When Can Racing Get Back To Normal?

Events are critical elements of the cycling community. Races and organized rides bring cycling communities together, raise money to support cycling programs, and give the sport a new level of visibility at every level. 

2020 has offered up incredible challenges for many communities, but cycling races and rides, plus the organizations that rely on them, have been hit especially hard. In our home state of Michigan, events have been canceled since the pandemic began in March. As those spring events fell like dominoes, the hope was that things would improve in time for summer races. 

When Memorial Day caused a dramatic rise in cases, those summer events fell by the wayside, too. Fall events, even those rescheduled from the spring, were also canceled, and now the hopes of a normal race experience rest on winter fat biking or cross-country ski races in the winter. 

Globally, however, there are many signs that even the early months of 2021 won’t see anything like normal. At the highest level of cycling, the first event to cancel for next year is the antipodean duo of the Tour Down Under and Cadel’s Great Ocean Race. The two WorldTour events kick off the professional road calendar over two weeks of racing in Australia. After weeks of rumor and speculation, organizers from both events confirmed that they would cancel the WorldTour elements of their races, though they remain committed to offering some kind of a locals-only event, though details aren’t finalized yet. 

It’s a sign that international and intercontinental travel remains a major barrier for professional cycling and event organizers around the world. In the United States, events are already looking to 2021 as the year to bring racers back, but it’s almost impossible to forecast how safe that would be through the winter and spring of the new year. 

In Europe, countries like Spain, Italy, and France are all reintroducing lockdowns to stem the rising tide of coronavirus cases, even as the Vuelta a Espana enters its final week of racing. To date, that event has seen zero positive tests, a remarkable feat even compared to the relatively low positive counts from the Tour de France in October and the Giro d’Italia, which just finished a week ago. 

While the sport itself is deemed relatively safe, it’s the logistics of racing at every level that offer high-risk situations. Events are working hard to reduce the in-person elements of a normal bike race, such as registration and packet pick-up, startling lines, portajohns, changing areas, beer tents, and the other sorts of infrastructure that is designed to bring people together. Those elements are also created to give exposure and income to an event’s sponsors, who may not be as committed or interested in sponsoring events without those perks still a large part of the day’s proceedings. 

For many events, the mix of losing sponsors, a year without a race, additional health and safety expenses, and racers hesitant to risk their health, could present challenges well into 2021. If your local race has worked out a smart way to offer virtual events, let us know!