By the 80s, cycling had already pretty much become "global": meaning Europe, Soviet Federazione, North America, Mexico, Columbia and Australia (New Zealand? South Africa?). However, in Italy, France, Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands there were far more races and racers than today. The sport was still quite grass roots. Since then the sport has grown in every other aspect (materials, preparation science, nutrition, etc), but arguably in Europe, with more traffic on the roads and changing lifestyle of the youth, has been declining for a couple of decades. It's still popular, but in Italy for example, not as much as it was in the Gimondi-Moser through the pre-Madonna di Campiglio Pantani era. The question thus is has the sport grown in the other areas to compensate for it's decline in Europe (and US in the wake of the Armstrong affair)? I don't know the answer to this, but my suspicion is that cycling experienced steady growth in the 80s, 90s and early 2000s, but has leveled off since or declined. The talent pool today should thus not be larger, but the farming of talent perhaps is more scientific. Today you can be given a pro contract on Strava numbers alone. The parameters for determining who has pro qualities have broadened it would seem.