And a lot of them do, absolutely. I think some of the draw for the NICA kids is the team aspect - a lot of the kids are not into your traditional "ball and stick" sports, where you generally get the team experience. This is a nice way for them to have that experience, and it's great to see them all hanging out together and supporting and cheering on each other.
this is a good point - nobody is sitting on the bench, nobody is buried in right field, and it isn't 1-on-1 (tennis).
it also isn't a game of failure (golf, batting a ball) and it has less to do with pure physical genetic gift like height (basketball)
barriers to entry are small - try to break into an established travel baseball team, even if better than half the players.
so why aren't more adults starting - i think plenty ride rail trails. Then someone sends them a red bull video, and they won't go
to 6MR. or they go over the bars because they have the wrong size bike, and nobody ever said unweight the front wheel (vs jerking it up)
anyway, back to race participation - and I don't think it is a negative discussion
@David Taylor ... Utah's point is you may be taking the MASS series most popular
race, and applying that over all their races.
i don't think there is 1 question of why? I think it is many -
why aren't cat 1 people showing?
Why aren't cat 2 people showing?
is cat 3 getting an influx of new racers, are they moving to cat 2 the next year?
why aren't the specialty classes showing? SS FAT Endurance
Where are all the female athletes?
are the age groups correct? (think i may have discussed this with Norm, and he explained the pre-season planning thoughts)
we'll need to ask the people that aren't here - that is the only way to find out for sure. lots of good hypothesis in here. but no real cause.