New site a year on

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BY: martyn salt

Published: 15th March, 2011

Well Xcracer 2.0 (as the web guru likes to call it) is now about a year old and so far we're pretty pleased with most of it.

When we set out around 6 years ago (i have forgotten now...it could be 7 or 8) the aim was to provide a home for racing and give organisers somewhere to promote thier events to an interested audience. The site has never managed to pay for itself but that's okay as it serves a wider need and has always been good fun (most of the time). When we started out racing was very much not talked about on mainstream MTB sites and if you posted on the forum you were pretty well flamed...so things are definitely changing.

the heady days of getting a new member every day or so and hitting our first 100 are long gone and we're now approaching 12000 registered users and 60,000 unique visits a month. Producing the UK's first online entry system for events has helped and each year we're met with talk of certain organisations producing a whizz bang one to make ours nul and void but it still hasn't materialised. Others may market theirs better but ours is pretty simple and it seems to work (will be even better when we get multiple entry available for the same race), Right now we have a record number of events available for entry with the South west and southern series now on board, we couldn't convince a few organisers to come with us but hopefully one day....In that time we have always ran a team and supported riders making their own way, this year the race team has grown to 6 and it will be quite exciting to see them kitted out in the first ever bespoke XCracer team kit at the British Series at Dalby next weekend. Results have never been that important to us as long as someone was willing to tell other people about their race experiences in our now much copied VFTP...although the team does seem to be getting quicker each year!

We have strived to produce more content this year on a shoestring budget so thanks to all those who have contributed and got involved. Remember the site is for everyone not just team riders so if you have a report from an event and want to get involved then get in touch.

In addition to supporting a team we try and get involved with as many other events and racers where we can. The addition of a vibrant shop section (run by Anthony White) has created a regular income stream for us to plough back in to events and racers and in the last year we have added sponsoring the Bike Wash at British Series rounds, providing race tape for organisers who want something other than red/white builders tape in their arena, sponsoring the singlespeed class at the UK 24 solo champs, sponsoring the Orange Monkey Cannondale team as they take the huge leap of becoming UCI registered and hitting up more World Cups, supporting Sally Bigham as she takes a year out and takes on Cape Epic and other top events. We have also tried to really support events that are just starting out or trying to improve and it's great to see the regional racing sceene as buoyant as it has been for around 10 years and new venues (and some old ones) seem to be appearing. If you need some race products then at least give the shop a look, Anthony has some great race products at very keen prices with good delivery and support. Every penny from the shop goes back in to racing and the ads on the site go towards content and running the site. There are no staff and no employees. There have been a few interesting moments with our record forum thread being about a marmite National Champs in 2006 and our succesful campaign to get more riders at the world champs in 2007

Well Xcracer 3.0 begins to loom, we know we haven't got reviews right and training is still a large hole that has only been partially filled we have a dream of an offshoot magazine that covers the sport worldwide that is being built on the basis of 'well there isn't one, there ought to be, so we may as well make one' - news on this soon.

Anyway for those of you that have been here since day one...thanks, we hope you've enjoyed the journey...here's to a few more years.