Interesting view point from the rider perspective.
From a commercial view point, the main reason the scene is dying is purely down to British Cycling and race organisers. Commercial partners want to see a return from investment and currently what generates that return? Tour of Britain on ITV2 for 5 days of the year, and the tour series the day after the event on ITV2 in the evening. It’s hardly game changing from a coverage point of view and any commercial business worth their salt recognises that BC and its partners aren’t doing enough to create significant enough interest from an audience perspective or attracting new audiences.
At a time where most businesses are withdrawing spending on anything non-essential due to the current financial position of the UK and the general inflation/cost of living challenges, combined with a cycle industry that is now in the hangover stage of covid and has more inventory than it has demand, then there’s no surprises that the vision of domestic racing from BC and race organisers is struggling to get investment into the scene.
Saint Piran is an anomaly to all of this and is pretty much bank rolled from passion, and I’d be surprised to see it last a couple more years as the model isn’t sustainable.
If the ‘scene’ needs to change then it needs to look at the current F1 model and how Liberty Media has overhauled the engagement and revenues it generates. Part of the problem, is that are far too many hobbyists in positions of power for the scene, and not enough business people that understand how to generate revenue. If we have more of the latter, you’ll see more funding coming in, more riders and teams going professional and overall standards improving.
Thanks for the Lincs League mention, up to 5 races this year and the first 2 have sold out in 24 hours. We are trying to keep grass roots racing alive. Great article.
I don't know how difficult it would be financially.
By upgrading a race to a UCI it would attract foreign teams and riders which would effectively raise the prestige of the event. If you raise the prestige, there is more interest from fans and media which results in more sponsorship ££
This is exactly my argument, somebody like Colin should not be expected to put his own money into organising the race. In fact, he should be paid a salary for doing so!
Regarding riders moaning about the lack of races, I'd argue back that it's not their responsibility. In addition to training approx. twenty hours per week, plus holding down a job to support their racing, where is the time to organise a race?
I do think that once a rider leaves the racing side of the sport that they should look to giving back. But, why should they be expected to do while racing?
Support for the scene from riders only goes so far, and really doesn’t fundamentally address the elephant in the room in that outside of the hobbyists, no one actually watches these events. The first thing that is needed to be addressed is how do you get consumers excited by bike racing?
Most comments I read about the current state of the scene fail to look properly inwards and go ‘how do we make this more appealable to the average member of the public?’ Instead, we get sideways conversations of how we need people involved currently to be doing more marshalling. Ps. As a Joe Public myself, those nuances mean absolutely nothing as to whether we watch bike racing.
It’s like the equivalent of asking a designer to design a new website for free and they can get paid in exposure. Exposure doesn’t pay bills.
If the UK cycling scene really wants to be taking seriously it needs to look at how it commercially supports itself. It needs to have a stronger set of business minded individuals to be in more controlling positions of influence in the scene, to generate the revenues that can sustain careers, development, and legacy.
Interesting view point from the rider perspective.
From a commercial view point, the main reason the scene is dying is purely down to British Cycling and race organisers. Commercial partners want to see a return from investment and currently what generates that return? Tour of Britain on ITV2 for 5 days of the year, and the tour series the day after the event on ITV2 in the evening. It’s hardly game changing from a coverage point of view and any commercial business worth their salt recognises that BC and its partners aren’t doing enough to create significant enough interest from an audience perspective or attracting new audiences.
At a time where most businesses are withdrawing spending on anything non-essential due to the current financial position of the UK and the general inflation/cost of living challenges, combined with a cycle industry that is now in the hangover stage of covid and has more inventory than it has demand, then there’s no surprises that the vision of domestic racing from BC and race organisers is struggling to get investment into the scene.
Saint Piran is an anomaly to all of this and is pretty much bank rolled from passion, and I’d be surprised to see it last a couple more years as the model isn’t sustainable.
If the ‘scene’ needs to change then it needs to look at the current F1 model and how Liberty Media has overhauled the engagement and revenues it generates. Part of the problem, is that are far too many hobbyists in positions of power for the scene, and not enough business people that understand how to generate revenue. If we have more of the latter, you’ll see more funding coming in, more riders and teams going professional and overall standards improving.
Thanks for the Lincs League mention, up to 5 races this year and the first 2 have sold out in 24 hours. We are trying to keep grass roots racing alive. Great article.
Well done for telling it how it is. We do need to find solutions, but we also need to face the truth.
I’m a bit naive to this area, but I wonder how difficult it would be for a Nat A race to become a 1.2? What effect would that have?
I don't know how difficult it would be financially.
By upgrading a race to a UCI it would attract foreign teams and riders which would effectively raise the prestige of the event. If you raise the prestige, there is more interest from fans and media which results in more sponsorship ££
This is exactly my argument, somebody like Colin should not be expected to put his own money into organising the race. In fact, he should be paid a salary for doing so!
Regarding riders moaning about the lack of races, I'd argue back that it's not their responsibility. In addition to training approx. twenty hours per week, plus holding down a job to support their racing, where is the time to organise a race?
I do think that once a rider leaves the racing side of the sport that they should look to giving back. But, why should they be expected to do while racing?
I understand your argument. Is the problem that a National A costs £80,000 in the first place?
I also think it's unfair to say that riders don't support the scene. There are plenty of other ways (other than organising) where they do help out.
Support for the scene from riders only goes so far, and really doesn’t fundamentally address the elephant in the room in that outside of the hobbyists, no one actually watches these events. The first thing that is needed to be addressed is how do you get consumers excited by bike racing?
Most comments I read about the current state of the scene fail to look properly inwards and go ‘how do we make this more appealable to the average member of the public?’ Instead, we get sideways conversations of how we need people involved currently to be doing more marshalling. Ps. As a Joe Public myself, those nuances mean absolutely nothing as to whether we watch bike racing.
It’s like the equivalent of asking a designer to design a new website for free and they can get paid in exposure. Exposure doesn’t pay bills.
If the UK cycling scene really wants to be taking seriously it needs to look at how it commercially supports itself. It needs to have a stronger set of business minded individuals to be in more controlling positions of influence in the scene, to generate the revenues that can sustain careers, development, and legacy.