will use each other to get ahead to the point where the entire group loses out and at the the end the stories are along the lines of so and so didn't do any work. In the A and B batches where the Elites, U-23 and other age group regulars race there is more understanding of the dynamics of how a race should play out, who will likley play what role and hence who to watch. In short there is more tactics at play rather just race everyone till its last man standing.

the fun ride culture has been largely unchanged for decades and it needs a shake up to re-ignite interest. Every fun ride should have a club category this would tke the form of clubs having teams of up to 8 riders per seeded group and this creates a race within a race scenario. This introduces a tactical element that improves races craft and brings the humble fun ride to mimick a more professional road race type structure. Cllubs score points and the top 3 clubs get a nice prize like their team kit paid for by the PPA prize money (flight of fancy I know but work with me....).

 

there is a reason why certain events attract interest and others don't. Races like the DC change the dynamics to create a different motivation. the WP winter league is fairly well supported thanks to the different format. 

 

None of these change the influence of availability of money though

[Bub Marley]

35 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

I agree 100% with this. I am going to add to this not because I wish to knot pick but because as I read through the posts this one is worth elaborating on because its not just about the perceived knar knar or the how far far, but the issue around "influencing"

the key influence for the road fun rides is CTCT seeding. Ninety percent of the rides from C group back are focussed on seeding i,e. getting to A batch. So its cat eat dog. Riders will use each other to get ahead to the point where the entire group loses out and at the the end the stories are along the lines of so and so didn't do any work. In the A and B batches where the Elites, U-23 and other age group regulars race there is more understanding of the dynamics of how a race should play out, who will likley play what role and hence who to watch. In short there is more tactics at play rather just race everyone till its last man standing.

the fun ride culture has been largely unchanged for decades and it needs a shake up to re-ignite interest. Every fun ride should have a club category this would tke the form of clubs having teams of up to 8 riders per seeded group and this creates a race within a race scenario. This introduces a tactical element that improves races craft and brings the humble fun ride to mimick a more professional road race type structure. Cllubs score points and the top 3 clubs get a nice prize like their team kit paid for by the PPA prize money (flight of fancy I know but work with me....).

 

there is a reason why certain events attract interest and others don't. Races like the DC change the dynamics to create a different motivation. the WP winter league is fairly well supported thanks to the different format. 

 

None of these change the influence of availability of money though

I like this idea of clubs taking on each other, Almost like a league where you score points for every event.

[DroppedRider]

38 minutes ago, DieselnDust said:

Every fun ride should have a club category this would tke the form of clubs having teams of up to 8 riders per seeded group and this creates a race within a race scenario. This introduces a tactical element that improves races craft and brings the humble fun ride to mimick a more professional road race type structure.

This is a brilliant idea. Team races are so much of fun. 

[DieselnDust]

35 minutes ago, DroppedRider said:

This is a brilliant idea. Team races are so much of fun. 

Yes and with multiple benefits

• promotes race tactics and using riders strengths with the objective of positioning the team leader
• Promotes club growth without forcing it.
• dilutes the focus on riding for a time
• shifts focus to race position and strategy/tactics

There ill always be the hangers on. This is unavoidable. In life there will always be those who ride on the shoulders of others. For clubs it creates camaraderie. Once we have that it extends outwards the atmosphere at races starts to change. I already see pockets of this amongst some of the clubs at races. Promote self serviced hospitality to facilitate building community amongst riders. The older riders 45+ will remember what the PPA funrides were like back in the 80's and 90's. lekker Geees and everyone waited for the lucky draw while tjommping on a boerie roll and downing as much Coca-Cola as your stomach could handle. They all knew each other and raced each other every weekend. There were plenty of strong clubs and the intraclub and interclub rivalry was strong.

 

I guess geography is also partially to blame. In the heyday of funrides there was a race on Saturday morning in the northern suburbs followed by a Peninsula based race on Sunday morning. North and South mixed a lot. Now all the races are out on the far North which is a shlep for the Southerners so less of us go through or rather we pick our poison more carefully.

There are many problems to solve but I feel that mixing up the race format will go quite a long way to reigniting enthusiasm for Road races

[Trashy]

2 hours ago, Yyyy said:

Didnt wana say it but Booland 100miler felt like the most unsafe race i ever did. Dont this road users were even aware that there was an event on. It felt like we just a bunch of riders getting together and deciding to ride 150km on public roads

I live in Paarl, travel to Franschhoek a few times a week, and I didn't know about the race until I was passing groups of cyclists.

[madmarc]

I started cycling (road) in 98 - Now, even though i own 6 road bikes, i mainly do MTB - the original idea was to do MTB in winter a bit later in the morning and road in summer earlier in the mornings. Now i do 99% MTB as road has become so dangerous and our roads so bad I've seen a lot of roadies moving over to MTB being less dangerous for the same reasons.

Now with Gravel riding becoming more and more popular, I would hazard even more roadies will make the transition off the road and the best part is the gravel events cater for both MTB and Gravel bikes. They are far easier to organize as they mostly on district roads and away from major city centers where traffic control is a huge issue.

In the near future I think all these road races other than the main ones like 947; CTCT and Ama will simply disappear due to lack of support and replaced with more events like Race to the Sun - Race to the Sea etc etc.

 

[ChrisF]

6 hours ago, Paul Ruinaard said:

.....  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. 

 

 

 

 

YES they do. 

 

BUT .... it is a MTB series.  Complete with national events and now even year ender extra ride ....

 

Bringing the families together around MTB's.

 

 

We have seen a LOT of parents dust off their bikes and get going again, to jion their kids on this journey ....

 

 

 

And, unpopular as the truth may be, the series IS hosted by SCSA - Schools Cycling SA.  Very much an active part of CSA.  I can only speak of our experiences in the Western Cape, which is mostly positive.

 

 

 

I was watching a group on Bottelary a few weeks back .... 3 or 4 young riders on road bikes .... large group of parents, and a support vehicle, trying to keep the kids safe.  Certainly not an ideal setup to get kids into this sport of road cycling .... not with the MTB option being so actively promoted in schools.

 

 

 

 

As for adults and road racing .... outside of my wheel house ... 

[W Smith]

20 hours ago, Skubarra said:

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.

You hit the nail on the head IMHO.

[ChrisF]

20 hours ago, Skubarra said:

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.

 

In the mid 90's entry to the complex we stayed in was "impacted" by this Tour.

 

"Impacted" meaning you would have to wait till the batch passed, and could then carry on ....

 

As cyclists we enjoyed the vibe.  

 

The other 90% of the residents resented this "inconvenience" ....

 

 

It is near impossible to get full road closures IN town .... so people stay away due to security concerns.

 

Host it outside of town .... and people note traveling costs .....

 

 

 

Lets enjoy the likes of CTCT .... While we still have it ....

[Wayne pudding Mol]

If you’re looking for a nice closed road race, The herald in PE just before the argus is when I usually dust off a roadbike and realise how woefully unprepared I am for the CTCT 2 weeks later but at least I’ve done a training ride 

[Duane_Bosch]

IMO. There's 2 types of bike racer.

1. Casual joes. The behavior around these people has changed. And why wouldn't it? Waking up at 4am to crap in a porta loo and "race" for 4876th place around the saaaaaame old loop of brown scenery around the back of Durbanville with no road closure sucks balls. Cycling is supposed to be fun. That's not fun. Also. The lack of road closure means your chances of being taken out by a car aren't lower. But your chances of being taken out by a fellow cyclist are significantly higher. My wife's broken arm would attest to this.

2. The proper racers. There are races for these guys. I've got a mate who races all the time. League races, Crit races, Killarney twice a week. Yes that's a race. He says he doesn't do zwift racing anymore coz everyone cheats.

 

This phenomenon of if you own a bicycle you MUST race it seems to be a bit of a uniquely South African phenomenon and I honestly don't understand it. 

Edited October 30, 2022 by Duane_Bosch

[Zeffer]

We are not alone......

https://www.treadmtb.co.za/the-challenge-faced-by-south-african-stage-races/