Cyclocross Championship Delay Cost Riders Over $250K

The one-day postponement of the U.S. Cyclocross National Championships on January 11 in Austin drew plenty of ire from racers. Many complained that holding the finals a day later than planned would result in the added cost of rescheduled flights and extended hotel stays. Well, now Matthew Montesano, an amateur racer in Minnesota, has put a price tag on the delay: $250,756.

Montesano doesn’t claim to be a statistician, but as VeloNews reports, he conducted a survey of racers who competed in the finals that Monday and found that the estimated added average cost per rider was $902. That includes airfare penalties, hotel and car rental extensions, and miscellaneous costs. Forty-four percent of the Monday competitors responded to Montesano’s survey invitation on Twitter.

Racers, not sponsors, shouldered 90 percent of the estimated $250,756 cost, according the survey. Montesano points out that the results would likely have shown a larger average cost per rider had more than a few large professional team cyclists—with bigger support staffs and more expenses, some of which aren’t covered by sponsors—responded.

“The decision to postpone the race from Sunday to Monday cost a lot of racers a lot of money,” Montesano concluded from the survey. “It also meant that over one-fifth of the people planning to race on Sunday did not race in their national championships. This is a damn shame. … I’m sure I’m not alone in urging USA Cycling to seriously vet host organizations and ensure that planning processes are sufficient to avoid the fiasco of the 2015 Cyclocross National Championships.”