The Future of the Church Creek Time Trials

[Alex Pline]

Greetings MABRA-

We are currently between the two time trials this year and since we announced this would be the last year, we have had a number of questions both via email and in person at the first event in June about why. We want to take the time now to explain to the cycling community who has supported us over the years the rationale for why we can no longer continue running it. This will be a very frank explanation so people can really understand the issues and as we have said, if anyone believes they can find a way to make it work, we will be happy to share every bit of knowledge we have to help transition it. Please read on:

https://www.abrtcycling.com/2026/07/02/why-2026-is-the-last-year-of-the-church-creek-time-trials/

There is one last chance on August 22, 2026!

Best Regards Always,

ABRT

[Ethan Gruber]

This is a serious issue that many of us who organize races are dealing with. Road racing on a whole is on a slow decline. There is a clear shift toward crit racing, particularly among younger riders. This is even more pronounced in time trials (as your chart illustrates) than road races. The financial cost of putting on a race is substantial, and break-even or large losses are so dependent on the weather. I don't really have an answer about how to make time trials and road races engaging again, but I feel like we have a niche in the Wintergreen Ascent and I believe it can continue to grow with good marketing. I think people want an enjoyable experience before/after the racing part, which downtown style crits are able to provide. I've been to plenty of road races where there was nothing to do afterwards but go home. I think that's one reason why gravel is so big.

The other possibility in achieving financial sustainability is less about sponsorship (which, as you say, will be difficult to get when you only have 100 riders) and more about lobbying the local government to offset your police/EMT/traffic control expenses as in-kind contributions.

Ethan

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[Alex Pline]

Yeah, the logistics of CCTT are odd for sure and while I didn't also pile this on in the blog post, it's often hard to do "podiums" (one of the reasons we never actually bought a real podium) because people come back to the school in dribs and drabs and typically hang around their vehicles to change and recover in a hot parking lot. As a result there is very little "cohesion" among the riders and herding the cats to award medals is difficult. It's not bad per se, just not the social vibe that crits and CX have.