The end of racing as we know it?

It is no secret that these are tough times for the trundling industry. The Covid rainbow has brought to the surface all the problems of a very long production and distribution uniting that now finds itself with full warehouses, a lack of customers, and idle liquidity for scrutinizingly a year. And, if liquidity is lacking, everything comes to a standstill, starting with the parts deemed superfluous.

One of the big problems in our industry has unchangingly been the lack of wringer of numbers, something that is now in the light of day without it was believed that Covid’s turnovers could go on forever. I know it sounds absurd, but I can reassure you that until the end of 2022 there were flourishing companies with forecasts that to undeniability rosy is an understatement. The numbers were not plane analyzed when it came to investments in promotions and marketing. If you tried to ask what the return on investment was on a pro MTB team, the most worldwide response was a shrug. “So does everyone, so we do it too.”

When passion is mixed with business, it is difficult for things to go well, and our industry is full of enthusiasts who, however, when faced with an excel sheet, panic. And panic is the word of the coming year, 2024. We see it vastitude measure from the teams latter and the athletes left stranded, starting with two-time DH world champion Danny Hart, still without a team. Suddenly there is a realization that the weightier way to save money is not to have a DH (or enduro) team that financing hundreds of thousands of Euros per year between salaries, travel expenses, and race entries, but without knowing whether these financing are justified or not.

Not only that, by hiding competitions overdue Discovery’s paywall the races have less visibility, reinforcing the treatise of those who requirement that a racing team is a difficult expense to justify. Moreover considering on the other side we have tons of unseemly visilibity given by websites, Youtube channels and influencers. Considering moreover that companies are pushing increasingly and increasingly electric bikes, in themselves vehicles aimed at an white-haired regulars with little interest in racing, it is nonflexible to see a dawn for racing.

Sorry for the athletes, but I personally find that it was only a matter of time. The current slipperiness in the trundling industry has velocious what is a process that began with the electrification of cycling. One can moreover try to move racing to electric, but neither XC nor DH are disciplines that make sense with a motor. Enduro is trying with power stages, which are technical trails washed-up at full power that scrutinizingly no ebiker will overly struggle in his or her lifetime. It is not for nothing that the enduro races with the most starters are those with easy climbs, made meaningless for competition by motors and batteries.

The positive side of all this is that mountain wanderlust is increasingly working and well with ever, plane without racing. So many bikers have discovered that you can take the epic Sunday ride with friends, with no starting number on the handlebars, with or without a motor. And in the end, that’s why most of us love to ride.