To get people into racing, the barrier to entry shouldn’t be hundreds of hours a year and countless hours chewing bar tape on the trainer. I think the US needs more non-USAC races that cater to the sub Cat 5 or below the “real” racer boy types. Last 4/5 race I did was a bit hilly, but if you didn’t have a 3.5w/kg or better…you were out the back…pack skills be damned.
Having said that, I have been wanting to do some road racing but they don’t make it easy. I went to the LBS, who have no idea where the races are. They directed me to a website. Went to the website, didn’t see any races on the calendar for months. Finally, I saw a few and wanted to sign up. I really didn’t know if I could race a TT with my Shiv and couldn’t get a direct answer from anyone and I wasn’t going to sign up, drive an hour, only to be rejected. I don’t want to do a crit; my bikes are too damn expensive for that violence. Finally, found a road race. Wanted to sign up, got redirected to another site, where they wanted a USAC license. Got redirected to USAC to get license but there were 4-5 options and none for a single day event. So I finally gave up.
If I want to do a running race or triathlon, I get emails of races within 300 mile radius. I click on something, pay Active some ascinine fee, and show up to race.
There is 0 promotion for races other than organized charity rides and Gran Fondos. Too much regulation about crap. Let me race with my Shiv; it’s not the TDF and I won’t podium.
I agree with both of these. USAC seems to have zero pathway for an interested newb to get into crit/road racing other than to throw you into a Cat4-5 race against a bunch of 3watt/kilo+ racers and tell you to fend for yourself. And they do a terrible job marketing/promoting. The national website is a train wreck, and the local state site is worse.
There was a local crit race I had some interest in, but I didn’t get a good vibe that it was a place for anyone without experience. In a community of +/- 250k, with a University that has 40k students, the cat 4/5 race drew 8 local racers, and the women’s drew one local racer who wasn’t already rated cat 3 or better.
About 60 miles south, in a much smaller town (with a smaller University of ~7500), the local Chamber of Commerce put on a road race. They had 3 distances; 12.5, 25, and 50 miles. They did a hell of a job promoting on social media, and making it clear that riders of all levels of experience and fitness were welcome. They went after “finishers” at least as hard, if not harder, than the “racer.” No USAC license or membership required, just pay, show up, ride, and race if you want. And they drew 250 folks, mostly locals, including kids under 10 and grand parents on comfy cruiser bikes. I’d bet at least 50% of the participants, if not more, had never been in a “bike race” before. At the front of the 25 and 50 mile events, however, there was still some serious racing (including some of the guys who raced the cat 3 and up races at the previously mentioned criterium). Races started and finished under an inflatable arch on the town square, with a wave for each race. There was a bit of festival atmosphere at the finish, with music, food, etc. Many of the “recreational” 12.5 milers were back in time to see the first 25 milers come in, and all were there in time to see the first 50 milers come in. Just about everyone seemed to genuinely enjoy the experience. I just can’t imagine it would have been anywhere near as successful had it been a USAC sanctioned event.