Why does cycling attract so many snobs?

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  • sloppyschleckonds
    sloppyschleckonds Posts: 8,019
    Ex Golfers?
    I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles
  • ravenvrider
    ravenvrider Posts: 198
    Interesting article but not really solely about cycling, its about life in general whatever situation it may be work, sport or socially, groups of people who think they are better than others will to greater or lesser extent try to extend their "superiority" by comment or action within their own circles.....fact of life.

    Clearly cycling is no different, you will have those who are physically stronger, better conditioned or better equipped enjoy making the odd comment at other lesser riders expense, as above thats just life good or bad it wont change.

    I think more damaging is those that have been long set in cycling's established riding or racing clubs having such attitudes which helps give cycle racing that elitist and "snobbish" reputation that inhibits some strong riders that enjoy sportives or from other sports getting involved in the racing scene.
  • kajjal
    kajjal Posts: 3,380
    Most of the road riders our way are very friendly and if you are stopped they normally check you are OK. There is the occasional miserable rider but that is not unusual in life anyway. Coming from a mountain biking background where people tend to be friendler anyway which may be due to not being too obsessed with Strava. It is interesting the different reaction you get on the roads riding a mountain bike more road riders tend to ignore you :(
  • sungod
    sungod Posts: 17,385
    the headline is nonsense, cycling doesn't "attract so many snobs", a more accurate alternative headline would be, "journalist struggling to fill column inches extrapolates behaviour of a few twats to an entire community"

    can you imagine if the headline were "why does..."

    "...zzz attract so many paedos"
    "...zzz attract so many suicide bombers"
    "...zzz attract so many land grabbers"

    ...insert appropriate religious group

    those wouldn't be accurate either, but cyclists are one of the many groups to which bigotry in the popular press is seen as acceptable, like football fans are all hooligans or the unemployed are all scroungers
    my bike - faster than god's and twice as shiny
  • chris_bass
    chris_bass Posts: 4,913
    "Or in forums and articles, where self-defined guardians of recreational cycling denigrate those who have the gall to wear a yellow jersey"

    Does sound a little familiar from a few posts on here
    www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes
  • simon_masterson
    simon_masterson Posts: 2,740
    If I understand correctly, he is suggesting that merely wearing a jersey that is yellow (rather than an actual replica leader's jersey) attracts this behaviour? I can't say I've ever witnessed that.
    Retro(ish) TT 2017-
    Fixed TT 2015-2016
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    I could not be ar5ed to read it all but why is it always assumed people are emulating the pros?

    I have a decent bike and decent kit. I feel pretty proficient and can hold a decent pace over a fairly long distance.
    I quite like watching cycling on tv but am far from knowledgeable on all thats going on.
    I do it because I like cycling and certainly do not link it with having seen a pro rider on tv etc.

    I run as well. I am probably a better cyclist but look the part when running too, but bet I have never been thought of as trying to emulate a pro runner.

    IMO its about three things, money, effort/exclusivity, and jealousy.
    Cycling generally involves kit that a lot of people think of as stupidly expensive and it is often specialist stuff that those people do not see in Halfords or Tescos etc.
    If people are jealous of those two things they will often just be nasty.

    Cyclists are also very numerous and visual, so loads of us cycling round on expensive bikes on the same roads as them, and probably getting in their way a bit.

    I don't think cyclists are generally snobby or elitist. Its more that the haters are chavvy and narrow-minded.
  • Old_Timer
    Old_Timer Posts: 262
    I wear yellow jerseys simply because they are brighter coloured and get a driver's attention. Never had an unkind word about wearing one from another cyclist, either. Maybe the current boom in cycling and the amount of press over this and the racing successes of BC and Sky make the snobs out there more prominent.

    I'd agree with the reply above about wearing nice kit and having a good bicycle, I wear good stuff as it fits and feels better while riding. I do have a budget limit and won't go over the top with kit, ever. My bicycle is not the top end but my CAAD 10 4 is in top condition and allows me to ride more distance and do to quicker. Walking back or making the call of shame really bites so I maintain my ride and buy good parts and components. No snobbery by me, I'll ride with most anyone that comes along and I wave :shock: (the shame, oh the horrible act of heresy :roll:.)

    Our area is pretty bicycle friendly and most of the riders are the same. Interesting take in the article, heard this many times before, though. I don't read much into it here, the UK seems to have a worse time of it with the snobbery and roadie hate from motorist right now. Hopefully this can change, soon.
    Lets just got for a ride, the heck with all this stuff...
  • Mikey23
    Mikey23 Posts: 5,306
    Cycling methodists are the absolute pits
  • de_sisti
    de_sisti Posts: 1,283
    Kajjal wrote:
    Most of the road riders our way are very friendly and if you are stopped they normally check you are OK.

    Most of the road riders our way are very friendly and if you are stopped they normally ask you are OK as they speed past you.

    FTFY
  • frisbee
    frisbee Posts: 691
    the article wrote:
    Going in the opposite direction was a sportive, amongst which was a group of four, all leg-shaved and team jersey clad, trash talking other riders.

    How does he know this if he's going in the opposite direction?
  • Anonymous
    Anonymous Posts: 79,667
    The man has issues
  • tootsie323
    tootsie323 Posts: 199
    One could simply substitute 'cycling' for several other sports in that headline. You get your share of tw@ts - sorry, snobs - in a number of pastimes.
  • vimfuego
    vimfuego Posts: 1,783
    lazy article. Probably just to spark the usual plethora of "us vs them" comments - which he seems to have achieved (read them - they're hilarious!)
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  • chris_bass
    chris_bass Posts: 4,913
    vimfuego wrote:
    lazy article. Probably just to spark the usual plethora of "us vs them" comments - which he seems to have achieved (read them - they're hilarious!)

    this seems like a nice and balanced view

    "I'm afraid that I believe that people who attempt suicide have the right to carry it out without interference from outsiders. So if you cycle, just remember it's your personal choice and you cannot blame anyone else for the consequences!"
    www.conjunctivitis.com - a site for sore eyes
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    edited July 2014
    frisbee wrote:
    the article wrote:
    Going in the opposite direction was a sportive, amongst which was a group of four, all leg-shaved and team jersey clad, trash talking other riders.

    How does he know this if he's going in the opposite direction?

    exactly
    "Two weeks ago I went out on my weekly ride around the Chiltern Hills, stopping for a rest at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon. Going in the opposite direction was a sportive, amongst which was a group of four, all leg-shaved and team jersey clad, trash talking other riders. By which I mean making fun of their weight, pace or riding style. Once they'd exhausted their mine of repartee, they'd pedal up to the back wheel of a slower cyclist and perform a pass that resembled Fabian Cancellara played at half speed."

    total made up bo11ox!
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • cougie
    cougie Posts: 22,512
    It does sound a pretty unlikely story to me. Yes Snobs are everywhere - a real cross section of society.

    You might be able to more accurately say :

    Why does Rugby attract so many dopers ? :

    #Doping Here's a stunning statistic. In the past year 55% of all sportsmen banned by UK Anti-Doping came from the sport of Rugby.

    https://twitter.com/OlympicStatman/stat ... 7923252224


    And yet if you asked the public to name a sport that has problems with drugs - I bet cycling would be Number 1.
  • il sole
    il sole Posts: 56
    Well, I took part in my 3rd Sportive yesterday and it was brilliant. I didn't encounter any of this snobbery, in fact quite the reverse. I'm lucky in that I have a very good bike, but what's so cool about sportives is seeing everyone else's bikes...some guy had the loveliest set of 'Lightweight' wheels I have ever seen, and yet he didn't care or comment on my Shamals. Similarly, I have found EVERYONE at every sportive I have done to be friendly, courteous and chatty...
    perhaps the author of the article is the one with a chip on his shoulder..!!
    Wilier Zero.7 Chorus
  • Giraffoto
    Giraffoto Posts: 2,078
    bianchimoon wrote:
    frisbee wrote:
    the article wrote:
    Going in the opposite direction was a sportive, amongst which was a group of four, all leg-shaved and team jersey clad, trash talking other riders.

    How does he know this if he's going in the opposite direction?

    exactly
    "Two weeks ago I went out on my weekly ride around the Chiltern Hills, stopping for a rest at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon. Going in the opposite direction was a sportive, amongst which was a group of four, all leg-shaved and team jersey clad, trash talking other riders. By which I mean making fun of their weight, pace or riding style. Once they'd exhausted their mine of repartee, they'd pedal up to the back wheel of a slower cyclist and perform a pass that resembled Fabian Cancellara played at half speed."
    total made up bo11ox!

    Agreed.

    There isn't a road at the top of Ivinghoe Beacon, it's a dirt track. There's a road that goes over the shoulder of it, but if you're at the "top" of it, you can't see more than 100m down the road in either direction. There's another road that goes past the carpark, but the "top" of that is a couple of km further along - somewhere around Dockey Wood. This guy's a liar, pure and simple.
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    XM-057 rigid 29er
  • neilo23
    neilo23 Posts: 783
    Because we're better than everyone else! :lol:
  • Cygnus
    Cygnus Posts: 1,879
    cougie wrote:
    It does sound a pretty unlikely story to me. Yes Snobs are everywhere - a real cross section of society.

    You might be able to more accurately say :

    Why does Rugby attract so many dopers ? :

    Or you could say why does rugby attract so many thugs?
  • sub55
    sub55 Posts: 1,025
    the more snobs the better.
    Double the cost of bikes ,equipment and entry to events , keep the chavs out.
    Make it a middle class sport.
    constantly reavalueating the situation and altering the perceived parameters accordingly
  • bianchimoon
    bianchimoon Posts: 3,942
    sub55 wrote:
    the more snobs the better.
    Double the cost of bikes ,equipment and entry to events , keep the chavs out.
    Make it a middle class sport.

    Hurrah to that!
    me and my chums don't do those common 'sporty-ive' thingymabobs, we chase those damm pesky foxes down country lanes on our pinarello fillies.. tally ho!
    All lies and jest..still a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest....
  • mm1
    mm1 Posts: 1,063
    edited July 2014
    Not that long ago the Torygraph would have been publishing articles about how cycling is a working class sport practiced by smelly foreign types, today's Torygraph snart piece is about how its the world's worst spectator sport. Who cares what these idiots think?
  • Pedro77
    Pedro77 Posts: 59
    Silly really.... That article sounds like someone with a chip in their shoulder. I am a slow and a bit unfit cyclist because I do not have the time to put the miles on and get better... Nevertheless I enjoy my rides when I can and I don't care about the "pros" flying past me... So far never suffered from any abuse from fellow cyclists and if I do it probably comes from lesser minds. I am lucky that my bike is decent without being exotic and I keep it in good condition. I am always friendly to others and I am just happy on a ride, no one will spoilt that for me.

    In my view, ride the bike you want regardless of your level. If you can afford Lightweight wheels, Colnago frameset and Super Record it's great... It doesn't matter if you are a pro cyclist or a solo Sunday rider, just enjoy whatever you ride, people that are snob towards you normally are jealous of you in some way... I couldn't care less about them...
  • damocles10
    damocles10 Posts: 340
    eeerrrr this is the telegraph online....bin it. Don't even waste time reading this cr@p.

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