Cyclo-cross - where are all the fans?

Ok...now where am I going to find the time for yet another cycling vice?

Last weekend I took the family over to the Capital Cross Classic, held right here in Reston (that's Jack in the orange hat). What a great opportunity to get outside and do something reasonably active with the family, even if it is the start of Winter. It was a great day, sunny and not too cold, though there was a chill in the air.

Although I don't ride Cross, I think it gave Kgirl and the kids an appreciation for the effort involved in off-road cycling. They don't really understand what mountain biking is all about. As for me...well, it definitely looks tough, but it also looks like a hell of a lot of fun. I think I see cyclo-cross in my future, but I'm on this new kick to try to keep things simple and not spread myself too thin. I mean, I'm probably only averaging 1.2 mtb rides per week at this point, which is barely enough to keep up a semblance of fitness.

Getting back to the point I was making in the title of this post...where are all of the cycling fans at these races? And, I mean more than just the family of those racing.

Friends, I think we have a marketing problem on our hands.

You don't need to play football to be a football fan, drive a stock car to be a Nascar fan, nor do a triple toe loop to be an ice skating fan. So why does it seem that you must be a cyclist to be a cycling fan?

I have a theory. Every one of the major cycling organizations are about promoting participation in the sport. I don't think there are any that promote spectatorship, however. I guess there's USA Cycling, but they really do a terrible job of marketing anything...just look at that snoozer of a Web site.

I think the same holds true at the regional and local levels. Every event that is marketed is aimed at the riders. It's very rare to see any kind of promotion of the event itself to the general public. Sure, these are not big money events typically, but surely these organizations can spend some time doing some local P.R. I can hardly blame them, I guess, because the sport really does need national promotion and attention.

Furthermore, there's no money from the fan base. Race promoters make their money on the riders themselves. Seems kind of backwards, doesn't it?

I know I definitely don't have all of the answers, but I think I may be getting at part of the problem. So how does this thing turn around? Can it ever get to a point where fans might pay to watch a race?