I live in Europe and I am originally from the US so I can offer a comment to the OP's original point.
Cycling in Europe is "huge" but different countries "treat" it differently.
Lux/Belgium and to a degree the Netherlands - cycling is something of a national sport. Cyclo-cross fills out the gaps left by the winter in the Road cycling calendars. Most schools/communes have a team and many kids grow up riding/racing for a team.
These are smaller countries, so you get less rich folk/poor folk competition. Citizens are burgers and everyone pretty much tends to treat people the same so it really comes down to who you know who is successful in the sport. Lux for instance EVERYONE loves cycling as everyone pretty much knows at least one of the pros (Lux has an amazingly disproportional level of success in Pro ranks).
Italy, Spain - true cycling is a bit more blue collar. Possibly because other, larger and more "upscale" alternatives exist? Not sure. But both have storied histories of cycling. Same for Germanic and Scandanavian countries. Even still, most folks in those countries are aware of cycling as a sport about as much as people in the US follow ice hockey. By that I mean cycling has a diverse following (everyone in the US seems to know something about the nearby hockey team) but not the large population following that NASCAR has (isn't it the # 1 watched sport in the US now?). Nascar equivalents in Europe are motorcross and F1 - both are very popular (F1 being a bit more popular with white collar than blue collar people by the way).
As for "utilitarian" cycling - ironically my experience is that the MORE money a country has the more people appear to use cycles as vehicles. Better infrastructure, more disposable income - I'm not sure why. I can say I've ridden in Barcelona and was wasted because of the stress. Same for Milan and Florence. But Paris, Amsterdam and even London are pretty easy cities to ride in. Luxembourg is sublime. PS I grew up in NYC and come from Boston - cycling in those places is much better than Milan, Florence and Barcelona in my experiences to offer a comparison. Only upside is that it is easier to "make it out" of European cities -- they tend to have suburban and rural sections that are very close and relatively easily accessed.
But utilitarian cycling is also prevelant in many countries that don't seem cycling friendly (Spain for instance) but moreso in the country side where people don't have lots of cars and invest in farming apparatus - not always easy to take a tractor to the butcher and baker ...
Aside - I was shocked at how many people cycle to work in Stockholm given the weather/lack of sunlight. Not as prevalent as Amsterdam but WOW - those folks are dedicated!!
DISCLAIMER - you cannot tell me I am wrong as these are my observations. I saw them and you didn't so you can't tell me I'm wrong. You can ask my WHY I think the way I do - so long as you are civilized about it. Otherwise - read another thread ...