Is cycling an important sport?

[Vantage]

As above @mjr 's post. Who says cycling is a sport?
A popular pastime, hobby, means of transport, way of life maybe but only a sport for those few who choose to make it that. For the rest of us, sport my hairy arse.
How important it is varies from nation to nation though. The brits value football. The merricans value stock cars. The French value cycling. Potato bag racing for the Irish Sheep shaggin for the Welsh. No idea about the Scots. Haggis throwing?

 

[Drago]

Us Scots like Formation Kilt Flashing, Tossing Old Telegraph Poles, and Team Complaining About Southerners. Of course, the best teams at the latter are from Glasgow, and are therefore all soft Sourtherners themselves, and it never goes down well when we remind them of that

 

[cougie uk]

Have to disagree

Sport is a means of not kicking the shoot out of each other

Sport is one of the myriad ways an observer can witness excellence

Sport is really really important

Did violence go up when sports stopped because of the lockdown ?

Anyone liable to attack people because the footy stops needs locking up.

Most spectators would also benefit from some exercise. Watching sport isn't enough.

 

[Oldhippy]

As above, sport is just a small part of cycling. Personally sport not my bag at all but cycling as a form practical transport, environmentally friendly, and easy way to go anywhere anytime under your own steam outweighs any other aspect.

 

[vickster]

AThe brits value football. The merricans value stock cars. The French value cycling. Potato bag racing for the Irish Sheep shaggin for the Welsh. No idea about the Scots. Haggis throwing?

Tossing the caber...? Strangling the bagpipes...?

 

[Phil Fouracre]

And the convenient local transportation.
And the money saved on buses, taxis and cars.
And the feeling you get when you freewheel down a swoopy curve.

Swoopy curve best of all - bonus add adjacent to a line of stationary traffic!:-)

 

[BigMeatball]

Cycling on the continent has always been highly rated and very much practised. That is one of the reasons why drivers there have a lot more consideration and respect for cyclists. As a sport, it has always been at the top of the list for the media and hugely popular.

Are you sure? "On the continent"? Like in every nation?

I can guarantee that in more than a couple of major European nations cycling is as far as the top of the list as you can imagine.

Utter generalisation.

 

[Drago]

Well, why don't you guarantee it by telling us which European nations you have in mind? Using the medium of a generalisation to complain about a generalisation isn't a tactic liable to be viewed as credible.

 

[mjr]

I can guarantee that in more than a couple of major European nations cycling as far as the top of the list as you can imagine.

I think there's a word missing from that or something else wrong, isn't there? Or maybe I've lost the ability to read and it's time to end this coffee break!

 

[alecstilleyedye]

As above @mjr 's post. Who says cycling is a sport?
A popular pastime, hobby, means of transport, way of life maybe but only a sport for those few who choose to make it that. For the rest of us, sport my hairy arse.
How important it is varies from nation to nation though. The brits value football. The merricans value stock cars. The French value cycling. Potato bag racing for the Irish Sheep shaggin for the Welsh. No idea about the Scots. Haggis throwing?

currently with welsh and scots are also brits, although the situation may be under review… how’s sheep shagging a competitive sport?

 

[roadrash]

To be fair to the op , he didnt say cycling was ONLY a sport and nothing else , just that his question relates to cycling as a sport, but i suspect you already knew that

 

[Ridgeway]

Bicycles are still part of many European cultures and therefore cycle racing comes high up on their list of important things, hence radio, TV and newspaper coverage. As an example i have a colleague in Milan who couldn't be less interested in bikes unless they have a motor and yet he knows the start date and location of the Giro this year.

I wouldn't be surprised thought to hear horse racing on in the background if i visited an English pub but it would be a surprise if i were in a German beer house

 

[mjr]

The OP's title could be edited to read "Is cycle racing an important sport?" would that be better? But I think as it stands it's fairly implicit that it's referring specifically to cycling as a sport.

Not until you click through and this is under "general cycling discussions" and not the racing sections.

Is cycling an important sport? Not necessarily.

Is cycle racing an important sport? Only in some places. Is it in the UK? Probably, because it delivers relatively good value when the government is buying Olympics.

 

[matticus]

Disagree there, but this is getting down to needless pedantry. "Is cycling an important sport" is clearly referring to cycling as a sport. The word sport implies this.

You'd need to be wilfully perverse to misread it to suggest that nipping down the shops on your Brompton* is considered a sport that may or may not be important.

As to whether it should be in a different section. Yeah, maybe.

Bang-on. I love a bit of pedantry, but there is a time and a place for it. (derailing a perfectly sensible topic is not one of those times.)

p.s. spellchecker says that should be "willfully" :P

 

[The Crofted Crest]

p.s. spellchecker says that should be "willfully" :P

Your, ahem, spell checker is not set to UK English.