Following Cadel Evans’ 2011 Tour de France triumph and the emergence of Australia’s own GreenEDGE cycling team, the sport is in the midst of a boom. But will the buzz surrounding cycling last, or will it be fleeting?
In July last year, a sport that had long existed on the periphery of Australia’s sporting psyche was thrust onto the front page when an emotional Evans stood atop the podium on the Champs-Elysees.
It was by no means a light-switch moment; SBS’s exceptional coverage of the three-week event over the years has enabled an increasingly-knowledgeable class of cycling fans to emerge.
But Evans’ win also meant that the casual sports fan with not even a passing interest in cycling stopped and took notice. Indeed, even those who profess little interest in sport as a whole could recognise what an extraordinary achievement the victory was.
It’s not hard to garner respect when your pedalling up huge gradients and mountains that your car might conk out trying to get over. Mia Freedman tried to write Cadel off, and copped a storm of anger for her troubles.
Today the fourteenth edition of the Tour Down Under begins in earnest and with Australian cycling is still riding the wave of euphoria Evans’ win generated, it is hard to argue the sport has ever been in better shape in this country.
Young riders like Richie Porte, Cameron Meyer and Matt Goss all look to have promising futures in the sport and the founding of GreenEDGE should ensure continuing opportunities for young Australian riders.
So what happens next? Once the goodwill generated from Evans’ Tour victory subsides, will cycling still occupy a place in mainstream Australian sport or will it return to its niche?
One of the cliches that was rolled out en masse last July was how Cadel Evans would inspire an entire generation of fresh-faced, starry-eyed youngsters to take up the sport.
Only time will tell exactly how much truth there is in that statement, but professional cycling’s upswing in popularity certainly could not have come at a better time.
Throughout Australian cities more and more kms of bicycle lanes are being incorporated into urban environments, as planners strive for alternatives to the car as the primary mode of transport.
In 2011 the UCI named Melbourne as the world’s second ‘bike city’ behind Copenhagen after the city’s cycling infrastructure had gained international recognition, with Australia’s sporting capital set to host the Track Cycling World Championships later this year.
Integrating cycling into everyday lifestyles creates a new culture of cycling in our upcoming ‘entire generations’ and for professional cycling, the implication is that the sport becomes more accessible to a larger group of young Australians.
It is arguably just as important as the win of Evans last year.
Last week Roar Expert Adrian Musolino labelled cycling the new golf and while I see his point about the sport’s increasing popularity as entirely valid, I feel cycling has the potential to reach a far larger group of participants than golf, which remains accessible to a relatively small group of Australians.
The suggestion here isn’t that the sport will ever be in the same realm as AFL, football or cricket. But should Evans win spark an initial increase in participation and cultural change sustain that increase, elite programs such as GreenEDGE will have a far greater talent pool to work with and the ensuing success could result in a permanent spike in Australia’s interest of the sport.
Danny_Mac
Roar Guru
It will be interesting to see how the track world champs go at easter (bleeding that i cant go!), the rumours are that it is going to be a stronger field that what we could see at the olympics!
Jeff Dowsing
Roar Pro
It's an interesting discussion Chad - and not being an avid cyclist I suppose I'm looking at it as one of those people who might be inspired by recent events and that cycling might be trying to win over. The labelling of cycling as the new golf has been around a few years now. And it does have a lot going for it in so far as golf doesn't do much for fitness, is harder to do, is rather expensive and very time consuming. The unstructured nature of cycling, being able to do it with anyone, anytime, virtually anywhere, suits today's lifestyles perfectly. No bookings required. But how successful cycling becomes really depends on how those involved wish to judge it. As a participation sport the sky's the limit. However as a professional spectator sport one issue is there being the division between road & track. So to some degree it's a fragmented sport in competition with itself - unless you simply regard the two as completely different beasts. And culturally, we've go so much different football, cricket, court sports etc going on, I don't think we have the head space to now get as passionate about it en masse as the Europeans whose affinity goes back so far. And to that end, attracting big business sponsors outside of the sport is also tough, although some would be very sympathetic to the demographic who've taken to it. The other consideration is that like golf, cycling is more a 'doing' sport for which growing viewership is tough. The Tour de France is the exception which crosses boundaries - apart the history and the incredible athletecism from the best in the sport, there's the stunning scenery. But watching levels below on less aesthetically pleasing routes is a bit like watching one of the many forgettable sponsor driven golf tour events. As for track cycling, it's really been overtaken by the popularity of the road, people can more readily identify with it. Attendance at major events here in Melbourne have stagnated, if not declined. It will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next few years.