Curtis L. Russell wrote:
On Tue, 19 Apr 2005 01:17:20 GMT, Casey Kerrigan
wrote:

The popularity of bicycle racing ( in terms of the number of people
actually racing) isn't really affected by Lance or any other popular
Pro racer. The bigger factor is having good grass roots programs
that
make it easier for people interested in racing to give the sport a
try.

It would also help to have some heavily promoted USCF A and B races
in
every region. Seeing a real bike race up close has more impact than
the Tour on TV IMO. OTOH, its hard to find the D race in the local
industrial park.

Coverage in the newspapers probably suffers from a near requirement
that the results be available in time for the next day's paper on a
regular basis. If each area assigned someone to do that, papers might
start using the results as filler. There's a local angle in almost
every race. But that doesn't happen that much from my experience. Its
far more common for everyone to have a 'pay the prizes, pack up the
finish line and go home' attitude.

It might even help to encourage interest among the non-racers,
instead
of the reverse. The disconnect and disdain seen between non-racers
and
racers chops off the primary spectator group at the knees. Bike clubs
used to ride to the stages of the Tour du Pont/Trump - they could do
the same for a well promoted A or B race. I was a newsletter editor
for LAW/LAB bike clubs for probably a decade total and never saw one
item from a USCF club.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Really good points. We've been working really hard to establish a
realtionship with our local papers, and it finally seems to be paying
didvidends. The coverage has actually been really decent for races and
other events, but again we've worked really hard to provide them with
things they could use. I know that our local elementary schools have
been posting the news articles and results from our kids races so we'll
have to see where it goes. I think Casey is right in that it takes a
long term consistant effort to be taken as something other than a
sideshow, and delivering results and a press release in a timely
fashion are definitely a big part of that.
Bill C