Who the ABD Cycle Club Is and the Rising Cost of Racing

Recently both Tower Racing and the Chicago Cross Cup posted information discussing the rising cost of organizing bicycle races and where your entry fee money goes. We sympathize with both of them as the rising costs are always something that we here at ABD struggle with. After the economy headed south last year we’ve had to reduce (or remove) some prize lists and raise some entry fees- and both are very difficult decisions for us. As a grassroots race organizer the riders are always our biggest concern and that includes making racing affordable and giving out decent prizes. We exchanged e-mails with some of your after we had to drop our cash prize lists from the Indoor Time Trial Series this year and wanted to take the opportunity to share that information with the race community at large as well provide some background on who the ABD club is.

First and foremost, ABD is a bike racing club because every one of our members love this sport. We grew out of the Athletes By Design coaching firm founded in 1992 to a cycling club of over 200 people. Our mission is to help riders of all ages and abilities meet their cycling goals; and to promote the sport of competitive cycling and make it easily accessible to newcomers. In particular we want to support young men and women who aspire to be professionals. Since ABD was founded in 1998 we have sent 12 men and women to the pro ranks. Our hope is that through a network of experienced riders, regular training rides, and coaching- all of our members have the ability to learn from and encourage one other. We support our Elite men and women by helping them with the expenses of racing: including arranging sponsorship for equipment and helping with entry fees and travel expenses whenever possible.

The financial support for all of ABD's endeavors and rider support comes from our events, which are almost entirely run by the volunteers of the ABD club. Most sponsorship money we receive is for our events and we apply it directly to the prize lists and expenses, then any funds that are left over go towards supporting riders. Like many organizations this has been a very difficult year for sponsorship and donations, but we are doing our best to keep entry fees low, offer good prize lists and run safe, fun, accessible events.

Over the years we’ve also reduced the number of events that we organize as more clubs are stepping up to run fantastic races- which is great! The original reason that we held our Masters And Juniors Only Race Series (MaJORS) was so that those categories had more opportunities to race close to home, but we end up putting on 22 races a year! That probably made us look a bit like an event production company, but the only reason we did it was so that those riders could race their bikes more. We’re pleased to see more clubs organizing races and including these categories.

We’ve heard the occasional rumble that our events must be “cash cows” for us, but as most people who organize races know, this sport is anything but a cash cow. Organizing races is increasingly expensive and with a drop in sponsorship this year we unfortunately had to raise entry fees and trim prize lists. We’ll use our Indoor Time Trial Series as an example:

• The average attendance of each race might be 185 riders per event, but it takes at least 40 volunteers to run each event, many of whom put in over 6 hour shifts and they deservedly race for free.
• Computrainers cost around $1500 each and we replace between four and six every year to try and insure they are competition ready. We have to buy them from Racermate just like anyone else, and although we sell used ones we still always lose money.
• The school charges $2500 to rent the space. (We’ve endlessly looked for cheaper but can't find anything. The Wheaton Park District and High School fees had risen to $4500!)
• Insurance and officials for five events cost $4,500. The officials fees are ridiculously low, but insurance has jumped.

• Renting the big screens cost $800 for four events.

• The computers to run the stations cost $300 each (hopefully the ones we have now will last awhile).
• The two "hubs" that are dependable enough for a day-long event and can accommodate 8 Computrainers cost over $200 each.
• Lunch for volunteers is $150 an event and if we do chili on the final day it costs ~$500.
• Port-a-potties for Maple Park cost $400.

The list goes on, and you can see why it would be impossible for us to accomplish what we can without the outstanding ABD Volunteer Army.

Our events are one of the best ways for us to accomplish two of our goals at once: promoting the sport of cycling and supporting athletes- so they are something we want to do and that we have to do. Without our events we wouldn’t be able to help develop the pros of tomorrow. If a sponsor (or sponsors) came along that wanted to fund our activities and our riders then we would re-evaluate what events we continued to run. (If you happen to be that sponsor please contact us at abdcycling <at> gmail.com!)

So, to wrap up: who is ABD? We’re just like most of you- a group of bike riders that likes to race. When we started out 10 years ago we put on the Indoor TT Series and The Winfield Criteriums. However, the calendar was a little bare so we started organizing races. Whenever you see one of our jerseys out there (including our Elite team riders), it’s someone that helps run our events—from coordinating to course marshaling. Our goals will always be to promote the sport, support young athletes and help all riders meet their goals.

Looking forward to seeing you on the road.