Guardian article about the collapse of the British Cycling Boom

[UphillSlowly]

"The volunteers are still turning out every weekend. What has evaporated over recent years is the last and most important part of the equation: the institutional will to make the sport work, a public sector genuinely invested in cycling as a concept, rather than as an exercise in prestige or profit."
An interesting read
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/b...could-keep-it-away?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

 

[Slick]

I’m getting Cat Bin Lady humming Despacito on her way to bottomless brunch. I’m getting a Buzzfeed quiz entitled Pick Your Favourite Food Bank and Let Us Guess Your Age.

Wtf does that even mean.

I may come back to it later and try again.

 

[geocycle]

I read that and thought the basic idea was probably correct, without local government support it’s going to be hard for major stage races to take place in the uk. The lack of funding to local councils and the liability for policing costs make it hard to imagine competitive cycling being prioritised.

The number of people cycling could still continue to increase as the return on infrastructure is easier to justify from transport budgets given local will.

The grand depart 2014 was the best event I have ever attended and I loved the Tour de Yorkshire series that followed. Its demise was as much due to mismanagement rather than directly from the pandemic . The basic issue with events like the TdY is that costs are incurred by councils and any revenue received by private concerns. You need to be quite visionary to justify that to local people In the UK system.

 

[albion]

Just needs a vibrant economy.

Time to reminisce.

 

[Drago]

I’m getting Cat Bin Lady humming Despacito on her way to bottomless brunch.

That means Accy has taken his fancy piece out for breakfast.

 

[Slick]

That means Accy has taken his fancy piece out for breakfast.

I've read it 3 times now, and that makes much more sense.

 

[UphillSlowly]

Jonathan Liew can be a bit marmite as a journalist. I quite like his articles.

 

[UphillSlowly]

I read that and thought the basic idea was probably correct, without local government support it’s going to be hard for major stage races to take place in the uk. The lack of funding to local councils and the liability for policing costs make it hard to imagine competitive cycling being prioritised.

The number of people cycling could still continue to increase as the return on infrastructure is easier to justify from transport budgets given local will.

The grand depart 2014 was the best event I have ever attended and I loved the Tour de Yorkshire series that followed. Its demise was as much due to mismanagement rather than directly from the pandemic . The basic issue with events like the TdY is that costs are incurred by councils and any revenue received by private concerns. You need to be quite visionary to justify that to local people In the UK system.

Remains to be seen if the Tour of Britain reboot is successful and financially viable

 

[Drago]

I quite like his articles.

Class 1 euphemism alert ⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️

 

[Cycleops]

I’m getting Cat Bin Lady humming Despacito on her way to bottomless brunch. I’m getting a Buzzfeed quiz entitled Pick Your Favourite Food Bank and Let Us Guess Your Age.

Wtf does that even mean.

I may come back to it later and try again.

It's the Grauniad of course trying to be a little too clever for itself. The description is interchangeable with a review of the latest best budget Pinot Noir at Waitrose.. At least they chose cycling, it could just as easily have been the rise and fall of The John Lewis Partnership.

 

[Andy in Germany]

I have to confess that I've never really understood this sort of thing, possibly because of my utter loathing of sport at school, but the writer seems to think that "institutional support" should be given because... why exactly?

I don't really understand why sport, any sport, qualifies for special "institutional support" not given to things like say crochet, cat shows, tabletop gaming, or pottery. Understand I'm not criticising participants in sports, and I certainly admire the feats of sports cyclist here, but I don't really understand why sports should get preferential treatment above other, let's fact it, leisure pursuits.

To pick on my own in that list; tabletop gaming doesn't get a lot of "institutional support" and I'm not saying it should, but then why should other people's choices of activity? I understand that organising events for cycling will be expensive, and that facilities will be expensive and specialised so not suitable for other activities, but I don't see that as an argument; a lot of leisure pursuits require expensive facilities but that doesn't mean they all get them.

Surely it would make sense to look at the benefits of an activity to a local community, economically or culturally, when making the decisions for funding, rather than assuming "I think this is a good thing and should be supported" often by people who have no interest in it.

 

[swee'pea99]

Maybe because £1 spent supporting sport, any sport, will ultimately save the NHS £10, whereas £1 spent on tabletop gaming won't save the taxpayer a single brass razoo?

 

[ClichéGuevara]

Maybe because £1 spent supporting sport, any sport, will ultimately save the NHS £10, whereas £1 spent on tabletop gaming won't save the taxpayer a single brass razoo?

Studies have found that playing video games improves a surgeons skills considerably, so it may not be quite so accurate to claim that table top games have no benefits to health.

 

[Cycleops]

It's populism @Andy in Germany and it's always going to be. Football will always come first followed in order by other sports. Minorities will struggle to get a look in.

 

[Andy in Germany]

Maybe because £1 spent supporting sport, any sport, will ultimately save the NHS £10, whereas £1 spent on tabletop gaming won't save the taxpayer a single brass razoo?

It would be interesting to see the statistics behind that. (The cost/benefits to the NHS of skiing and hang gliding may be questionable, for example)

If it is the case, surely that's an argument to improving cycling infrastructure for everyone, rather than supporting a sport for a minority.

It's also been documented that during C19 Tabletop and role play games provided many people with social connection that otherwise would have not existed, and helped improve or maintain many people's psychological health so arguably they saved the NHS a lot in long term psychological care.