Montello":2by36rkq said:
Johnsqual":2by36rkq said:
From the facebook site, it looks as though there will be no Anjou Velo Vintage next year.
From what I can understand, the local government has withdrawn its support 'due to the economic situation and budget registrictions' (classic local government excuses).
https://www.facebook.com/anjouvelovintage
Quite gutted because I was sort of planning to go and do it as part of a holiday to France. The photos of the locations on the course look fantastic.
Very sad.
That is a shame; one of the reasons why continental events of this type are so affordable is they often receive significant public funding from local government. This never happens in the UK which is one of the reasons why UK events are more expensive than their European equivalents ... some people mistake this situation as profiteering by UK organisers ...
Why don't they run it anyway and just build the lost subsidies into the rider fee?
Hmm, I was wondering how long it would be before that cheap shot got fired.
The obvious alternative to this proposal of turning the event into another soulless corporate money-grab would be to run the event as a genuine non-profit with volunteers, which is what most of the people on the Anjou Velo Vintage site are actually proposing. Plenty of people clearly prefer a grass roots event that cyclists organise themselves to expensive events with aggressive marketing.
There are lots of successful examples of grass roots type events: Pendle Witches; the real, original Eroica started that way (and they seem to be doing alright); there are countless smaller events in Belgium and the Netherlands that are run by enthusiasts rather than profiteers, and for accessible prices.
In the discussion on the Anjou Velo Vintage page, someone points out that the organisers asked for a very big subsidy so maybe they overreached themselves. Events like the Retro Ronde have set and stuck to a limited number of participants to keep the rides manageable and sustainable: the Retro Ronde has been running for 9 years now, so they are clearly doing something right, subsidies or not.
Lots of clubs and associations in Britain offer rides with a minimal entry fee, so the intrinsic costs of organising such an event can't be that high. It's only when you start adding on a load of extra crap that real cyclists mostly don't even want that you start to need to hike up the price, or to ask for big subsidies.
Where subsidies are given, it's because the people offering the subsidies recognise the economic benefits of organising these types of events. East/West Flanders has built up a whole tourist industry round the Ronde and related races, so they are happy to support the cyclos because they are smart enough to understand the benefits. The same with other regions, where such events often attract 5000 participants: the economic benefits are clear.
Compare that to Roubaix, where the opportunities to attract people to come and ride the historic 'secteurs' and the famous velodrome are largely missed - despite the race being arguably even more famous and prestigious than the Ronde. Apparently the French local governments, like the British, don't understand the benefits of cycling, and aren't prepared to invest in it. Why not try to change that mistaken attitude?
Finally, since some other events are supposedly so good at attracting sponsors, why don't they use those sponsors to generate income and therefore keep the prices down, rather than dumping the costs and risks of organisation on the cyclists?
