Yup, I think that and an apparent increase in lodging prices are showing themselves in my area. Looking at the lodging compared to last year I see many in the 50% increase and some over double. I did very little travel last year, and am doing a similar schedule with only a handful of travel related events myself.
Could be a similar choice by others as there is probably a minimum 2 hour drive upwards of 4+ hours for many in my state.
Lived in Montana up until Fall of 2013 and travel back multiple times a year to visit and will often time things so I would be back to do races.
Itās been sad to see the decline of triathlon over the years. In 2010-15 there was 15+ road triās across the state ranging from 50-450 participants with the majority having 100+. A lot of races youād have to sign up really early as theyād fill up (one would fill their 400+ spots in <15 minutes every year). It was fun to travel around the state and see and compete with everyone 1-2 times a month in different venues.
I looked on the calendar and I see just 6 road triās listed. And looking at results in those races from 2018, 2019, and 2021 and at best they are getting 50% of the participation. But most seem to be maybe 20-30% what they used to be. So basically you have gone from something like 2000+ total registrants/finishers between all the races to maybe 150. Thatās about a 95% decrease from what it used to be. It wouldnāt surprise me if half of the races that are left are gone in the next couple of years. Triās are hard to put on and if you are only getting 20-40 people itās tough to keep going.
Seems like a lot of people have moved on to the next en vogue thing whether it be gravel, ultrarunning, peleton, etc
That jives with what I have seen as a partial participant. I just do the Duās, but have plenty of Tri friends around here. Events are just disappearing and some never reappeared after the 2020/21 suspensions.
The great Peaks 2 Prairie ended before all this as a shadow of its former glory. That used to be the big season opener and a very unique event (boating the Yellowstone river as the 3rd leg instead of a swim), and was a big event for decades. But it dwindled and died just like you described.
Numbers in UK TTs are definitely down. Back in 2020 because there was no road races perhaps they were oversubscribed and unless you had a very good time you were rejected. 2021 it still seemed busy (perhaps because we were still werenāt going abroad) but it was a lot easier to get accepted into events. This year events even on the most popular of courses donāt seem to be busy at all. In the last VTTA 50miles TT we were the fastest VTTA club as I donāt think there was any competition, in a VTTA event 
We have low turn outs in the Midwest
Cross has still lots of participants, but at least in our region we have lost a lot of venues, especially the council ones. Also less clubs are putting on races. Itās hard to tell how next season will but there are less summer cross races now then before.
Our TTs are all down in numbers and many are running at a loss to the organisors.
Iād say XC races are up, but probably due to Hope providing sponsorship.
The couple events that draw bigger numbers in the Black Hills are Pine Island Gravel Odyssey and Dakota 5-0. PIG-O isnāt sold out but numbers look solid. Five-0 sold out in minutes like every other year. So I donāt see a fall off
Then the Wednesday night free XC MTB in Sturgis had over 150 riders on week 1 the past Wednesday. The most Iāve seen in 4 years
Ultra low numbers for road races here in Arizona. Iām fearful we may see the end of road event soon unless something changes. Not as bad in SoCal but, down.
Mountain seems normal. Gravel is up. Not sure about triathlon.
I think road events are down for many reasons: no USAC club requirement (USA), since 80-90ās shop/clubs membership down=everyone is a one man show and self promotion is more important than a team, not an event/festival/party feel, 30-60 minute industrial park crit just canāt compete with a week end camping out in rural areas partying and having fun with like minded people, permits for road events are just expensive and wrapped in red tape, misguided perception of being dangerous, road events are less forgiving fitness wise (IMO), no pipeline like NICA for off road and therefore no parents and no stoke/hype/interest and lastly I really think most want to participate rather than race. An all age pro/am mass start makes it feel like participation is possible without feeling like you are getting your ass kicked in a narrow field of similar age/fit riders. Maybe thatās it. Gravel events etcā¦are easier on the ego? IDK just spitballing.
Road group rides seem to have good numbers which can have a that all age all ability mass start event. With no cost and nothing lost. Regroups every so often to give people the chance to ride longer with the group and feel good about themselves. Or at least have a chance to flex and stroke their ego. Or just sit in a be social with no money lost.
i hesitated to go down this road, but here we go lol
my clubās race this year had 246 completers (more people regād) while in 2019 when we last had it we had 266 completers. So not a huge discrepancy but still 7ish percent down.
but the popularity of gravel and the willingness to spent what I feel is an exorbitant amount on certain events. I feel like gravel is selling folks on an experience that canāt be missed, for me thatās not worth the price of admission, esp for events that basically just give you a route and youāre self supported anyway. If Iām not competitive and, as I did when I did a gravel event in 2019, had long stretches of riding by myself anyway, whatās the point of paying $150? I concur with the above by Landis, gravel is easier on the ego, you can show up and ride your ride, people are either a) not that competitive or b) not willing to put in the work to be competitive and have the ego check that road racing provides. And I guess thatās good. But perhaps the day will come when people realize gravel events (at least the bigger ones charging big entry fees) are really just selling this kind of artificial idea of some epic good time.
Many Iāve chatted with over the years feel the same. Whatās funny as hell to me is the whole marketing of gravel as something new/better etcā¦to me and many other old timers we did this back when mountain bikes didnāt have front shocks. Itās just the same thing as early mountain biking. But, since many have only been riding for 10-20 years I suppose it is new and therefore different/interesting. It too will fade.
i think itās great that people feel like itās something safe and accessible and it gets people to congregate, i just donāt understand the fees. I guess Iām more willing to pay to be in a road race where, in theory, i could be competing to win, vs an event where I could just go out and ride a route on my own, and be self-supported anyway (I feel the same about most road fondos too)
I mean, to offer a counterpointā¦I can ride 100 miles in hilly country with beautiful views surrounded by people having fun, or I can ride a 1 mile loop 10 times and have an extremely high likelihood of losing skin on a crash while surrounded by people who want to take me out and scream at me for not doing X properly. If your suggestion is that that makes me weak, Iām cool with that.
The main driver used to be that if you wanted to have sponsors on your kit, you had to put on a race (or have one scheduled). That was the inducement the USCF used to get people to put on racesā¦so damn near every club put on a race because we all wanted to look cool and have āsponsorsā.
My favourite event (Giro della Donna, Melbourne, Australia) seemed like numbers were well down in 2022 compared to previous years. Checking the timing stats showed a drop in numbers - although a bigger drop on the 127km (79 miles) road ride compared to the 57km (35 miles) gravel ride.
2022 Giro della Donna: 455
2022 Gravel Giro: 239
2021 Giro della Donna: 681
2021 Gravel Giro: 283
2019 Giro della Donna: 723
2019 Gravel Giro: 168
Anecdotally there seems to be more gravel events popping up this year (or Iām noticing them more!) resulting in more competition for our shrinking budgets. Higher petrol (gas) prices may be a factor too, for me if I see an event a few hours away, my first thought is how much extra itās going to cost to get there and can I get there easily (or at allā¦) by train instead. I even think twice about driving the 1/2 hour to the start of the weekly Sunday bunch ride these days.
I remember riding gravel roads/dirt/sandy tracks near home in the early 80ās on my road bike with 27x1/4" (equivalent to a 650Bx32 I guess these days?) and having a ball. Everything old is new again?!
I think money is a big part of it, for me at least itās a factor. Gas has gone through the roof; itās literally more than double the price compared to last summer in my area. Which cuts down my travel radius a huge amount and Iām not willing to drive as far as I used to for races. Then thereās registration fees, which have also increased since last season. And with prices going up elsewhere in life, Iām finding it harder to budget in races. Iād love to race more, but itās getting really costly. Going for a long ride on the weekend costs me a few dollars in drink mix compared to a $50-60 race plus whatever gas would cost me. It adds up quick. By far the biggest reason Iām not racing as much.
Another I read somewhere was traveling. Covid shut everything down for a good couple years and now itās the first summer people can travel again. So people want to take advantage and will forgo a race to travel. Probably not a lot of people but may be a factor.
Our local race series hasnāt gone off for 2 years. The race track where we did our Crits was sold by the county to one of the local tribes.
We might get the series going next year. Maybe 6-8 Crits and a road race.
Before I moved to the UK the club that runs the series put out an email they might not do it anymore just not enough sign ups so our race woes were already happening, Covid just exacerbated it.
I ride through the state park where our Wed night MTB races are held weekly and this have a good turnout, no idea on the numbers though.
I donāt race.
Iām not sure how turnout is for any cycling events I suppose. I donāt know how popular cycling truly is in my city.
No gravel racers in my areas do crits.
Most people at fast group rides donāt do crits.
Gravel has replaced road racing.
Some of the criticisms of gravel racing here are ridiculous. Yes, we can talk about overly high fees, but itās worth remembering that just because something isnāt your bag, doesnāt mean itās silly for everyone.
Numbers are up in Audax / Brevets here in the UK. Seeing more and more riders trying out non competitive long distance events. A younger age profile as well. Though when audax got started in UK the riders were young but as with many things it aged with the original riders. Thus good to see new younger blood taking it up.
Are the new ones club riders, or unattached?
I think there are also a lot of new āself-supported racesā, which are similar to an audax, but organised by a company and cost 10x more. But I could see that crowd move over to actual audex.