Did this Gran Fondo winner motor dope?

[fourflys]

Originally Posted by GregL

In upstate NY, even the crits have disappeared. I've been keeping a list of departed races. I'm up to 25 races (MTB, crit, circuit, and traditional road) that have dropped off the schedule since Y2K. Twenty of the 25 were USA Cycling sanctioned. I understand that most people are put off by formally sanctioned races and would rather participate in non-sanctioned events. For those of us who enjoy competition "at the pointy end" of a race, the options are dwindling. It's fast becoming cyclocross or nothing around here... and there are less cyclocross races than in previous years too.

Greg

you might call this the inverse of the Lance effect... I didn't really get into cycling until well into the "Lance era", so I can't really speak to the beforetimes, but I assume there was a surge of events in the US after Lance won his first or second tour and Trek picked up the sponsorship.. it seems like we are now on the crash after the high? at least as it pertains to road especially..

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by Bostic

I watched the video a few times slowed down. Since I have DI2 on a bike I'm familiar with top buttons. If he has a mechanical left shifter and electric on the right, he shifts a cog or two in the back. Then what? Press the top button to change a field on his computer? He doesn't even tilt his head down to look at it. Yeah perhaps his eyes glanced down since he's wearing Eyeshades. You can clearly see his right thumb knuckle bend and then move back into the position that matches the left.

He didn't, so what's the point?

[zap]

Originally Posted by fourflys

you might call this the inverse of the Lance effect... I didn't really get into cycling until well into the "Lance era", so I can't really speak to the beforetimes, but I assume there was a surge of events in the US after Lance won his first or second tour and Trek picked up the sponsorship.. it seems like we are now on the crash after the high? at least as it pertains to road especially..

The number of USCF races is down considerably. Far less than when I raced in the late eighties. I organized several tt series in the early 90's and then again in early 2000's....all were well attended.

This speaks to popularity. Our district tt earlier this year....if you showed up and rode the course on a hybrid wearing sneakers and sipping beer you very well could have podiumed.

[benb]

Originally Posted by tomato coupe

The fact that sanctioned races are on the decline, while gran fondos (and gravel races) are on the rise, supports the idea that most people find the latter to be more fun.

The confounding factor here is also that the promotors/organizers might make a lot more money running fondos/gravel races and other unsanctioned races as well, so there is a strong incentive there.

No officials to pay, no license fees to collect which make the racers think it's too expensive, less rules to pay police or ambulance to be on hand, less rules in general, more money in the pocket of the organizer.

One of the things that always left a bad feeling in my mouth with fondo type rides is you pay the money but you're definitely not guaranteed to get what you paid for, and they are not nearly as upfront about that as what happens at a USCF race. It's not like the officials at a USCF race don't make it clear that you might get pulled from the race if you get dropped or if you do something dangerous.

[benb]

Originally Posted by fourflys

you might call this the inverse of the Lance effect... I didn't really get into cycling until well into the "Lance era", so I can't really speak to the beforetimes, but I assume there was a surge of events in the US after Lance won his first or second tour and Trek picked up the sponsorship.. it seems like we are now on the crash after the high? at least as it pertains to road especially..

I was right at the correct age for the Lance effect. He won his first TdF the year I graduated from college and I got into riding over the course of the year after that.

Lance effectively killed MTB racing (X/C at least) and sent everyone over to race on the road for a while. I most certainly got caught up in that.

IMO Lance's mutating from 7 to -7 effectively reversed it all only everyone seemed to go find something other than cycling to do. It's not like MTB or Cross or something picked everyone up.

Realistically the MTB race series I did are still going. But the races that remain are all like 5+ hour round trip drives. Not all the races remain, and the ones that survived are the ones further out in the rural areas than never really had the masses of road riders required to start having local road racing like in the city. 20 years ago I could cherry pick the close ones. Once they were all really far away it got way harder to want to do them. Any race/event I do that requires me to drive the car more hours than I ride my bike is something I have a really hard time being motivated to participate in.

[GregL]

Originally Posted by benb

I was right at the correct age for the Lance effect. He won his first TdF the year I graduated from college and I got into riding over the course of the year after that.

Lance effectively killed MTB racing (X/C at least) and sent everyone over to race on the road for a while. I most certainly got caught up in that.

IMO Lance's mutating from 7 to -7 effectively reversed it all only everyone seemed to go find something other than cycling to do. It's not like MTB or Cross or something picked everyone up.

Realistically the MTB race series I did are still going. But the races that remain are all like 5+ hour round trip drives. Not all the races remain, and the ones that survived are the ones further out in the rural areas than never really had the masses of road riders required to start having local road racing like in the city. 20 years ago I could cherry pick the close ones. Once they were all really far away it got way harder to want to do them. Any race/event I do that requires me to drive the car more hours than I ride my bike is something I have a really hard time being motivated to participate in.

I started racing in 1993, so I was ahead of the "Lance Effect." Otherwise, my experiences mirror yours:

• XC MTB racing died in the mid-late 1990s, but lately has seen a resurgence in my area. I'm hoping to purchase a "racy" hardtail 29er next year to jump on the bandwagon.
• Lots of racers (both road and off-road) stopped racing and moved on to other sports, or no competitive sports at all. Let's face it, staying at a competitive fitness level for even amateur bike racing is hard! Some of my former competitors have moved to fitness-only cycling, some to motorsports (motorcycles and cars, primarily), a few to running (sneakers being cheaper and more easily transportable than bikes), and several to no significant athletic activity at all.
• There are still races out there, but instead of drives of less than an hour, it's 2+ hours and sometimes overnight accommodations required. Hotel and restaurant costs blow up the overall financial impact of a race very quickly.

Greg

[tomato coupe]

Originally Posted by benb

The confounding factor here is also that the promotors/organizers might make a lot more money running fondos/gravel races and other unsanctioned races as well, so there is a strong incentive there.

No officials to pay, no license fees to collect which make the racers think it's too expensive, less rules to pay police or ambulance to be on hand, less rules in general, more money in the pocket of the organizer.

There's no confounding (?) factor. Attendance in sanctioned races was on the decline in the U.S. long before gran fondos and gravel races surged in popularity. The profitability of gran fondos is not what drives their popularity.

One of the things that always left a bad feeling in my mouth with fondo type rides is you pay the money but you're definitely not guaranteed to get what you paid for, and they are not nearly as upfront about that as what happens at a USCF race. It's not like the officials at a USCF race don't make it clear that you might get pulled from the race if you get dropped or if you do something dangerous.

Not guaranteed to get what you pay for? I have no idea what that means. Every gran fondo I've ridden delivered exactly what they said they would deliver. They also had rules that allowed them to remove unsafe riders, and pull riders from the race if they didn't reach certain checkpoints by certain times.

[mistermo]

Originally Posted by Upcountry

Nah, he's clearly running a mechanical Shimano groupset, as evident by the shift with his left hand prior to pushing on the hood with his right hand... Di2 Brake/shift levers don't swing inwards...

Also, the excuse for no power meter is pathetic...

I'm not a Shimano guy, but can't you press the button on top of your mechanical lever to change the display on your computer? Before he presses it, he looks down. Maybe he wanted a different display?

[Tandem Rider]

Originally Posted by benb

I was right at the correct age for the Lance effect. He won his first TdF the year I graduated from college and I got into riding over the course of the year after that.

Lance effectively killed MTB racing (X/C at least) and sent everyone over to race on the road for a while. I most certainly got caught up in that.

IMO Lance's mutating from 7 to -7 effectively reversed it all only everyone seemed to go find something other than cycling to do. It's not like MTB or Cross or something picked everyone up.

Realistically the MTB race series I did are still going. But the races that remain are all like 5+ hour round trip drives. Not all the races remain, and the ones that survived are the ones further out in the rural areas than never really had the masses of road riders required to start having local road racing like in the city. 20 years ago I could cherry pick the close ones. Once they were all really far away it got way harder to want to do them. Any race/event I do that requires me to drive the car more hours than I ride my bike is something I have a really hard time being motivated to participate in.

I started racing in 1976, cycling was much bigger in the late 70s than at any other point in my lifetime so far. Junior fields (my age group then) were often over 100 riders, many of us would "double up" and also race and place in the Cat3. It was the era that spawned a large group of US racers that made it in Europe (LeMond, Phinney, Bradley, Shuler etc), following in the footsteps of Eustice, Mount, Boyer, and Neel. Bikecentennial became a thing for those not racing. Cycling dropped off in the late 80s and 90s because that's what fads do, Lance gave it a bump, but it didn't get it's former popularity back.