Road Bike Racing - Bike Racing in the U.S.

I've had this discussion about soccer in the U.S. Whether or not it will ever seriously become a popular spectator sport and what has to happen for it to become so.

My question is can bike racing ever gain some serious popularity here. I know this has been discussed before but would like to take another look at what has to happen before racing is anything but a fringe sport.

I wonder if it will ever gain the same respect and interest as in Europe? I don't think cycling is as much a part of our culture. I remember a few years ago my local cable network split my OLN channel with another drag racing channel. I would look at the OLN schedual expecting to see the Tour and would get "bubba" and the drag racers. It was frustrating, it's only one of the world's largest watched sporting events. Who knows?

I am optimistic, though, that as more people begin to adopt healthier lifestyles, they may begin to show more of an interest in the sport. Shoot...every year during the TdF we still hear about some journalist yappin' about how cycling isn't a sport or how Lance isn't an athlete. Maybe their attitudes will change, too, over time. We can only hope and wait.

I wish it would take off, but it seems that there isn't enough "contact" :) Just look at the ratings for football, hockey, and basketball. It seems most sports fans enjoy the explosiveness of these sports (even though Petacchi and Zabel sprinting for the line is pretty darn explosive in its own right).

That could be a reason that soccer hasn't taken off...I guess a slide-tackle here and there just isn't enough to satisfy the craving. And let's face it, those soccer players are in pretty tip-top shape.

It seems there are alot of people out there that like to see others get pounded into the dirt (or ice)...i'm only guessing, but i think a lot of people out there can't appreciate the strategy and overall endurance that goes into a bike race. Most of those people with that attitude can ride a bike...they have been doing it since childhood, most likely. They probably think, "if i can ride a bike, then what is so special about someone else riding a bike?". The only thing is that when you were a kid, you weren't hauling @ss at 25+ mph for 60+ miles!

But you know something...people can change. my girlfriend's dad came to one of my crits and after that sat and watched the entrie TdF each day it was aired. And this from a guy who never (in the years i've known him) expressed any interest in the sport.

Very true. People can change indeed, but it will be a huge effort.
I grew up in Europe and rode my bike from age 3, so adjusting to the American attitude towards cycling was a real shocker.
Growing the sport in the US will be a combination of things. Developing more bike friendly communities, and helping kids get on bikes at an early age is crucial, but so are our own actions as ambassadors of the sport. It's very important to show good example by our own behavior on the road and off the bike as well. I see countless roadies run red lights and flipping birds each day, and it only fuels the hostilities against us. Of course, I do recognize that the source of this problem mainly stems from the bad driving habits and lazy attitude of most adults in this country. However, there is a huge potential for cycling in the States, but we need to start building better communities and becoming more active on and off the bike in our neighborhoods.


Cheers

Well in order for it to be popular in the US you would have to change it alot, like:
More contact
more TV-commercial friendly
shorter races to adapt to American attention spans
bigger support cars
Movie stars sitting on the sidelines
etc

You would also have to teach guys like Tyler Hamilton to have an attitude and stuff. have you listened to his interviews. Someone should tell him nice guys finish last.

Sorry, no offense, it is a joke.

racing in general doesnt seem to be as big a deal in the u.s., atleast not as compared to germany. nascar is huge, but most other racing doesnt get a hole lot of attention. when i was in germany there seemed to be some kind of racing on all the time. bicycles, motor cycles, cars. on roads, in the mud, on the ice, and on tracks. even some that were bazaar and i counldnt understand.
there was some kind of racing on tv quite frequently that seemed to be a motorcycle and bicycle team racing together around a track. my german was pretty weak and i was never able to figure out what they were doing, but it looked interesting.

Perhaps it has to do with Americans can be lazy. Before anyone takes offense consider the amount of obese people in our country.

Contact sports such as football,basketball, baseball or hockey are very popular on TV. How many of those who watch these sports really drag there fat butts off the couch and play these sports? I have watched a football game or 2 in a sports bar with overweight, smoking, drunk idiots yelling and screaming. How many could possibly run the length of a football field? Most people who watch golf play the sport.

I'm not suggesting those who don't play these sports are not real fans of the sport but again it's culture. In Europe kids grow up in an enviroment where cycling is very much a way of life. Cycle racing has a long history in the villages where they take place. So is soccer, and yet these kids grow up playing the game and many adults still play.

Cycling will catch on in some areas in our country. Go to Philidelphia PA in June and watch the USPRO. There are 500,000 plus watching that race. So it's gaining interest. But unless you cycle watching a tour race on TV would be dull.

Originally posted by Mzungu

You would also have to teach guys like Tyler Hamilton to have an attitude and stuff. have you listened to his interviews. Someone should tell him nice guys finish last.


After winning a race he'd have to spike his helmet.

Road racing, especially european road racing will have difficulty catching on in the U.S. due to the following problems:

1. There are a lot of viewing options available to the typical weekend. On any given weekend one can watch golf, football, baseball, tennis and NASCAR. For another sport to gain a foothold among all the viewing optionals available is going to be tough.

2. Americans tend to shy away from things they don't understand or can't pronounce. Can you imagine the average American taking an interest in guys with names like Txema Del Olmo, Unai Etxebarria or Gianluca Sironi? It's great that Lance has brought attention to the TDF but what happens after he retires and how do you get people interested in other races? Hell, 90% of the people here who post while the TDF is taking place never discuss or even seem to care about Liege-Bastonge-Liege, Tour of Lombardy or GP des Nations.

Americans don't take a lot of interest in anything that's not American and tend to have a distorted sense as to how popular their sports are to the rest of the world. I've met people who actually think that Europeans actually give a hoot about the NFL or MLB.

3. TV coverage ties into #1 but unless you get OLN you're not going to see any of these races. How many people actively follow a sport that they can't even watch?

These same points have been brought up in conversations about F1 racing and soccer.

Very well put!!!!!

All excellent points so far. I'd like to add these two:

1. A sprint finish is about as exciting (if not more) than any game you can watch on TV. The problem is that it only takes about 5 minutes in the last few kms to watch the setup, prepare to the leadout and the final race for the finish line. The rest of any stage is probably 2-3 hours of what seems like just bunch riding to the untrained eye. The American audience lacks the patience to watch an entire race just to savor the last few minutes.

2. As seen in this year's TdF, climbing attacks also add a lot of excitement, especially wave upon wave of attacks involving several leaders, all with realistic chances of winning. But again, mountain stages only make up a small percentage of the total number of days of racing in a 3-week tour, so we go back to the issue of patience/attention span.

One of my surprises when moving from Europe to the States when I was a kid was the fact that even though rugby and American football were somewhat related and similar, rugby was not popular at all. I've been told by several people that it takes too long in rugby to set up a play when you can watch an entire drive in football in less than 2 minutes...

Originally posted by Alex33
[B]All excellent points so far. I'd like to add these two:

1. A sprint finish is about as exciting (if not more) than any game you can watch on TV. The problem is that it only takes about 5 minutes in the last few kms to watch the setup, prepare to the leadout and the final race for the finish line. The rest of any stage is probably 2-3 hours of what seems like just bunch riding to the untrained eye. The American audience lacks the patience to watch an entire race just to savor the last few minutes.
]

Exactly. Americans find F1 racing boring because there's not passing every 2 minutes. You have to understand what you're seeing to really enjoy it.

1. A sprint finish is about as exciting (if not more) than any game you can watch on TV. The problem is that it only takes about 5 minutes in the last few kms to watch the setup, prepare to the leadout and the final race for the finish line. The rest of any stage is probably 2-3 hours of what seems like just bunch riding to the untrained eye. The American audience lacks the patience to watch an entire race just to savor the last few minutes.

I agree and Laggard makes excelent points also. But if this is true, if Americans lack the patience to watch a race ( or a soccer game ) how do we explain NASCAR? What is more boring than watching a car go around an oval, over and over again. My intention is not to trash NASCAR, it's just that it seems to contradict many of the points previously made about cycling.

And how do you explain the popularity of baseball which has a down time/action time ratio of 10:1?

I've never been able to explain the popularity of NASCAR. I must admit that I don't get the excitement factor of it (except the occasional crash, but do people really watch an entire race just to see a few crashes?).

As for baseball, I think it's more of an event, a day at the game, drinking beer and eating hot dogs type of thing. I know of some people who actually watch entire games on TV as interested fans, but I get the feeling that's not the majority of spectators...

And how do you explain the popularity of baseball which has a down time/action time ratio of 10:1?

I agree 100%, however I do love baseball. I think that the pace of the game IS it's appeal for a lot of fans. It's more laid back, easy going.

As much as I love soccer, I often find it difficult to watch because I'm affraid if I get up and get a bowl of ice cream I'm going to miss the winning goal. I like the predictable breaks between action.

I have the same problem when I watch cycling on TV. I'm affraid I'm going to miss something if I don't watch every second of the action.

Originally posted by Bikedud

As much as I love soccer, I often find it difficult to watch because I'm affraid if I get up and get a bowl of ice cream I'm going to miss the winning goal. I like the predictable breaks between action.


LOL. Happens to me all the time. It can be 0-0 in the 80th minute but the second I'm in the bathroom I hear "goooooooooool!"