Can Britain’s domestic road scene be saved?
Is there a blueprint for change?
I’ve spent the past two years racing predominantly on the US scene, and while it’s true that their scene is far from its glory days, there are lots of positives to take.
It feels the US has all the right ingredients, it’s just missing organisation.
There’s a multi-discipline series with big prize money in the Life Time Grand Prix, a host of one-day races and a thriving crit scene that’s televised. It’s far from perfect, but it’s working.
The British scene could learn a thing or two.
Do we need British Cycling?
I think BC takes an unfair amount of flak when it comes to the dying UK race scene. Yes, they deserve some, but not as much as they take.
Yet, I question: Do we need them at all?
Neither of the most recent success stories from the US domestic scene, Life Time Grand and Levi’s Fondo, were run under USA Cycling rules.
It made things easier: licenses don’t create a barrier of entry, and there’s no confusion with categories. You choose your race, pin on the number, and off you go.
I’m well aware that BC brings important insurance and legal considerations, but there’s a wider question here as to whether they create more barriers than benefits.
It’s an event, not a race
If we can take one thing from the US scene, it’s that races are for the many, not the few. There may be 150 people in the elite race, but the event is set up for the 2500 people who are racing behind them.
This is where the UK needs to learn. British road racing is a niche, and it likes to stay that way. If we could build events that attract thousands of people to come to a town just to ride the roads, and set up an expo, then I think that’d be much better than just a race alone. There’s the added benefit that this model brings an audience to the race.
The Lincoln Grand Prix does a good job of this. There’s the sportive the day before, the Hill Climb up Michaelgate and hundreds of people lining the course.
Live Stream
It doesn’t have to be sexy, but there has to be something. You need to be able to watch the race to see what you’re supporting. It needs to be free to view, because the second you put it behind a paywall, you’re going to be losing most of your audience.
Some of the US Crits do a great job of this. There’s commentary, and a livestream put directly to YouTube. I don’t know what level of viewership they bring in, but it’s a start.
It’s hard and it’s expensive to stream - heck, streaming domestic road races isn’t great - but the crits for sure.
It’s Expensive
It killed me to spend £60 per rider for an hour’s National Circuit Series when I was running Rebellion, the prices seemed obscene. Equally, over in the US, it’s the same. Most of the big races set a team back hundreds, if not thousands of dollars.
In part, it’s these high entry fees that keep the races in the business and allow them to grow. I’m very much against high entry fees, and I also want it to be like Belgium where you pay e5 to enter and receive your money back at the end. But, I’m also a realist.
Belgium and France are countries that have a culture built around bike racing - the UK is not. We can’t copy their cycling culture just like they can’t copy our football culture.
So, it’ll probably take a rich individual
No matter how we try and dress it up, reviving cycling in the UK is going to be a tough ask for a sponsor to get behind. To do it properly - build teams and build races - it is going to take millions of pounds over multiple years.
It’s going to take new races, new ideas, bringing old and new fans together.
It will be hard for a business to get behind it to the level we need to make true change. In many cases, sports are funded by rich individuals who are looking to give back. The Australian domestic scene is going through reform, which is largely funded by Gerry Ryan, a man worth a reported half billion dollars.
People are quick to judge this model, and I think that’s unfair.
I wrote this line for a recent article, and it stands true here:
Reviving professional road racing in the US will take more than just passion. It’s going to take belief, vision, and real financial backing. If Fahri Diner [the multi-billionaire who helped to fund Levi’s Fondo] is willing to bring all three, then in my view, the sport is lucky to have him.
Escape Collective Opinion: $156,000, a livestream, and a dream of reviving American road racing
Positivity
With Rebellion, I was trying to build something different. We didn’t focus on being an Elite Development Team, nor did we go after the National Road Series. This caught me a little bit of flak, and I was constantly asked why we weren’t doing certain National A races up and down the country.
We went after something else: attention.
Whenever I write about the domestic scene, I often ask myself ‘Does anyone out of the few thousand British racers care?’, or, ‘Was the 2010s era just too good to be true?’.
To move on, we have to recognise that we are in a niche bubble, but having a thriving domestic scene is a great thing for British Cycling.
A thriving scene gives a safety net for those riders who can’t quite go pro out of U23, it gives later talent a place to blossom, and it’s something for juniors to look up to. It’s an important stepping stone on the development pathway.
Equally, in the eyes of the public or the eyes of sponsors, race results alone don’t matter. I tried to combat that with Rebellion and chase races I thought could make an impact on our public profile as much as the results sheet.
The UK scene needs to get behind each other. If there’s a new team on the block that’s rejecting the normal calendar to do something different, then maybe that’s a good thing. It might not work, but big change takes big risks.
We need change
We’ve got to think differently. Not everything I’ve suggested is feasible. Some things won’t work financially or culturally.
Over in the US, there are fewer races than there used to be, but it’s still pretty easy to pull a season-long calendar together. Just in road racing, there’s Redlands, Tour of Gila, and a full calendar of crits that have decent prize money.
People are trying hard to put it right in the UK, and I take my hat off and thank all of you. Without volunteers, riders like me wouldn’t have the opportunities to go through development pathways, race abroad, or see what’s happening in these foreign race scenes.
There’s a lot of talent on the British domestic scene: organiser and racing, but if it’s going to be rebuilt, then it can’t be done the same way as last time.
Here’s a quick hot take: Racing in Belgium and France is great, but if I was to do another British race team, then that’s not the direction I’d take us.
Thoughts from the Edit
I want to bring up a few points that I think will be raised against this article. Namely, financial. There’s no hiding behind the fact that this all hides behind a significant six-figure (maybe seven) sum to make it work well. Raising that money is hard - trust me, I tried (and kinda maybe still trying) to raise that money for Rebellion v2.
There’s negativity online, and people will say that I’m being negative in this article. I’m simply trying to raise some opinions from my lessons on the road
I also drafted this before the announcement of the new Rapha Super-League. This could be the best thing to happen to the UK domestic scene in a long time.
I would’ve made the series have half the amount of races - I’m a great believer in less is more - however, I’m not going to criticise, and can only praise Rapha for backing this.
It’s a step in the right direction by a brand that has a deep history in the UK race scene.
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I live in Texas and even at the amateur level we are seeing an issue with very low participation in road races. It's the opposite problem where we have promoters that are willing to put on the events but the racers are simply not showing up. The gravel scene continues to thrive here but road events are quickly disappearing because promoters are not even breaking even for their events.
I think one of the things that has kept places like France and Belgium thriving is the culture that's in place. You race for the sake of racing. You race to compete, to win and showcase the hard work you've put in. There's nothing fancy about the race in terms of setup or cool prizes, t shirts or whatever else. You simply crack on and race then head home.
In the US we have folks looking for an experience versus a simply run race. Our audience wants a production and productions are extremely expensive to put on.
Good take Joe. Thanks for sharing your ideas. As you know, I've been writing about many of these same issues for years. You are right about these things.