Will this be the death of cycling in the US?

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

In article , Bob Schwartz
wrote:

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.

I don't think that having race results published in the local paper
will help recruit a lot of new racers. It does help maintain the
visability of the sport and having results printed in the sports pages
helps better establish bicycle racing as a sport in the mind of the
average American.

As I said before we need program that help introduce new racers to the
sport when someone decides to give bicycle racing a try. Last year I
did a survey of newly licensed riders in my region. By far most of
these new racers got into the sport based on the suggestion of friends,
riding partners and club members. Word of mouth is by far the best
recruitment tool for new racers based on my survey results. This means
that USAC should think about some kind of refer a friend type program
where an existing USAC member can get $1 or $2 off their next license
for every new racer that sign up for a license on the USAC web page and
enters the refering rider's license number on the license application.
This might give some riders an incentive to talk to strong riders they
meet out on training rides instead of just trying to drop them and be
generallly unfriendly.

"Scott" wrote in message
ups.com...

Sam wrote:
"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


So one athlete announcing his retirement and another being suspended
equates
in your mind to a popular US President being assassinated?

That dumbass didn't even know yesterday was MONDAY.

BTW, is it better or worse if an UNpopular president is assassinated?

If those are the only choices I have, then unpopular I guess

Donald Munro wrote:
Carl Sundquist wrote:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...lance/B85F9582

I'll bet they even had a free appetizer buffet for the media, too


gym.gravity wrote:

Is Jeff Jones in that shot?


If he is he must have traded in the blimp for a used concorde.


http://www.ufoevidence.org/topics/belgium.htm

We all though the same when LeMond quit winning TdFs. There will be another
American Eurostar around the corner to catch the masses attention for 3
weeks a year.

Jim
"Donald Munro" wrote in message
news
Carl Sundquist wrote:

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news.php?...lance/B85F9582
I'll bet they even had a free appetizer buffet for the media, too

gym.gravity wrote:
Is Jeff Jones in that shot?

If he is he must have traded in the blimp for a used concorde.

Jim Phelps wrote:
We all though the same when LeMond quit winning TdFs. There will be
another
American Eurostar around the corner to catch the masses attention for
3
weeks a year.

****, are we going to have to wait 9 years though? Is that what you
mean by around the corner? I just dread what will happen to the TV
coverage. Even if Landis or Danielson did win or podium this
year...what would happen to the coverage in 2006? Like someone else
put it...A guy is going to have to make a comeback from decapitation to
get the attention of the media after the L-factor steps down.