But does it have boiled peanuts 
(WTF). Spent 3 years in Jackson,MS and couldn’t believe this was actually a thing.
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You guys think that’s bad, a regular XC race in Orange County is $100. For an hour long race. With no aid stations or anything.
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Absolutely, for us TTers high humidity is good because it lowers the air density - For a given temperature, the lighter water vapor molecules in the air displaces the heavier nitrogen and oxygen molecules in air and so makes the air less dense overall.
So we like high temperatures, a windless day, just after a thunderstorm has passed through and the air is less dense. We call that “A float day”. And boy do we love them. The right float day can take up to a minute off a 10mile tt PB time (as I discovered once).
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That’s crazy.
My entire season last year was $130, including the plate fee. 7 races, booths, raffles, fresh donuts.
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Gravel pricing is absolutely nuts. I’ve just started exploring the byways and trails, thought I might do a race or two. The price is absurd, and that’s before travel, and you have to commit months in advance. Sounds more like triathlon!
I can race crits and road races for £15-£25 a piece. Comes with a whole load of organisation, affiliation, commissaries, results, usually photographers, maybe coffee/snack trucks, motor bike outriders, lead cars etc and the chance to win prize money.
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I think this is a bit of a false analogy. People are comparing big, prestige events with smaller, local races.
Just like with Ironman races, the biggest events of the year are going to cost more. Smaller, local races will always be more affordable.
I did two gravel races last year in Indiana that were both less than $100 (for roughly 100 mile events). Also did the Rapha 10K in IL event that cost nothing. Also signed up for the Driftless 100 in IA that was less than $100 bucks (can’t remember the exact amount) but the weather was crap so I didn’t bother to go out for it.
I also did SBT GRVL, which was ~$250. Big Sugar was ~$175, IIRC. Completely different races and and events. I completely understand why marquee events cost as much as they do (both in terms of production costs and particpant demand).
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What makes them marquee events though? Maybe it’s different in the US, but in the UK you can ride the Premier Calendar (National A road races, with closed roads, TV coverage, and everything to go with it) for £35
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The free version of www.mywindsock.com gives you the weather impact on your ride and for a forecasted conditions you can get it to estimate what time a course will take relative to power. I wouldn’t be surprised if takes account of temperature in its calculation and maybe in the paid version you can experiment more with temp settings.
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Maybe a bit of marketing for sure. But Unbound is absolutely an amazing experience IMO. Almost the entire community is into the event most of the week. It’s a very fun vibe with so many people and all different skill levels. The route itself can be brutal including mud and heat and just almost endless miles of gravel.
Whether that’s worth the cost I guess is up to the individual. But they’re getting like 3-4K people I believe so many find it worth it.
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Temperature affects the density of air and knowing the affects a fundamental part of flying a plane. At higher elevations at high enough temperatures, the air is thinned out enough that some airplanes literally can not take off so all pilots pay attention to this. Its referred to as “density altitude.” Conversely, colder air leads to a lower “density altitude.” The air is thicker (more dense). Wings generate more lift and engines generate more power (and presumably, cyclists go slower … ).
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I can’t speak to the UK races…but having done a wide spectrum of events in the US, from road races to triathlon to MTB to now gravel, the difference betweeen marquee events and local events is pretty much self-evident.
Participant demand / attendance, scale of the event, media coverage, etc.
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I’m expecting a flame war btwn TR and the Nice tourist board. 
Horrible, nasty south of France. 
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Agreed but that is true if other disciplines as well. There is weeknight crit and short track mtb racing all summer long near me with $20 reg fees and great community racing. There is also some fantastic gravel racing within a few hours drive with reg fees under $100 for events. Also fun racing but I don’t see it as more accessible or inclusive.
Rumor has it the Nice tourist board has already commissioned Dylan Johnson to make a YouTube video
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Back to the topic of winter riding in cold air is slower - refer to this recent article by MyWindsock posted on UK CTT website where they analysed a 25.2 mile circuit TT course and calculated an average TT rider of 300 watts with 0.20 cda and a 80kg system weight would be on average 2 minutes 30 seconds slower in the slowest winter days compared to best summer days due to weather impact alone. My understanding of the article is that this time difference is all weather impact of which the higher air density due to colder temperature is a major factor.
[Cycling Time Trials: BS19 | Winter vs Summer | Course analysis & content by MyWindsock on behalf of CTT])
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In regards to putting on an event… Here is what it cost us to host a high school cross country running event with about 1000 entrants:
- $1405 - Permit to use the country park
- $3,105 - Porta-Potties. Permit requires one bathroom per 40 people, handicap accessible and hand-washing stations. Attendance number is everyone attending, not just participants.
- $1,000 - Timer with chip timing and live results
- $95 - Online registration website / software
- $250 - T-shirts & medals to top finishers.
- $125 - Starter / USATF Official
- $350 Event insurance.
Costs do not include material to set up the course (cones, chalk, tape, tables for registration, envelopes, race numbers, safety pins, signage, printing, generator, etc.) as this had been purchased in years prior. This also does not include taking time off to set up the course, car mileage, gas, or time spent organizing the event. Event was staffed by parent volunteers, as was our medical personal so there was no cost. Entry fee was $10 per individual with a capped fee of $400 per team.
Total costs came to $6330 and we brought in $8090, which resulted in $1760 going toward our program (21%… though 4 teams have yet to making the actual total 13%). Obviously our entry fees are lower than what you would find at a local event as the main goal is providing an opportunity to promote the sport and provide and opportunity for youth to compete. That said, it was A LOT of work for a very little amount. I am sure there is opportunity to have the event be more profitable through sponsors, vendors, etc. but ultimately I am a coach who puts on an event (who has a full time job, family, and also like riding my bike as much as I can) and not a full time promoter.
All that said we are a small, low-key, one day event. I am not justifying the high costs of unorganized & poorly run events, but I can only imagine what it costs to put on large events that have things such as road closure, police (over-time is expensive), expos, festivals, multiple day competition, etc. that costs are astronomical.
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thats where it, in some cases, can be simpler for small gravel events. Often no road closures or police. They still have the timing mats and setup to deal it definitely reduced costs.
I don’t get the feeling most small races I’m doing that cost like $80-$100 are making a killing.
Better (but meaner) hot take:
If you can’t get comfortable on a bike fit for a pro roughly your dimensions, you have bigger problems to solve than your bike fit.
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You mean like being 40+ years old, lacking elite level fitness & genes, multiple back & neck injuries over a lifetime, a 40 hour work week, 2.5 kids and a social life outside of riding bikes for a max of 8 hours per week (when you’re lucky)?
Maybe it’s my age and experience as a fitter, but I feel like they skirted around the reality that is most people’s lives that are listening to this cast. I’d wager that the majority of us around here have more than a few reasons that we have a fit that doesn’t match the hotness of a long and low setup. I do need to have a full second listen, but a bit like many of their other fit related discussion in the past, this left me unimpressed.
If you apply the basic approach they seemed to reduce to (if it works for pro’s because it’s the “right” solution to the question of whats fast/best… there’s no reason it shouldn’t work for you) and apply that to TR training plans and workouts, where would we all be?
If we are talking the ultimate, optimal, marginal gain, blah-blah-blah type of stuff… sure. But how many of us fall into that category?
Much like the clear choices they make with all their training plans here (likely less than optimal in an absolute sense due to time and life restrictions), having a bike that DOES NOT match a pro setup seems far more likely to me. It’s just another point where Pro’s differ from Joe’s because of a long list of reasons. I feel they walked all the way around listing those very reasons and came to the conclusion that it’s barely ok to have more than one spacer under your stem… and let’s not even talk about those riders with a POSITIVE rise stem… 
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