Originally Posted by
Cleave
Heartened by the fact that there are 44 racers in the Masters 55+ and 19 racers in the Masters 65+ registered for combined field (scored separately) at the Valley of the Sun Stage Race. This by itself doesn't say anything about the health of road racing in the US, but it looks like the other fields are healthier than the past few non-COVID years. I try to be a glass half-full kind of person.
I watched a video of the P/1/2 crit/circuit race from the Swamp Classic that was held locally a few weeks back. I wanted to cry, there were only about 25-30 people in the field and no more than 2 people from any single team, it looked like a group ride and not a P/1/2 race. The same course used to draw out huge fields for the "Bring it On!" series just a little over a decade ago.
Meanwhile, I'll run about 20 miles this week. The last two times I rode a bike on the road I was run off by cars.