Long drives for races - how far is too far?

Racing
41

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.

42

I sort of feel that way too. 16 hours round trip over a normal weekend. But then I think about what I would be doing if I didn’t race. Friday is rainy so trainer ride it is. Saturday it’s supposed to be cold and rainy, so it would be a couple hours in the trainer again then probably sit on the couch and watch TV all day. Sunday is still cold but no rain so maybe an outdoor ride, but still a good chance of a trainer ride. And again, hanging out, maybe a couple errands. And don’t get me wrong, I love sitting around on the couch and being lazy. But I figure I’m just going to sit around all day, I could just make that be in a car. Plus I’d probably just think about the race all weekend.

If the weather at home was going to be nicer and I could get some long outdoor rides, maybe. But a few days of indoor trainer rides vs a weekend of racing?

43

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?

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44

YOLO!

I don’t have a strict rule. Is the drive worth it to you? Me personally, I try to get more saddle time than driving time. But that doesn’t have to be IN the event. I drove 1000 miles for an event that in the end I didn’t enjoy (longer story than that). So I did my best to enjoy some riding on my way home, which I did. So now I will make sure that my confidence level is high before traveling that far again.

On the other hand, I have driven 6 hours one way many, many times and will continue to do so knowingly going to events/locations I will enjoy. But even still, I will be riding A LOT on those trips.

I’m not much of a roadie (MTB), I don’t do crit racing (I’ve done two, that’s enough), but I have been tempted to travel for some road racing because I’d like to get some upgrades without suffering through crits and all the related tactics. I’ve done a few road races, none closer than 6 hours away )i was there for orger things).

image

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45

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.

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46

I’ve driven 5 hours each way for a 40 second race, do I win? :rofl:

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47

Yea I think I was just bummed my buddy couldn’t make the drive down with me. Would have made the drive easier. And sort of similar to you, I’m used to a long solo car drive pretty frequently. My wife and I lived 3.5 hours apart for almost five years due to our jobs. And one of us was making the trip every weekend so I was driving that about two times a month. Granted this is much longer and I never felt hesitation to see my wife. But I am starting to get pumped for the weekend. Weather looks great, and way better than the 40F and rain we’re supposed to get at home. I have my audiobooks loaded up and I’m ready to go.

What categories are you guys racing? I’m doing the 3/4 omnium and doubling up with the 2/3 crit.

And yes this is Tour of Newport News. I may or may not be the same Reddit person.

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48

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!).

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49

I tried earlier and got no bites, but since this has popped back up I really think it’s weird (and slightly distasteful to be honest) that a forum of cyclists aren’t discussing this from an ecological point of view.

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50

I think you are generalizing/stereotyping. Cyclists are likely more tuned into environmental issues than the general population, but there are almost certainly people on this forum who fall all along the spectrum. I’d also guess that people who commute on their bikes and don’t drive are in the small minority. Probably many more who race. And bike racing (especially at the pro level) isn’t exactly environmentally friendly. I’ll ride my bike to local rides, but I’ll drive a long way to a race. We try to carpool as much as possible, but I enjoy racing and driving to races is part of it. The environmental impact is a valid discussion and consideration, but I don’t see this discussion point being any different for a group of cyclists vs. a group of runners, rowers, triathletes, or really any group of people who travel to pursue their hobbies/entertainment.

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51

Yeah, I think looking at any one particular act and judging it to be slightly short-sighted, TBH. None of us are 100% free from adding to the overall issue of carbon emissions….it is about minimizing your overall impact, not whether any one act is “bad”.

To out it another way, how many days do I need to commute by bike to “earn a trip to a bike race a few hours away?

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52

I do keep a rough tally on car miles vs. bike miles every year. It’s probably been 10 years since I’ve driven more than I’ve ridden. Retired last year and worked from home previously since covid, so I have not done any significant commuting in a few years. I almost never drive to a local ride, but probably 90% of my car (actually van) travel miles are now vacation/bike race related. With the van, we are racking up a quite a few miles for recreation, but we worked/saved a long time to enjoy some travel and burning fuel is part of the deal.

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53

Yea unfortunately the US has the double whammy of being a very large country and having terrible alternative forms of transportation, like trains. And if I ruled out any races with extended travel, I’d get to race twice a year maybe. It comes with the territory. I do my best to limit my carbon emissions, but at the same time I don’t blame any single person if they want to drive to a race, especially when it’s the large corporations causing 90% of the problems. I’m not saying we all can’t do our part, I’m just not going to let it take away one of the few things in life that brings me joy and happiness.

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54

Other sports have different ratios. Like 8 hours one way for eight 30 second ski race runs. Rodeo is an order of magnitude worse. If I had the time I’d drive nearly any distance for the right event. But I can sure understand some limits!

Joe

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55

Is driving to a race worse than driving to work everyday?

There are countless things that we all do in our everyday lives that impact our environment (including in a cycling context). I make choices everyday to try to minimise that impact. But I’m going to do things that make life fun too. Every individual has their own balance on this.

Also, not everyone is driving to a race in a gas guzzling car. If three teammates are car sharing in an electric car do you still find it distasteful? It’s not “one size fits all”.

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56

Is driving to a race worse than driving to work everyday?

Well, yes, a priori, and for multiple reasons; unless you inherited your wealth then supporting a family and / or yourself isn’t really possible and you don’t always get free choice over how or where you work. Leisure is leisure - you could ride your bike from your house, choose a way to enjoy your sport in a less impactful way and it is entirely your choice.

Other sports have different ratios. Like 8 hours one way for eight 30 second ski race runs

None of us are 100% free from adding to the overall issue of carbon emissions

how many days do I need to commute by bike to “earn a trip to a bike race a few hours away

I feel like this is bordering whataboutism. China is pumping out CO2 by the tanker - but that doesn’t absolve us of making moral choices.

Yea unfortunately the US has the double whammy of being a very large country and having terrible alternative forms of transportation, like trains

This is a totally fair point and I take it on board. In Europe, we are luckier to be closer together and to have a history of public mass transit in a way that you never had. But it starts with changing behaviours - because then the Overton window shifts and politicians have to start campaigning to win votes from people who now care about these things because they want greener travel (to go ride their bikes even!).

I don’t see this discussion point being any different for a group of cyclists vs. a group of runners, rowers, triathletes, or really any group of people who travel to pursue their hobbies/entertainment.

Actually, I think this is something that is much more in the public discussion for other sports, especially runners - with people like Killian and others making stands on travel, air, road, consumption and product lifespan and local racing and understanding their own impact. This is a fair discussion to have on a thread asking “how far is too far to drive your car to ride a bike”.

As I said - I’m no saint. I try and make sure that if I’m doing anything by car that what I do there takes longer than the journey (e.g. a 1hr drive for a 3 hour ride is ok, a 5 hour drive for a 2 hour ride is not). It’s not a black and white issue - CAR OR NO CAR - there is plenty of grey - I’m just still surprised by the amount of people who happily say “I drove 8 hours each way in my truck solo for a 90min crit”.

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57

I’ve got a weekly crit series each spring that is 2.3 miles from my house. It’s so close that i can’t even warm up on the ride there. Yet you’d be surprised how rarely i actually make it there to race…

58

Not really, people do choose both where they work and where they live. I have never, in my entire life, driven to work. I live in a rural area (I’ve lived in a city before too).

Choosing a particular job that is further away is still a choice. As is how you travel to that work.

Leisure is more important than work in my view. The reason we live is to enjoy our life, not to work. I don’t know about anyone else, but my employer literally has to pay me to turn up!

I hope that everyone is making choices to reduce their impact on the planet (consumerism, diet, renewable energy only, etc). But telling people they can’t do leisure stuff away from home (even if they get there by zero emissions travel!) is not a way to build allies.

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59

Not really, people do choose both where they work and where they live

That’s a privileged position to be in (like affording an electric car) and I’m happy for you, but not everyone is as lucky.

telling people they can’t do leisure stuff away from home (even if they get there by zero emissions travel!) is not a way to build allies.

Look, I get where you’re going with this and I’m not trying to say “Never travel for fun”, but that isn’t really what I did. I said, “I find the idea of 8 hours of high emissions travel for 90 minutes of bike riding to be problematic”.

I’m not sure what this magic zero emissions travel you’re talking about is but I’m keen to hear! If you ride your bike to a race then more power to you. If you mean that electric car, I’m not sure the electricity from a coal fired power station and/or the ecological violence of lithium mining is exactly clean.

I’m not trying to draw a line and say “if you ride a bike you must live in an eco commune”, just “if you love riding your bike and enjoying the outdoors and you maybe want your children to also be able to enjoy it, maybe have your ecological impact as one of the factors you consider when making decisions alongside cost / practicality etc”. You seem like you do, but the people saying “yeah 8 hours in a truck for a 90min crit is fine yolo” clearly don’t have it anywhere in their head.

60

Those quotes are not whataboutism, but perspective and context.

Again, the issue is more about choices individuals make across the long term. Any single choice does not define their approach to the environment.

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