Is Interest in (Pro) Cycling Dwindling?

Eagle of Toledo said:

There appears to be some anecdotal evidence that the spate of recent doping scandals and revelations may be having an impact on cycling fans and their interest in the sport, especially if they are newcommers or do not have a physical and/or emotional attachment to it like some of us have.

I use the Alexa web ranking site quite a bit with my work to check out a sites traffic. The other day I decided to punch in cyclingnews.com which is arguably one of the biggest sites in our sport, and if you select "page views" and the 3 or 5 year view you will clearly see the big spikes around the Tour and Giro time.

Now, compare this years spike to previous years. Hmmm, makes for an interesting analysis:

alexa.comalexa.comOpen ↗

(While you're at it you may as well add a couple of your other favourite cycling news sites as a comparison).

Check out cyclingforums. It has dropped appreciably too.

Of course it's dropping. Who wants to follow a sport, get into the heat of the competition and then have it all ripped out from under you just as you're enjoying it? They're killing the sport. I don't know why they don't realize that other sports which catch dopers are smart enough not to do it in their premier events. Can you imagine if the Super Bowl was won by a team and then 2 weeks later two players on the winning team tested positive and the NFL said, "We're discounting all their touchdowns and blocks, so actually the other team is your Super Bowl champion?" No one would ever waste another Sunday watching it.

heinkel12 said:

Check out cyclingforums. It has dropped appreciably too.

Indeed it has, didn't think of checking it out. Although its hard to gauge if the all-pervasive doping threads in the GT forum (a rather quiet section of this site compared with others) are at fault, but it does seem to start waning around the time Landis was caught in 2006. Seems to fit the stats though.

The 'Lance' factor would have a bit to do with it as well

classic1 said:

The 'Lance' factor would have a bit to do with it as well

Nope. Check the stats. Almost all the cycling sites peaked in the second half of 2006!

All the English speaking sites I checked have 2007 as a down year. It would be interesting to check German language sites, Fench sites, etc.

This data is not anecdotal. Assuming the stats are correct that is hard data. What is anecdotal is the reasons people have posted on various sites as to why they are giving up on pro cycling, and discussions I have had with people I know. None of that supports donrhummy's contention that it is not knowing who won as the reason. The reason most often given is disgust over doping in general, not that an individual rider was caught.

There appears to be a lot of English speakers who came into the sport over the last few years, were unaware of how endemic doping was, denied it until the evidence piled up to such a degree that it could not be denied anymore, and then threw their hands up in despair and no longer take pro cycling seriously. I think it is likely OP as much as Landis that raised the blinders. Armstrong's retirement probably also has a lot to do with it in that his worshipers could not admit the obvious about Armstrong, but with him gone they could finally admit to themselves what was going on.

classic1 said:

The 'Lance' factor would have a bit to do with it as well

Perhaps, but interest seems to be still riding high at the 2006 TDF. To me when Landis was caught we see a clear unravelling as Pro Cycling took one body-blow after another with each rider that was discredited.

Bro Deal said:

This data is not anecdotal. Assuming the stats are correct that is hard data.

Fair enough, I just didn't want to draw a direct relationship between webpage views and actual interest folks have in Cycling, but rather make an observation as to a possible link. But if we assume most cycling fans are internet savvy and use it heavily to keep up to date on results (rather than say watch it on TV) then that's a fair conclusion.

donrhummy said:

Nope. Check the stats. Almost all the cycling sites peaked in the second half of 2006!

Bro Deal said:

All the English speaking sites I checked have 2007 as a down year. It would be interesting to check German language sites, Fench sites, etc.

I still think its the 'Lance' or seppo factor.

I post at bikeforums. You'd get a heap of noobs posting around Tdf time, asking stupid questions and making dumb comments, then they'd all fark off after the Tour. They didn't get them this year.

classic1 said:

I still think its the 'Lance' or seppo factor.

I post at bikeforums. You'd get a heap of noobs posting around Tdf time, asking stupid questions and making dumb comments, then they'd all fark off after the Tour. They didn't get them this year.

I definately think the "armstrong" factor would be a part of it, he was a great cycling promotional tool, and I suppose an inspirational story, but now he's gone and all the dopeing hype as come about alot of people have turned to other sports, for you "heroes" "inspiration" if you loike.

Eagle of Toledo said:

There appears to be some anecdotal evidence that the spate of recent doping scandals and revelations may be having an impact on cycling fans and their interest in the sport, especially if they are newcommers or do not have a physical and/or emotional attachment to it like some of us have.

I use the Alexa web ranking site quite a bit with my work to check out a sites traffic. The other day I decided to punch in cyclingnews.com which is arguably one of the biggest sites in our sport, and if you select "page views" and the 3 or 5 year view you will clearly see the big spikes around the Tour and Giro time.

Now, compare this years spike to previous years. Hmmm, makes for an interesting analysis:

http://alexa.com/

(While you're at it you may as well add a couple of your other favourite cycling news sites as a comparison).

Good post EoT.

We do tend to get a spike in traffic here around TDF each year - when activity level tends to increase.
Having said that I notice that the level of activity in 2007 didn't spike as much around TDF, as in previous years.

I think that it is only reasonable to assume that given the list of controversies
in the sport, that interest will naturally diminish in a sport that has the number of problems that professional cycling has.

Which would suggest that it would be in the interest of all those who are stakeholders in the sport, federationas/teams/riders/fans/cycling media/cycling websites/cycling equipment manufacturers/cycling accessory manufacturers,would be concerned that interest levels in the sport are diminishing.
Less interest means less sales = loss of livelihoods/jobs.
That is in no ones interest, surely?

I've noticed that even hardcore fans of the sport, who I know, have started to pull back their input to the sport in the form of cancelled subscriptions to cycling publications for example.
Others who I know travelled to Belgium/Holland for the early season one day races have stopped travelling because they're disenchanted.
If these type of supporters are pulling back - and I believe that they are - then that is a real concern.
The 3 week fan of the sport - is arbitrary : they're no use to the sport anyhow.
The long term supporter and his loyalty is what is at stake.

Good post EoT.

limerickman said:

Good post EoT.
<snipped>
I've noticed that even hardcore fans of the sport, who I know, have started to pull back their input to the sport in the form of cancelled subscriptions to cycling publications for example.
<snipped>

That would be be. I let most (if not all) of my subscriptions lapse and do not plan on renewing them for awhile. I really got fed up with the white washing of the doping issue in all these mags, pretending that nothing is happening. It got to the point that the photos were not enough to counter balance the [censored].

Bro Deal said:

All the English speaking sites I checked have 2007 as a down year. It would be interesting to check German language sites, Fench sites, etc.

I put in radsport-news.com but the views were too low to really draw ant conclusions. Anybody know some big Italian, Belgian, or Dutch websites?

It sure has. There are a surprisingly high number of cyclists in the company I just joined. (oh joy, I no longer feel like a lone beacon of fitness) Most of them, like me, have just lost interest in pro cycling.

It isn't so much the doping - it's going on in all sports.

It isn't the LA factor, although he was a big boost to the sport over here.

Not even Landis - most of us hold no illusions on that, although it was a big disappointment.

It's the incompetent and arbitrary nature of the organizers. It's run by rank amateurs, more interested in power grabbing than a love of cycling. The winner of the TDF is no longer the king of cycling, they are the one left standing after the dust settles, if they hadn't angered officials at the UCI, and if LNDD didn't put urine samples in the blood test machine that day.

Chicken should never have been allowed to start the TDF last year. The facts were there, if the people in charge were interested. They weren't, and it was a news story that brought that out. The premier cycling event was disgraced two years in a row. What's wrong with this picture? Then, there's Mayo. LNDD says he was doping, a Belgian lab says he wasn't. Casts doubt on the entire system, when two labs test (supposedly) the same sample and get different results. The whole thing plays like an old Marx Brothers movie. Hail Freedonia!

You don't see FIFA making these sorts of mistakes. Which is why pro cycling is foundering, while football squeaked out of OP without a single person nailed.

Get some people in charge of the sport that truly love the sport, that won't take actions that bring dishonor to the sport, that take cycling seriously. Until that happens, pro cycling will continue to slide downhill.

JohnO said:

It isn't so much the doping - it's going on in all sports.

It isn't the LA factor, although he was a big boost to the sport over here.

Not even Landis - most of us hold no illusions on that, although it was a big disappointment.

It's the incompetent and arbitrary nature of the organizers. It's run by rank amateurs, more interested in power grabbing than a love of cycling. The winner of the TDF is no longer the king of cycling, they are the one left standing after the dust settles, if they hadn't angered officials at the UCI, and if LNDD didn't put urine samples in the blood test machine that day.

Chicken should never have been allowed to start the TDF last year. The facts were there, if the people in charge were interested. They weren't, and it was a news story that brought that out. The premier cycling event was disgraced two years in a row. What's wrong with this picture? Then, there's Mayo. LNDD says he was doping, a Belgian lab says he wasn't. Casts doubt on the entire system, when two labs test (supposedly) the same sample and get different results. The whole thing plays like an old Marx Brothers movie. Hail Freedonia!

So what you are telling us is that the ones abandoning pro cycling are the same clueless people who three years ago were sayiing there was no way Armstrong was taking dope and now it's all a vast conspiracy.

Don't you guys ever get tired of talking about doping? I guess not.

I'm getting pretty tired of seeing every thread turn to doping.

Yojimbo_ said:

Don't you guys ever get tired of talking about doping? I guess not.

I'm getting pretty tired of seeing every thread turn to doping.

I agree. The bad thing about it is that it's causing my interest in cycling to dwindlen😄

limerickman said:

Good post EoT.

We do tend to get a spike in traffic here around TDF each year - when activity level tends to increase.
Having said that I notice that the level of activity in 2007 didn't spike as much around TDF, as in previous years.

I think that it is only reasonable to assume that given the list of controversies
in the sport, that interest will naturally diminish in a sport that has the number of problems that professional cycling has.

Which would suggest that it would be in the interest of all those who are stakeholders in the sport, federationas/teams/riders/fans/cycling media/cycling websites/cycling equipment manufacturers/cycling accessory manufacturers,would be concerned that interest levels in the sport are diminishing.
Less interest means less sales = loss of livelihoods/jobs.
That is in no ones interest, surely?

I've noticed that even hardcore fans of the sport, who I know, have started to pull back their input to the sport in the form of cancelled subscriptions to cycling publications for example.
Others who I know travelled to Belgium/Holland for the early season one day races have stopped travelling because they're disenchanted.
If these type of supporters are pulling back - and I believe that they are - then that is a real concern.
The 3 week fan of the sport - is arbitrary : they're no use to the sport anyhow.
The long term supporter and his loyalty is what is at stake.

Good post EoT.

I agree with most of this, except in Australia, sales are going up and up, there are more cyclists joining the Australian cycling federation every year, but I think alot of these cyclists arn't interested in the pro side of cycling, but more in it for the enjoyment comraderie of cycling itself. I think these sales are mostly due to the overwhelming publicity healthy living is getting at the moment, eat right, exercise regularly, and you'll lose weight, feel healthy and live longer. There's a story about this sort of thing most nights on our current affair programs

limerickman said:

Good post EoT.

We do tend to get a spike in traffic here around TDF each year - when activity level tends to increase.
Having said that I notice that the level of activity in 2007 didn't spike as much around TDF, as in previous years.

I think that it is only reasonable to assume that given the list of controversies
in the sport, that interest will naturally diminish in a sport that has the number of problems that professional cycling has.

Which would suggest that it would be in the interest of all those who are stakeholders in the sport, federationas/teams/riders/fans/cycling media/cycling websites/cycling equipment manufacturers/cycling accessory manufacturers,would be concerned that interest levels in the sport are diminishing.
Less interest means less sales = loss of livelihoods/jobs.
That is in no ones interest, surely?

I've noticed that even hardcore fans of the sport, who I know, have started to pull back their input to the sport in the form of cancelled subscriptions to cycling publications for example.
Others who I know travelled to Belgium/Holland for the early season one day races have stopped travelling because they're disenchanted.
If these type of supporters are pulling back - and I believe that they are - then that is a real concern.
The 3 week fan of the sport - is arbitrary : they're no use to the sport anyhow.
The long term supporter and his loyalty is what is at stake.

Good post EoT.

IMO - If the sport makes $$$, fan support, and PR as its major goal/virtue, then you end up back where cycling was, and you probably progress towards World Wrestling Federation style entertainment.

If you see widespread doping as a cancerous threat to the sport (and the sport is much bigger than the GT's), then you have to accept a J-curve scenario, if there is any hope of cleaning it up.

And from another post -to hold other sports up as being better because they turn their back on doping, is just sleazy and dishonest IMO. There seems to be a swathe of supporters who think that doping in cycling is fine - just don't tell anyone about it.

Yes, the handling of this crack-down could have been managed better, but the minute that someone fudges truth for public relations, the sport is back on its way to being a bigger farked-up mess, which unbeknownst to the naive public at the time, it was prior to 2006.

I also think that the great ride by Landis in 2006, to come back from losing eight minutes the previous day, was just magnificent. And the effect of him testing positive on that stage was the ultimate let-down. It basically taught us that all great performances now are probably due to PED's.