A Modest Proposal: Let's Agree Not to Race Bikes in March
* Author’s Note: I wrote this several weeks ago, before the entire early season was in fact canceled by coronavirus. I am incredibly disappointed that some of my favorite events well into May have been canceled. However, if forced to be optimistic, I would say I am looking forward to seeing what a shorter, intense season of summer racing might look like.
Early in March, before we knew what was to come, I was out on a training ride on Saturday when a man I’d never seen before decided to shout something at me as he wizzed by, not really stopping for an answer. It was a question, but he assumed he already knew the answer so he did not slow down enough to allow me to answer. (This kind of behavior is more frequent than I’d like. Men, don’t, please.) He asked something about racing—either was I the one at the CRCA race last weekend, or would he see me at the CRCA race the next day. It didn’t really matter what he asked because I shook my head. No to last weekend, no to this weekend. No. To. Racing. In. March.
March is a terrible month. It’s winter. People confuse it with spring because the days start to get longer, but they are wrong. The majority of the month is winter. In many parts of the country, it’s often incredibly unpleasant to be outside.
A Modest Proposal:
Let's Agree Not to Race Bikes in March Ever Again
Winter isn’t over yet.
I firmly believe that amateur road races should not happen in March. It’s not just because the weather is terrible and I’m a wimp, although that is a major reason. I also think there are practical reasons a shorter racing season might cure some of the ills of our shrinking sport.
I say these things as someone who historically has done a ton of racing in March, starting with three collegiate season back in the late aughts (!!!), and continuing through most of the twenty-teens. Almost every race I’ve ever won has been in March. I hate it, but my legs kick ass at racing in the cold. As one of the people in New York City who has benefitted the most from the heroes who put on freezing-ass March racing, I am here to tell you we need to get rid of it.
Here are four reasons to move back and condense the road season by cutting out racing in March:
Weather. The weather is terrible in March. It’s unpleasant to be outside. It’s unpleasant to race in. It’s unpleasant to officiate in. It’s unpleasant to spectate in. Many years ago, I put on the Grant’s Tomb Criterium during a Nor’easter, with near-hurricane-force winds and rain pelting everyone for 12 hours. We couldn’t afford to cancel the race, and the officials decided the weather wasn’t quite bad enough to pack up and go home. I can still feel the chill in my bones from working registration all day inside a van. After March CRCA races, it’s hard to hang around and socialize without full-body shivers and worries of hypothermia. I once marshaled a race in March and it took a full day to feel my toes again after standing still for two early morning hours.
Burnout. Starting in March, the road racing season drags on for six full months. No one can be physically “on” for six straight months. In my experience, people (me) who go full-tilt for March races start to burn out around early June. Just as the weather starts to be really pleasant, the people who have been gritting their teeth through ice and the wind and the rain for three months just want to sit inside on their couch on beautiful 75 degree days because they’re so tired.
Race-life balance. It’s not a secret that road racing is bleeding. I don’t pretend to have the answer to growing the racing scene in the U.S. But here’s a modest proposal: cut out the racing in March. A lot of racers I know are the kind of people who go all-in on everything they do. That’s just their personality. If you give them races every weekend for six months, they’ll race every weekend for six months. There are physical issues with that (see #2), but I think there are larger structural issues. Amateur racers have to fit the time-intensive racing (and pre-racing training) season into full lives that include work, family, friends, and sometimes even other hobbies. At some point, something has to give. By stretching out the season for so long, bike racing probably loses a lot of people who feel like they just can’t put the rest of their lives on hold for six full months. Sure, no one forces a person to race for the full season, but I think the combination of the team-based system (peer pressure) and the obsessive kind of personalities that road racing attracts (the portion of the population willing to sit on a trainer for 10 hours a week to get in shape for racing are not, like, the most chill people in the world) makes it hard for racers to opt out of the full season. Even for the most amateur among us, racing and training takes up as much time as having a part-time job. Most of us make the decision that that time is worth it—fulfilling even. But eventually, one, three, or ten seasons in, priorities change and it becomes a time suck that people just aren’t willing to do anymore. That’s an inherent problem in the sport that cutting one month out of the racing season won’t fix, but I do think it could make it better at the margins.
Turnout. Related to points #2 and #3, I think people only have the capacity for so many races per season. I have absolutely no proof of this, I’m just pulling anecdotal evidence out my ass, but I think people are likely to complete as many races over a four- or five-month season as they do over six months. I know I tend to do as many cyclocross races per season (~three months) as I do over the doubly long road racing season. Cutting down the number of races stretched out over six months could increase the density of racers per race in a shorter season. Obviously that would mean cutting some races, which has implications for promoters who might end up losing their races to either timing or competition. But in a reality where the sport is shrinking I think it might be lead to more positive experiences for people who participate. For the most part, the bigger the race the more the enthusiasm, and shortening the calendar could be a way to keep enthusiasm and participation at each individual race higher even as the sport gets smaller overall.
