Originally Posted by twbradford
Dude!!!! Cycling is a blue collar sport? I don't think so. How many blue collars is going to lay out a 1000 bucks to bike? The average new low end road bike runs 700 bucks, helmet 40, shoes 80, gloves 20, socks 6, shorts 50, jersey 40.......
Cycling is definitely a blue collar sport. It's also a
European sport. Where you from? The US? The demographics of the traditional supporters/competitors of cycling in Europe are completely different to the US, where it is considered a yuppie or middle age rich dude sport.
Merckx was unusual in that his parents were middle class shopkeepers. In the 1980's Visentini was considered very unusual because he was the playboy son of a rich funeral home operator. Most top riders up until then were poor farm boys, sons of coal miners, sons of factory workers, that kind of thing. Even an urbane person like Anquetil who mixed with movie stars was a son of a Norman farmer.