I read this article this morning about how the UCI says they would like Cyclocross to grow as a world sport and the domination by the Belgians is bad for the sport. The article goes on to say about the growing number of participates in the US, how it is becoming more popular here and that the Worlds being held here the next two years is very good for the sport.

I hate to burst Peter Van den Abeele’s(UCI guy) bubble, but cross here in the US is barely a niche sport at best. Granted, more people are participating, but for a sport to flourish, it has to have an economic base. And cross has no economic base. It is a closed system with the only money going into the sport is the money of the participates. Very little sponsorship, no spectator funds, no TV dollars.

I doubt there are 5 riders, here in the US, that make a living racing cross. And that living is meager at best. There is no professional sport that has 5 professionals as their base. Everyone else is just trying to cover equipment and expenses.

If cross is going to succeed here in the United States, there needs to be a economic way for the best riders to exist. And that isn’t going to happen anytime soon. It would be cheaper for an American to move to Europe and race there completely unsponsored than to try to do the US racing “circuit”. There isn’t a circuit. You can say anything you want about the Gran Prix Series, but it doesn’t constitute a race series. It is a bunch of races that try to add prestige to their events by designating themselves something special. They have the same bullshit prize list, that the UCI supposedly mandates, and the same high entry fees. The prize list at an UCI C2 race is $2068 for 25 places. Divide that out and you get an average of $82.72 per place. About like a good prime in any local criterium. Then subtract the $45 entry fee and you’re getting close to nothing.

In Belgium and most everywhere I’ve raced in Europe, the riders are paid by the races to come and compete. The start money is much more than the prize money. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sven Nys makes somewhere between 5000-10000 Euros everytime he suits up. There is very little, if any, start money ever paid to start an UCI race in the United States. Some races offer riders some travel money and waive their entry, but that is the extent of their generosity. With that being said, there is an exodus of the best cross riders leaving the sport for the road. Lars Boom a couple years ago, now Stybar is going to focus solely on the road. The cross attraction, even is Belgium, is not enough to keep the best riders in it exclusively.

Paying $75 plus to ride our National Championships at the Elite level seems like robbery. Same for the Masters Worlds. I think I paid 10 Euros, maybe a little more, to race the same race in Belgium last January. That is less than $15. I really don’t understand why the promoters of our sport are the only ones that seem to be able to make any money from it.

The sport of cyclocross is succeeding here in the United States because the participates have a passion for the sport. If that is going to be sustained, then everyone involved, that is the industry, USAC, the race promoters, everyone, has to have that same passion and desire to make it viable. That isn’t happening here. I hate to say it, I doubt it ever will.

Below are a couple shots I grabbed off the screen of the GVA Loenhout this morning in Belgium. Each spectator probably paid at least 10 euros to watch. It is self sustaining at that point.

Last night I went local cyclocross race, the Grote Prijs Shawnee in Kansas City. I’ve been putting in some hard training days. I haven’t really been able to tell how I’m going just training, so thought that it was a good time to race. If I jacked up my hamstring or some other mishap, I still have over a week to recover. I’ve been kicking around just skipping Nationals in Madison and going straight to Louisville, but I can’t really see missing the best racing weekend of the season, by far.

Last night was super fun. The course was lite as best a local even can be. Mark Thomas had rented a couple big, generator run stadium lights, but it was still dark in a few places, which just made it all that more exciting and seem that much faster. I have no idea why a person’s mind perceives speed differently when it’s dark. It always seems like I’m going so fast, on the road and off road, when I’m riding at night.

I had ridden an hour and a half with Bill in the afternoon pretty hard, so I didn’t feel the need to warm up so much. I don’t think there is a better warm up for a race than riding for more than an hour, earlier in the day. That is the reason that lots of times you’ll see the domestic Pros going for a ride in the morning before a criterium.

I rode a few laps on the course between the races. The course was tight and tricky. The ground was a little soupy, thawed and refrozen turf, which got slicker as the evening progressed. I felt pretty good warming up and was looking for a good work out.

I got a fair start, going into the grass third. Starting used to be my forte, but it seems to have alluded me recently. I moved up to 2nd early, behind Brady Kappius, Clif Bar, Littleton,CO. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to catch his breathe from starting or that was going to be his pace. I was well within myself, which is a very nice thing in cross. I was hoping that I’d actually be racing someone most of the day. I felt like I needed to be stressed by someone else’s tempo at times. And I like seeing where others expend their energies on a course. But after about 1/2 a lap, I knew I was going to be riding by myself the whole day. I felt good and wanted to put in some big surges. I got a gap on the field, but Brady came back by me hopping the barriers much faster than me.

I rode just a little while longer with him and then rode the rest of the race on my own. I can’t complain about my form or feeling. It is nice to be able to exert power on grass when you need it. I do have to admit, that after one long boggy section, I was looking forward to the next few turns to rest some.

The race was less than an hour, which was fine. My lower back and stomach has been kind of sorts the last couple weeks. My back was fine during the race, but still felt shitty driving home. I have no idea what that is all about. Normally, I don’t has any issues with those parts of my body. It’s always something I guess.

Since we’ll be talking so much about promoters, I have to go on record that promoting bike racing is a very hard job and greatly under appreciated. It has to be under appreciated because it’s such a hard, thankless job that it is only for the passionate. That is the best thing about the US cross scene. The passion. We all have it. There were probably around 150 riders total at the race last night. And every one of them had a great time. So, thanks Mark Thomas and all the other guys out there that would rather be racing, but instead expend their energy so others can race.

It’s going to be warm here the next few days. Nearly 60 today. I’m still going to be riding pretty hard the next few days. I’m training through Nationals, hopefully going fast for Louisville. It’s a very inexact science in my case. I’ve never been very good at it.

First lap over the barriers. Brady was ahead of me after the 2nd barrier.

The race for 2nd and 3rd was heated all night between Brady and Daniel Miller.

Catherine won the women's race and looked like she had some form, which is always nice.

I was trying to stand and get back up to speed as often as possible. I've probably been watching too much super charged cross racing on the internet recently.

It's only appropriate to ride by a chicken coop in a cross race.