These days it seems, as cycling has become increasingly more popular worldwide, that every man/woman and their dog are riding. Doctors, lawyers, accountants, housewives, disabled etc etc, and the bike machinery they ride is high end. I have no problem with this, I think it's great that I, as a humble manual worker have been able to ride with such an eclectic group of people, and be respected for my ability, not my lowly station. Cycling has a way of equalizing us..... and if not, I can usually ride the legs of them anyway.

Here in Oz the last generation was different. Most competitive riders had a trades background, plumbers, bricklayers, builders etc, guys who worked tough jobs then went out racing/training. Hard men who rode hard, tough as nails, faces like leather. Their work gave them great endurance and a mental toughness most lack today.... or pay $$$ to go to a sports psychologist to convince themselves "they can do it". Get into a race with these guys and you quickly learn what pain is, you'll discover a hurt you never knew existed and if you're smart you'll learn invaluable lessons on how to REALLY ride a bike.

Stay active, guys.

Hmmm..

Successful cyclists have to be mentally hard. I don't think that has changed over the generations. Cycling, I think, still has a reputation as a sport that draws from the lower economic classes, sort of the way Jurgen Klinsman described soccer players. Here in the US cycling is seen as an upper class sport b/c it's relatively unknown and the equipment is expensive. However, I don't think most of the real successful US racers started out coming from rich families.

You don't need an expensive bike and other expensive things to be a good cyclist.

For some reason, a lot of people believe their skill is directly related to the amount of money they spend.

I thought Studs Terkel was dead.

Evidently he found a fountain of youth in OZ.

i work in a cement plant, 8 hours on a jackhammer is good practice for paris roubaix

Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at three o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of hot gravel, go to work at the mill every day for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would beat us around the head and neck with a broken bottle, if we were LUCKY!

i have an office job, i bike to maintain my sanity. its much easier to sleep at night when you are physically tired than when you are just mentally tired from riding an office swivel chair all day.

You tell the youth of today that, and they'll never believe you....

+1; best sleep aid ever.

I started riding road bikes four years ago. I certainly fit your description as I have an office job. However the guys I ride with on Saturday have been riding for around 20 years and don't fit your description of the previous generation,
They're all lawyers.

you're a doctor?

One of my coworkers in my department is a cyclist. Having two of us in there is a bit of a novelty for me ... I'm usually the only cyclist. And then, just this week, another one of my coworkers bought bicycles for himself and his wife, and he was talking about a ride he was planning this weekend. Not only that, but both my bosses are apparently on the verge of buying bicycles too.

But I'm also seeing a lot more people on bicycles in this area of Australia in general than I saw in Canada. I'm not so sure that the popularity of cycling has increased that much in Canada, but it certainly seems quite popular here.

I work from home as a systems engineer, but have always been highly athletic.. be it running, softball leagues and weightlifting. Cycling for me is a natural progression as my body aged and my knees started to go. Most of the guys I know have office type jobs and ride as well. Actually come to think of it, I don't think I'm related to or even know someone who works blue collar. I suppose thats likely because of the type of jobs in my area.

But the toughest guys I know (tough as nuts athletes) are all white collar employees with rich athletic history. Competing, albeit against others or against yourself is an addiction that is hard to kick.

If you want to know how many dentists are riding, just check cervelo's revenue!

Is there a point to this or was it just mental ************?

Pretty much what I thought

I don't really have any idea what you're talking about. Fast cyclists can have any profession. Their speed is dependent on the number of hours they train and their intensity. As technology improves bikes and components will get lighter. And people will buy them to go faster. Times are changing, for better or for worse.

I think you watched one too many fausto coppi videos.

There are currently 4 groups/types of cyclists (within the road cycling... proper I mean, not office commuters on fixies)

The largest number are the elitist cyclists. Thats pretty much 40% of people on this forum. These are people with disposable income, and know what a soy-chai latte is. You are correct, doctors, lawyers, teachers, office workers of all sorts, and even some good blue collar jobs. Educated, and wouldn't be found with the riff-raff. These are the people who are "experts" on cycling, and everything about pro cycling too. The armchair racers. These are people who do anywhere from 1 or 2 hours every morning and a longer ride on Saturdays. These are the cyclists in the big local bike shop club, and the club itself has the ego-power hungry guys who gossip like little girls about stuff other seniors in the club are doing or saying (usually on the club committee). Some of these even race in some lower cat races, and because of this, it cements their "expertise" on cycling. Bikes usually comprise of all kinds of high end Italian names brands, super record groupos, shimano electric of course, and the highest crap sram offers. There is no shortage of Colnago, pinarellos, BMCs and Looks. Mounted to the handle bar are garmin GPS systems so the gossip can get spicy with all the virtual upload crap. People in this category will often own high end digital SLRs cameras with all the goodies, accessories and lenses. They get the most expensive electronic toys money can buy, and have ego pissing contests on forums to show off their whit, English grammar and prove someone wrong. This group has never raced higher than cat 3, nor done REAL races. They have the most advanced and fanciest training nutritional energy bars and Goos for one and a half hour rides. They consider themselves societies elite, model citizens.

The second group are the nice old timers who have been riding for sometime. They may make up maybe 10% of the forum. These are guys who maybe or maybe not raced, but they come from real cycling. They have done more miles than the first group will ever do in a lifetime. Their knowledge of cycling also actually expands to track cycling too. Most of these guys can actually build a wheel, and usually true their own wheels because they have done it for so long. The second group has guys who rode many miles on steel frames, then alloys, then aluminum, titanium, and now maybe carbon. This group does what it has to not to be snubbed by the first group. They keep a somewhat good bike, whatever money they can spare, but they are not out buying the latest greatest, that not even pros have. Some of these old timers will make a lot of people in the first group look stupid out on the road. They often ride alone, or in a small group of other old timers. They have far more experience than the first group, and have a far more rational image of what cycling is.

The third group is the younger generation that actually races. Cat 2 and maybe even 1s. They seldom visit forums and maybe make up 10%, they come in to check on equipment reviews here and there. They train seriously everyday, and although they have great equipment, they have it because they are looking for every genuine last edge they can get to win a real race. This group has riders who do Tour of California and so on, and are possible US team, hopefuls. They take a bunch of vitamin and protein supplements, and are always on the verge of considering harder "stuff," but they never follow through with it and thats exactly why they are not professionals and never will be. This group may also contain guys who dont race such as young mechanics in bike shops who ride pretty hard but may not necessarily race.

The last group needs no introduction. These are the 99ers. about 40% of the forum. This group knows nothing of cycling, but with all the fancy gear they would swear they know everything because they have listened to bob, phill and paul commenting on the Tour de france in the last 4 or 5 years. These are the people who cause crashes in groups, lock up back wheels near traffic lights, go downhill like snails, cant ride in pace-lines, accelerate as hard as they can when they come to the front, have loads of yellow on their bike and kit, most probably ride crappy sram and have either a cervelo or trek frames, with those ugly lance armstong mavic wheels. This group actually thinks they will lose weight riding a handful of mile a day, and they dont ride daily by the way. They hardly ride at all in winter in fact. They think cycling is some new fitness trend and its also a social card to play on Monday morning at work by the water cooler. They often enjoy talking about how "thin" the tires are at BBQs in front of their girlfriends, and the girlfriends often think their boyfriends are so cool for picking up cycling. There are also a large number of new female cyclists in this group. They are completely convinced they will lose weight through cycling. Some of them got into it because of someone at the gym, or friends, or boyfriend. After months they realize that cycling does **** for loosing weight, but now they are into it, actually enjoy it anyway, but most of all it makes them feel sexy with the spandex and colorful gear and the expensive cute road bike, plus it makes them cooler than other single coworkers.
So we have:
The elitists (majority)
The Old Timers and
The real young racers/ young hard riders.
The 99ers.

Now of course, this is all a joke, im making all of this up and serves no truth in any way shape or form, it is simply for entertainment purposes.

So you're saying real cyclists never get laid?

Howzit -- you nailed it.

You must be joking

fify

Gee, I wasn't trying to do that....... my eyesight is already bad.

Just observations here in Oz.
I'm glad anybody rides.

I suppose what I was trying to say was, in the past over here in Oz competitive riders usually came from a blue collar background,
now they come from all backgrounds..... didn't try to make myself look like a wanker by saying this. Sorry.

Cycling has gotten outrageously expensive. I don't think there are a greater percentage of people involved in cycling now than before. I juse think that there are more people involved in cycling that have higher incomes than in the past.

Some aspects of cycling can be outrageously expensive, depending upon what you want to do.

You can still find frames at the tip or in thrift shops and build them up into decent bicycles to do things like ride centuries and longer distances, to use for commuting, and even for touring.


In the part of Canada where I most recently lived, the majority of the cyclists I saw on the roads were tradies dressed in jeans, carrying a battered lunch box and metal thermos, and riding very squeaky department store bicycles.

I don't get what this post is even about. Are you saying that "tough" cyclists can't work desk jobs? Tell that to my teammate who won the masters 40+ crit at the Fitchburg stage race and works a 40hr/week desk job.

Where do people come up with this stuff?