In my tri days I would do stuff like this for half distance + events where I was training for months on end for this one specific event, similar to how you have been working toward Lutsen and Leadville.
As a roadie it’s a lot harder to justify driving more than 3hrs each way for races considering around here there are 2-3 accessible races each month. And as others pointed out, crits are different than longer stuff.
So I think it very much depends on the type of event we are talking about. 3 hrs for a 45 min crit? Probably not. But for a 2 hr proper road race or TT maybe (because those are more rare!)
It’s funny, because one of the reasons I was thinking of driving was because it’s a crit (2 races, cat 3/4 and 2/3). We have 1 true crit and another crit/ciruit race (it’s a 1.4 mile oval with no actual turns so I hesitate to call it a crit) all year. The 4 other races we have are all road races. And the two crits don’t offer any overlapping fields to double up on races (e.g. 3/4 and 2/3). So 6 total races within an hour drive all season. Maybe 2 or 3 others that are about 2-2.5 hours away. The racing scene is terrible here. So it’s not a super important race, but I’d double the number of crits I could race by driving to it.
Yeah back in the times where I did multiple crits in a day I would drive more. These days it seems my eligible races are back to back unless I want to do the pro field late in the day and more often than not I just don’t want to be there all day long. I’ve done races back to back before and normally the second one is a fairly miserable experience.
Longest drive on paper was 8 hours each way a couple of times but both those trips were long weekends visiting my brother and sister in law who just happen to live literally right on the course for one for Tour of America’s Dairyland crits. Actual time from “home” to start line was less than 2 minutes.
2-3 hours is about tops for me unless it can be rolled into a weekend away with the wife.
As a general rule, I won’t drive much longer (time) than the race will take me. Although I did once drive almost 2 hours each way for a 1 mile race (about 8 minutes). But that was on Southend Pier which is a fairly unique place to run.
i won’t really drive for crits anymore, and I start to question my life choice when the first digit in travel time is a 6.
That said, driving 12h for a road race then gravel race the next day, and hyped to split it into 2 six hour drives and ride in two very random places along the way!
trying to find more adventure outside of just the races helps me palate it all
I used to go up to 3 hours in New England to road races, but I was in early 20s with no responsibilities. I’ve got kids now so that’s a hard no, although I’m contemplating a 10hr drive this fall for a CX weekend! I’m living in a spot now that mostly all races are 2hrs away. I haven’t done any yet, but it’s the only choice and not an easy one.
If you’re young and free go for it. If your older like me, maybe consider doing some gravel races to at least make the drive work it in ‘time on the bike’.
Having given up so much for my career and now watching our parents slowly die (2 losing their minds and the other 2 just withering away) I say now is the time to do the things you want to do. Yeah the drive sucks but, not living life sucks more. Race it. Good luck!
We had that conversation and it was agreed I could retire early. We moved to the country. No more stores, just chores. She wanted to keep working but after 8 years she is probably not going back to work. Too much fun stuff to do.
I say do it.
I would drive 2-4hr one way to do long hilly races back when I was really into racing (and younger, single, and childless). Now with kids, I’ll only do CX up to 1hour away. I like the ‘ride as long as you drive’ policy
I’ve never understood the rule of thumb to drive as long as the race. It doesn’t make any sense to me. The equation should be: do you want to do the race more than the drive or total time is a negative?
If there’s an incredible 1h event 3h away and you have a once in a lifetime chance to race it and your family can accommodate it then why wouldn’t you?!
Driving 8h for a 6h race is more ‘selfish’ then driving 3h for a 1h crit if you have family commitments in my view. Not saying that anyone shouldn’t do that though - I’ve driven 1400km each way for an event and just made a trip out of it.
Yeah things were certainly simpler before we had kids! But I also think more parents need to do the things they enjoy rather than ruling too many fun things out. My wife is amazing at supporting me in doing my racing and other things that are important to me, and I try to do the same for her. Otherwise life just becomes stale and a grind through work.
No strict formula, but I definitely prefer local races over away races. Weekends just aren’t long enough to spend them all in the car.
I’ll drive ~2 hours each way for something like a 6-hour XC marathon or mid-length gravel race. But, probably not for cyclocross or a shorter XCO or short-track event.
The further race I’ve attended regularly is Croatan, which is ~6.5 hours each way. But, I make a long weekend of it - drive Thursday morning, rides Thur evening and Friday, race Sat, home Sunday. Not sure if I’ll go next year - there’s a 50 mile gravel race that’s only 2.5 hours away that usually happens in the same month, so I might do that and save the lodging costs.
And this is as an empty-nester. When the kid was younger, it was mostly local crits and cyclocross, where I was only gone for half a day. And that was assuming I wasn’t coaching one of his youth teams, which basically meant little to no racing for ~5 years or so.
Sounds like it’s a one-off event, over a couple of days. If you fancy it, why not? Long travel for one or two events a year is ok I think, you just don’t want to do it every weekend. If it was a short holiday, would you think the same way about the travel?
This is sounding very, very similar to a thread on reddit…lol
Assuming you’re the same guy, this omnium is a bunch of fun. My team is traveling about 5-5.5hr one-way with 4-5 people and I know at least 5 others from nearby teams that are going. We also did it last year.
The crit is just technical enough to be fun but not anything crazy, the TT could be extra interesting with some strong winds, and the circuit race (while I wish it was longer) was awesome to have the entire road on the course to work with and if you don’t have much road racing experience, it’s a cool vibe compared to crits cause it’s a bit more of a slow burn without corners coming every 5 seconds.
As for traveling, I think I’m a bit skewed cause I’ve lived far from family for a little while so 8 hour drives became the norm. 8 hours is longer than I would drive for most things, but that’s also because there are lots of good events near me that I can do. If the choice was between this event with an 8 hour drive and a crit with 4 other people, I would almost definitely choose the drive.
It really is a great event and it’s hard to discount the benefit of racing multiple times in a weekend. You get to cram a whole bunch of learning into a short amount of time.
Edit: If I assumed the omnium correctly, feel free to DM me with any specific questions.
Sweet, yeah the same race. We’re a little spread out. I think 1-2 doing the 3/4 omnium, 2 doing the 2/3 omnium, 1 doing the fixed gear omnium, and 1 doing the women’s 4/5 omnium. But I know at least 3-4 others doing the 3/4. We’ll be the team in the yellow and blue kits.
Like you said, weather is looking good (maybe a little windy which could make things interesting!).
