Could cycling become the UK's second-favourite sport?

MaxwellBygraves

Interesting

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15058782

Personally, I'm not sure but I can hope. Cav just needs to win the ORR and Wiggins the TdF and then we might be onto something.

If cycling can become more popular than tennis, then I will be chuffed. My god, I hate tennis :twisted:

rick_chasey

Tennis is 2nd?

No way.

Cleat Eastwood

re Boardman: the last thing you need is cycling to become 'trendy', look what the middle classes did to football.

What you need to see on the road are more fit tight ass women.

alihisgreat

its too expensive to become mainstream


anyone can spend £30-£40 on football boots and feel like a premier league footballer...


but you have to sink £1000+ into bike and kit to feel like a proper roadie.




Sports like football, tennis, rugby etc. are just more accessible.

ooermissus

Seeing as it's not even top ten at the moment, I suspect the answer is no.

Monkeypump

In a word, no.

As mentioned above, other sports are far more accessible, are part of school curriculums, have true household names and have an image that doesn't need explaining or excusing!

Despite what the article says, I doubt that many non-cyclists would be able to name many pro riders (apart from Lance, perhaps).

bagpusscp

Football a sport :?: a game yes.

verylonglegs

Monkeypump wrote:

In a word, no.

As mentioned above, other sports are far more accessible, are part of school curriculums, have true household names and have an image that doesn't need explaining or excusing!

Despite what the article says, I doubt that many non-cyclists would be able to name many pro riders (apart from Lance, perhaps).

That's the crucial bit for me, school provides access to the facilities and the chance of competitive action for lots of sports and this is why cycling will struggle to become as popular as rugby, football and cricket. Tennis is always a mysterious one, I suspect if it wasn't for the annual two weeks of hype over Wimbledon it would disappear from the nation's consciousness quite rapidly.

Mr_Cellophane

I though fishing was the most popular sport. or does it depend on how you define "popular" ie most spectators, most participants, etc.

TuckerUK

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

I though fishing was the most popular sport.

My understanding too.

unixnerd

but you have to sink £1000+ into bike and kit to feel like a proper roadie.

Yeah, it'd be nice to see VAT taken off kids bikes. But at least with cycling there's no tennis court or swimming pool fees.

school provides access to the facilities and the chance of competitive action for lots of sports and this is why cycling will struggle

But many schools encourage kids to cycle in and there's scope for lots more of that. Plus it'd be nice for cycle clubs to adopt their local schools.

SLX01

Cycling has an advantage as being slightly generic there are many MTBers for example that wouldn't get out of bed to watch the TdF if it went past their house. Its a bit like lumping tennis, ping pong, squash and badminton together as racquet sports.

Ben6899

bagpusscp wrote:

Football a sport :?: a game yes.

*yawn*

Come training with me and the boys (I don't play due to injury, but still train) and we'll see how much of a game it is when you're throwing your ring up outside the clubhouse (where a good few new young lads end up).

MaxwellBygraves

verylonglegs wrote:

Tennis is always a mysterious one, I suspect if it wasn't for the annual two weeks of hype over Wimbledon it would disappear from the nation's consciousness quite rapidly.

If only........

pauldavid

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

its too expensive to become mainstream


anyone can spend £30-£40 on football boots and feel like a premier league footballer...


but you have to sink £1000+ into bike and kit to feel like a proper roadie.




Sports like football, tennis, rugby etc. are just more accessible.

Don't bloody believe it, my son plays Tennis to a good level and you wouldn't believe the costs attached to the sport. It easily rivals my cycling for costs.

Anyhoo, who cares how popular a given sport is, I love cycling but have no interest in almost any other sport, and if I'm honest I couldn't care if no one else in the world liked cycling I don't do it because of anybody elses opinion.

lifeform

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

re Boardman: the last thing you need is cycling to become 'trendy', look what the middle classes did to football.

I'm not a follower of Football at all - what did the middle classes do to it?

BillyMansell

ALIHISGREAT wrote:

its too expensive to become mainstream


anyone can spend £30-£40 on football boots and feel like a premier league footballer...

Some people squeeze their way into an XXXXXL football shirt, eat pies, drink beer and smoke fags and still feel like a premier league footballer. Being a football fan requires no commitment to participate and yet some will still think they know better than the professionals.

Beyond the financial expense, for many interested in cycling they will give at least a modicum of commitment to do something physical in pursuit of the activity, a level of commitment to activity that would be beyond the basic capability of a proportion of football fans.

I've never understood how a football match lasts 90 minutes yet the armchair critics can talk ad nauseum - if they had to commit as much energy to participating as they do to talking then I suspect the numbers interested in football would drop considerably.

RichN95.

lifeform wrote:

Cleat Eastwood wrote:

re Boardman: the last thing you need is cycling to become 'trendy', look what the middle classes did to football.

I'm not a follower of Football at all - what did the middle classes do to it?

Stopped the hooliganism, made the stadiums safe, got pitches that weren't mudbaths by November and replaced the likes of Brian Talbot and Peter Davenport with Thierry Henry and Eric Cantona.

The Ors

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

...or does it depend on how you define "popular" ie most spectators, most participants, etc.

This is the crux of it. I don't think very many people actually play football. As stated in another post; it's way too much effort. This is all about people watching the tele I think.

jackfeeder

Actually there's a hell of a lot of people play football. A sizeable number will be playing on a sat afternoon and not watching their team because they are participating. And it is a sport as you need fitness, strength skill and bollox to play to a decent standard. Saying that pro football is up it's own #rse and I'm fitter now thanks to doing sportives than when I was playing football, but that may have be down to beer consumption as well.
It's amazing how many people you chat to on sportives etc that used to play football, rugby etc but due to injury now cycle.
I think that for anyone to be at the top of their respective sport takes a tremendous amount of hard work, skill and specific fitness even if you do think it's a load of old sh#t.
Ok, back to dreaming about Wales in the forthcoming rugby World Cup final..............................

SLX01

A lot of people also participate in 'cycling' for no other reason than to get to work etc. I wouldn't class all car drivers as Motorsport fans so I don't think all cyclists should be lumped in a group as participating in the sport.

mouth

For cost you need to tale a look at ice/inline hockey. For instance my carbon roller skates (yes really) currently retail at something near £450 if you can find then cheap. Stick? £100 and it might break first time out.

To be fair it can be done cheaper, a bit like bikes but if you want to be competitive better reach for the loan application form. But there's no way you need to spend £1000's to be a 'proper' roadie. My get-up set me back something like £500 and whilst it's basic it is perfectly adequate for me. I'm already planning the upgrades in my head and inside something like a year I want a 1k bike (absolute limit).

Cycling exists in far too many forms to become a single mainstream sport in the UK - commuting. MTB, CX, BMX, downhill, track, road stage, road one-day, TT etc but they will always be tarnished by RLJ'ers in the same way that all footballists are rapists.

verylonglegs

unixnerd wrote:

school provides access to the facilities and the chance of competitive action for lots of sports and this is why cycling will struggle

But many schools encourage kids to cycle in and there's scope for lots more of that. Plus it'd be nice for cycle clubs to adopt their local schools.

My use of competitive is important though, commuting to school on your bike, as SLX01 points out, is a long way away from bike racing. I could put forward for example at least half a dozen work colleagues who bike to work but couldn't tell you a thing about bike racing.

Redhog14

Surely there is a reason no one mentioned Golf - crap it may be but it is big, far bigger than tennis.

As for football I used to love it, absolutley love it. Now it is just a farce and nothing like the game I used know.

this kind of sums up one of the main problems...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MusyO7J2 ... re=related

akcc05

I reckon one of the reasons why football is so popular is because lots of people enjoy watching it. I mean most of us spend more than 8 hours on the bike a week. Football fans spend what, 0-30mins on the field a week? I don't think you can enjoy watching cycling if you aren't a cyclist, but you can with football. You can be fat and unfit and call yourself a football fan, I think you'd get some strange looks if you are fat and unfit and call yourself a cycling fan.

And no, cycling is too expensive, too uncool to be mainstream (come on, skinny shaved men in lycra, you joking aren't ya?). Surfing is the other end of the extreme, too cool to be mainstream...lean sexy men and women who play guitars and hang around on the beach wearing flip flops...commoners have no chance.

RoadyForever

I still think we are far from that when we can't even watch live coverage of the Tour of Britain live on tv (and some councils cancelling sponsorship). One thing I have noticed when chatting to my LBS they are now selling more road bike's than MTB's


But I think it's great, never has British cycling had it so good.

ooermissus

The Ors wrote:

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

...or does it depend on how you define "popular" ie most spectators, most participants, etc.

This is the crux of it. I don't think very many people actually play football. As stated in another post; it's way too much effort. This is all about people watching the tele I think.

In England, most popular sport for participation is swimming (7% of people swim at least once a week), followed by football (5%). Cycling comes fourth (4%) - but this excludes "any cycling which is exclusively for travel purposes."

BigG67

ooermissus wrote:

The Ors wrote:

Mr_Cellophane wrote:

...or does it depend on how you define "popular" ie most spectators, most participants, etc.

This is the crux of it. I don't think very many people actually play football. As stated in another post; it's way too much effort. This is all about people watching the tele I think.

In England, most popular sport for participation is swimming (7% of people swim at least once a week), followed by football (5%). Cycling comes fourth (4%) - but this excludes "any cycling which is exclusively for travel purposes."

Here's a link to the most recent stats. http://www.sportengland.org/research/ac ... r_two.aspx

As mentioned above the key issue is how you measure popularity - participation, viewing figures, "commitment" of spectators or participants (are they casual or frequent?), cultural connection. Are we talking about sports or events; Wimbledon or tennis? UK Elite road race or TdF?

Where cycling is - I'd suggest - unique is that it fulfills many different roles in our lives and is the only excercise other than walking that can fulfil a genuine practical purpose in being a mode of transport...at least that I can think of.

Ben6899

jackfeeder wrote:

Actually there's a hell of a lot of people play football. And it is a sport as you need fitness, strength skill and bollox to play to a decent standard. It's amazing how many people you chat to on sportives etc that used to play football, rugby etc but due to injury now cycle.
I think that for anyone to be at the top of their respective sport takes a tremendous amount of hard work, skill and specific fitness...

WHS^^^ (mostly)

prawny

I don't think cycling is popular because it's too complicated and subtle to watch. The general public like knock out tournaments and leagues with simple rules. That's why Rugby is less popular than football, one goal = 1 point.
People can get into the track cycling because of the one on one knockout nature of the competition, cave winning the green jersey is imprssive but people expect him to be the fasted on any stage.
A girl I catch the train with thought he'd won the green jersey for coming second in the tour.
People generally speaking are lazy and stupid

gilesjuk

The news media has a huge bias in favour of sports which rake in the cash for them.

Personally I would rather cycling didn't became a hugely popular sport on TV, it would end up moving to Sky on a subscription channel.