Forum home › Road cycling forum › Pro race

How many pro cyclists are there?

No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 9,465
edited November 2015 in Pro race
I was just wondering (OK, in the context of number of doping tests per sport compared to e.g. football) how many professional riders there are in the world. It isn't really that many, is it?

There are 17 World Tour teams, 15 Pro-conti teams and 19 Continental teams (2015) - 51 teams at around 25 riders each (not sure what the limits are outside the WT), which would make 1275 pro cyclists.

25 players is pretty much what you can register for European football. So if that's roughly the number of players a club has on its books then to match the number of pros at those three levels, you'd only need to go down as far as Millwall (7th in league 1 - or as I still know it "the third division"). There are 39 professional football clubs lower down than that.

And that's just in England.

EDIT: Sorry, have only covered mens road cycling. Besides, the women are so poorly paid it's almost a joke to call them professional.

But how many teams are pro at lower levels?
“Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

@DrHeadgear

The Vikings are coming!

Posts

  • The_BoyThe_Boy Posts: 3,099
    On the flipside though, how much more money is their in football? I imagine the budget of one team from the top 4 would cover all pro cycling teams. Take a small cut, and you could quite easily run a reasonably solid anti-doping program + ABP*.

    *based on back-of-censored -packet calculations I've just made up, obviously.
    Team My Man 2018: David gaudu, Pierre Latour, Romain Bardet, Thibaut pinot, Alexandre Geniez, Florian Senechal, Warren Barguil, Benoit Cosnefroy
  • Richmond Racer 2Richmond Racer 2 Posts: 4,698
    edited November 2015
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740722#p19740722]No tA Doctor[/url] wrote:
    I was just wondering (OK, in the context of number of doping tests per sport compared to e.g. football) how many professional riders there are in the world. It isn't really that many, is it?

    There are 17 World Tour teams, 15 Pro-conti teams and 19 Continental teams (2015) - 51 teams at around 25 riders each (not sure what the limits are outside the WT)

    25 players is pretty much what you can register for European football. So if that's roughly the number of players a club has on its books then to match the number of pros at those three levels, you'd only need to go down as far as Millwall (7th in league 1 - or as I still know it "the third division"). There are 39 professional football clubs lower down than that.

    And that's just in England.

    But how many teams are pro at lower levels?


    The number of pros is a bit of a red herring. Amateurs can and do get tested too. Talking cycling-specific, USADA have popped a number - the Masters scene seems to be a hot bed there in certain regions. From experiences closer to home, I know of a recent example of a club rider getting tested by UKAD.

    That kind of stuff tends to result from tip-offs to the NADO..

    Fundamentally, if you engage in any competitive sport, irrespective of its level, you're open to being tested. Your club 10 will do.

    If you want to just talk ABPs tho, different story.
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 9,465
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740725#p19740725]The_Boy[/url] wrote:
    On the flipside though, how much more money is their in football? I imagine the budget of one team from the top 4 would cover all pro cycling teams. Take a small cut, and you could quite easily run a reasonably solid anti-doping program + ABP*.

    *based on back-of-censored -packet calculations I've just made up, obviously.

    Well.... Sky turnover is around £24million, Arsenal turnover £345 million. So Arsenal could only finance 14 Skys. Of course, Sky's budget is a lot bigger than many other WT teams (BMC are about level, I think), so yes. Arsenal turnover is probably as large as the entire WT teams put together.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • joelsimjoelsim Posts: 7,552
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740730#p19740730]No tA Doctor[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740725#p19740725]The_Boy[/url] wrote:
    On the flipside though, how much more money is their in football? I imagine the budget of one team from the top 4 would cover all pro cycling teams. Take a small cut, and you could quite easily run a reasonably solid anti-doping program + ABP*.

    *based on back-of-censored -packet calculations I've just made up, obviously.

    Well.... Sky turnover is around £24million, Arsenal turnover £345 million. So Arsenal could only finance 14 Skys. Of course, Sky's budget is a lot bigger than many other WT teams (BMC are about level, I think), so yes. Arsenal turnover is probably as large as the entire WT teams put together.

    And Arsenal still haven't won a Monument!
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 9,465
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740729#p19740729]Richmond Racer 2[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740722#p19740722]No tA Doctor[/url] wrote:
    I was just wondering (OK, in the context of number of doping tests per sport compared to e.g. football) how many professional riders there are in the world. It isn't really that many, is it?

    There are 17 World Tour teams, 15 Pro-conti teams and 19 Continental teams (2015) - 51 teams at around 25 riders each (not sure what the limits are outside the WT)

    25 players is pretty much what you can register for European football. So if that's roughly the number of players a club has on its books then to match the number of pros at those three levels, you'd only need to go down as far as Millwall (7th in league 1 - or as I still know it "the third division"). There are 39 professional football clubs lower down than that.

    And that's just in England.

    But how many teams are pro at lower levels?


    The number of pros is a bit of a red herring. Amateurs can and do get tested too. Talking cycling-specific, USADA have popped a number - the Masters scene seems to be a hot bed there in certain regions. From experiences closer to home, I know of a recent example of a club rider getting tested by UKAD.

    That kind of stuff tends to result from tip-offs to the NADO..

    Fundamentally, if you engage in any competitive sport, irrespective of its level, you're open to being tested. Your club 10 will do.

    If you want to just talk ABPs tho, different story.

    Good points I don't imagine there's much testing of any sort at Sunday league level...

    But if we're talking ABP - that's restricted to WT - 425 riders. The premier league alone has 500 players.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 9,465
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740733#p19740733]Joelsim[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740730#p19740730]No tA Doctor[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740725#p19740725]The_Boy[/url] wrote:
    On the flipside though, how much more money is their in football? I imagine the budget of one team from the top 4 would cover all pro cycling teams. Take a small cut, and you could quite easily run a reasonably solid anti-doping program + ABP*.

    *based on back-of-censored -packet calculations I've just made up, obviously.

    Well.... Sky turnover is around £24million, Arsenal turnover £345 million. So Arsenal could only finance 14 Skys. Of course, Sky's budget is a lot bigger than many other WT teams (BMC are about level, I think), so yes. Arsenal turnover is probably as large as the entire WT teams put together.

    And Arsenal still haven't won a Monument!


    Excuuuuuuuse me! We've won La Doyenne two years running. Fair enough, the only foreign teams tat can race it are from Wales....
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • Richmond Racer 2Richmond Racer 2 Posts: 4,698
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740735#p19740735]No tA Doctor[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740729#p19740729]Richmond Racer 2[/url] wrote:
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740722#p19740722]No tA Doctor[/url] wrote:
    I was just wondering (OK, in the context of number of doping tests per sport compared to e.g. football) how many professional riders there are in the world. It isn't really that many, is it?

    There are 17 World Tour teams, 15 Pro-conti teams and 19 Continental teams (2015) - 51 teams at around 25 riders each (not sure what the limits are outside the WT)

    25 players is pretty much what you can register for European football. So if that's roughly the number of players a club has on its books then to match the number of pros at those three levels, you'd only need to go down as far as Millwall (7th in league 1 - or as I still know it "the third division"). There are 39 professional football clubs lower down than that.

    And that's just in England.

    But how many teams are pro at lower levels?


    The number of pros is a bit of a red herring. Amateurs can and do get tested too. Talking cycling-specific, USADA have popped a number - the Masters scene seems to be a hot bed there in certain regions. From experiences closer to home, I know of a recent example of a club rider getting tested by UKAD.

    That kind of stuff tends to result from tip-offs to the NADO..

    Fundamentally, if you engage in any competitive sport, irrespective of its level, you're open to being tested. Your club 10 will do.

    If you want to just talk ABPs tho, different story.

    Good points I don't imagine there's much testing of any sort at Sunday league level...

    But if we're talking ABP - that's restricted to WT - 425 riders. The premier league alone has 500 players.


    ABP covers ProConti level too - that's an additional 20 teams

    *avoids getting on soapbox to bang on about why it should be extended to include Conti*
  • No_Ta_DoctorNo_Ta_Doctor Posts: 9,465
    [url=http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19740739#p19740739]Richmond Racer 2[/url] wrote:


    ABP covers ProConti level too

    *avoids getting on soapbox to bang on about why it should be extended to include Conti*


    Dammit, I'm always getting my Ryman's league mixed up with my 4th division.
    “Road racing was over and the UCI had banned my riding positions on the track, so it was like ‘Jings, crivvens, help ma Boab, what do I do now? I know, I’ll go away and be depressed for 10 years’.”

    @DrHeadgear

    The Vikings are coming!
  • disgruntledgoatdisgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Eleventy three. Next!
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
Sign In or Register to comment.