Is road racing too expensive?

ajkerr73

Alejandrosdog wrote:

I always thought bc races were eye wateringly expensive. And to get anywhere means you’re racing twice a week minimum du ing the season so 150 to 200 pcm on entry fees.

Plus kit
Plus transport costs
Plus all the rest.

Notwithsatanding the cost of putting the event on racing in the UK is a very expensive sport.

My experience of racing in Europe was that the event costs were a fraction of bc and it wasn’t unusual to have closed roads esp in local crits.

Comparing "racing in Europe" and here is not a discussion on race costs, it's a discussion on how national cycling bodies support and subsidise cycling in Europe versus the BC approach .

PS - to Joey who reckons it's £10-£15 and hour to race.....train harder, pedal faster and you'll make a profit in these races! ;-)

joey54321

Ha! old thread. Thanks but I think I am done with road racing. This season I've found that the ones I have entered just don't do it for me any more, it's not worth the time and money for me.

Instead, I am gonna carry on racing cross through the winter and go back to TTs as a regular racing fix in the summer. Also gonna through in some self-supported ultra racing to dip my toe in that particular pond.

david37

Road racing is great but is it too expensive depends on the persons personal situation.

I think its extraordinarily expensive, twice a week at least for 6 months of the year is too hard for me to justify, especially when travel costs are factored in it can easily be £200 per month for entry fees. I also found that i needed to race lots to be competitive, training alone wasnt enough for me.

in addition a couple of tanks of petrol cost £150 plus all the rest. I def didnt feel like i was getting £500 a months worth. Thats not to say i think organisers are taking the piss, far from it, just that for me it wasnt viable.

fenix

You must have been clocking up more race days than Froome.

imposter2.0

david37 said:

Road racing is great but is it too expensive depends on the persons personal situation.

I think its extraordinarily expensive, twice a week at least for 6 months of the year is too hard for me to justify, especially when travel costs are factored in it can easily be £200 per month for entry fees. I also found that i needed to race lots to be competitive, training alone wasnt enough for me.

in addition a couple of tanks of petrol cost £150 plus all the rest. I def didnt feel like i was getting £500 a months worth. Thats not to say i think organisers are taking the piss, far from it, just that for me it wasnt viable.

Presumably you were riding National A/premier calendar events, but unsupported? I'm struggling to think of any other way you could be spending that much every months...

amrushton

Ben6899 said:

maryka wrote:

My post wasn't meant to take a shot at Joey. Great that he (and others like him) volunteers because without them, the sport would be even more expensive. Just giving him a realistic breakdown of costs.

It was more the "cheapskate!" line by Franco that I was looking at. And maybe the assumption that Joey rides around on Boras and wears Assos all the time. :-)

When I read some of the posts on the forum I thought tubulars, Boras/Lightweights and Assos/rapha were de rigeur