We started looking at the number of events going back to 2009. From there, we dug deeper, tracking the number of separate racing fields for those events, and finally, the number of racers on the start line.
Note that data quality for all three metrics worsened pre-2015, in part because CRCA did not report full Club Race results to USAC/Road-Results.com until 2015 (before then, Club races did not count for USAC points). While the TBD Journal has published various participation data for individual events, we believe this analysis is the first time accurate New York City event and starter counts have been compiled on a multi-year basis.
Analysis throughout by Gregory Hruby, assisted by Matthew Vandivort, edited by Liz Marcello
The NYC Race Calendar has been cut in half
The main takeaways from this part of our analysis are summarized in Table 1 below: The number of NYC events has been cut in half compared to pre-pandemic levels. While various weekend races like Orchard Beach have disappeared, the biggest single impact has been the collapse of weekday racing, which once featured three separate weeknight series: FBF on Tuesdays and Thursdays, alongside Rockleigh (in New Jersey). Fewer races naturally leads to fewer starters, though we suspect that the loss of weekday racing cuts especially deep given the scheduling flexibility these events presented to racers unable to race at sunrise in Central or Prospect Parks.
Road Racing Upstate peaked in 2013, boosted by Battenkill, before shrinking by more than 80% through 2026 as the number of events declined significantly. The severity of this decline highlights the risk involved as race density falls and racer retention becomes more challenging.
CRCA reporting pre-2015 presents some oddities, but our data shows NYC starter counts peaked in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted racing in 2020 and 2021, but NYC racing enjoyed a significant post-pandemic recovery in 2022 and 2023, recovering within 10% of its prior peak. Unfortunately NYC starter counts have declined every year since 2023, and in 2026 were nearly down by more than 50% versus 2019.
Table 1. Events, fields, starters and field size by year and region
An event is one day's promotion; a field is one contest within it; a starter is one racer in one field. Field size is averaged across the fields run that year, with the standard deviation across those same fields in brackets.
Novice Category Starters have been hit hardest
In our event participation analysis, we explored the composition of races and the number of starters within those fields. As seen in Figure 2, Novice starters nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels in 2022/2023 before declining continuously and severely over the past three years. 2026 novice starters were roughly half of typical pre-pandemic levels. As we discuss below, this is very troubling for the future and longevity of NYC road racing.
Figure 2. The total overall starts per year by field category.
Figure 3 shows the same data in a different format. With this visualization, it is easier to see the recent decline in Category C starters as a portion of total starters. Masters fields have also generally declined from 2015/2016, while Category A mix has increased to record levels on a relative basis.
Figure 3. Proportional representation of the event by field category participation.
Creating a Lopsided Mix of Novice vs Expert Racers
We also examine the decline in novice race participation by comparing the ratio of Category C to A starters. We believe a healthy ecosystem of participation resembles a pyramid: a broad base of novices enter the sport, feeding into a smaller intermediate group, and culminating in a narrow apex of experts. Progression through the categories becomes more challenging over time, and there is natural racer attrition out of the sport due to injuries, time constraints, and shifting personal priorities.
Unfortunately, our local scene isn’t just stagnating, it’s becoming entirely top-heavy, with the novice to expert ratio fully inverted. As shown in Figure 5, for the past four, consecutive years, Category A starters have been more numerous than Category C, culminating in 2026 with a new relative peak.
Figure 5. The ratio of A to C starters for all events from 2012 - 2026.
As we detail in our racer analysis (Part 2), churn out of the sport is lowest for Category A racers. As a result, current participation levels are being propped up by a core group of veteran racers. But as they inevitably exit the sport, there are simply not enough novice racers to replace them.
Comparing Prospect Park and Central Park
While less significant, we also took the opportunity to look at event-level data segmented by the two primary NYC venues: Prospect Park and Central Park. These two park series are the backbone of local racing and there are significant differences between the two:
CRCA runs races in Central Park, where there are both club (CRCA members only), and open races (general admission), while all Prospect Park races, now run by Tom Mains of Mainsport, are all an open racing format.
Prospect Park racing is limited to 3-4 fields per event due to a shorter 3.4 mile loop, while Central Park can accommodate 5 fields per event given the longer 6.1 mile loop.
The mix of fields by gender varies: of those 5 Central Park fields, two are typically women’s (40%) whereas Prospect Park does not run women’s fields during the Spring due to sunrise timing, and during the summer there are three men’s fields and one women’s field (25% of the fields).
Complicating our analysis is that historical CRCA club racing data is sparse. Through 2014, CRCA results only included the top-10 finishers for the non-beginner fields. In 2015, the Club shifted to recording full race rosters, but given limited prior data, the figures that we have access to likely under-represent the true size club racing between 2008 and 2014, which also flows into the New York City-level data referenced throughout.
Table 2 compares overall statistics for these two venues, broken down by CRCA member-only (Club) and open races. While more fields can race on any given race day in Central Park due to the longer circuit, the number of races in the two parks is similar. Prospect Park shows larger median field sizes but this reflects a structural selection bias: Prospect Park hosts fewer women’s fields relative to Central Park. We did not focus heavily on event economics in our analysis, but the financial reality is simple: Central Park races are inherently more expensive to run. The longer course requires more marshals, meaning CRCA races need a higher overall turnout to cover operating costs.
Table 2. Prospect Park and Central Park
Prospect has never run club races; its absence from the club rows is structural, not a decline.
Figure 6 graphs participation over time across Central Park and Prospect Park, differentiating between open and club races in Central Park. This data aligns with the broader NYC regional trends. While attendance is down across the board, Prospect Park is losing racers at a slightly slower rate than Central Park. Our data does not explicitly identify why the rate of decay is slower in Prospect Park, but we speculate that it may relate to Central Park historically over indexing to Category C racers, whose participation declines have been most severe.
Figure 6. The total number of starts by park and race type from 2012 - 2026.
Figure 7 displays the field composition between the two parks, with Club Racing included in the Central Park figures for all time periods. The large Category C fields we saw in Central Park during 2022 and 2023, when beginners still outnumbered experts, show exactly what Central Park can achieve as a thriving entry point for new racers. We speculate that CRCA’s focus on new racer development through coaching, clinics, and men’s and women’s development fields for nearly all events may offer an easier point of entry for new racers in Central Park as compared to Prospect Park, where development opportunities are constrained by limits on the number of fields and the lack of a CRCA-like membership base.
Figure 7. Total starts by Field category partitioned by Park from 2012 - 2026
When do New Yorkers Race Most
We close our event-level analysis with a review of participation on a monthly basis to help frame seasonal demand patterns. This data must be reviewed on a venue-level basis given different race series are active at different points of the year. Figure 8 isolates each major venue by monthly participation. This data clearly shows that Central Park and Prospect Park field sizes peak in June before declining in July and August. While flexibility on race schedules is extremely limited in both parks given scheduling demands outside of any race director’s control, this framework suggests that demand would likely be highest for additional June event dates while March and August see relatively weaker participation.
Figure 8. Seasonal variation of racers per event by Event Venue.
Figure 9 narrows this dataset to Central Park and Prospect Park. This analysis supports June as a peak demand month, followed by April and May. Interestingly, CRCA Club Race demand levels peak in May and taper off for the balance of the season, underscoring that August dates are less favorable for race participation. This data also suggests that Grant’s Tomb Criterium may see improved participation by returning to an early season date.
Figure 9. Seasonal variation of racers per event by race type, exclusive to Central and Prospect Park.
Finally, we turned to weekday racing (Figure 10). These events show lower total turnout than weekend events, but this is largely due to fewer fields per race: 3 for weekday events versus 5.2 for weekends. On a per field basis that adjusts for this, weekday fields featured 31.5 racers against 34.5 for weekend fields, a difference of about ten percent.
More importantly, weekday races appeared to fill an important gap in many racers' calendar: while weekend race turnout declined significantly from May to August, weekday races showed strong and stable participation trends during this same time period. We speculate that many racers that have weekend schedule conflicts during the summer historically turned to weeknight racing as a key competitive outlet.
Unfortunately, this weeknight racing product does not currently exist in New York City. The last weekday race in our dataset ran in 2023. This is a stark change from weekday racing’s peak in 2017 when it accounted for 24% of all NYC starters. In the season after it disappeared, NYC starters fell by 2,403, of which 2,237 or 93% was the lack of weekday races. Weekend starters over the same period fell 2.2%. In short, the midweek calendar went away, and it took close to a quarter of NYC racing with it.
Figure 10. Seasonal variation of weekday versus weekend racing, New York City venues.
NYC Road Race Calendar: Key Takeaways
To summarize key conclusions from this examination of New York City road racing at the event level:
The calendar has been cut in half. NYC races fell from 70 in 2018 to 35 in 2026, and starters fell 52% from their 2019 peak.
Midweek racing took the biggest hit: all three weeknight series are gone, and we believe that loss has hurt the community most.
The pyramid has inverted. Category C starters have fallen sharply, and every year since 2023, Category A starters have outnumbered them. Without more novices coming through, the community will keep shrinking.
Central Park may be the stronger entry point for new racers. We think that reflects its development fields and CRCA’s clinics and coaching.
Demand peaks in June. Turnout tapers through the rest of the season, so June, then July, then April and May are the best months to add events.
We’ll continue our analysis tomorrow with Part 2: What We Can Learn From Individual Riders
Our deep dive into NYC road racing begins with a look at the race calendar and the significant losses in the number of races and race starters over the past seven years