Originally Posted by rubiksoval

So USACrits has their first event in Birmingham, AL, so only about 3 hours away, but they've closed registration for the P/1 race unless you're one of the "D1" teams that have paid them to be called a "D1" team. Both the Men's and Women's races have $7000 or so in prize money, whereas the "regular" p/1/2/3 race has like...$700.

And I can't quite figure out how to feel about this.

On the one hand, I think it's total b.s. that you can't do a cat 1 race (because there's only like...6 pros that race crits anymore) because you're not a on a cat 1 team that has a ton of money to throw at random things like this. Not only can a cat 1 not do the race, but they're left instead to race a bunch of cat 2s/3s. So there's not nearly the same competitive aspect. So where's the impetus for cat 1s to go to these races? Or be on a team that isn't stacked with other cat 1s and flush with money? I find that absurd and really irritating.

On the other hand, they're working on creating a sustainable model that returns revenues to the teams through paid online viewership, and apparently this year, a bunch of prize money. So someone is trying to do something to save elite domestic racing, because there's basically no professional circuit any more.

Back on the first hand, I probably won't go to this race now unless some teammates want to double up with the masters race and 1/2/3 race, whereas I 100% would go if I could do the actual proper race.

Ahhhh. Maybe I'm outgrowing bike racing. It's starting to look increasingly silly.