Wiggins win good for British cycling?

inseine

There's been a lot of Wiggins bashing and general grumpiness about this years Tour on this forum, but what's the bigger picture? In the more years than I care to remember that I've been cycling it's been a minority sport in the uk and riding a bike rather looked down on. The picture started to improve with Boardmans Olympic success and then team GB on the track so surely Wiggins tdf win (probably) is the icing on the cake. If this gets more people cycling, more tv and press coverage, more respect from motorists, more races and sportives etc I think I can put up with a slightly less than electric race. Go on Brad, I'm routing for you!

rick_chasey

I'll be having a few more conversations on the average club ride explaining that the Tour of Flanders is a one day race.... .


I'm hoping some younger people turn up to clubs. Fed up being the youngest person on most runs despite the fact I'm 24.

Hopefully being on the bike regularly will be a bit more mainstream, so things like the Times campaign seem a bit less niche.

Can probably expect some new Brit pros to come on the scene in 10 years time, waxing lyrical about how they watched Wiggins & Froome as a kid.

lostboysaint

Yes it will. It will raise perception of the sport to an even higher level. Kids always aspire to be like champions and with Cav*, Wiggo, Danny Hart, the track boys and girls there is a plethora of heroes/heroines in the sport right now and there's potentially more to come. Cycling winning the SPOTY for the second time in a row will be cool as well

*the fact that Cav shags Page 3 girls always helps with that..........

rebs

Not that SPOTY is a big thing. But for cycling to win 2 years in a row is a big ask due to an olympic year. If Ennis wins gold, it's a banker for her.

prawny

rebs wrote:

Not that SPOTY is a big thing. But for cycling to win 2 years in a row is a big ask due to an olympic year. If Ennis wins gold, it's a banker for her.

I'm a banker for her.

Anyway, I can't see how wiggins is bad for anyone other than his competitors or elitist w*nker internet people like us.
I'm glad we've got a british winner, and I'm prepared to go on record as saying I belive he's less likely to be on the sauce than a lot of others. Fingers crossed.

Maybe I should buy full sky kit and a pinnarello so people give me more room on the road just in case

Dorset_Boy

It has to be good for cycling in Britain. Radio 5 have been making a big thing of the Tour this year, far more so than ever before.
More people buying bikes & kit has to be good for the economy, and people's health, and will over time provide a better pool of elite athletes.

The key is to ensure that the sport remains in the media spotlight for the right reasons, and doesn't get swamped totally by the sport played by cheating prima-donnas. That will be that hardest part due to the media's obsession with soccer.

PuttyKnees

Golf still gets precedence over cycling in the radio news bulletin ...

It's good for cycling and probably sustainable. In the past there's been some highs but not the structure to bring through those kids inspired by Wiggins, Cav and co. It's there now, BC have done a decent job with go-ride and there are tonnes of kids into cyclocross already in our area - it's going to be nuts next season.

White Horse

Dorset Boy wrote:

More people buying bikes & kit has to be good for the economy,

Not if they're all going to cycle to work and leave the car at home. All that fuel duty will be lost.

snoopsmydogg

will be even better next year when all is forgotten and loads of well specced bikes will be going cheap

alanp23

Its clearly a good thing.

I saw a lot more people out on their bikes last Sunday than I normally do and it was all different types of cyclists. (Obviously, I only acknowledged the proper roadies )

Added to that, a lot more people are talking about the Tour at work and it seems to be getting classed as a proper sport rather than just a silly bike race in France.

The absolute highlight though has to be the coverage on Sky Sports News where they are getting very excited about it, despite having no real footage to show. This culminated in them sending one of their reporters in his suit to stand on the slopes of the Tourmalet and give his report. Genuis!

rebs

Aye its good. First time I've seen the Tour de France on the mainstream news for good reasons in the UK.

I would not be supraised to see a wealth of programs coming out ot point out how tough the tour is.

It's clearly tough but don't think the British general public get how tough.

LeicesterLad

rebs wrote:

Aye its good. First time I've seen the Tour de France on the mainstream news for good reasons in the UK.

I would not be supraised to see a wealth of programs coming out ot point out how tough the tour is.

It's clearly tough but don't think the British general public get how tough.

I agree with that, alot of my friends have been talking about the tour, but there has been no acknowledgment of how tough it is, they all consider football to be tough.

Boss made me laugh yesterday, he came over to me and asked if I had watched the 'Sarah Pendleton' thing, whoever she is, I informed him i hadn't and that track cycling didn't really interest me. he told me he quite liked it and then finished off with, 'it must be really tough, physically, the training she does she must be the fittest person on earth'

I said 'The Tour de France is tough, 3 weeks long riding up and down mountains'.

He replied: 'yeah, but they only do that once a year. Sarah does track all year round.'

:roll:

napoleond

Just been at my mum and dads who had radio 2 on, massive feature on jeremy vine (whom i do not like)about Wiggins, the tour and a new wave of cycling converts...

hammerite

About 10 years ago apparently my club was just full of old blokes who met up for a cup of tea to talk about cycling.

I'm still one of the youngest regularly out on the club ride (at 34). Now we have a Go Ride club (cycle coaching for kids). At our Evening League TT we had just over 50 riders (this is down over previous years, but we think this is weather related). Of those 6 U18s were riding inc 1 girl, another U18 doing his bit and pushing off (he usually rides) - although each of those has parents who cycle with the club.

The great bit though was that we had a couple of 15 year olds who randomly turned up separately asking about joining the club and coming out on rides. Based on that I'd say it will be a good thing for cycling in Britain.

Richj

British Cycling have worked wonders in the last few years with their "go-ride programme" and I hope this kind of success will accelerate that growth and more kids will come in to the sport.

It's great seeing cycling in the mainstream media and it'll be interesting to see how it lasts once the Olympics kicks in, but there seems to be real positive vibes about cycling right now.

If anything will change in terms of attitudes of motorists on road or the decline of amatuer racing (and even the UK Pro scene) I don't hold out too much hope.

sfichele

Is it good for BC? I hope so! Hopefully we'll see more people riding, and cyclists might be considered human by some people rather than an out-group.

To turn it on its head, I think wiggo winning the tour will be good for the tour itself, which always has the doping cloud hanging over its winner's heads.

No_Ta_Doctor

It couldn't really have come at a better time. Cycling infrastructure has improved immeasurably over the last 10-15 years. Cycling has been growing, as a sport, as a hobby and as means of transport. What cycling needs now is to gain critical mass, so that it's commonplace to own a bike and use it on the roads. Only then can the daft, age-old cyclists V motorists arguments be laid to rest so that we'll see proper provision for bikes on the road and motorists that understand how to share the road with bikes. It can only be a good thing.

Of course you'll all have to put up with ignorant co-workers thinking they know it all, but if you know your cycling you can help educate them.

inkyfingers

I'm already seeing more and more young riders out on the road and at TTs and such like, and this increased coverage will likely see more. I may not like the effect that Sky have had on the TdF, but i'm very pleased about the trickle down effect of this on cycling in this country.

At 31 I think i'm the youngest in my club, but other clubs have a lot more young members.

No_Ta_Doctor

To be honest, I'm less interested in 15 year olds turning up at clubs, I want to see 7 year olds tearing round the parks going "I'm Mark Cavendish" and "I'm Bradley Wiggins". I want to see them cycling to school, instead of the insane 1/2 mile "school run" with its mini traffic jams.

There's a generation of kids that were effectively lost to cycling, whose parents thought it was too dangerous to let them ride. Kids today will be luckier.

Pross

There's a bit of an enigma at our club. 30 odd kids from about 5 years old to 15 at the training sessions on a Saturday, loads of them race in CX and MTB and did the circuit races locally last week but there are only about 2 or 3 between the age of 16 and mid 20s riding regularly. Our club TTs which used to have probably a dozen or more juvenile, junior or early 20s riders when I first started now only has one turning up (although that's enough as she beat all us old men in the club champs the other week!). There seem to be plenty of kids taking up riding but very few prepared to ride on open roads, probably down to parents worrying (which I can certainly understand, I'm far more reluctant to let my daughters ride bikes on the road that I ever was to do so myself).

PuttyKnees

Pross wrote:

There's a bit of an enigma at our club. 30 odd kids from about 5 years old to 15 at the training sessions on a Saturday, loads of them race in CX and MTB and did the circuit races locally last week but there are only about 2 or 3 between the age of 16 and mid 20s riding regularly. Our club TTs which used to have probably a dozen or more juvenile, junior or early 20s riders when I first started now only has one turning up (although that's enough as she beat all us old men in the club champs the other week!). There seem to be plenty of kids taking up riding but very few prepared to ride on open roads, probably down to parents worrying (which I can certainly understand, I'm far more reluctant to let my daughters ride bikes on the road that I ever was to do so myself).

Chimes with our experience - lots of kids 5-14, "bit" of a gap and then loads of old guys! Wouldn't worry about kids not being on the road - they can learn everything they need off road and on closed circuit in a safe environment and then move to road riding when they need endurance

Richj

Pross wrote:

There's a bit of an enigma at our club. 30 odd kids from about 5 years old to 15 at the training sessions on a Saturday, loads of them race in CX and MTB and did the circuit races locally last week but there are only about 2 or 3 between the age of 16 and mid 20s riding regularly. Our club TTs which used to have probably a dozen or more juvenile, junior or early 20s riders when I first started now only has one turning up (although that's enough as she beat all us old men in the club champs the other week!). There seem to be plenty of kids taking up riding but very few prepared to ride on open roads, probably down to parents worrying (which I can certainly understand, I'm far more reluctant to let my daughters ride bikes on the road that I ever was to do so myself).

Yes that jump from "go-ride" off road riding to road riding and racing is huge.

PuttyKnees

Richj wrote:

Yes that jump from "go-ride" off road riding to road riding and racing is huge.

Doesn't have to be. An easy route is cyclocross <-> closed circuit. Takes 1 bike, two sets of tyres. Go ride is the perfect introduction to both road and off-road and the gap isn't as large as you think it is.

Richj

PuttyKnees wrote:

Richj wrote:

Yes that jump from "go-ride" off road riding to road riding and racing is huge.

Doesn't have to be. An easy route is cyclocross <-> closed circuit. Takes 1 bike, two sets of tyres. Go ride is the perfect introduction to both road and off-road and the gap isn't as large as you think it is.

I know, a lot of our kids race cyclocross and circuit races, but that step up from riding round cones on a mtb to a 30min race at (20+mph) for the U14's is a big jump and one that many of our youths struggle with. Certainly as Pross alluded to they don't like riding on the road.

Earthbound

Silly question really. With his World and particularly Olympic success and now the Tour all done with a little bit of Mod Rock'n'Roll Wiggos is great publicity for the sport in Britain.

And here's what the French are thinking of him http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18899902

I like - "In many ways Wiggins fulfils the expectations in France of what an Englishman ought to be like. He's seen as stylish, slightly eccentric, gentlemanly, outspoken, and humorous"

PuttyKnees

They forgot to mention that we're incredibly handsome.

Pross

Earthbound wrote:

Silly question really. With his World and particularly Olympic success and now the Tour all done with a little bit of Mod Rock'n'Roll Wiggos is great publicity for the sport in Britain.

And here's what the French are thinking of him http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18899902

I like - "In many ways Wiggins fulfils the expectations in France of what an Englishman ought to be like. He's seen as stylish, slightly eccentric, gentlemanly, outspoken, and humorous"

After his rant the other day, gentlemanly????

inkyfingers

PuttyKnees wrote:

Pross wrote:

There's a bit of an enigma at our club. 30 odd kids from about 5 years old to 15 at the training sessions on a Saturday, loads of them race in CX and MTB and did the circuit races locally last week but there are only about 2 or 3 between the age of 16 and mid 20s riding regularly. Our club TTs which used to have probably a dozen or more juvenile, junior or early 20s riders when I first started now only has one turning up (although that's enough as she beat all us old men in the club champs the other week!). There seem to be plenty of kids taking up riding but very few prepared to ride on open roads, probably down to parents worrying (which I can certainly understand, I'm far more reluctant to let my daughters ride bikes on the road that I ever was to do so myself).

Chimes with our experience - lots of kids 5-14, "bit" of a gap and then loads of old guys! Wouldn't worry about kids not being on the road - they can learn everything they need off road and on closed circuit in a safe environment and then move to road riding when they need endurance

That's because kids between 16 and 25 are too busy exploring the finer things in life. Sex, drugs and rock and roll.

Yellow Peril

Apologies if this has already been raised and answered elsewhere but will BC be under any pressure to relocate to the Olympic Velodrome from Manchester post games?

verylonglegs

inkyfingers wrote:

PuttyKnees wrote:

Pross wrote:

There's a bit of an enigma at our club. 30 odd kids from about 5 years old to 15 at the training sessions on a Saturday, loads of them race in CX and MTB and did the circuit races locally last week but there are only about 2 or 3 between the age of 16 and mid 20s riding regularly. Our club TTs which used to have probably a dozen or more juvenile, junior or early 20s riders when I first started now only has one turning up (although that's enough as she beat all us old men in the club champs the other week!). There seem to be plenty of kids taking up riding but very few prepared to ride on open roads, probably down to parents worrying (which I can certainly understand, I'm far more reluctant to let my daughters ride bikes on the road that I ever was to do so myself).

Chimes with our experience - lots of kids 5-14, "bit" of a gap and then loads of old guys! Wouldn't worry about kids not being on the road - they can learn everything they need off road and on closed circuit in a safe environment and then move to road riding when they need endurance

That's because kids between 16 and 25 are too busy exploring the finer things in life. Sex, drugs and rock and roll.

That's exactly it, I was the same with football, couldn't play enough of it until I left school and moved onto beer and going out at weekends. I went back to it when I left my teens but obviously many never do. It would take a very strong-willed teenager to ignore their peers and stay in a saturday night so they could be up for a bike ride first thing sunday.

Pross

I started cycling at 17 and enjoyed many a race / club run with a hangover - don't see why it has to be one or the other (Welsh hillclimb champs the morning after 8 pints and meeting my now wife for the first time was possibly the toughest!!).