the cost of amateur racing?

--Darren--

Hilarious article alot of money for nil points :oops:

imposter2.0

"Winter bike - £2000"
"indoor trainer - I use a Wattbike, £2250"

FFS...

DeVlaeminck

Imposter wrote:

"Winter bike - £2000"
"indoor trainer - I use a Wattbike, £2250"

FFS...

Scarily he's probably not that untypical of many these days. Not sure how he manages to spend that much on "nutrition" - bananas and flapjack are cheap round here.

jgsi

Going public in the Telegraph (nuff said) .. well it hasnt done him any favours in many eyes local to me.

Grill

I have exhausted myself in ripping this article to pieces on FB, TTF and Twitter (he blocked me). Needless to say the article is sensationalist at best and downright untrue at worst. Rubbish article from a hack journalist.

mamba80

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Imposter wrote:

"Winter bike - £2000"
"indoor trainer - I use a Wattbike, £2250"

FFS...

Scarily he's probably not that untypical of many these days. Not sure how he manages to spend that much on "nutrition" - bananas and flapjack are cheap round here.

the piece is disingenuous, to say the least, he got 16k of bikes for nothing and he could have bought a TT and road bike from PX for about 4k, you obviously dont need a watt bike either but then again, he didnt price up a power meter/ computer or coaching services?
he makes a point about equipment costs that are spiralling, so even in youth racing, there are kids turning up at track meets on bikes that wouldnt have looked out of place at the 2012 olympics (same in youth road racing) the majority down here are also paying out 60 to 100 per month on coaching too.

we will finish this season and then pack it in, it is too expensive, some youth races are now £15 or 20 for a EOL, kids also get disheartened when either real or perceived they see that the only way to be competitive is to be coached and have the latest set of carbon wheels etc.

DeVlaeminck

I actually enjoyed the article - I thought it was partly tongue in cheek but did make a serious point at the same time. I certainly wouldn't hold it against him if I knew him, he's a cyclist and he's spending too much money on it I'm sure there are more than a few of us can relate to that !

As for kids in the sport - I look at it and think they'd be much better off playing football until they are 14 and then go out on their bikes with their mates and get into it that way. It seems so sterile with structured coaching etc. I think maybe some of the young ones enjoy it because young kids are used to structured activity but when they get to their teens it doesn't look like a lot of fun to me.

imposter2.0

Equipment costs for youth racing are only 'spiralling' if you allow yourself to fall into that particular trap. It certainly isn't necessary in order to win. Pretty much the same for senior (amateur) racing too.

maryka

Imposter wrote:

Equipment costs for youth racing are only 'spiralling' if you allow yourself to fall into that particular trap. It certainly isn't necessary in order to win. Pretty much the same for senior (amateur) racing too.

I dunno, cross these days requires at least 2 wheelsets (preferably tubs) if not a second bike. Don't even bother entering an "A" level race or National Trophy at any level if you don't have that, because equipment is vastly important in cross -- which ironically is the laid-back "fun" cousin of road racing. Not to mention a team in the pits, power washer, van, etc. etc.

Agree that equipment matters less in road racing but even so I'd like to see BC lay down some rules as to wheel depth etc. like they've been threatening to do in kids' races. I'd wager probably half the parents spending all that money are only doing it to to keep up with the Joneses, and many would be thankful for a few rule changes designed to level the playing field a bit. Except those pushy ones who believe their kid is the next Wiggins or Cavendish, but then again they can just go on down to Belgium to prove it if that's what they want.

stu-bim

Over 20 grand for 3 bikes and a watt bike are not recurring amounts so his 'annual cost' is bs

shockedsoshocked

He is local to the area originally. He's already been hammered on facebook over the article. If you look at his other articles apart from the serious oil industry ones, they are pure clickbait.