Think there’s just a shift in the sport away from racing and towards more fitness and recreational riding. People can also satisfy their competitive urges in other ways including Strava segments, Zwift racing and gran fondos or sportives where you might at least get a finishing time, participation medal and maybe some kind of gold/silver/bronze rating depending on time. Or qualification for Gran Fondo world Champs.
Also depends on geography. In UK gravel racing isn’t much of a thing as far as I can tell (lots of people buying gravel bikes but that’s just to deal with our frequently crappy roads and weather!), whereas in US it seems to be huge. From eyeball statistics, overall road cyclist numbers in the UK continue to rise, but a lot of newcomers aren’t interested in racing, they just ride for fun and fitness, or do participation events. There’s a club near me which pretty much exists and thrives without racing - they do a few sportives, but their main competition is internal e.g. They’ve set up a Veloviewer leaderboard consisting of many of the more popular climbs, TT loops and sorting segments in our area and have annual awards for leaders by age group and gender. A few of their riders do crits and TTs but usually have dual registration with another club for racing. Other thing is that the LBS are struggling but this is due more to online shopping, mobile bike servicing and direct to consumer bike manufacturers like Canyon than to a decline in the market.
Agreed, but by “racing” I meant proper categorised races with points and podiums, not going hell for leather for every climb and signpost on the local club ride!
It’s getting too expensive. I spent 250$ on six races at Gateway this past weekend with one getting rained out. Could not transfer. I love road, but I’m getting sick of paying $40 for a 50 min crit.
Did my first gravel race and yeah it was pricey, but it was a huge event. Treated great, expo, lunch, cokes and beers afterwards, hat and T shirt with the price. Plus, it was a fricken blast. I don’t care for fondos or even the gravel fondos with some timed segments, I want a point to point race. I’m probably shifting to gravel races next year with a few travel events like Valley of the Sun, maybe Gila, Tulsa, OKC Pro Am, and Gateway. But that’s about it for road. Splash a local crit in to help a teammate maybe.
Also numbers seem way down this year at Gateway. Maybe because it wasn’t part of USA Crits.
Unfortunately until we get a high profile American star in the sport with broad coverage it will continue to decline. The amount of time most people need to dedicate to just be an also-ran or to get spit out the back doesn’t lend itself to big numbers without the draw of star power.
That’s why I stopped racing. 10-12 hrs a week to maybe get a top 10 no thanks. I’ll go ride my MTB and smile the entire time.
Similar thinking regarding the money for me. While I have a gravel bike I’ve not entered any events yet. My roots are mountain since the late 80’s but, just burned out on it back in 2005-ish. I enjoy criteriums and a punchy circuit at the moment. The group of guys I’m paired up with are crit centric. So we’ll focus on the SoCal schedule, ToAD, Intelligentsia then nationals. Mixed in I’ll do some gravel events or perhaps a BWR type ride.
That’s interesting. I asked a former pro who still races masters years ago (2012 maybe) about the decline in numbers and he said point blank it’s because it’s hard.
I sort of feel everything is hard if you are at the pointy end so it doesn’t accurately explain the drop. Lance did bump numbers so you have a good point. I do think with the evolution of events, like what JHow stated above; they are just a blast. And I think they are a blast because they offer so much more opportunity for people to socialize off the bike.
Yes, road racing in all forms is hard. You need a lot of self motivation to keep at it year after year and if you’re not at the pointy end it really isn’t that much fun.
These new events tick many of the boxes. Race up front if you wish or timed segments with regroup / social time in between. Or just hang out with a group of like minded riders and enjoy the day out.
For most of the population that are not going to be mixing it up with the genetically gifted or truly dedicated these new events are the right answer.