Do gravel race participants care about "lining up with the pros"?

[spoonrobot]

Saw this post from EB in the gravel bikes thread and think it deserves it's own discussion. An Op-Ed from gravel racer Lauren De Crescenzo about the status and possible future of Gravel events.

This is obviously an multi-faceted issue. If women need their own race for a fair event; that necessitates a separate race for the men, which requires a division between pro/amateur. The justifications for why this is bad seem imaginary, theoretical.

https://www.cyclingnews.com/blogs/la...in-bike-event/

In addition to my racing, I am actively engaged in shaping the future of gravel through my involvement in an athlete advisory group collaborating with Life Time...

On the mass starts, especially in gravel, I think a change is crucial if we want to establish true women's races, rather than relying on chance factors such as which male group you're caught up with, pro or amateur...

...The current setup often feels arbitrary, relying too heavily on external factors like male assistance or motives.

For women to compete on a level playing field, we require our own starting line. This is essential to guarantee that the strongest racer wins.

My view is that most attendees do not have a strong preference for "lining up with the pros" and care more about the total event atmosphere. I think separate start times would change little about the current events, however separate days would have a negative effect. People want the excitement of a big event where is feels like they did something and things happened that bring them attention and status from their peers. This idea that Gravel grew from small niche events to 100x national events based on "lining up with the pros" is nonsense.

The groundswell was there before there were pros and the current statistics show the largest areas of growth are at the distances where there are no professional riders - the intermediate and short distance events.



I also think that what happens at the Lifetime Grand Prix and other national level events, can, but often does not, effect local gravel events. Larger events are a smaller part of the whole than online posting would have one believe.

Fundamentally, the success of Gravel is based around the idea of accomplishment and esteem to every rider. The fact that pros and amateurs would be separated means little in my view.

The decline of other cycling sports is based around the relative pointlessness of the pursuit, not the categorization and professionalization of those sports. Providing a sense of purpose to individual attendees is what gravel does better than other disciplines, right now. I do not believe the changes to the professional categories will change the culture in such a way as to be detrimental to this idea.

Is there a large population of gravel racers who are drawn to events to line up with the pros? Will separate start times and separate races drive these people elsewhere? Is there a difference between stated and revealed preference in this instance? Does it matter?