Demographics Details of BRAC membership

Submitted by Kris Thompson on Wed, 02/27/2013 - 06:41

Who are those people racing in Colorado? Now we have a better picture, does it explain more of why the category system is the way it is?

See full details on the BRAC website

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22 Comments

BRAC demographic

Submitted by bruce (not verified) on Wed, 02/27/2013 - 07:08

So... it's mostly well educated, affluent folks. Sort of elitist. This is no surprise...

You could have fooled me that

Submitted by Racer Z (not verified) on Wed, 02/27/2013 - 12:18

You could have fooled me that BRAC members are educated and affluent. In meeting and interacting with numerous racers, I would say that there is no doubt that members are over-reporting their income and educational levels. . .

Can't really comment on the

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/28/2013 - 14:56

Can't really comment on the education, but income levels? It's pretty in-line with the Metro area.

And you are so smart

Submitted by Mitchell Hyra (not verified) on Thu, 02/28/2013 - 16:56

not to sign your name......why is everything a negative.

Not to belabor this, but I'm

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/02/2013 - 11:57

Not to belabor this, but I'm baffled that Racer Z and at least 2 others think that the demographics are incorrect because people are lying about them? You're saying that multiple BRAC members sat down, consciously thought "man, I'd better come out looking good on this" and ticked off the top end boxes?

I guess I can't figure out what the motivation is for someone to do that. It's not like they're even getting any ego stroke, since the data is taken in aggregate.

Further, these numbers reflect the data put out by USAC over the past decade or so: bike racers are generally well educated, middle aged men (BRAC didn't really break it down across men and women, might be interesting) at the height of their earning power. Hell, the median income for Boulder County is nearly $90K.

All this time I thought Racer

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/02/2013 - 15:39

All this time I thought Racer Z was trying to be funny. Now I realize he thinks folks lied on the survey.

Maybe he is, but it's not

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/02/2013 - 17:50

Maybe he is, but it's not really clear if so. Dry humor: not always good on Internet forums.

elitist????

Submitted by Mike (not verified) on Wed, 02/27/2013 - 15:49

That is a really dumb thing to say. This is a voluntary sport, you choose to do it. If you had to have a PhD and $150K to enter a race, then yes, that would be elitist. Just because most of the people who do choose to race bikes have a college degree or higher, doesn't make anything elitist.

The "elitist" perception

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 02/28/2013 - 13:03

The "elitist" perception likely comes from the expense to get your foot in the door WRT bike racing. Think about how many Cat 4s, much less how many Juniors, are out there rocking top-end carbon bikes shod with Zipps. There's a reason behind the recent saying "cycling is the new golf", whether it's justified or not.

At the risk of playing devil

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 03/02/2013 - 18:06

At the risk of playing devil's advocate, but the counterpoint to the idea of "choosing" cycling is that not everyone has that choice. Whether it's an issue of time, money, or opportunity, it's probably fair to say that not everyone who might like racing bikes gets a chance to do so. I don't think it's actively exclusionary like maybe polo(?) but still.