Ever rising racing costs... can it be slowed?

We spent 5-10k on a bike (well two bikes), hundred/thousands on a matching team kits, jackets, socks, arm/leg warmers, hundreds more on a shoe, Helmet and gloves. Don’t forget the 600$ bike rack everyone uses. I have a 500$ watch and a $100 HR monitor, 700$ power meter, and I’m sure I’m forgetting something. Then we spend 6-10hours a week for months training for a race which includes 15/mon to TR, 10/mon for strava, no idea what the energy food costs over time.

Honestly, I feel like the small races who charge little for entry’s are not charging enough most of the time. I see the fantastic work they do. The time and effort to herd a bunch of volunteers to put a race on, and then take a grand total of 700$ in which half is given to the timers, and the other half to the venue or equipment for the race… leaving nothing for them for the hard work.

A stage race like BC bike race (while I have never done it), looks to be worth every penny of the 2500+ entry. The amount of work it takes to do something like that is staggering, and those people should be compensated for accomplishing it.

I almost never look at the cost of entry as a pain point after I look at the cost of equipment and time I have invested in doing these things. The time is by far the most valuable thing I have and I’m putting forth a great deal of it. And no, I’m not a dentist, or making anything close to that. My $1200 Honda is how I sacrificed to afford a 10k bike. Would love to have a new model 3 Tesla to go to work, but I can go to BC bike race and do the race for 10 times for the cost of that car.

4 Likes

Just don’t race in stupid expensive races. There are plenty of affordable races if you’re not a triathlete.

3 Likes

Pioneer is steep but it is a 6 day stage race with meals and tented accommodation, showers. The event centre moves with the race so a fair amount of management. I’m not justifying it as I am sure they are making decent money but these major events cover a lot of ground often in private property. They often get new trails built for the event so can help to grow areas… There is an experience you don’t get at a small local club event. I did the Cape Epic last year. Sure it is overly expensive but it is a bucket list event and we worked it around a major family holiday…

Sure it is expensive but (in most cases not all) you are getting a lot too. Here is what a $2000USD race with good value looks like to me (keep in mind that labor costs in Chile are much lower than NZ!):

The cost of racing is not exploding, it’s just that organizers are putting on bigger and bigger (logistically speaking) events because there is a demand to offset the risk of such a huge event. When I say huge I don’t mean # of particpants, I mean the # of staff hours required to put it on.

Now if all the low key cheaper races were to disappear and these mega-events were all that remained, THEN I would complain.

1 Like

All this talk of insanely expensive races just makes me feel the need to point out how relatively inexpensive it is to race here in Belgium where I’m located.

It costs 5 euro (less than $5 USD) to race a 120 km kermesse here. For that, you get a minimum of prize money down to 20th place, rolling road closure (i.e. no centerline rule), crowd control barriers and a race announcer at the finish line, and spectators who actually come to the race to see the race (i.e. who aren’t just there to provide moral support for their partner who is racing). There are multiple races like this each week within a 30km radius of pretty much anywhere in Flanders.

It blows my mind when I’ve been back in Canada (where I’m originally from) and see how much it costs to race, and how much less you actually get for your entry fee (i.e. little to no prize money, no road closures, etc).

2 Likes

Is there room for all of us to move there? :laughing:

And all the beer :beer: and mussels!

1 Like

15 quid here in Ireland last year and this year same races are 20.
Sportives were around 20-30 quid, now are 50+!
And many organizer clubs have given up the online entry (possibly due to cr@ppy CI website)

In the Netherlands it depends on the how popular the event is I guess, talking about tour rides not so much races as I have no experience with racing.

Tour rides organized by ‘local’’ clubs tend to be 10 to 15 euro max, if they are more expensive usually a part of the fee goes to a charity.

Tour rides that are organised by a promoter/company are usually a bit more expensive but you can buy a season pass for all their events bringing the cost per event down.

And then you have the big tour rides like Amstel Gold Race, those do cost more but not like 100 EUR, then again those are massive events.

Yeah… €17-20 here this year. I think the extra 2 is the club passing on the online portal booking fee… and the ones at 20 are making a bit more of it though some were 20 and sign on on the day last year.

Gorey (3 day, 4 stage) is €60 per team member.

Rás Mumhan (4 day stage race) is €420 per team of up to 5 riders.

I looked at that before and thought to do the full Amstel pre-ride was something like €1k for the whole package?

Edit… looking now Im not sure where exactly that came from. I thought there was a week long one around that. So confused.

Well I am not sure what would fall under the complete package, but the entry fee isn’t high:

Entry for the tour version cost me 48 euro for the 150 km distance this year.
I am based in the Netherlands so I can drive there and book an Airbnb somewhere near the start (I think I am 20km’s from the start).

Edit: Just saw your edit haha, this is the tour ride on Saturday before the Sunday race. So this Saturday I get to do the 150 km version

1 Like