The cost of racing - How much did it cost me to race my bike in 2019?

For the 2019 race season I set myself the task of recording an accurate cost of racing in the UK for one year.  Several years ago this article came out, it claims that the annual cost of racing at an amateur level is £25500.  I found this obscene and set the task of debunking it.

To do this I had to define what I was going to record.  I recorded: all race entries, fuel/travel costs to each event, all race nutrition, all kit, the cost of bike parts/servicing etc. and miscellaneous items such as gym memberships.  I didn’t record everything in my life to do with cycling, only those which directly contributed to my ability to race. For example, I have not included accommodation when I went cycle touring to the Lake district.  I have also not included things that I already owned such as my bike computer, turbo trainer, winter bike etc. Another “cost” not included was food consumed on training rides (bananas/energy bars etc.) and money spent on café stops. 

The final thing not included, which arguably could be, was my holiday to Gran Canaria in late January.  Yes, I took my bike, rode hard every day and it could be described as a training camp but it was more of a holiday and I’m not exactly sure how much it truly contributed to my season of racing.

Analysis of costs

The costs are summarised below.  You can see that in all I spent £3129.01 and had a total income (mainly prize money) of £918, giving a net cost of £2211.01.

Race Fees: £860.50
Nutrition: £153.79
Kit: £270.00
Bikes, parts and servicing: £1,260.44
Travel/accommodation: £433.62
Miscellaneous: £104.56
Total:£3,129.01
Race winnings/Support/Sponsorship: £918.00
Net Cost: £2,211.01

Breaking it down further, in terms of just entry fees and travel minus winnings, road racing cost me £574.07 for 19 races (£30.20 per event) whilst hill climbing cost me only £16.15 for 17 events (95p per event).  Which would have been an income of £60.62 had I not raced the national hill climb. Now in terms of prizes I didn’t just earn money.  It’s a struggle to fiscally quantify these, but I also won: a year’s supply of soreen, a lapierre race winners jersey, velochampion gloves and glasses, chamois cream, 5 bidons, box of high5 energy gels, wend wax/wax off and a Rapha musette.

Final Thoughts

Now the season is over, what are my thoughts on spending this much money?   On the whole this has been a massive regret.  Over the previous years I have been in a state of ignorant bliss, but this year every time I spent money on racing I had to really wonder if it was worth the money.  This was especially exasperating when I was having a terrible blight of mechanical problems throughout the road racing season. When I kept failing to get results and the costs kept adding,it put a downer on the season.  I kept tallying the costs but didn’t update the spreadsheet to keep my sanity. Of course cycling at an amateur level isn’t only about money. I love riding and racing my bike and one can’t put a price on that. For more details costs please follow this link to see the google document I used to record it all

Detailed costs