Why is MTB racing dead?

[BikeCentric]

Thread title is the topic. Just 10 years ago mountain bike racing in the USA was very big, as big if not bigger than road racing. There were many amateur races in the US racing hubs of Colorado and NorCal just to name two popular racing areas. Now there are less than half the amateur events in the US than there were 10 years ago (approximation mine, no statistical analysis was done there). Pro MTB racing seems close to non-existant in the USA and on life support on an International level.

Why is this?

Armstrong factor focusing most of USA's attention on road competition?

Economic problems in US (and rest of world) leaving room for only one primary market of bike racing (road)?

 

[Deagol]

this is a good question and I don't claim to know the answer.
From a personal point of view, I started racing MTB before I ever raced road and had some fun with it. I got into road racing after and now that's pretty much all I do as far as racing. I find that I enjoy RIDING a mountain-bike much more than RACING one nowadays. I don't want to ruin the fun of riding by worrying about racing. There is enough stress with road racing. I wonder if anyone else feels this way?

 

[nightfend]

It's the fickle nature of cycling. Right now the hot comodity seems to be cross racing. Eventually that will probably lessen and we'll move on the next great thing, maybe track anyone? Who knows.

 

[Deagol]

Right now the hot comodity seems to be cross racing........

true, that

 

[BroDeal]

Because it turned into a freak show when it embraced the "extreme sports" image and started using stupid terms like "gravity racer." Crap like dual slalom and four cross did not help. Neither did rampant sandbagging.

Enduro//24 hour/100 mile events are where it's at now.

 

[TheNJDevil]

It's the fickle nature of cycling. Right now the hot comodity seems to be cross racing. Eventually that will probably lessen and we'll move on the next great thing, maybe track anyone? Who knows.

I'm on board for making track racing the new "in" thing. Building more local velos is how it can be done. If you build it, they will come.

 

[BroDeal]

I'm on board for making track racing the new "in" thing. Building more local velos is how it can be done. If you build it, they will come.

No they won't. Track racing should be discarded in the dustbin of history.

 

[BikeCentric]

this is a good question and I don't claim to know the answer.
From a personal point of view, I started racing MTB before I ever raced road and had some fun with it. I got into road racing after and now that's pretty much all I do as far as racing. I find that I enjoy RIDING a mountain-bike much more than RACING one nowadays. I don't want to ruin the fun of riding by worrying about racing. There is enough stress with road racing. I wonder if anyone else feels this way?

Actually I'm in the exact same situation as you. So that's 2 ex-MTB racers accounted for.

 

[BikeCentric]

Right now the hot comodity seems to be cross racing.

I agree with this. I have not done much cross this fall but the fields in B's are twice the size they were 3 years ago when I first did a CX race.

 

[BroDeal]

this is a good question and I don't claim to know the answer.
From a personal point of view, I started racing MTB before I ever raced road and had some fun with it. I got into road racing after and now that's pretty much all I do as far as racing. I find that I enjoy RIDING a mountain-bike much more than RACING one nowadays. I don't want to ruin the fun of riding by worrying about racing. There is enough stress with road racing. I wonder if anyone else feels this way?

That might be why the enduro stuff is popular. Although they are technically races, a lot of people are just there to finish or to race against their own previous times. It is like ultra marathon trail running; a few people are actually racing for the win while the rest have personal goals.

 

[dfgfdgfdgdf]

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[scribe]

Quality bikes getting too expensive for entry level racers to feed into the sport?

 

[David Suro]

Overend, Tomac, Giovi, and Juarez retired from the premier racing scene and there was no American prepared to carry the torch.

MTB events such as Red Bull Freeride competitions gained popularity and are to extreme in nature to have mass appeal.

US Postal / Discovery were on the cover of non-cycling publications, which drew cyclists to road riding and racing.

Mountain bike races make for boring TV coverage. They are essentially technical time trials with limited acess on the courses for good coverage.

Vs. channel devoted a lot of time to road racing coverage in July, and for some of the classics.

 

[badboyberty]

I think it's a global thing. XC ceased to be considered "extreme" and lost most of it's marketing appeal to car and softdrink manufacturers, while the bike companies have tailored more and more of their own marketing towards the "trail/all-mountain" end of the market. 120-140mm travel duallies are the big sellers for cashed up casual/recreational trail riders, while 80-100mm carbon hardtails currently dominate the race scene. If you are a manufacturer, do you put your money into a race team, or into a demo truck? The fact is doing repeated loops of a 5-8km course for two hours is a long way away from what most mountain-bikers actually do, so paying someone to do that isn't a good way to show case your product.

The average club level XC racers will often not know who won the last World Cup or even who the current World Champion is; although they will be able to tell intimate details about the local trails and which obstacles pose a challenge for themselves and their riding buddies. And it doesn't help that so many up and coming XC stars move over to the road, which helps reinforce the sports second tier image.

Personally this year I stayed home and watched the DH/XC Worlds on Freecaster, next year I'm going to go interstate to watch the Road Worlds and to participate in the 24hr MTB Worlds. XC is a great sport, but like most of us, I'd rather be riding my local tracks rather than travel interstate or overseas to watch someone else ride their bike.

Although I am keen to see if with better camera technology we can start having decent coverage of MTB events...

 

[Wallace]

The problem with mountain biking as a sport is that it failed to gain an audience outside of the riders and their friends and family. When the sport took off in the 80's there was a great buzz about it, and a lot of roadies switched over, and the sport was a blast. It certainly had a great atmosphere at the races. But everyone who went to the races was either a racer, a friend or related to one of the races--you never saw people there who just wanted to see a good race and had no relation to the sport. That never changed. And as the newness of the sport faded, all the advertisers left to find the newer things, and the money left. The main thing is that without a real audience, separate from the people involved in the event, there's no money in a sport.

Mountain biking was also hit hard by trail closures. In the late 80's a lot of the most popular trails in the Northeast were shut down. When the Sierra Club took an active stand against the sport, mountain bikers were helpless against well-organized activists. Many of my favorite rides in Massachusetts and New Hampshire were closed in a matter of weeks--and the same thing happened all over the country. Plus, it was hard to argue with the environmentalists who said that mountain bikes did substantial damage to the trails--they were right.

I think the snide remarks about cross here are off base, because whatever you want to say about the current trendiness of the sport, no one I've met has ever thought cross has any chance of taking off and becoming popular with the masses--unlike mountain biking, it's a niche sport that's completely happy being a niche sport--the niche might get larger for a while, but nobody I've ever met thinks cross will gain a larger audience. And for a while there, some people involved in Mountain Biking thought it could be up there with, say, rodeo. Didn't happen.

 

[racerralph]

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[racerralph]

There are lots of great points put out there by a lot of the posters, as to the downfall of MTBing's popularity.
I thoroughly agree that the shift toward extreme riding and stunts put a chill on it for a lot of people. But I also think that the sport got impossible to keep up with, in terms of it's technology and ultimately it's expense. Breaking parts of a Mtn bike is much more common than breaking stuff on your road bike.
In the technology explosion You had V-brakes Vs. Disc brakes, Tubeless tires Vs. Clinchers, Full suspension Vs. Hardtail, Trigger shifters Vs. the rotating handle shifters(?), 29" wheels Vs. 26" wheels and as many travel lengths on your forks as anyone could imagine. Race bikes, Vs. Free ride bikes, Vs. Trail bikes Vs. DH bikes. It got to be too much to keep up with, let alone making a decision as to which category you liked best, and felt most comfortable in.
At this point, I still have my GT Zaskar hardtail, tricked out with XTR and Rock Shox fork, but I hardly ride it anymore. I'm on the road almost exclusively these days. But 10-11 years ago I was up at Mt Snow VT. for some incredible riding and spectating of some great racing. Or I watched Cadel Evans win in Vail CO. on a Diamondback bike!
I still like dropping in on viewing it when I can, But the last time I rode off road was 3 years ago. It has changed alot, and that is too bad. I hope it makes a comeback. But it needs more exposure on TV( but not jumping off of cliffs) to begin coming back into the public's eye.

 

[BroDeal]

Since the early 90's triathlon suffered a similar downfall as far as money in the sport. The big events are still packed and they charge a lot more than bike racing.

Personally I think one of the problems is that people found out that mountain biking is hard. It is a lot more difficult than road cycling.

 

[L29205]

Since the early 90's triathlon suffered a similar downfall as far as money in the sport. The big events are still packed and they charge a lot more than bike racing.

Seems most local events are still selling out in the Triathlon world at least in the midwest. It has become the new marathon craze. But you are correct the amount of money charged to get into a big event is insane. An average Ironman event is $525 and sells out in 24 hours with an entry limit of 2k. Most local races are $65-$100. But Sponsor dollars are going away fast, no one shows up but friends and family. I personally think that is what fuels the high price entry fees.

 

[BroDeal]

Seems most local events are still selling out in the Triathlon world at least in the midwest. It has become the new marathon craze. But you are correct the amount of money charged to get into a big event is insane. An average Ironman event is $525 and sells out in 24 hours with an entry limit of 2k. Most local races are $65-$100. But Sponsor dollars are going away fast, no one shows up but friends and family. I personally think that is what fuels the high price entry fees.

The participation is there, but the sponsorship dollars have evaporated compared to the heyday. The big events have to be major money makers.

100 mile ultra trail running events are also packed. All the major ones have lotteries.

The more extreme endurance events of various types seem to doing well.

 

[Merckx11]

Mountain Bike Racing is fun for awhile but at the end of the day, it is a Time Trial in the woods. And even Grand Tour Time Trials on the road, where you can see everything are only interesting to watch how the leaders are doing and how they compare.

For the other 170 riders in the field, it is like watching grass grow.
From a media stand point, you can't cover with television most mountain bike races because of trees blocking the views.

It also makes it harder for large numbers of spectators to get on the course with little room to stand along single track.
It is a marketing numbers game and road cycling is just bigger.

Even if your first love is racing mountain bikes, if you have the gift to turn pro, you tend to be better off choosing road, because there is more money in it.

 

[dolophonic]

yeah, we are all into cycling for the money right?

 

[kiwirider]

Couple of points:

Since the OP's post starts out talking about the lack of racing in the US and most of the accompanying grave diggers say that they're from the US, how about changing the title to "Why is MTB racing IN THE US dead?" (emphasis added)?

MTB racing across many other parts of the globe is very much alive and kicking. This may not be fields of hundreds depending on where you're talking about, but relative to other codes of bike racing in that part of the world, MTB is at least holding its own if not exceeding the levels of other cycling disciplines. I know that in my native NZ and adopted Canada I've had to get in really quick to get entry to events before maximum field limits have been reached. And then look to Europe - especially France, where there are a huge number of races at all levels all season (which is probably why they are so strong in most aspects of the sport).

And what's with the comments about "people are moving to enduro and 24 hour type events" as a reason for the "death of racing"? Correct me if I'm wrong, but those events still involve a number of people competing to be first across a finishing line - which I always took to be a "race". This is just like the same argument that came out a number of years back when DH overtook XC as the most popular branch of the sport in the US. I remember so many articles in magazines about the "death of racing" and how DH wasn't "proper MTB racing". Reality check - racing is racing, and if people choose to race in marathon and 24 hour events instead of XC races, then so be it ... doesn't mean racing's dead, it has just evolved ...

As for spectator numbers and TV coverage ... while I can't speak for everywhere, I know that we still get reasonable numbers at races I've been at. MSA and Bromont World Cups both had good turnouts - the latter even though it was bucketing down. They even each got hour long TV coverage on CBC. Club races still get pretty much the numbers I've always known. Sure, you'll get more people at a downtown crit - the attraction of sitting and having a beer or coffee while people race past is a hard one to beat. (On that note - how about bringing back the "fat tyre crits" that used to be part of a lot of events? Perhaps follow the "Le Challenge Street VTT" format that they started in France - kinda like a 2X for the street ... although for you folks in the US your ridiculous liability laws would probably get in the way of that ...)

So yeah ... to my mind (to paraphrase the saying) "reports of the demise of MTB racing are somewhat premature"

 

[Black-Balled]

I read an article that claimed in 200x. 45million people in the US rode road bikes, while 4mil rode MTBs. I can't do the math, but that is a lotta flats.

 

[Black-Balled]

The Crocodile Trophy stuff that Universal Sports (NBC Cable, God bless 'em) is running is about as badass as televised MTB is getting, IMO. I don't see it making the main Networks.

It is a participant sport and we like it. Not surprising that we feel it should be bigger with the public, but the public doesn't and won't agree.

IMO