Ranking the nations?

Art Vandelay
Art Vandelay Posts: 1,982
edited September 2010 in Pro race
How would you rank the top 10 nations in terms of a) % of population that follow pro cycling, b) % of population involved in competitive amateur cycling?
Belgium number 1 in both I would have thought but who else?

Comments

  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    The Isle of Man would do well here. The presence of a handful of pro manx cyclists isn't just a fluke. Cycling is not a minority sport over here. In the summer there is a 10 mile TT league that usually has 160 entrants to ride on a Wednesday night. Not bad out of a population of 70,000.

    At the height of the season there are 4-5 races or TT's per week. Children can start racing over here in the Royal London 360 league from the age of about 3 upwards on stabilisers!
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • RichN95.
    RichN95. Posts: 27,187
    The 'big five' are Belgium, Italy, France, Spain and the Netherlands.

    I'd add Switzerland. Colombia probably. Kazakhstan perhaps. Maybe Germany. Eritrea as a completely left field choice.

    Do Luxembourg and the Isle of Man count?
    Twitter: @RichN95
  • csp
    csp Posts: 777
    Slovenia has a population of just over 2 million and if I'm not mistaken there are currently 7 Slovenian riders in top teams (Bole, Bozic, Brajkovic, Koren, Spilak, Stangelj, Valjavec)
  • dougzz
    dougzz Posts: 1,833
    RichN95 wrote:

    Do Luxembourg and the Isle of Man count?


    Perhaps as important as Wales or some other not a real country place ;)
  • FJS
    FJS Posts: 4,820
    It also depends a lot on what part of a country you're alking about. - cycling is much more popular in Flanders than Wallonia, while in Brittany and the Basque Country there's more of a popular cycling tradition than in the rest of France and Spain.

    Flanders is probably the only area where cycling can claim a nr 1 spectator sport status (jointly with football).

    In my experience the difference in terms of the average Joe's attention for and knowledge of cycling between Flanders and France, Spain, Italy and Netherlands is huge, but not as huge as between those countries and say the UK.

    In Holland most people with an average interest in sports will have heard of Bram Tankink - how many people in the UK know who Steve Cummings is?
  • LangerDan
    LangerDan Posts: 6,132
    FJS wrote:
    It also depends a lot on what part of a country you're alking about. - cycling is much more popular in Flanders than Wallonia, while in Brittany and the Basque Country there's more of a popular cycling tradition than in the rest of France and Spain.

    Flanders is probably the only area where cycling can claim a nr 1 spectator sport status (jointly with football).

    IIn my experience the difference in terms of the average Joe's attention for and knowledge of cycling between Flanders and France, Spain, Italy and Netherlands is huge, but not as huge as between those countries and say the UK.
    In Holland most people with an average interest in sports will have heard of Bram Tankink - how many people in the UK know who Steve Cummings is?

    This.
    A friend of mine lived in one of the cycling-mad areas of Northern Italy for several years. However he now says that it wasn't until he moved to Flanders that he realised how integrated cycling can be into every facet of a peoples lives.
    'This week I 'ave been mostly been climbing like Basso - Shirley Basso.'
  • cajun_cyclist
    cajun_cyclist Posts: 493
    Luxembourg: the first person to win the Tour de France not from France was Faber from Luxembourg in 1908, the country has had the winner at least two other times http://bikeraceinfo.com/tdf/tdfindex.html, who knows how many other fine riders they have had in it and other races besides their well-known current crop of riders. So, under those circumstances, I'd think they'd have to be considered.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 73,217
    FJS wrote:
    It also depends a lot on what part of a country you're alking about. - cycling is much more popular in Flanders than Wallonia, while in Brittany and the Basque Country there's more of a popular cycling tradition than in the rest of France and Spain.

    Flanders is probably the only area where cycling can claim a nr 1 spectator sport status (jointly with football).

    In my experience the difference in terms of the average Joe's attention for and knowledge of cycling between Flanders and France, Spain, Italy and Netherlands is huge, but not as huge as between those countries and say the UK.

    In Holland most people with an average interest in sports will have heard of Bram Tankink - how many people in the UK know who Steve Cummings is?

    It's not for nothing the real cycling fans in Holland watch Sporza. T'was the 2nd thing I ever learnt about cycling - if you want to know about what is what, watch the Flemish coverage.
    _
  • cajun_cyclist
    cajun_cyclist Posts: 493
    Right now, I think there is a bit of a Belgian Craze in cycling.

    The book "Dog in a hat" by Joe Parkin is all about cycling in Belgium and it tells a lot about the psyche, those Kermis or Kelmis races they have over there, sounds absolutely thrilling and even watching the Tour of Flanders was great on TV, about everything I'd want in a race. It seems cycling in Belgium is on a very personal level. That pro-cycling is not something aloof.

    There is a Lion of Flanders shop on the web now selling jerseys and not even wool, a bit expensive, Nashbar sells a less expensive variant http://www.nashbar.com/bikes/ProductDis ... erralID=NA Cool looking stuff.

    Belgian cycling sounds very fascinating and largely unknown to many people as well. You can tell something is popular when shops open up selling these things. I think the Lion of Flanders shop might be on to something if they expand their product selection. Someone needs to write a book that is more comprehensive on Belgian Cycling or perhaps Flemmish/Flandrian cycling though I believe I read Ghent is the cycling centre of Belgium and that sounds like a French word.
  • inkyfingers
    inkyfingers Posts: 4,400
    A history of Belgian/Flemish cycling would be very interesting. There may even be one already, though maybe not translated into English. I have for many years been a huge sucker for all things Belgian, my Mrs jokes that I should have been born belgian in that my 3 favourte things are bikes, beers and chips and mayonaise!

    One thing I do know is that Ghent is very much in Flanders, and is well worth a visit for a weekend. I went some years ago but am hoping to drag the Mrs over there next year for the HN/KBK weekend.
    "I have a lovely photo of a Camargue horse but will not post it now" (Frenchfighter - July 2013)
  • frenchfighter
    frenchfighter Posts: 30,642
    I wonder about Australia. I have no real idea but they certainly pack their weight in the Pro ranks. Currently 4th in the CQ Country point ranking.
    Contador is the Greatest
  • Oz Chief
    Oz Chief Posts: 176
    frenchfighter wrote:
    I wonder about Australia. I have no real idea but they certainly pack their weight in the Pro ranks. Currently 4th in the CQ Country point ranking.

    If you were to ask 100 big sports fans in Australia (my estimation)
    80 would know who Cadel Evans is
    30 might know Stuart O'Grady
    20 would have heard of Mick Rogers
    5 for Mark Renshaw
    2 for Allan Davis
    1 for Matthew Goss

    Maybe 10 would know what Team Evans rides for.

    Only 2 would have known the Vuelta was on last week.

    Probably 30 might know that the World Champs are on here next week, but it is AFL Grand Final today, so the coverage will step up as of Monday.

    In terms of the pro's Australia punches well above its weight, but in terms of followers, I am the only avid cycling fan that I know.
  • Bernardus
    Bernardus Posts: 136
    The Netherlands will probably be comfortably within the top 10 of question A. The major spring classics are popular and the Tour is very popular.

    I'm not so sure about a high ranking regarding the number of people that are involved in competitive cycling. In 2008 the KNWU (cycling union) had 28456 members and they were the 28th biggest sports federation in the Netherlands: just 0.17% of the population was involved in competitive cycling. It was smaller than darts (23th), rifle shooting (22nd), skiing (12th) and bridge (11th). The (non-competitive) cyclo sportif union was also bigger with 43395 (0.26%) members.
  • csp
    csp Posts: 777
    Denmark
  • Art Vandelay
    Art Vandelay Posts: 1,982
    Bernardus wrote:
    The Netherlands will probably be comfortably within the top 10 of question A. The major spring classics are popular and the Tour is very popular.

    I'm not so sure about a high ranking regarding the number of people that are involved in competitive cycling. In 2008 the KNWU (cycling union) had 28456 members and they were the 28th biggest sports federation in the Netherlands: just 0.17% of the population was involved in competitive cycling. It was smaller than darts (23th), rifle shooting (22nd), skiing (12th) and bridge (11th). The (non-competitive) cyclo sportif union was also bigger with 43395 (0.26%) members.
    To compare to the UK - British Cycling (the main body for competitive cycling in the UK) has somewhere over 30,000 members which is about 0.05% of the population.

    ITV4 coverage of the TdF attracts about 400,000 UK viewers. As a passing note, the highest peak was back in 1987 when viewers averaged at 1.2m and peaked at 3.2m.
    Richard Moore, Scotsman wrote:
    by 1987 cycling had climbed from Britain's 31st most popular TV sport (in 1983) to fifth. More people watched the Tour de France than watched rugby union or Formula 1.
    Some google research - average TV viewing figures for the Tour in France are 3.8m and about 0.4m in the USA.

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