I did a similar thing last year and I was taken to task for my opinions on what constituted a "value" in any given event to a participant. Note to any readers of this survey: I have opinions which may not line up with what you believe. This is my take on this subject.
How The Survey Was Done: I began my survey by taking a look at some promotions that started coming into the inbox here and taking notes on distances offered versus registration costs. Then I added events from BikeReg using their geographic breakdown of the nation and the events listed in each region. I noted some events were listed in more than one region so I avoided those for the survey, or only used an event listed twice across regions in one region that made sense to me. (For instance, some Texas events were also in the Southwestern region. So I used only the Texas listing in that instance.)
Here are the regions as broken down by BikeReg: New England, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast, Midwest, Rocky Mountains, South Central, Texas, Northwest, and Southwest. So, I used three events from each region, trying to use a different state in each region where possible, (obviously "Texas" was all Texas!), and this brought in 30 events. I also included the ones I had already been noting previously as mentioned from promotions and this added seven more events. So a total of 37 events were included.
The Events: So, what types of "gravel" events were included? Of course, the "biggies" are in the survey: Gravel Worlds, Unbound, SBT GRVL, and Mid-South. But I have unheralded events from all across the nation, some even free, although I did not know that ahead of the survey. So, there is a range from free to well over three figures in cost and everything in between.
I chose the regional events based upon a few things. First, I only looked at the names of the events and where they were located to get a good representation of events all across the USA. Names of events came into play where I recognized names from a long time ago and are events that have been well-established. I also included some events which had names that just struck my fancy. For instance, the Massochistah (The Spurty Dirty Hurty Gurty) I mean....c'mon now! How can you overlook that event?!
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| The old Lu Lacka Wyco logo from years ago. |
An example of an old event I recognized from the past would be the Lu Lacka Wyco V13, which, as you would maybe guess, is in its 13th year. There were several others I surveyed that I remember from years ago.
Events ranged from the civic organization type event to the full-on corporate backed event. These events were mostly gravel, although some were more road events with gravel sectors and some were purposefully "all-terrain" events with a mixture of surfaces.
What I Am Trying To Show: My baseline for a gravel event value is based upon how much it cost per mile to register. So, if an event is 100 miles and cost 100 bucks to enter that event has a cost of a dollar per mile.
You'd think that the biggie events would skew the rating far more to the spendy side but I found that many smaller events are charging a LOT more these days for registration. And it should be no wonder. "Gravel is the hot ticket for competitive bicycle events these days and the genre' shows no signs of slacking off yet. Event directors and organizations are seeing the big time events charging three-digit entry fees and are following their example.
Also, this survey is an average cost analysis. I am not breaking down these by regions or in any other way. I am just curious to see how far above the old "dollar-per-mile" limit we used to use for gauging events we have gone now and what the new baseline might be. That's it. I'll give that average cost per mile for 2025 and then give you some trends I have noticed while doing this survey.
There were 93 different distances/costs included over the 37 events. There were two events that were completely free of charge. Leaving out those two, the cheapest cost per mile came from an event in Texas with .30c per mile cost to enter. In fact, that event had the least expensive per mile cost of any event in all distances with their most expensive per mile cost being .73c/mile. Of course, this was also the longest distance event surveyed with that cheap per mile cost going at 400 miles and the more expensive per mile distance being 160 plus!
The most expensive per mile cost was $8.33 per mile, and yes, it was for a very short course. That follows with most events, as the shorter distances get charged more per mile in general to ride. Interestingly Unbound and Gravel Worlds charged a bit of a premium for their most popular distances (100 and 75 miles respectively), which makes sense when demand is considered. And shout out to those two events for being very reasonably priced per mile compared to some other, not so well known events. In some respects those events, especially the full distances they offer, are a bargain for what you get to experience.
Result: So, with my survey of these random events and cost/distances, it came out that the average cost per mile now is $2.11/mile.
Comments: I think my results are a bit skewed to the higher side by having a few really expensive events in the survey like SBT GRVL and the Belgium Waffle Ride AZ. That and a few of the smaller, more feature-laden events have a higher cost per mile than some of the more straight-ahead events that don't offer meals, bands, etc. There are a big chunk of event distances with a cost between one and two dollars per mile,so I feel if all gravel events offered during 2025 would be considered in a survey, the result I would see would come down below two dollars per mile and somewhere above a buck fifty per mile.
This also does not cover events like weekly gravel group rides or "pop-up" gravel events that you see on Facebook which typically are no-cost/low cost to ride. Adding in those would lower the average by a considerable amount. So, take what I found with a grain of salt. It's just one data point.
I did notice a few odd things while doing this survey though. One was that many events are now charging one price for all distances. This makes riding the shorter distances not such a great deal. However; maybe event directors are finding that people don't seem to care about this.
Obviously events kind of come and go throughout the years, but it was refreshing to see many old names yet going on into 2025 that I knew from back when I compiled a gravel event calendar.
I also noted, as in the past, there are literally ten times the events out there that you might think there are. Gravel is pervasive and reaches all corners of the USA. So, forget about the "bucket list" events if lotteries and big crowds are not your thing because there are a ton of great gravel events regionally that are very much ready to see you and your bike be successful and have a great time with new friends and old.
However; those big-time events are actually not bad values sometimes, as stated above. So if that's your bag, well then, carry on! This is what is super cool about gravel events. There is really something out there for everyone.
3 comments:
I appreciate this kind of analysis. While I no longer ride, the primary determining factors for me to consider an event would be travel distance, entry cost and what I would get as an authentic experience (memories). Travel distance, most of the time the event had to take me twice as long to do as it took to travel to. Felt like windshield time was worth the effort. Cost, free was what I gravitated to the most but would pay up as long as the perceived experience was worth the $'s. So with all of these events charging entry fees these days how does one get a sense of what the perceived experience would bring? Outside of experiencing new areas to explore and gravel to ride. The event that comes to mind for me that tripped all of these boxes is the former Odin's Revenge. Travel time was short but the event was long, free and the experiences created a lifetime of memories.
@Mike Johnson - Hey there! Thanks for your perspective! I really appreciate what you wrote there in your comment.
Experience: Yeah, that's the the thing you may have a hard time quantifying. I think experience matters a LOT more than promoters give credit to and while some "get it", others are striving and falling all over themselves trying to satisfy everyone on some other levels when - in the end - it is HOW that person experiences the event that REALLY matters.
Odin's had "that magic" down almost perfectly. In today's world of gravel it almost would not be seen as a gravel event, but rather as some form of torture and definitely lacking in the flash, pomp, and circumstance that many gravel events have that people mistakenly see as being "the necessary part".
I like what you said about what matters to you but I would add that a social/hang-out element is also key to making the event worth going to. As you know, Odin's had that as well.
Thanks again for chiming in!
Odin’s Revenge was a special event… We were fortunate to have those experiences. I don’t think I’ve ever been to another event that had that feel. I’m so glad we were able to be a part of that together.
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