State of racing in the UK

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Right this is going to be a pretty Niche video but I thought it’s actually quite an interesting one so racing in the UK is pretty cooked for a number of reasons um basically everyone saying it’s getting worse British s decided they want to try and address this problem and

They got together a task force to look at this now this is their initial analysis some good points some clueless points let’s get into it so we used to have like six or seven quy teams in the UK there’s now one Cony team who I mean

I can’t be too harsh but they are kind of an interesting Continental team to put it like that uh with no bike sponsor but anyway it’s it’s not a good scene uh for sure so National Road series C produced classic there used to be way more races now for the men’s side four

Races women’s maybe five um they’re all there’s no stage races in the UK at a national level only at like a clo like open road level like Nat b but not the highest level um and yeah they’re also almost all in the north um it’s an important pathway I

Don’t think it is important pathway it’s never been an important pathway I really can’t think of many people racing uh exclusively in the National Road Series and going uh World Tour Matt Holmes jck ruk and gray Conor Swift that’s really it people don’t go pro in the UK so that’s that’s

Important but I do think this is a good point that people it should be a good series for people who don’t want to become professional bike riders here’s some of the stats 41% decline in entry some road races 2013 to 2019 that is significant uh like that is big so um

Yeah that is not not good signs but people like to do crits that’s bad sign in my opinion cuz crits are kind of lame uh but that’s just based on my own Prejudice maybe it’s not bad for the sport but I think if you want to come a

Professional road racer or increase road racing having more crits is not good but I think it goes to show people want to do crits cuz they’re safe and you don’t have cars driving at you um there’s been an increase of 3% in the average number of entries to all Races okay that kind

Of I don’t really understand cuz I assume this is at a national level cuz most road races in the UK don’t have that many entries so maybe that’s going to show there is demand but there’s not as many races um the elite racing yeah um the number of Cony teams has

Diminished there’s no point of being an elite development team if you’re not in the UK and EDT is like a team an amateur team that’s not Cony that gets like better entry to Nation series but you basically spend loads of money to gain not much back the team I manag BIM Bam

Are not an EDT cuz I don’t think there’s any point doing that um this is a good point many people just go to Europe straight away so domestic pathway less important I agree but that doesn’t really change anything that’s just a point I guess that’s that observation isn’t it that’s actually yeah fair

Enough I’ve answer my questions um ethnic diversity in the sport yeah I mean that’s just not good I that’s just not good I think we can all we everyone say that um cost of 10 races are rising I’d like to see some statistics with that to be honest cuz the statistics

They’re going to pull out later are chat so commercial the global economy is having issues I agree but there were issues in 2008 and I don’t think everyone just stopped sponsoring Cony teams so I think it’s bigger than that there’s Rising costs there’s always Rising costs since I’ve

Been alive we’ve always had inflation so again it’s like I I figures would be interesting you know just saying there’s rising cost well yes every year things increase in price so that is a not a great statement um varying levels of audience reach high-profile UCI rakers make it difficult to make new commercial

Sponsorship but that’s always been the case you know national roads racing has never been at a UCI level there used to be there was one UCI race in the UK there was two or three at one point but it’s never been a high level so that’s

Not a change um so so yeah I don’t understand that so data Insight um there’s limited information about commercial sponsorship okay understandable um British can investing significant amounts of money but it’s it’s confidential so again that’s kind of like well I’m giving you loads of money trust it’s like okay how much

Money you giving oh we can’t say it’s like well as people who are members of BC it’ be pretty useful if you could actually figure that out but anyway we move on uh BC pat on the back cuz they have a national chance it’s like come on mate

Every country as national champs like that’s just not impressive like most countries have a separate under 23 national champs including like usbekistan and like if we can’t if usbekistan can do that and we can’t I don’t think that’s a great thing to really be boasting about the national

Champs that’s like a bare minimum and I know you might say you’re being very critical here and it’s like well I kind of am but the UK is like one of the best in cycling in the world so I do feel like we should have some higher

Expectations of a governing body than to literally organize national champs cuz people said that before they oh at least we have national champs well come on everyone has a national champs um the observations the big the current economic environment makes a challenge SC Big Ticket sponsors yeah I just I’m

Not anyway we’ll move on there’s no data it’s limiting it’s making a challenge selling in the current economic environment again we just we we’re going round in circles Here Local Authority experienced significant budget challenges true but didn’t they also have massive budget challenges in 2010 when there was huge Council cuts across

The the board yes so again it’s interesting the nature of events is yeah but again we’re still we’re missing the big elephant in the room which is social media and there’s been zero mention of it so far and I do think that’s the biggest issue with the UK scene but I’m

Going to I’m mention that at the end um how can we change the races okay that’s a good point NC all and America very different style and maybe it is you know uh getting nor people the sport needs to attract new younger and diverse audience how can content be created yes finally

Social media that is key and without social media cycling is cooked everywhere like you just need to crack it out um majority media coverage on the domestic scene is not coordinated can’t be inconsistent yes uh broadcast and streaming costs can be prohibited again I just don’t understand this I did a

Race in macius and they literally had a guy on the back of motorbike with a phone on a gimbal streaming on 4G it can’t be that hard surely I’ll go on the back of the motorbike cuz I don’t R nor race National r going get punted I will

Do that for free like it really can’t be that hard and I’ll do live commentary like the stuff like this just cracks me it’s like you have motorbikes how much money does it cost to have someone you might go oh there’s not 4G okay fine maybe but it’s the fact there’s no even

Like interest in streaming it and that is an issue uh that I think people don’t seem to think oh well unless it’s like you know 1080P and on a film then we know we’re not going to film it but ultimately that is fine um what will the

Have the biggest impact on domestic RAC and to grow the profile um well again social media um and then yeah this is interesting many teams lack the financial source to coordinate publicity and social media channels no that’s just laziness I have I have a team and the

Amount of social media we create is directly proportional to my willingness to do it and I do think okay you’re asking a lot of people who or manage these teams but it doesn’t cost that much money to film some stuff and crack out a real every time you race

And you can look at bin bam and we have zero social media and that’s 100% my fault I’m not going around in circles but I don’t I don’t agree with this I don’t think that is something that makes sense can anything done support the teams for the boom bust cycles of

Sponsorship Ral no because that’s the way cycling is and you just kind of have to get used to it and hope um that you’re not going to have that if you make better content um National Road Series has reduced uh yes it has the calendar Elite domestic cyle needs to be

Spread around the country I agree uh this is a good point we need to have that how we have that is difficult and it is money again and it would also be nice if it was a pathway unfortunately it’s not this is the kind of interesting thing we’re getting towards again it

There’s been a decline of 54% the number of road races um when comparing so I don’t this is must be a national level again 35 to 16 which is mad cuz that is actually bananas how much decrease there has been um in these there been a growth

In this number of circuit races so again you can see like at a national level people do like this I do think though a national level is always questionable to me cuz I do think National level in the UK is weird because like at the moment most races that are at National level

The way it’s TR UK is the top ranked n a races a Clos Road n be just like normal races but those are National races cuz there are no natas and like I think it’ll be interesting have statistics on that there’s been a 12% uh cost okay

That is just irrelevant 12% % increase in costs inflation this year has been 12% so since 2019 that’s actually not that bad going um and you might say oh you know you’re in a privileged position but like four quid is not the reason why people aren’t racing like I don’t want

To be rude but it really isn’t there’s a lot of other costs that increasing but the the the cost of races I do not think is significant and if anything I guess they’re not saying it’s significant but I do think that is actually not a massive issue um so then the questions

Observations what’s the optimal calendar um what events do we need well where can we deliver them again can we align better Regional things all these are questions that no one’s really going to say can we identify new hosts um Can Legacy courses be revitalized um and then you know how can

We reduce costs which is fair enough um so initial observations it’s an okay document I think they got some parts that I’d say is good social media in the UK is kind of useless I don’t think any team does it well um and that’s kind of the biggest thing but it’s survival of

The fits if teams don’t do social media they won’t get sponsors and then people won’t actually want to invest so that is ultimately the thing is like if you want to have a UK domestic scene it’s all social media and when people get up and start realizing that they won’t have a

Team without social media um people will stop then eventually people will do good social media and will get back to being pretty successful um and then yeah I think the other thing is just like the races you have need to be streamed and like you just need to you know get

Someone to go on the back of motorbike with a video and film it it doesn’t have to be perfect doesn’t have to be unreal if you just film it people will watch it tor m is getting big videos and that macious has a way smaller s culture than

The UK so I do think there’s some simple things that can be done to increase viewership um but yeah I think generally at least the document is like starting to realize what the issues are I just think some of the stuff they’re kind of highlighting is not that useful and I

Think the main issue if we talk about the high Elite level in the UK is all about exposure and people just need to crack out social media um in order to get sponsors uh from my own perspective B bam have got a decent budget yet next

Year um again which is nice uh so for me it’s not a massive issue and also I the Bim race really in the UK they mainly do what we did one U last year um and then just amateur races which are not National level but anyway cheers for

Watching hope you enjoy this kind of rant SL video um and I’ll see you in the next one