I’m waiting on a call from Eddie O to see how the Granny Gear 24 Hours of Conyers turned out. It looks like Josh Tostado from Breckinridge, CO (Giant Bicycles) held on for the men’s solo win.

I was hoping to make it out there but am still not ambulatory. Just like last year, GG  appears to have had a very small attendance. It doesn’t look like there were more than 27 total solos + teams for the race. One big reason is because GG scheduled on top of the 12 Hours of Tsali again this year. Tsali is a very popular course and a very popular race, not to mention being a fraction of the cost of GG.

The feud between GG and 24 Hours of Adrenalin (Twenty4Sports) has actually translated into a rift at the local level. Southeast riders are divided into the camps of those that love GG/hate 24HOA and those that don’t understand/don’t care about the feud and want to race as they please. I’m not suggesting that the GG camp doesn’t have legitimate gripes. The problem is that the rift has both diminished the number of racers available to attend either race and decimated both races.

It started when Laird of GG sued Stuart of 24HOA (then TriLife) for copyright infringement. Ironically, Laird then decided to hold a race in Atlanta, a market that Stuart built, on the same course that 24HOA has been running since 1999.  To me, the move looked predatory and monopolistic. I’d kept quiet for over a year, and then in a moment of post-race fatigue and crankiness, I chimed in on a SORBA forum thread.

The argument goes back and forth about MTB becoming too commercial, not grassroots enought, etc. I look at GG and 24HOA as coke and pepsi. You can’t tell me that one promoter is better for the sport or more grassroots than the other. They’re both big entities and they both put on big production races. I think they’re both good for the sport.

People want to go to those big events at least once a year. They’re absolute freakshows in the best ways. They’re huge productions and they draw out the big stars. The big events raise the profile of the sport and raise awareness for new participants. They also bring in the kind of sponsors and media coverage that will (hopefully) allow some riders to make their living as professional racers.

You wouldn’t want to do a big race like that all the time though. It’s just too expensive, and all the production value does cut into the pure riding experience a bit. The small local races are perfect for getting out and racing affordably. They’re especially great for doing your first race in front of an undiluted home crowd. I would even argue that a lot of time their product is better. They have 6, 12, and 24 options to suit all comers. And because they don’t draw a ton of pros, they give the locals a chance to get on the podium.  Still, they’ve had their problems with scoring, inconsistent rules, etc. But again, it’s mostly a collegial crowd, and winning/losing is never a life or death matter at a local race.

At any rate, GG has had disappointing turnouts both years at Conyers, and 24HOA hasn’t broken 800 riders since 2003. Between the boycott of 24HOA and riders having to choose between GG and Tsali, it’s looking less and less profitable to hold a 24 Hour race in Atlanta.

And that’s really too bad, because this market defined endurance racing in the southeast. I really hope that attendance picks up in the coming years.