"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - How many spectators were at your last race?

Just trying to get a sampling of the sport's popularity:

How many spectators were at your most recent race?

Whether last weekend's race was in an Industrial Complex Crit or a Downtown street, how many spectators were in attendance?

Not counting other racers who were waiting for your race to finish.

We can expand this to include races from last season, as our most recent race was the Pino Morroni Memorial on September 15th 2004.

My first race is this weekend and I won't expect a lot. My last race was a cyclocross race. Those usually bring out the girlfriends, good friends, family and a few bystanders. With the exception of a few near washington dc mainly. Road races hardly bring anyone out. Sometimes folks will set up chairs on the big curcuit most of them wait by the finish. The most populated race I did was the Reston Crit in Reston VA. It is in a downtown center and combined with other activities there were well over 500 people lining the streets.

Just trying to get a sampling of the sport's popularity:

How many spectators were at your most recent race?

Whether last weekend's race was in an Industrial Complex Crit or a Downtown street, how many spectators were in attendance?

Not counting other racers who were waiting for your race to finish.

We can expand this to include races from last season, as our most recent race was the Pino Morroni Memorial on September 15th 2004.

Basically the wifes and husbands of the racers, and one woman whose husband was unable to race due to medical problems that was an interested spectator. Having said that, the races were held out in the middle of nowhere. That was on Saturday. On Sunday, due to the race being held in a popular park, there were probably 10 observors who were not related to the racers.

Bottom line - zip turnout.

some of races are done in the parks, so early morning park people watch sometimes. but other than that, it's all close family members like others have said. after the cat 4 and 5 are finished racing, they usually gather and watch the finishing laps of the 3,2,1 field. They usually race more laps, so their finishing line can have quite a crowd.

Some of the bigger local crits (like ontario) can have quite a few spectators. The smaller crits and even the one last weekend there was relativly fewer spectators.

You're going to have a hard time attracting folks who 1) aren't in the peloton actually racing or 2) related to someone in the peloton. There are no notices of upcoming races in the local paper and certainly no stories or results listed. This bothers me. There isn't that much else going on in the sports world around here that they can't find some space to insert a little cycling copy. Perhaps I should give the paper a call and see if they're interested in someone doing this, if even on a volunteer basis.

You're going to have a hard time attracting folks who 1) aren't in the peloton actually racing or 2) related to someone in the peloton. There are no notices of upcoming races in the local paper and certainly no stories or results listed. This bothers me. There isn't that much else going on in the sports world around here that they can't find some space to insert a little cycling copy. Perhaps I should give the paper a call and see if they're interested in someone doing this, if even on a volunteer basis.

It reminds me of when I was running track in high school. We were Northern California champions, and about the only ones that showed up was a couple of girlfriends.

eight.

There is a crit this weekend that will be held in the city. Will see how many people will show up.

Well, if you count officials and race support, yeah, about 8.

Seriously, some of the big crits around here can bring out several hundred non racer types (although I can't get my wife to go). What's really cool is when we have rr's that originate and end in small towns. We get local participation for the event plus spectators. Sometimes a community barbeque is involved. Great way to introduce the sport to people and develop mutual respect between cyclists and drivers - at least in the country.

sun

I'm just asking about last weekend's race (or this coming weekend's race). Just trying to get a sampling/average.

I'm competely aware of what the big races attract.

I've just got back from our National Masters Road Championships. The racing, a crit, a time trial and a road race, were held in a small country town about 40 minutes from a capital city. Sadly there was no money for advertising or provision for publicity so even the local towns folk new very little of what was going on. Difficult to understand but that's the way it is here in Oz. Not even an open national championship gets much publicity here. I'm involved and didn't know that the national masters track titles were held in the capital city the week prior to the road titles. Go figure.