The thread was pointed in my direction as something I maybe should contribute towards, and im glad I can. I get hit with this question quite often, and I hope I can shed some light.
Ive read through the whole thread and I can say that Driftking, Bogoda, the Cat, and certainly SteveW are on the money.
Firstly, we race/live/breathe MTB atleast 10 months af the year....why only 10 months of the year...not 12? Well come January training is in full swing again for the world Cups, all our preparation is based around being at our peak for the races that our sponsors want us to do well at. Our race season ends in September, but there is always other sponsors obligations/interviews/new product testing and analysis that happens as soon as the season is over in September. It doesnt happen 12 months of the year because everyone needs a break! I know for myself, November and December are the only months of the year I can get into my normal life/routine and just enjoy ridiing for the reasons I stared doing it in the first place. thats 2 months of the year I can enjoy my ridiing for what it is.
Why dont we race as part of our race preparation....well 99% of pros know what they need to do to be at their best for an international race. Which is based around physical training, and preparation, not domestic racing. And for a World cup season, which involves more physical prep than ego boosting against other racers. You have to pick and choose your battles. EG...I wanted to win the Adelaide round of the DH national series in 2008. So I trained for it, Sam Hill turned up to race also, but didnt prepare for the race at all, because he was resting and preparing for other races.....he didnt care, and had bigger fish to fry. I beat him at that race, but did I beat him in any other big races that year.....negative!
The financial side.....Our sponsors pay us to race world cups primarily, and select other races. for Myself Yeti dont care at all about national champs, so its all on my own bill. I just finalized my plans for national champs in Adelaide later this month....for DH and 4X $300 entries (which I must give props to Adelaide MTB club for refunding my 4X entry) so $200 entry, $400 flights, Atleast $300 excess baggeage to get the gear I eed to Adelaide, $400 hire car for 5 days, $100 Airport parking for my car, atleast $100 misc expenses, and I am lucky enough to be able to stay with Friends at the race to cut my accomodation costs. But thats still a $1500 trip for a race that my sponsors dont care about and would rather I dont do. To get myself burnt out on races that don't matter to them! And when your sponsors dont care about the race, then there are many ways I would rather spend $1500. Keep in mind here, When racing World Cups is what your whole year centers around, the national series is a very distant 2nd.
Lets get one point clear, if I could break even, and someone would cover my costs, before relying on Prizemoney for a national race, then I Would be there! At the end of the day, I love racing, Im a competitive person! But Over 9 years as a Pro racer I have been offered a grand total of $0 to attend national rounds. Again, not a big deal, I dont expect someone to pay my way, but when you race almost all year round for your sponsors, and then talk about racing an event that means nothing to your sponsors and having to fork out your own money to attend it, it really doest rate it highly on the "to do" list.
Sorry if I come across as negative, but there is zero incentive for Aussie Pros to race. Maybe if CA/MTBA wanted more attendance from pros they would do something about it, rather than just expecting them to show up, its a solid race series, but far from the the pinnacle.
