Is UK road racing in a ‘crisis’? A look at participation

We hear all too often that cycling, and more specifically road racing, is in ‘crisis’ in the UK. The warning lights are definitely on, with races and organisers disappearing off the calendar, and factors like 20mph speed limits making it harder to put on events.

In August, cycling’s governing body in Wales, Beicio Cymru, said that road racing is in an “unsustainable” situation in the country. British Cycling is yet to say similar, but something clearly has to be done.

However, despite this, there are green shoots for the sport across the country. Cyclo-cross is booming, often with too many riders rather than too few being the issue, and there are organisers and races that are doing interesting things.

As such, we thought it was the right time to take a look at the issues facing road racing across the country, at National B level and below, and also take a look at what could be done, and what works. In our first instalment, we take a look at racing participation.

What’s happening now?

“I think the biggest thing is just participation,” James Hawkins, part of the team at race organisation upstart Yomp Bonk Crew, from Sheffield, told CW. “Ultimately, all the problems that we see come back down to participation.

“A big part of that comes down to money,” he continued. “People don’t have as much money. Some Nat Bs are charging £40 for a one-day race, which is outrageous. When I’ve been a rider in the past, I know that if I’m paying £35-40 every week for a race, that’s not sustainable, because it’s that £35-40, and then accommodation, fuel, and suddenly that becomes a really expensive weekend. On the flip side of that, as an organiser, if I’m charging £30 for a Nat B, I know where every penny of that goes, and sometimes we still lose money on it, so we can’t just make them cheaper.”

‘Demotivating’

This experience rings true with Andy Pearce, the organiser of the Victor Berlemont Trophy, a Nat B race in Oxfordshire.

“We’ve seen a decline in numbers over the last three or so years,” he explained. “At lower levels, it’s possibly less severe than at higher levels, but at the Victor Berlemont it was a full field in the first year I ran it, and now this year, I only ended up with a field of about 60. People are also leaving it later to enter, which makes it quite tricky. It’s quite demotivating, actually, because there’s a lot of people involved.”

“There used to be a rolling group of individuals who turned up to the same races,” Phil Feather of the Kingston Wheelers said. “Covid kind of killed that. We’re seeing better momentum now, but in terms of road racing we don’t have more than about 15 to 20 who race on the road at the moment, out of a club of 500.

“There used to be big teams of ordinary clubs taking part in some of these races, now it seems like it’s smaller, specific, commercial clubs, which fragments the scenes. I don’t see any of these clubs putting on their own events.”

Road to recovery?

However, all is not doom and gloom. “Compared to pre-pandemic fields, we’re down,” William Fotheringham, from the West Midlands Road Race League, said. “But on the other hand, in the West Midlands I think the statistic was that races were about 87% full, which means an average field of about 70.

“The problem is that there are certain races with 40, or 35, and [the numbers are] a lot more random.”

This is the first part of our series on the issues affecting road racing in the UK. Next week, we will be taking a look at volunteering, in particular the Accredited Marshal System. If you’re a race organiser and want to get in touch, email cycling@futurenet.com.

This article originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine, available from all good newsagents. Alternatively, you can subscribe here.

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