Originally Posted by
caloso
My wife and I have a tradition with Cherry Pie crit which is in Napa.. I’d race in the morning and then take her to a nice lunch and wine tasting in. the afternoon.
I live in Napa. I know plenty of folk in the cycling community here socially and through cycling. I’m active-ish on social media, and I’m frequently in multiple different LBS’s in town. I’ve taken the family to Sacramento for the ToC the last 2 years. But every year, Cherry Pie creeps up on me. I maybe find out a week in advance that it’s on, and my wife has probably already made plans. So I’ve been able to attend it once.
So maybe marketing is part of the issue for many of these races. There may well be cycling enthusiasts out there who don’t even know about the existence of a major cycling event right in their backyard.
i can also testify from my experiences with playing, watching, and organizing tournaments for rugby in the US, it’s hard to get Americans to come out for a sport that isn’t an “American” sport. Even for a national championship game, it’s rare to get much more than competitors and immediate family and friends.