Is bike racing dying? | Cyprus 50km ride

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This is a hard conversation to have and i would love to hear your thoughts. I probably shouldnt have done this while cycling, its hard to ride and make sense sometimes but my point is quite simple. I want the sport of bike racing to grow, to do that i do think its our responsibility to help promote these things and do our best to attract sponsors back into the sport. I travelled a tonne to go to races this year, and enjoyed them all despite varying degrees of success. Id like to see the sport grow, the whole conversation is more nuanced than a quick youtube but that doesnt mean its not an important one.

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Bike racing has a little bit of a problem and today we’re going to have a chat about it. Guys, welcome back to the What Life. Let’s roll. Tie. Let’s go. I’m obviously still out in Cyprus. We’re going to go for a ride and chat all things or a little bit about bike racing whilst we do it. I’ve really enjoyed bike racing. Very important to remember your opinion is valid. My opinion is valid even if they are both very different. And you’re welcome to have a different opinion to me. Just if you’re going to write a comment, let’s be constructive cuz we’re going to chat and probably get into a little bit of nitty-gritty about it because I think bike racing in the UK is struggling, right? The elephant in the room is pretty simple. Max, you’ve been bike racing for a year. What the do you know? Good point. And funnily enough, I think that’s actually part of the problem because I know a lot of people are going to be watching this, or some people might watch this, one or two people might watch it and think, um, oh, I’ve been bike racing years and years and years. This guy’s been doing it one season, you know, what does he know about it? But I’ve been seeing a few things. Um, recently we’ve had two or three amateur teams and and guys, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t go off at me in the comments if I get things like a little bit wrong cuz I don’t know whether these teams I guess they are amateur teams, right? Primra have um stopped their race team, which I’m pretty sure wasn’t an an amateur team. Um, I don’t know the correct terminology for for that. They might be like a semi-pro. I don’t I don’t know. Um, yeah, I think the UK scene has had a change. That’s what we’re going to chat about. And the reason I want to chat about it is pretty simple. Let me jump on my bike. Let’s head out on the roads in Cyprus. It’s November, guys. Mid November, late November. It’s 29°. Don’t get jealous. So, we’re heading out for a 50k ride. I’ve said this before, the roads in Cyprus are super nice. 50k out here is about perfect cuz it means, you know, you can stay within reasonable touching distance of civilization. There’s no one here in December. So if you’re out in the sticks like in the forest, the Trudos forest, which is amazing riding, but you’re 2 hours away from anything. So if you get in trouble, I don’t know how you solve that problem. Anyway, right, I’ve had so much fun racing a bike this year. I’m new to it. I’ve spoken to a lot of race directors this year, just got their thoughts on things because weirdly, even though I’m quite introverted, like chatting to people. Um, and for context, this conversation is happening because the Bovington Bomber, which was a crit race, my local crit race, stopped happening. So, it happened for like three or four races over the summer and then it was just like we could there’s not enough people turning up. So, that stopped. Abington midweek Wednesday night series didn’t happen because they didn’t they weren’t getting the numbers. So, this is the type of bike racing I’m talking about. And this is why I think it’s really interesting. And you know, not to trigger too many people, but I know some people will be triggered by the conversation we’re about to have. And if you’re a forehand rider, maybe just stop watching now. So, running is absolutely having its time in the sun at the moment. relatively low barriers to entry, pair of trainers, little 25 quid race entry for a big event. Maybe it’s more now, maybe 45, I think, for some London 10ks, things like that. So, it’s an interesting space cuz running is growing and growing, more races, more events. Cycling is kind of or in the way I’m looking at it, not going the same way. Check out these little churches. There’s tons of them all over the island. Um, all super old, but I think they’ve all been like refurb. It’s cool though. Tons of really cool old architecture on the island from all the different kind of continents or countries, sorry, that have at one stage kind of ruled over the place. So it’s good that it’s all been preserved to some state. So running is flying doing really well. More events, more money. Running tourism is really flying. Like people are going abroad to do events and bike riding is kind of back on the up again. more people doing it, more local rides happening, but less or a lot less like club rides. If you ride with a club, you’re not getting the same younger generation enter club events, you know. And here’s the problem, which is as a runner five, six years ago, if I ran a 35 minute 10k, I could go to a 10k race and just run 35 minutes. If I wanted to run a 10k now, I can’t do 35 minutes. I can do I’d be lucky if I do 40. I wouldn’t be allowed to go and do that same race if it was cycling cuz I’m not quick enough. And in running it’s less comparative to the other participants. You know, you are not battling against a whole group of people trying not to get dropped in a race. So what’s happening is the high end of the bike scene, you know, the quick boys, the fast boys, the E12s, Nat B’s, um, Cat 2 riders. The truth is, again, in my humble opinion, you need the Cat 43 guys. You need lots of them cuz they feed through. And that feed through is what bolsters the ranks of the higher boys. And ultimately the reason racing is getting less sponsorship, less teams, it’s getting less eyeballs, less money, and this will trigger some people. You just, it needs more media, good media surrounding it. I actually watch quite a lot of the US crit racing stuff. Not cuz I know anything about it. Just comes across as quite cool. nice bikes, good personalities, hard racing, and that I think in some senses is what we’re missing in the UK. You can’t film at Lee Valley. And I know some people will say, “Oh, that’s cuz Lee Valley said no, or British Cycling said no.” That kind of stuff. Um, yeah, I get it. But we need to change it. We need to change it a lot because if we don’t have cycling, if cycling doesn’t have lots of cat 4 races, cat 3s, you are going to run out of cat 2s, E12s, nat B’s because you have to go through that process to get to that level. Um, and the truth is I think sometimes what I’ve experienced is uh, and guys, I know my place. I know I’m never going to be an E12. I know I’m going to never be in that B. I’m hoping if I can get to to Cat 2, but that’s the plan. Um, and I think sometimes I’ve had people kind of take a stance of like, oh, and this isn’t about me, but the people that genuinely have been upset with something that I’ve done or posted or said have been the guys a bit higher up the cats because I feel like they think, “Ah, whatever, whatever. It’s just happened for boys. I’m looking at you because the truth is we need more eyeballs on the sport and those eyeballs have to come um from every place. You know, I love the Team Raptor guys. like I will I’d love to kind of help support them with video content uh in any way I can whether that’s just advice on how to do it or coming and shooting things with them because I want them to be successful because I know that they are well above my means of performance but we can still connect on a level of riding our bikes. I don’t I don’t know what the answer is necessarily but it is a tough one. And I like the race directors will, you know, drop me a message be like, “Hey, fancy coming to do this race. Um, and I’ve traveled around a lot quite unnecessarily to do races.” But we need to put a good foot forward in terms of what it means to ride and race bikes so that we can get more people to come participate. One of the awesome things I have seen is that London is getting a night crit race or a certainly a UCI sanctioned uh crit event which I’m not sure whether it’s going to be the via crit. I haven’t actually seen enough information on it. But these events are awesome for promoting the sport. We just need lots of people making lots of media around it. And I know you might be rolling your eyeballs, but that’s the truth is the money follows the media. And and what I mean by that is, you know, the more people that do it, the more people that see people doing it, the more people will come and do it, more events get hosted, and that I think helps grow the sport. Oh, on that note, I am struggling today. Few beers, coffee this morning. Ah, absolute battle. But I am kind of loving it. So, what can we do about it? Good question. The one thing I’d like to see more of next year is firstly actually if you’re a young kid riding racing a bike the Raptor guys have now set up a fund for bike racers which is going to support the industry which I think is awesome good way of doing it but they’ve effectively taken a step back from sponsoring or title sponsoring their race team and instead put some money towards creating a fund for bike races which I think is awesome we need yeah one thing I have noticed is a lot of these races are put on in a rather I don’t know how to phrase this like a bit of a thankless way you know a lot of um volunteers for races a lot of races are hosted by people that kind of don’t race themselves nowadays anymore. You know, mid middle mid to late age people, you know, who help put these on, which I which is awesome, but that won’t last forever. So, it can be a bit of a thankless task. Sebotley does a great job down at Goodwood. I wish I could remember more names of the race directors that have emailed or I’ve spoken to this year. I think we need to champion more people like even like competitors, different race teams. I love seeing race teams at events. Um, uh, yeah, I think it’s great. I think Jamie Williams does a really good job with his reflex racing and Jake does a really good job with the the Wolftoothoth guys, the Wolftoothoth LicoL. Can’t remember the third one. Sorry, Jake. But that again is another thankless task. So, if you are a bike racer and you turn out to a race in any capacity as a teenager or someone that’s a bit older, let’s try and create more buzz next year. Let’s get a real buzz about some of the UK circuit racing that happens week in week out. You know, some of the bigger events are always going to create buzz themselves. you know the via but even with the via crit the crowds for the Brompton World Cup are bigger than the crowds for the E12 via crit race which kind of goes to show and again my opinion you know feel free to disagree just don’t swear at me um that in actual fact we need to get everyone excited about this you know we don’t just need to try an appeal to bike racers cuz they’re already doing it. And I understand it. It’s super hard to do the thing and make content or share something. But if you’re racing for a team, let’s put a bit more effort into talking about it, sharing a photo at an event, tagging a race organizer because that will help and we get more eyeballs on the sport. And it’s a bit of a ground up approach because I feel like the top level takes care of itself because that has money. The elite elite elite elite elite level. These are all people shooting signs with uh plet guns, little air rifles. Some of the roads out here are insane. But I am now in the middle of nowhere, which is actually quite nice if I’m honestly dead quiet. I recommend you do that more often yourself. That’s a gravel road. I’m pretty sure this is a Strava route. We’re back on the Strava mapping. It might have just given me a gravel road. Let me go and have a look at it. Why not? Nothing else to do today. Bit of gravel goes down. Well, I guess that is the problem with the Strava routting is it doesn’t always know the difference between a road road and a road road. It’s fine. On the note of gravel, they have a gravel festival out here in April or May. I can’t remember what it’s called. It’s called gravel something obviously in Cyprus in April or May. I have a feeling it would be awesome because there’s so many like chalk gravel roads out here, fire access trails, farm access trails. So if you are into your Grab, it’s worth at least a Google search. That was shortlived because perfect tarmac cruddy gravel. Perfect tarmac. Cruddy gravel. They make such an effort or they out here in Cyprus. They’ve redone so many roads. So many of them are like this. And this is just a back road, but then they obviously not bothered finishing it for that 3 400 m up to the other main road. Will it get done? Who knows? But this is most of the island that you’ll ride on if you come out here and ride. It’s insane. Like literally the best roads I’ve ridden on. But then you do have that and you also get this. Anyway, I love bike racing. If you see me bowling around at a bike race next year and I’m I am going to do it again. The plan is, you know, I’ll say it now. I’d love to try and get points to get into Cat 2. Let’s not even go into that right now. But if you see me at a race next year and I’m walking around with my camera, come say hi. I’ll take photos of like I’m happy to shoot photos of people. Like, I want to do that more. I want to get more buzz around it. Um, I know that what some people think about the Cat 4 guy, me, or now Cat 3 guy going around making racing videos. I know some people like the forand guys just kind of roll their eyes when they hear my name, which is cool. I get it. 100% get it. Just stop getting upset by it. Like, let’s just do it. Let’s just go out there racing bikes and grow the sport. I think we need it. Um I’m not saying it’s dying. You know, people have said it’s dying on its knees. I still see huge communities of people turning out to races. We just need more. How good is this road now? Gravel then this. This is better than good. You might be tired of hearing it, but I absolutely love this bike. Let me just show you what happened on the front fork with the steering lock, which you can’t full lock the steer. So you can’t full rotate it. And you can see that when I had my accident, it forced the bars round and I have a scratch on the front fork. We’re not happy about that. But that was partly my fault, but also it’s the same problem that the system 6 has, which is the candal system 6 had, which is not being able to full lock a fork, which eventually leads to a lot of problems. This is a whole bottle of cherry lemonade. So, it’s time to head back. Actually, leave Cypress tomorrow. Been here for two weeks. Let me give you 90 seconds of BTS of what I’ve been up to for the last two weeks. Good morning. Rise and shine. Gratitude’s magic. Ride along the road. There we go. We’ve done 50k, just under 1,000 m of climbing today. Um, bike racing is always going to be around, I hope. Um, but I think I think the people that do it can do more to help encourage more people to come come do it safely, etc. That’s probably another conversation or a conversation for another time. But there’s a reason that London Marathon 3 years ago had 600,000 people apply and then for next year they got 1.2 2 million cuz people hype it up and a lot of it is, you know, it’s it’s people hyping themselves up and it’s all this like self-promotion, but that’s kind of all right because it pushes the whole tide up. You know, rising tide lifts all ships. So, you know, I’m locked in for next year, another season of bike racing, get down Hillington, Abbington, Goodwood, try and do a few races I haven’t done. I want to do Crystal Palace, but I am nervous as hell. Firstly, cuz I’ve I’ve never done it. Um, secondly, well, I’ve never done it because I’ve only just become cat three, so I’m only just allowed to do it because there’s no cat four race. Um, it obviously I just think it tracks like a really cool crowd and I know the guys that turn up there. I’ve seen it loads and I’d love to go and do it on that basis. Um, I also know that I make YouTube content. I don’t want to want to upset any of the, you know, the guys that have been doing this for years. Like, that’s definitely not my goal. So, there we go, guys. Job done. Cypress is absolutely great. Roads are awesome. The obviously you get, you know, 28, 29, 30°ree weather in November, December, which you don’t quite get in south of, you know, Calpe, Morca can be a little bit iffy here. It’s been it’s 300 days of sunshine uh over in Cyprus. You’re just missing a little bit of the cycle culture. So, you know, do with that what you will. Please do like, subscribe, drop a comment down below if you have a thought on bike racing. I love the fact that I get to meet so many people doing it. I love meeting like younger 18-year-old kids who are getting into it. Let’s keep encouraging that and get more people to come do it. See you at a race soon. say it hurts to live this way. I don’t mind the pain and I like to feel the shame of it. Why would you leave?