- The FACT$ -
Two stage races are included in that number - Tour of Washington County and Green Mountain. Green Mountain alone was $205, though I counted each separate event of a stage races separately as to not effect the average cost of a "single" race. The price also includes one-fourth of a 4-man team time trial.
That means an average race, before the $2-3 web convenience fee or day-of penalty, costs $31.74. If you remove Green Mountain from the calendar that drops to $28.35.
If you exclude Green Mountain's average of $51 per stage, Jeff Cup ($38) and the Air Force Crystal Cup ($40) were the most expensive. Chantilly and Ride Sally Ride were the cheapest at $20.
Lost River, Coppi, Page Valley, and Murad were $35 each. Poolesville was $32; Turkey Day was $30. Everything else I raced was $25 or less.
Highway-2-Heaven was $22 for a 0.8-mile race, by far the most expensive per-mile.
- COMPARISON$. -
Bike racing is surely cheaper than triathlon, where race registrations are rarely below a Benjamin, and sometimes skyrocket to more than a McKinley. Not the mountain - the guy on the $500 bill, if you were wondering.
As much as we complain about bike race pre-registration, it's so much more convenient to our calendars than triathlon. I would guess that we usually register 1-2 months before a race. Triathletes have to register upwards of 6-12 months in advance.
As bike racers with day jobs and families, our intertia can take us in many directions in that time frame. I don't know where I'm eating lunch today, much less where in the world I'll be on a random Sunday next year.
Anyone know how this all compares to running?
- PRE-REGISTRATIONS. -
Another fun comparison is the Northeast cycling culture. They just don't pre-register, apparently. In MABRA, for everything but Jeff Cup or BIG races (Clarendon, BikeJam, etc.), I presume, it would makes sense for all of us to chill out a bit on the rush to register.
At Tyson's, for example, I heard that my club (NCVC) has been able to allow anyone that shows up from any waitlist to enter the race, both in 2009 and 2010. The referees have politely given some leeway for the 51st or 52nd Cat 5, but that still means that a significant number of pre-registrants aren't showing up.
That double-booking is good for our race promoters' budgets, so nobody should be complaining.
Speaking of pre-registration, here's a tally of the number of non-junior pre-registrations for MABRA races that still had their information online (Pre-Reg didn't have much information available).
Fun fact: According to PRE-Registration (non day-of) females make up 14% of MABRA racers. That is slightly above USAC's 12% population of women. I'm sure more women sign up the day of each race, but I do not have that information.
One speed bump to this sort of tallying is that race promoters in MABRA are required to report finishers to USAC, but that information is inconsistently reported. Some results include full start lists with DNFs, some include DNSs, some only include actual finishers.
So when you're sending in your upgrade request, you're SOL if you're trying to find out how many starters there were.
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2 comments:
This is fantastic bike geek porn, Bert. Pre-reg wanes from start to finish, no doubt, but what about the trend w/in categories? For example, do pre-reg numbers decline at the same rate for Cat 5s as they do for MABRA as a whole?
Wouldn't it be great if MABRA sold a season pass for, say, $300? That way, the incentive would be to pony up, and then pre-reg and actually show up at races (rather than stay home and watch for rainclouds and save money). Of course, if you're injured, you lose out...
I actually did the spreadsheet I used by separating each category's attendance. I think we can work something up to what you're thinking.
The tricky part is when there are 3/4 or 4/5 races instead of 3, 4, and 5 races (or both). But we can compare apples to apples, at least.
It's in the works. Not enough time in a day for fun analysis, though.
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