FR EE
MOUNTAIN BIKE MONTHLY Issue 02/2013
VIPA PEAK
pg18
TRAILS pg8
WINpg11
Having fun after dark Hydrate for optimum performance
Are stage races too expensive? Mountain biking is hardly a cheap sport. Let’s not kid ourselves the bikes are relatively expensive, and the prices of all the gear adds up pretty quickly too, but the thing that shocked Seamus Allardice most as a newb to the sport was the event entry fees. So he decided to have a closer look at a few of the bigger South African multi-day events and their costs.
D
on’t get me wrong, right off the bat I should point out that organising a MTB stage race is a costly business. There is an almost never ending list of factors to consider from accommodation to insurance and on to water points. But then the well-attended races do seem to gross a fair amount. A case in point would be a race costing R3 000 with 300 entrants will gross R900 000. R3 000 is a fairly conservative figure to use, as the average 3 day stage race cost in 2013 is R3 644 for a solo entry and R6 600 for a team
of two riders. As you can tell from the lists on page 2 the race entry costs do vary greatly. The longer events are understandably more pricey, and because of the wide variation in days they’re not really directly comparable. Generally though, they vary in price from the relatively cheap 4 Day Sabie Xperience at R2 090, to the bankbusting R27 950, for the full Royal Suite luxury on the Rovos Rail 5 Star MTB experience per person. But one has to ask if these costs are justified? I spoke to an avid mountain biker, who would rather not be named, who took part in the 2011 Cape Epic. He did not appear overly concerned by the fact, that all considered the event cost him about R70 000, but he did say that he wouldn’t be taking part again. He told me that in 2012 he went to Europe for a fraction of the cost, and enjoyed 15
days of riding in the Alps. And he’s currently planning a return trip for the European summer of 2013. Now that’s very nice, and you’ll be excused if you experience the briefest pangs of jealousy, but once you’ve ticked the Epic off your to-do list it does free you up. But the initial point he made stands, it cost him around 70K to take part in the Epic in 2011 and that’s a fair amount of cash. So event organisers should be reminded that the entry fee, even when it covers meals and accommodation is hardly the end, (or even the biggest) of the expenses. But I’m not going to beat down on the event organisers too much, because putting on an event is very expensive. If you have a look through the UCI’s Practical Guide to Organising a MTB Event you’ll be
turn to page 2