The Results Are In

For the past 20 years WVCC has staged summer circuit racing for members to gain experience and confidence. For many club members this has been their first opportunity to experience racing in a bunch in as safe and supportive an environment as possible. It’s an expensive event to stage and the numbers racing fell significantly this year to around 12% of our adult membership.  Whilst we want to support and encourage cycle races, we do need to think carefully about how we spend our members money.

A survey was devised to try to understand the reasons why members did not participate this year ahead of the Club Committee making a decision about the viability of the races in 2025.

We are delighted that so many club members found the time to complete the survey. 124 members participated – thank you to all.  Findings were presented to the committee earlier this month.

You may remember that all who completed the survey has a chance to win a new club jersey.  The lucky winner was Lawrence Gray and we look forward to see him smartly attired on a club run soon.

20 of those who raced in 2024 completed the survey, that’s about two thirds of the total racers. It is clear that they really valued the experience, rating the event an average of 4.7 out of 5.

Things that stood out as good included:

• Participants, from experienced racers to beginners, enjoyed the racing atmosphere. It was a fun and un-intimidating environment
• The races fostered a sense of community, especially racing alongside clubmates.
• The closed circuit, smooth tarmac, and absence of traffic made for a secure and enjoyable experience.

A similar number of folks completing the survey raced in 2023 but not in 2024. They gave a number of different reasons for not racing this year with the main ones being,

• the cost of the event
• the time it takes to get to Mallory
• lack of motivation. This appears to be due, at least in part, to the poor weather

Further to this, 22% of respondents (27) had previously participated in club races at Bruntingthorpe / Rockingham, but not at Mallory, and 39.5% (49) had not participated in any of these club races.

We are currently looking at all the suggestions made for improvement and our first steps are.

1. Confirm the cost of hiring Mallory in 2025. If there’s a price rise this year, it is likely to make further racing at Mallory completely untenable.
2. Investigate further different ways to insure the race, perhaps without needing to use TLI

It is interesting and encouraging to see the wide range of other cycling activities our respondents take part in. This information comes from the 124 members who completed the survey. They could select as many options as they wished.

What other Club activities do you participate in?
Club rides	55%
Sportive and/or reliability ride	45%
Time Trials	47%
Road racing	16%
Chain gang	30%
Cyclocross and/or mountain biking	24%
Whizz Kids	6%
Other	12%