USAC is failing to get people into cycling?

[oldcrank]

Seems like in the UK there was a "perfect storm" of a number of things happening that has meant an explosion in cycling participation (and, therefore, racing too):

1. Identification that cycling was a "short-cut" to getting some Olympic medals. Therefore funding from the lottery via British Cycling.
2. Winning the Olympics 2012 bid.
3. Having cycling heroes in the public domain other than just pro cyclists: Chris Hoy v. Lance Armstrong.
4. A cycling federation with a plan (for the medium and long term).
5. A government that has realized there is good PR to be gained by backing cycling participation.
6. Tour de France Gran Departs in the UK.

Although people like to try to paint the US as something totally different to the UK - if you ignore the mid-west, there are a lot of similarities between the UK 15 years ago and US now: cycling was a minority sport with a lot of competition for TV coverage and sponsorship money (soccer, rugby, cricket, golf, angling, athletics, tennis), the car was king and people didn't commute much on bikes.

I wonder whether the US is primed for a similar explosion in interest. Winning an Olympic bid would certainly help!

As a side, how is US swimming so successful? How do they manage their funding/grass-roots programs?

"Good PR" might be a bit cynical TrackCynic, my friend, but the
Government did mention Olympic successess when announcing
this program last August:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-shifts-cycling-up-a-gear

 

[rhubroma]

The way forward is gran fondo-like events, something semi competitive that allows people to measure themselves against others and their performance from year to year but at the same time can be a participatory sport for those who just want to finish. This is what triathlon is. I would say get rid of categories and just use age groups plus an elite/pro class.

What is more, these types of events can be big enough to make the promoters money. WTC makes money by having communities bear a lot of the costs. The communities do it because they want 2500 triathletes plus their families staying in the area for four days. Without the swimming (and running, but especially swimming) it should be possible to attract field sizes that are many times the size of an Ironman event.

A sport that relies on people training scores and scores of hours so they don't get dropped on the first lap of a race will never grow very large in the U.S.

Good points and an interesting proposition. In Italy for instance the granfondo circuit has really developed into a money making enterprise, which keeps the promoters happy and engaged. And as you say such events offer an opportunity for those that want to race, and indeed there is a gc and prizes, but also those registered merely to ride and take in the scenery or just try to meet an established time goal, without treating it as a race against the competition. In fact everyone starts together, with prizes being awarded to both the absolute top placings and also for those among the different age categories. The only issue is that if you want to do an event as a race, when there are sometimes thousands registered, you must start within the first or second heats, otherwise there is no way to get back to the front before the invitable splits. This can be overcome by registering early or based on merit for results previously obtained in other granfondos, which are transmited by the electronic chip everyone rides with to a database system that confirms you have covered the entire course at the various checkpoints as well as registers your overall placing.

In a country such as Italy the possibilities for great and super hard courses are practically endless, while breath taking scenic terrain is easy to come by in il bel paese and travel distances can usually be contained within what's reasonable, given that any given Sunday you have over dozen being put on.

My question is would promoters and sponsorship be interested in adopting this model, which is inclusive by satisfying the needs of both strong racers and recreation cyclists. There should still be regular age category races for juniors and seniors up to age 24, to see who is targeted for a professional career.

 

[LugHugger]

From yesterday's Grauniad