Originally Posted by
furiousferret
Last night I went to an SCNCA Meeting with the President (who happens to live a few blocks away) and he had a small presentation on the state of the Association.
- Race Participation went from 43,000 in 2016 to 30,000 this year.
- 90% of all members don't renew their licenses after 3 years
- Cat 3's will be able to become 'mentors' and get upgrade points in doing so.
- Integration with Gran Fondo's (with certain requirements) into racing.
- San Diego and other cities have had to cancel events due support costs (i.e. law enforcement, medical) as many have requirements for Police on every corner.
- There's a shortage of support staff (including coaches).
Doom and Gloom for sure, but I don't think the decline of racing here is a due to a decline in cycling as a whole. We had crits that had 30 participants when at the same time 2 miles aways 100+ were doing a practice crit.
Additionally, the SCNCA's schedule is out; unfortunately there's a lot of crossover in events (I suppose there always is). The good thing is there's about 20 events less than 20 miles from my house.
I was writing this on the Ride Clean thread, then decided it was too off topic...
I think this is mostly self inflicted.
There is too much cost and effort to
grouping riders and provide something for everyone. It costs too much.
It also does not tell the story of how good someone is. Is the 45+ winner "better" than the 30+ winner? The races are different, you can't tell. Racing is at its core competition - measuring against others. If you put others in different groups - less measure, less fun.
The Nats HC - some posted times comparing riders and I was thinking - why didn't they just race them together? It would have been more fun. Why compare a X group rider time to a Y group rider when you can just race them together? As suggested before - race everyone based on ability on the same equipment. Do races by ability and when they get over 100 or so in size, do a new race. That is the Fondo model - and somewhat the Strava one.
Pick the awards from their relative placing in that race (best red head, best 35+) etc. That lets everyone enjoy bigger groups and "real" race tactics and ensures there are no 5 person fields - unless that is all you can get that day.
We have cross, MTB, Fondos and group rides taking from the interest in racing. Some would like to go get muddy over riding circles in the business park, but it makes all fields smaller.
And then there is the junior thing I've been harping on for a decade (2008 emails to USAC). When you force juniors to be handicapped, they go places where the handicap is not so significant, or quit. USA cycling is masters supported. That is cool, they have money, but I don't see much making it fun for the youths coming up.