Why no Ethnic Riders in Tour de France?

I think it stems from the fact that few young people with Asian or
Afro-Caribean background ride bikes as a serious pass-time. Here in West
Yorkshire there is a large Asian population yet I can't recall seeing any
Asians riding bikes (apart from bombing around cities on BMXs and MTBs). I
think its because ethnic groups don't ride bikes for sport as much as
whites - therefore since the chance for any cyclist actually being good
enough to get a ride in the TdF is small, for a minority group it is very,
very small indeed.

As a school teacher in a Bradford school, of 1800 predominantly white
pupils, I am aware of only one competitive cyclist - he does not know of any
others in the school. her's a white kid of Hungarian descent. Some of the
reasons are almost certainly cultural - amongst the asian lads, if they want
to participate in sport they go for cricket but from their late teens they
have a fixation on fast cars and Max Power magazine. The Afro-Caribbean
contingent are keen on footie, cricket and body building to accommodate the
bling bling they hope to wear. A simplistic view I know but there is really
little or no interest in cycling amongst the majority of kids irrespective
of racial heritage.

As a darkie, I can not give an insight as to why my interest and involvement
with cycling has such a strong grip on me. I never competed as a youth
despite the entreaties of a chap from Spartan Wheelers cycling club from
Darlington trying to recruit me as a member. I was not a team player and
prefered one on one competion and enjoyed destroying one or two junior
members of the club on long rides. I am used to being the sole non-white in
many of the hobbies that I participate in - skin colour hase never been an
issue with club/society members. My latest potential interest will challenge
many pre-conceptions - bag pipe playing :-)

One also needs to remember that the recruitment pool for ethnic minority
sportsmen is a small percentage of the UK and probably European population.
If once scales from how many successful white cycling youths are migrating
to teams from the white populations and then apply that to the ethnic
minority population you may well end up with a fraction of a single rider
:-)

I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian riders
who could make the cut.

Just wondering......


--
dannyfrankszzz

On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:07:49 +1000, dannyfrankszzz wrote:

I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

Because there are none who are either good enough, or want to live in
Europe to get a contract.Cycle racing is only big in Europe,a little bit
in Aus., and a little in the US, everywhere else it is a very minor
sport.
More to the point, why are there no British riders in it? (I know, because
there are none good enough, and it is a small minority sport here!)

Alan.

--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.
http://www.dvatc.co.uk - Off-road cycling in the North Midlands.

"dannyfrankszzz"
wrote in message
...

I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian riders
who could make the cut.


This was posed in the T de F commentary and apart from our ex colonies (SA,
NZ, OZ, USA etc), there seem to be only Columbians and Venezuelans (with
Spanish names) and an Asian Kazakh (with a Russian name). Probably the same
reason why there is a lack of white heavyweight boxers.

--
Simon M.

dannyfrankszzz wrote:
I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian riders
who could make the cut.

Just wondering......

I think it stems from the fact that few young people with Asian or
Afro-Caribean background ride bikes as a serious pass-time. Here in West
Yorkshire there is a large Asian population yet I can't recall seeing any
Asians riding bikes (apart from bombing around cities on BMXs and MTBs). I
think its because ethnic groups don't ride bikes for sport as much as
whites - therefore since the chance for any cyclist actually being good
enough to get a ride in the TdF is small, for a minority group it is very,
very small indeed.

dannyfrankszzz wrote:

I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian riders
who could make the cut.

Just wondering......


Why no black swimmers etc.

Anyway, the Japanese riders will be doing keirin if they want to make
serious money.

in message ,
dannyfrankszzz ')
wrote:


I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

There is one who is clearly of north African extraction. I noticed him
particularly because, as you say, he's such an oddity. Sorry, can't
remember his name.

--
(Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
;; Sending your money to someone just because they've erected
;; a barrier of obscurity and secrets around the tools you
;; need to use your data does not help the economy or spur
;; innovation. - Waffle Iron Slashdot, June 16th, 2002

On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:07:49 +1000, dannyfrankszzz wrote:


I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian riders
who could make the cut.

Just wondering......

Wasn't there a Kenyan cycling team that got pulled over on the motorway
here a while ago - they were only doing 45mph which was considered
dangerously slow.

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were many
Asian riders there.

AC

anonymous coward wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:07:49 +1000, dannyfrankszzz wrote:


I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian riders
who could make the cut.

Just wondering......

Wasn't there a Kenyan cycling team that got pulled over on the
motorway here a while ago - they were only doing 45mph which was
considered dangerously slow.

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were
many Asian riders there.

AC

Probably the best known Asian rider is Wong Kam PO (Hong Kong ) who has
been quite successful on the track as well as on the road in such races as
the Tour De Langkawi.
There was a plan this year to send young Malaysian riders to Europe to gain
experience.

Jan

On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:58:37 +0100, anonymous coward
wrote:

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were many
Asian riders there.

And those who were paying attention would have seen the brief article
on the Tour de Burkina Fasso during the TdF coverage.
--

Cheers,

Al