Thursday, January 26, 2012

Cheap Fooker!

Is it me or has bike racing gotten really expensive?

It looks like your standard XC race is still about $25-$35, but anything longer seems to be astronomical.
I skipped doing a road race with my team because it was $80 and I didn't want to use up that much of the budget on a secondary interest.
Well it looks like if I want to do any longer format races I better get ready to sell some blood.

Hampshire 100 = $100
Pat's Peak is $80-$140 depending on how many hours you choose to race.
Darkhorse 40 is $75
and VT50 is $125

Iron Cross is a veritable bargain at only $60.

It seems the dollar goes further in PA as there are some  50 milers there for only $60 as well.

Is it just what the market will bare, or does it really cost that much more to run these longer events?

I'm off to roll  pennies and collect some cans.

6 comments:

Dan said...

It is crazy, but it seems the further west and south you go the cheaper it gets and the better the course gets. I can go down to NC to do the Burn 24 for a $100 or spend $150 for the same ole Great Glen, and never mind Pat's Peak they charge a bunch for a pretty horrible course. It's pretty bad when I would rather spend 12+ hours in a car to race on a fun course then spend 2 hours driving to go up and down a ski slope

Brandi said...

Its expensive over here too. I don't ride bikes but run marathons and its rediculous..."here let me pay you $85 to run on this road just last week I was running on on my own."
hope you don't mind I stopped by here..cool blog

run-style-run.blogspot.com

CB2 said...

@Brandi How could I mind? I was going to suggest you check out my friend's blog but it seems she stopped updating it around the time she was in the final push to her wedding. Still might be worth a look.

http://www.the-e-stylist.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Bring back the $12 entry fees and no payouts! MTB racing suffered regionally here last year and now the races are going up once again. Let's see what happens this season.

CB2 said...

@Anonymous
I've been racing in New England since the mid-Nineties and unless it is some sort of bootleg or unofficial race we've never had races that cheap!

It would be nice.

Rather than do away with prizes, maybe do away with prize for adults and have SUPER AMAZING prizes for juniors. Maybe cut down the number of classes too.
How about Cat1, 2, 3, with limited age groups. Junior, 19+, 46+, Elite. If you're a really fast 50 something you can race 19+ or Elite.
Get rid of the singlespeed class.

But the real question I have is are the longer format races really double the cost to produce, or is it just a supply and demand what the market will bare thing?

Yes, I do know an lot of these races support a charity.

Cervelo Girl said...

Oh God, don't even get me started! If my bike and gear didn't cost enough, the reg fees definitely put me over the edge. I want to do a little sprint tri in a couple months.. $75! Ironman was $250! That's just 2... I have countless events planned for 2012... I may have to pick and choose. :(