A Curious Case Concerning A Cancellation

Grinduro!, a gravel event combining elements of gravel and enduro, has been a staple event in Northern California since 2015. This year their organizer, SORA, had to pull the plug on the event due to "... rising costs, economic pressures on regional partners and sponsors and the challenging state of the bicycle industry in 2024."

I've written on these pages and recorded podcasts on the state of things in cycling as a whole before. We (N.Y. Roll and I) theorized that financial stress on sponsorships would be affecting events and athletes. The cancellation of the 2024 Grinduro! would seem to be a casualty of this effect. 

Along with this story, on March 4th a story was published in "Bicycle Retailer and Industry News" which stated that any person who had lost their job in the cycling industry recently was going to be offered a free entry to Grinduro!. Obviously, that won't be happening in California, where Grinduro! got its start. That said, the UK based Northern Consultancy company now runs Grinduro! events in Pennsylvania, Italy, Japan, Germany and France. So, I suppose the offer stands. 

A messy affair, but this is indicative of what we will probably be witnessing over the course of 2024. While there are many factors that could have prevented Grinduro! from happening in California this year, a major one has to be the cutting back on sponsorships throughout the cycling industry. This won't be the last time we hear about something like this.