Not all bike races are created equal, and there are differences between community fundraisers like trail building or for-profit ventures. There are those races that push riders’ limits and those that prioritize adventure over high heart rates. Overall, these events rarely make significant returns on the time spent by race organizers and volunteers and that especially is the case in 2020.
By signing up for a bike race you expect a different experience from the one you could organize yourself, whether that is driven by the need for support, a desire to widen your community, or simply self-challenge. For that reason, I’d encourage everyone to attend a bike race in some form of participation. Why not ride the Alpine Energy Ten Hour?
Here are some reasons to join a race this summer. Whether this is your first time considering entering a race, you are a seasoned veteran, or a family member looking to become more involved with your significant other’s passion. Even if racing isn’t for you, consider volunteering as a race marshal, medic, or course setter to reap many of the benefits below and some good karma as well!
Races provide the rare opportunity to really dig deep into yourself both mentally and physically. You may be heaving after a very taxing hill climb, thinking that you have drained yourself, but add in family, friends, and strangers cheering you on, the competitive desire to catch that rider just ahead of you, or the chance to win a prize and you may just find a side of yourself that you haven’t experienced before. That push into new mental and physical states is how you become stronger, and knowing what you have accomplished, regardless of placing, will provide endorphins for hours, days, and weeks to come.
No matter the distance of your usual rides on the weekends, there is a limit to how much food, water, and supplies you can carry to push the boundaries regarding distance. Races offer support through aid stations, medics, and volunteers who provide everything from fruit and energy bars to mechanical services and coffee. With the multi-lap races like the 10-hour, that aid station may be the one operated by your teammates and it can be as simple or as grand as you want to make it.
Showing up at races allows you to support your local club or community organisations. And it also gives you the opportunity to find other people with similar riding abilities to yourself and hang out after the race with a beer in hand, reminiscing about close calls or hard efforts with your fellow competitors.
The profits from the races can contribute to maintaining existing trails and often lead to the creation of new ones. You should feel good about choosing to spend your weekend outside and helping support trails.
Beyond the immediate benefits to local clubs and local trail building, the economy at large benefits immensely from motel reservations, to selling cups of coffee. Just showing up in your local community to ride bikes will increase the likelihood those communities and land managers will want to support bikers in the future.
You should leave every race you attend with memories to last a lifetime, whether they involve standing on a podium, good times with friends new and old, or accomplishing something you wouldn’t have thought possible. Beyond the endorphins provided by these thoughts, most races have at least one photographer on course to preserve your momentary suffering or joy in digital form, to last forever. These photographs capture emotion, something that can be hard to recollect with memories alone.