This week has brought news of a fresh format that will save cycling in the USA - Formula Fixed. The organisers promise fixed-gear bike racing on tight, twisty, indoor tracks, designed for both an in-person and online audience, beginning at the end of this year. It sounds fun, and it’s the kind of thing I would go to if it was put on in my home city of Bristol. In fact, all power to the people behind it and I hope it does become a success. Anything that gets people enjoying bikes is a good thing.
However, Formula Fixed is not the first of many attempts to ‘fix’ cycling in the US - it follows things like the National Cycling League (NCL), which had big ambitions, city-based franchise teams, huge celebrity-backed investments and a big prize pot. There have been various bright burning, but short-lived ideas to get the American public back into bike racing, and this is just the latest. Perhaps this one will succeed, but allow me to explain my pessimism.
I’m not a fan of too much novelty in sport. I like Test cricket, put up with Twenty20, but think The Hundred is a bit too much. There’s a reason why tradition lasts, why the Tour de France is still everything. I appreciate I’m not everyone, and long formats can seem boring, but these should be tinkered with, not chucked away.
Road racing has suffered in the US in the past decade, with the Tours of Utah, California, Colorado all disappearing from the calendar. The only WorldTour races in North America are in Canada, and these are just two one-day races. Something clearly needs to be done to revive road racing in the US, and Formula Fixed does not promise to do this, this is bigger than that.
I do not have the answers, the Lance Armstrong effect is still in play on the other side of the Atlantic, the earthquake unleashed by the most famous cyclist of all-time being revealed as a cheat still having an impact. However, surely there is a way forward for racing on two wheels that doesn’t involve criteriums or car parks - a big UCI race stateside would certainly be a start.
America is not alone in struggling to revitalise a road racing scene, as we are all too aware here in the UK, and also across Europe. There are innovations here, like Rapha’s Super-League, a new points competition for British domestic racing, which seeks to tie together existing events in an easier to understand format, to encourage people to pay attention to more than the occasional race. This is very welcome, something that uses what is already there, the heritage events, with some new branding and excitement.
In cycling, we are very quick to say that everything is broken, that everything needs to be ripped up, but we should also recognise that a lot of what we already have is great. The Classics were enthralling, and now it’s Grand Tour season, many of us will be glued to our screens. As the Rapha Super-League shows, what is often needed is not a novelty, but instead a simplified calendar, and a format that makes sense.
The long-promised but still mystifying One Cycling might solve some problems, like a shorter schedule, a more equitable situation in terms of finances for teams and race organisers, but it will require a lot of stakeholders to agree to work together. This still seems a long way off.
I also appreciate that a big factor is people being priced out of watching elite racing on TV, something which has long been an issue in the US, and has impacted the UK this year; if people don’t see the sport, why will they ever get involved?
A simpler calendar, less overlapping races, an affordable way to watch both in person and on TV, and a sustainable deal for money for teams as well as race organisers seems like a good start. If I can see this is part of the solution, then so can the people in charge.
I do hope Formula Fixed works. But I want more than this, I want road racing flourishing in the US once again, and then the world.
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If you want to get in touch with Adam, email adam.becket@futurenet.com, or comment below.
