Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Purhaps we need to bring back the elevator concept for those folks scared of the 100.  Alot of people may move up from a 75 to 100 and enjoy it then want to do more 100's.  I am sure this is a legistical nightmare for ride managers which is why it is not done. 

 

Jennifer

Barbara McCrary <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

We just put on a well-recognized 100 mile ride, albeit on the same day as Steph's ride, so I know that took some prospective riders to Idaho instead of here.  However, we also offer a 75-mile ride along with the 100.  As my daughter says, "Give people a choice of two mileages and they will choose the easier one."  We suspect that the general population of endurance riders are not as willing to ride the distances or the deal with the difficulties as we might have done 25-30 years ago.

 

Barbara

----- Original Message -----

From: Truman Prevatt

To: steph teeter

Cc: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 12:52 PM

Subject: Re: [RC] FEI and 100 mile competitions

I down loaded all the 100 data some time back and have started a couple time to look at it, but haven't managed to finish. At the top level 100 mile ride participation has declined steadly - almost at a linear rate between '96 through 2003. The number of rides and the number of riders has decreased. At the same time the membership has increased by 50%. Some interesting things that have popped out is 15% of the riders during that peiriod have accounted for a little over 50% of the starts. During that 8 year period 35% of the riders only had one start and a little over 60% only had 2 starts. The 100 mile distance seems to be dominated by a small set of riders.

In 2003 if you exclude the non-AERC members from the count, a little over half (like 51%) of the 100 mile starts were AERC Int members. I don't know and someone could quickly calculate it but I don't think the membership in AERC Int has grown at the same rate as the overall AERC membership. I also haven't calculated the numbers for the other years. I suspect the numbers participation percentage of AERC Int members vs. non AERC Int members has been increasing over the years.

What does this mean? For starters these are just snippits - so not a lot can be concluded. When I get time I plan on getting back to it. The interest in FEI seems to be on a two year cycle the same as the Pan Am. We see a lot of participation leading up to the Pan Am (or in the case of 2005 the NAC). I'm not sure one can conclude that interest in FEI is growing or not growing. The one thing you can conclude is the interest in the 100 mile ride in the AERC is going down. What you may be seeing is the interest by a small core group of riders - which would tend to be the same group interested in FEI - has maintained interest while interest outside this core has drastically decreased. This may be the "multiday effect."  In the 100 there are lot of "one timers," riders that do only one or two rides and call it quits for 100's. There is high correlation between AERC Int members and riders that have done a 100 mile ride in 6 of the 8 years considered.

The one thing that does stand out, however, FEI or not, the 100 mile ride has changed since I started doing the sport and this change is a slow constant decline in participation over the past 8 years.

When I get some time I'm planning on digging further.

Cheers,
Truman

steph teeter wrote:

Some food for thought and discussion: At this years FEI 100 mile rides,
there was considerable participation -  78 started the 100 at Biltmore
CEI***, 43 started the Fort Howes CEI***, and 53 started the Arabian
Nights CEI***.

There are still three more CEI*** rides on the calendar - Wisconsin,
Maryland (Fairhill) and Idaho. 

So - is interest in doing FEI declining, increasing? Are the 100 mile
competitions going in the right direction? Is FEI Endurance good for the
sport?

This is pretty big stuff for Endurance, certainly worthy of some serious
discussion -

Comments?

Steph


  

--

   "It is necessary to be noble, and yet take humility as a basis.

    It is necessary to be exalted, and yet take modesty as a foundation."

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