These are things I think about all the time Spencer. As someone who has spent plenty of time running USAC races and now gravel races like SBT and FNLD, it amazes me the lack of effort being put into safety by some of these promoters. We have corner marshals, moto marshals, police, Sheriff Deputies and Colorado State Patrol on the SBT GRVL course and I still worry about it. I have ridden in events with none of those things in place and it is scary as hell. Not sure how many need to get killed before people start to take it more seriously (racers and promoters). The "open road" policy was fine when gravel was just a few dozen friends going for fun, crazy group rides on dirt roads but things have changed.
Safety costs money, think $500 per intersection. Some promoters have deep pockets (LifeTime) but are trying to maximize profits, thus choose to only invest in safety until the risk is “mitigated enough”. Other promoters are legitimately cash strapped and may even be losing money on other things like renting porta potties / pay a town to get permits.
Nobody is "licensing" these events and the responsibility of safety falls on the promoters. Even USAC says that its up to the promoters. Some promoters are out there doing it for the love of cycling may just be well intentioned hard working people that have no clue how to run a bike race and make it safe.
This is why Ted King paused Rooted VT, as he felt there was no way to make a gravel race safe enough for all. Racing bikes on open roads has always been dangerous. But it’s cheap.
Road racing in the USA doesn’t work because of economics. Cost to close a course for return on investment is non-existent. Gravel racing does have profits because promoters don’t have to spend $$$ on safety.
Agreed. Ironically for the 'spirit of gravel' crowd, rules and regulations can save lives. Road racing's yellow line rule is a perfect case in point. USAC ain't perfect, but having a set of safety rules & regs - many learned and instituted through hard, hard experience - can certainly benefit race promoters who may have limited experience.
It does seem like we're at a tipping point, where the alleycat rules and take-care-of-yourself ethos that worked for a few dozen riders way out on a prairie have crashed into the herd mentality of a field 2,000- and 3,000- and 4,000-people deep at events that finish in towns and even cities where motorists are just trying to go about their day and aren't expecting cross-eyed people in stretchy pants to be running red lights.
Here in Colorado, Scotty and Chandler have been putting on events for 20 years, and like Micah and others, they spend a lot of time worrying and planning and worrying and planning. In addition to marshals and police, one of their solutions for gravel events is to neutralize the out-of-town and back-into-town sections. It shortens the 'race' part, but takes the 'should I blow this stop sign/red light?' question out of the equation.
I 100% agree. The majority of large gravel events I have don have had unmarshalled 4-lane road crossings and stop busy stop lights in the last 2 miles. Luckily, the groups I have been in have bee smart and said 10th-15th place is not worth it, but all it takes is someone at their limit at the end of a 5-10-hour race to decide to attack and that 10th place is really worth it and risk their life.
Agree here, and adding: this conversation can and should extend to organized gravel group rides, and rider accountability in general when heading out to rural areas, solo or in groups. Our accountability to ourselves, other riders, our local cycling community and the communities we're riding through is something overdue for consideration, conversation and finding a way forward. As you say, complex, but a holistic solution is available.
May 11, 2023·edited May 11, 2023Liked by Spencer Powlison
This is awesome Spencer, some great points made on the promoter side of this topic and imo that seems where the responsibility lies- get more law enforcement involved (approaching the level of Pro Challenge), more full road/rolling closures, and start breaking up the start groups. The model of putting over 3000 riders mass start onto roads and expecting them to self police state laws on riding (no more than 2 abreast, don't impede traffic?) is flawed. It's been alarming that the extent of any safety callouts from gravel promoters are statements to the effect of "We are not responsible for your safety", "follow rules of the road", "ALL ROADS ARE OPEN TO TRAFFIC. FOR YOUR SAFETY, PLEASE BE CONSTANTLY AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND ABIDE BY NORMAL TRAFFIC RULES". Combine that with zero officials on course to enforce anything even if there were rules and what outcome do you expect? Unbound Gravel: "Roads are open to the public and athletes are expected to follow Kansas bicycle laws" with a link to traffic laws. That's the extent of safety rules at the biggest gravel race in the US? How many unbound riders do you think click that link and review the traffic laws? And more importantly do you care when you're head down at mile 198 to pause and consider if you're breaking a law that's vague to begin with?
Speaking from the government side of things... you should have an ‘event permit’ from the local government and in Pa a ‘special event permit’ from the DOT district office if you use state roads, plan to direct traffic, or require traffic to detour.
Event insurance may be required and all the detour signs needed are yours to pay for, put up, and get approved - as is the traffic management plan you’ve submitted to the DOT.
Better to have a local government sponsor the event, and you buy the needed insurance and have EMT services on call. They have some staff to help with the DOT.
Using the same route each year really simplifies things.
Have all your support staff trained in First Aid too.
Very good thoughts. Thanks for bringing up this topic. I think your ideas are solid and a great starting point. These also need to be shared with the broader gravel racing public.
Totally agree with your points! It's been interesting to see how some participants react to our safety measures in the Grasshopper Adventure Series in NorCal over the past few years.. Safety is everyone's responsibility and I would love to see more information sharing between event promoters to ensure that best practices and standards are implemented all events.
Thanks for starting the conversation, SP. So much to discuss. One thought: Since most gravel races lack any form of comprehensive rules enforcement (for various and often understandable reasons), should race participants feel a sense of duty to speak up when they see rule infringements and/or negligence on the part of either fellow racer or promoter? Is it fair to place that burden on someone who "just wants to race their bike"?
In 'cross races there is often a protest period, if I'm not mistaken, where one racer can make a complaint or point out an infringement anonymously to the officials. Does this exist at gravel races?
These are things I think about all the time Spencer. As someone who has spent plenty of time running USAC races and now gravel races like SBT and FNLD, it amazes me the lack of effort being put into safety by some of these promoters. We have corner marshals, moto marshals, police, Sheriff Deputies and Colorado State Patrol on the SBT GRVL course and I still worry about it. I have ridden in events with none of those things in place and it is scary as hell. Not sure how many need to get killed before people start to take it more seriously (racers and promoters). The "open road" policy was fine when gravel was just a few dozen friends going for fun, crazy group rides on dirt roads but things have changed.
Safety costs money, think $500 per intersection. Some promoters have deep pockets (LifeTime) but are trying to maximize profits, thus choose to only invest in safety until the risk is “mitigated enough”. Other promoters are legitimately cash strapped and may even be losing money on other things like renting porta potties / pay a town to get permits.
Nobody is "licensing" these events and the responsibility of safety falls on the promoters. Even USAC says that its up to the promoters. Some promoters are out there doing it for the love of cycling may just be well intentioned hard working people that have no clue how to run a bike race and make it safe.
This is why Ted King paused Rooted VT, as he felt there was no way to make a gravel race safe enough for all. Racing bikes on open roads has always been dangerous. But it’s cheap.
Road racing in the USA doesn’t work because of economics. Cost to close a course for return on investment is non-existent. Gravel racing does have profits because promoters don’t have to spend $$$ on safety.
Agreed. Ironically for the 'spirit of gravel' crowd, rules and regulations can save lives. Road racing's yellow line rule is a perfect case in point. USAC ain't perfect, but having a set of safety rules & regs - many learned and instituted through hard, hard experience - can certainly benefit race promoters who may have limited experience.
It does seem like we're at a tipping point, where the alleycat rules and take-care-of-yourself ethos that worked for a few dozen riders way out on a prairie have crashed into the herd mentality of a field 2,000- and 3,000- and 4,000-people deep at events that finish in towns and even cities where motorists are just trying to go about their day and aren't expecting cross-eyed people in stretchy pants to be running red lights.
Here in Colorado, Scotty and Chandler have been putting on events for 20 years, and like Micah and others, they spend a lot of time worrying and planning and worrying and planning. In addition to marshals and police, one of their solutions for gravel events is to neutralize the out-of-town and back-into-town sections. It shortens the 'race' part, but takes the 'should I blow this stop sign/red light?' question out of the equation.
I 100% agree. The majority of large gravel events I have don have had unmarshalled 4-lane road crossings and stop busy stop lights in the last 2 miles. Luckily, the groups I have been in have bee smart and said 10th-15th place is not worth it, but all it takes is someone at their limit at the end of a 5-10-hour race to decide to attack and that 10th place is really worth it and risk their life.
Agree here, and adding: this conversation can and should extend to organized gravel group rides, and rider accountability in general when heading out to rural areas, solo or in groups. Our accountability to ourselves, other riders, our local cycling community and the communities we're riding through is something overdue for consideration, conversation and finding a way forward. As you say, complex, but a holistic solution is available.
Great post Spencer. Agreed on all of this.
This is awesome Spencer, some great points made on the promoter side of this topic and imo that seems where the responsibility lies- get more law enforcement involved (approaching the level of Pro Challenge), more full road/rolling closures, and start breaking up the start groups. The model of putting over 3000 riders mass start onto roads and expecting them to self police state laws on riding (no more than 2 abreast, don't impede traffic?) is flawed. It's been alarming that the extent of any safety callouts from gravel promoters are statements to the effect of "We are not responsible for your safety", "follow rules of the road", "ALL ROADS ARE OPEN TO TRAFFIC. FOR YOUR SAFETY, PLEASE BE CONSTANTLY AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS AND ABIDE BY NORMAL TRAFFIC RULES". Combine that with zero officials on course to enforce anything even if there were rules and what outcome do you expect? Unbound Gravel: "Roads are open to the public and athletes are expected to follow Kansas bicycle laws" with a link to traffic laws. That's the extent of safety rules at the biggest gravel race in the US? How many unbound riders do you think click that link and review the traffic laws? And more importantly do you care when you're head down at mile 198 to pause and consider if you're breaking a law that's vague to begin with?
Speaking from the government side of things... you should have an ‘event permit’ from the local government and in Pa a ‘special event permit’ from the DOT district office if you use state roads, plan to direct traffic, or require traffic to detour.
Event insurance may be required and all the detour signs needed are yours to pay for, put up, and get approved - as is the traffic management plan you’ve submitted to the DOT.
Better to have a local government sponsor the event, and you buy the needed insurance and have EMT services on call. They have some staff to help with the DOT.
Using the same route each year really simplifies things.
Have all your support staff trained in First Aid too.
Very good thoughts. Thanks for bringing up this topic. I think your ideas are solid and a great starting point. These also need to be shared with the broader gravel racing public.
Totally agree with your points! It's been interesting to see how some participants react to our safety measures in the Grasshopper Adventure Series in NorCal over the past few years.. Safety is everyone's responsibility and I would love to see more information sharing between event promoters to ensure that best practices and standards are implemented all events.
Thanks for starting the conversation, SP. So much to discuss. One thought: Since most gravel races lack any form of comprehensive rules enforcement (for various and often understandable reasons), should race participants feel a sense of duty to speak up when they see rule infringements and/or negligence on the part of either fellow racer or promoter? Is it fair to place that burden on someone who "just wants to race their bike"?
In 'cross races there is often a protest period, if I'm not mistaken, where one racer can make a complaint or point out an infringement anonymously to the officials. Does this exist at gravel races?