Will this be the death of cycling in the US?

Lance stepping down.
Tyler getting sacked.

Same day. Where were you when you heard the news? Tuesday April 18,
2005. It's the Kennedy moment for our generation.

crit PRO

"crit PRO" wrote in message
ups.com...
Lance stepping down.
Tyler getting sacked.

Same day. Where were you when you heard the news? Tuesday April 18,
2005. It's the Kennedy moment for our generation.

crit PRO


It's Monday.

Guess who doesn't have to get up to go to work on mondays ( or tuesdays
either ) ....

"Geraard Spergen" wrote in message
news:1113862646.8951be3a0fb63474eed25d8fc988f4ca@t eranews...

"crit PRO" wrote in message
ups.com...
Lance stepping down.
Tyler getting sacked.

Same day. Where were you when you heard the news? Tuesday April 18,
2005. It's the Kennedy moment for our generation.

crit PRO


It's Monday.

Dumbass -


Cycling has to be alive in this country before it can die.


thanks,

K. Gringioni.

In article .com,
"Kurgan Gringioni" wrote:

Dumbass -


Cycling has to be alive in this country before it can die.

For some reason, this reminds me of a scene from "Young Frankenstein".

--
tanx,
Howard

Butter is love.

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

People who cycle now don't decide whether or not go out because Lance
is cycling.

I do imagine that the number of people who enter the sport/recreation
each year because of their exposure to Lance will decrease, but he was
going to retire someday anyway.

Cycling isn't popular enough to notice the decline in participants.
What we'll notice is the severe decrease in coverage by magazines and
television.

Dave

On 18 Apr 2005 15:12:50 -0700, "crit PRO" wrote:

Lance stepping down.
Tyler getting sacked.

Same day. Where were you when you heard the news? Tuesday April 18,
2005. It's the Kennedy moment for our generation.

crit PRO

In article , David Ferguson
wrote:

People who cycle now don't decide whether or not go out because Lance
is cycling.

I do imagine that the number of people who enter the sport/recreation
each year because of their exposure to Lance will decrease, but he was
going to retire someday anyway.

Cycling isn't popular enough to notice the decline in participants.
What we'll notice is the severe decrease in coverage by magazines and
television.

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.
We could probably easily double the number of USCF licensed riders if
each racing region had monthly training clinics for new racers, more
separate races for Cat 5 men and Cat 4 women ( at both the elite and
master levels) and other programs to make life easier for entry level
riders.

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...

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

Bill C wrote:
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.


You guys really think so?

Don't get me wrong, getting results to the paper is important.
It's important to the riders because recognition is important.
Especially for kids.

But what sort of visibility do you think this provides outside
of personal friends of the riders? Let me put it this way.
Does your local paper publish bowling scores? Has that ever
drawn you to the lanes?

Hell, I know my local paper does and after years of reading
the rag I couldn't tell you what leagues or nights get in.

I've managed to seed a couple of stories in a regional
outdoors TV program, and I very much doubt that outside of
the home towns of the riders involved no one remembers them.

Bob Schwartz