road racing participation has been trending downwards; not sure about overall

Back when i started collegiate cycling, we had two D fields (cat-5 equivalent) and two C fields (cat4/5), each about 40 people deep. Now a single 40 people C or D field would be a good turnout. Back then we had 9 weeks of racing on the calendar; now it's down to six.

It's not just safety issue with cars. Higher promotion cost also contributes

You can't blame distracted drivers or cars. Cycling had a bump from the Lance era. Cycling was cool, for awhile.

Take away the cool factor, and cycling is a solitary pursuit with a bit of suffering. The people who don't enjoy either or both, end up going away. Who needs 'em.

There's still 2 solid pro development teams in the US. Europe will always be the epicenter of the pro scene. Anglo riders with talent and willingness to htfu will always find their way there, IMO.

Not dying - just getting diversified.

The road is dead, long live the road!

I live there (near "the loop"). I don't race or have a lot of riding friends, but the Bay Area cycling scene is alive and well. Last Friday I did a mixed-terrain ride in the Marin Headlands and was amazed at both how many young people were out riding on a work day (Friday before a holiday weekend) and how many people were riding dirt. Seems like everyone rides disc brakes and there are touring bikes, cyclocross bikes, mtn bikes, etc.

Riding is alive. Don't know anyone who races bikes.

Also next time you are in Portola Valley, go check out some of the climbs. The Loop is boring. Ride up Alpine, King's, OLH and enjoy the views on Skyline and decending 84 or Page Mill.

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/kj

http://kjmcawesome.tumblr.com/

road riding is alive and well, there is definitely a paucity of races though.

It's a shame.

On a normal weekend the Portola Valley loop has thousands of riders. This past weekend had record high temps and most people just didn't want to be outside. Remember that we are very unused to weather that hot here, so people react even more strongly than they would in other places.

As for USAC racing, the numbers are definitely dropping, but I think it's worse there than for cycling as a whole. Many people do things like granfondos or gravel races instead, and I think also many people may be passing up organized rides altogether.

I think you will need another Lemond or Armstrong to rekindle interest. I think the number of people riding is actually up. It things are diversified. The best news I have seen is the interest in High school mountain bike racing. Someone was saying there were 1100 kiids racing last weekend. The MTB teams are bigger than the football team.

Yes, it is dying but might not die.

At the top of the sport, it's a very hard life. You can't race professionally without a team; yet, it's still an individual effort to survive. High risk and low pay for most riders who are not famous.

At the low end, you have cars, road hazards and it's a loner's sport.

The bike itself does make for an interesting toy though and toys can be fun.

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Indoor Triathlete - I thought I was right, until I realized I was wrong.

This has been the worst year for racing -- calendar-wise -- since I started in 1994. At least in my area (OH-MI-western PA & NY). Promoters not wanting to put on races anymore, and others not stepping in to fill the void. Difficulty with municipalities and residents. Cost of police. It's easier to put on a 'cross or MTB race.

Also it seems that the usual race participants are aging, then stopping racing, and not so many young racers filling that in. Again, around here at least. I will say that when I did a race outside of Baltimore in April it was extremely well-attended, all categories.

I think it was 8 years ago, I got off a flight at SFO airport and drove to your place near that loop and bought an SRM from you. I was in the area frequently in my last job and everytime I was on that loop it was like TdF, but in the last few years, I mainly focused my rides on the East side doing stuff like Sierra and Metcalfe as they were closer to where I needed to be afterwards!

To answer your question, I was always amazed at how good the roads are in Silicon Valley in general and how few cyclists were on them. Lots of big wide shoulders and no one actually bike commuting to work. Here in Ottawa Canada where it is frozen like Siberia 4 months per year, there are still more people commuting even in the depth of winter on a "per street basis" than what I would see in San Jose. Perhaps here in Canadian cities, bikes are used a bit more for utility. Based on my discussion with friends who race road, it is as popular as ever. I don't think we had the same pop in participation during the Lance era from the middle age bankers and dentists, so maybe it has not come down as much.

I'm 26, and I've never seen road cycling "alive" in the USA. People have these stigmas of cycling, especially roadies. They think it's all pain and no fun...it's like flying and you get to be outside in nature. People in my age group and in my generation don't like being outside. They honestly don't. In my lifetime, I wouldn't be surprised if outdoor activities/sports die, the national parks are dismantled, etc...

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"The person on top of the mountain didn't fall there." - unkown

also rule 5

Where I live (Michigan) it seems to me there are as many people as ever riding road bikes around here. Road (and crit) racing is another matter. Attendance, and the number of races on the calendar around here have both been declining. But that trend is not as pronounced in surrounding states so maybe it is just us. In fact, we had our state crit championships a couple weeks ago and in the Cat 1-2 race, there was enough quality "foreign" competition that 13th Michigander was good enough to get on the state podium which is kind of embarrassing.

One thing I have noticed among my roadie friends though is a dramatically increased willingness to ride the trainer during the season and that may very well have an effect on how many people you see on the road on any given day. 10 years ago, heck even 5 years ago, very few roadies I hung with road a trainer outside of the depths of winter. Now, based on my Strava feed, folks who used to make fun of me for doing a trainer ride in April are very quick sub in a trainer ride/workout even in July or August. Zwift and bad traffic get most of the credit for that but I think it actually has much more to due to dramatically increased power meter use and the spread of power based training among the lower levels of the roadie racing crowd. More and more roadies are figuring out that hitting the trainer hard is a very efficient way to train.

lanierb wrote:

On a normal weekend the Portola Valley loop has thousands of riders. This past weekend had record high temps and most people just didn't want to be outside. Remember that we are very unused to weather that hot here, so people react even more strongly than they would in other places.....

Here in Southern Oregon, we've had a month of 100 deg. temps and smoke so thick you can't see across the street. So any day under 90 is a great riding day. I was just a little surprised not to see any riders on the loop at 8am or so when it was only 75ish.

I do wonder how much a role incidences like this have played:

One Person in Critical Condition After Car Rams Into Bicyclists in Portola Valley


This was the legendary Spectrum Ride, just across the street from my father-in-law's office.

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My latest book: "Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire" is on sale on Amazon and at other online and local booksellers

I'm in Mi as well and have never raced a crit (they scare the crap out of me) but have some friends who do. I think you're right that most of them are on the trainer for midweek rides, but I also hear them comment about how some of their favorite races are going away. Heck, I'm less than a 10 mile ride to Grattan, a weekly race on the west side of the state and I've never even gone to check it out.

This was a friend of mine. It was a terrible accident, but the good news is he is recovering well. There are a lot of riders here, and that leads to a fair number of accidents involving bikes. It's hard to tell if it's getting worse or not. I do think that the group rides are a bit smaller now than they were a few years ago, but I think that's just reflecting that fewer people are road racing.

I agree with this. Even in my 'group' rides, it's safer to be single file so not much talking for long stretches.
Am doing more singletrack, and stopping to chat between runs.
And indoor powermeters keeps me accountable w/o someone to push me.

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[ The sign of intelligence is you are constantly wondering. Idiots are always dead sure about every damn thing they are doing in their life. - Vasudev ]

All four of my kids would laugh at this. One of my sons (27) solo-hiked the JMT in California last month in 7 days. It has a shit ton of elevation and he added a few extensions taking his total hike to 240 miles. Yeah, I get that there are more electronic distractions available to your generation, but I do know a lot of millennials that are extremely active.

Don't know about racing. There are just as many people road biking here (Seattle) as there ever were. No bike shop selling high end road bikes has gone out of business either. All the same shops have been here for years. (All the tri shops are out of business however! All. Of. Them.)

One change I did notice, and it is a welcome one, there are a lot more women on road bikes now.

You have to be careful when you are riding on the road in the American city. In traffic accident 100 of the cyclist is killed every year. You want to ride on the road in U.S, No problem you can, But you have to care about traffic rules.




I saw some of the cyclists were riding their bikes in the over-crowded road. But they wear helmet and shoes. Take the safety equipment and your road bike then go for the ride no problem. Happy riding.

Hello jens and All,

https://pvcycling.wordpress.com/...y-lions-have-spoken/

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Cheers, Neal

+1 mph Faster

Yes and no. Cat 1/2 racing seems fairly strong, i do not see as many people in the 4/5's as a few years ago, masters is lower as well. I think it is the result of a culmination of factors.

1. Diversification within cycling. Gravel and cyclocross seem to be very popular, in fact i did 4 gravel races this year and will do a full cross season. More masters racers seem to do gravel in the spring/summer, a few crits, then transition to a full cross season. In essence gravel is replacing some of the larger road races.

2. Diversification outside of cycling for athletic individuals. There are a lot of options for competitive people, crossfit and mud runs are two great examples.

3. Poorly run state cycling organizations. Promoters seem to be disinterested in dealing with the local politics as well as increased costs associated with putting on races. I race in KS/MO/AR/TX/OK and this seems to be a common theme.

4. Focus on stage races. Races such as Joe Martin, Gila, Gateway cup, Tulsa Tough, intelligentsia cup etc are doing very well. Many riders are focused on a few key races a year and generally seem to race less throughout the season. I think things like gravel and zwift are taking the place of smaller races that would be used for training.

5. Netflix. The current generation would rather sit at home and watch netflix. Read 'bowling alone" this is a phenomenal book highlighting the decline of social engagement in America.


Addition: crashes are always part of cycling but there seems to be an increasing level of crashes lately. I know of 4-5 riders this season who have stopped racing large crit's because of increased levels of crashing and these are guys who have been racing a very long time. It seems racers are much less skilled in the 1/2's (upgrading too quickly) and you have massive skill differences in the large crit's. Juniors absolutely freak me out at big crits like tulsa tough and gateway cup, these kids have no conception of actions have consequences.

Running, triathlon and cycling are all in the middle of a major decline period.
Crossfit and other body sculpting activities are at the beginning of a major decline period.

On the other hand these activities are on the rise:
a) adventure travel,
b) buying useless crap (I.e. prestige items)
c) whining about the behavior of others on the internet
d) making up stuff to brag about

This is all actually just part of the economics cycle.
When consumers have money..... they don't have time.
Travel, buying crap, and making up stuff to hate and it brag about - doesn't require a lot of time.

Running, cycling, triathlon- require money.
But time is the primary resource that they consume.

This has been my observation. In NJ, our Jr road points series had only 19 kids participate this year.

The MTB points series had 49 Jr participants.

That said, NICA just came to NJ last year and in our 1st year we fielded 15 teams with 200+ 6th to 12th graders our races.

I set up and help coach my town's NICA team and have had steady interest from parents and kids during our offseason as word gets out and am cautiously optimistic the league can double participation next year. So it appears the desire to ride and race is there but not so much on the road. Hopefully this tide will eventually bring new roadies
too. Everything is cyclical.

tons of people still racing and riding, just differently than before.

A new indoor velodrome is going to open in Detroit in December The indoor velodrome could be a huge boast to local competitive cycling around here. The organizers of the project have committed to running youth programs for the city and are openly talking about a goal of getting some yet to be identified local youngster onto the 2024 Olympic team. We already have an outdoor track in the area and the folks involved have produced a couple local kids who have been competitive on a junior national level and gone to Junior Worlds so while it is a long shot, it is not a pipe dream. The key is getting more kids to try cycling, in any form. You can't build the sport on the backs of 30+ year old men ;-)