Tour de France thought...

[Andy in Sig]

Right. Let me try and give an answer.

Maybe it's just a case of Blacks and Asians (for want of a better word) WANTING to do it, not a case (as there blatantly is not) of any inherent barriers in cycling as a sport as such.

Take Grand Prix Formula 1 as an example. Hamilton's dad purposefully entered the sport as a mentor for his son.

Also the example of tennis with the William's sisters.

Likewise with Woods in Golf.

Hitherto all sports where Blacks and Asians did not feature to any significant percentage.

Let me give a personal example.

My kids play, primarily, two sports. Cricket and Rugby. At the Cricket club, I'd say about 15% of the kids are asian.

At the rugby club we are the only ones out of a Minis' section consisting of 40 odd kids.

So you'll get the asians breeaking into the England Cricket Team.

But the first asians to play rugby for England will be my kids.

And I think this is the way it should be: people will do things when they are good and ready to in their own time. As a white bloke I find it incredibly patronising when people of my ethnicity start deliberately targetting people of other ethnicities to take part in various things (I'm not having a go at you AlanH). I've always taken the line that the best course of action is just to make it clear that the doors are open. What do you think is the best way ahead from your perspective?

 

[Arch]

What about at a more local level though? I hardly ever see coloured cyclists apart from commuters. There are over 250 members of my bike club and every single one of us is white.

Which may in itself become a self fulfilling prophecy. I think we've all read stuff from newbies agonising over whether they are good enough to join a club, in the expectation that you need to be of a certain standard and that it might be a bit cliquey. Add in the potential feeling that you'll be the only coloured face, and it must be something of a mental barrier...

Thinking about it, I don't know many black/asian cyclists, but then I don't know all that many black/asian people (apart from those on here). There is a lady connected to Bikefix, who is pretty handy in the HPV department...

I suspect Crock is right - partly it's about what people want to do and partly about what they see their peers doing. Also, perhaps, as cycling is a slightly minority acitvity perhaps, any people from ethnic minorities into it would be a minority of a minority, and therefore bound to be thin on the ground?

 

[Haitch]

I find it incredibly patronising when people of my ethnicity start deliberately targetting people of other ethnicities to take part in various things (I'm not having a go at you AlanH).

I'm not targeting anyone, I merely noted that I hadn't seen many coloured recreational cyclists. Interestingly, the other 'white' sports named here - sailing, rowing, skiing - are all middle class and fairly expensive whereas cycling is said to be working class and cheap.

Edit: perhaps cycling isn't aspirational enough.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I think you can very loosely identify three areas of cycling:

a. Utility - probably the least appealing to the aspirational.

b. Recreational (including touring) - which is slowly getting better in the UK.

c. Competitive - which probably has a far higher standing in the non-cycling public's mind than the other two.

Having just read that through I'm not sure if it advances the discussion!

Although a. seems to tie in with User1314's post.

 

[GrahamG]

Big cultural barrier for Asians - I've seen a consultation response from an Indian man when asked if he would consider cycling the short distance he had to work:
"Why would I want to ride a bicycle?! I left India so I wouldn't have to do things like that!"

Not sure about any black folks - I've seen a few roadies around and lots of commuters/utility cyclists. I did have the thought that cycling has traditionally (in the past at least) been a very much white working class sport and therefore previously not accommodating to any minorities?!

 

[Dayvo]

A friend (Lucky) of a friend of mine in Cambodia is in the national cycling team: he works occasionally as a guide for western cyclists taking them around the country.

http://www.cambodiacyclist.com/guide.htm#luky

He and his friends are very serious cyclists, and, given an injection of cash or sponsorship, could develop into major Asian cyclists.

I remember seeing a programme about how Finnish sports researchers wanted to see if top (but amateur) African long-distance runners had the ability to become successful cross-country skiers if they could learn the techniques involved. Basically these techniques are honed throughout an individual's childhood to adulthood and can't be 'taught' over a short period of time.

Despite reaching an average ability, the major problem for the Africans was dealing with the cold conditions, with temperatures going down to -20!

 

[Paulus]

Iv'e seen a few black blokes on bikes , lycrad up and out for a thrash along the roads, but they do seem to be in the minority. Maybe it is about time to pull up alongside and have a talk with them to find out why more ethnic minorities don't go in for cycling. It has been said on this forum that it is expensive, well, many minorities earn very good wages along with everyone else, but they still arn't interested. The stereotypes would be that they are more interested in becoming footballers, runners, DJ's etc, but surely that cannot be true.

 

[Andy in Sig]

I just don't think the ethnic thing is an issue, except maybe for people in the first generation or two who will have different cultural attitudes to native Brits. i would reckon that subsequent generations will be cycling more. The best thing IMO to do is not think in ethnic terms at all as those people who want to cycle will.

 

[Intelligenthamster]

My father and I went to Green Park for the prologue TdF time trial last year. We both worked in London for years and are very used to the diverse population, and we really did notice that that section of the park was full of white people and very few non-white, but on the other side where the people enjoying the sun were out of sight of the cycling, there was much more of a "usual" mix.

I've no idea why this should be... as Andy says, those who want to ride will ride... more people should try it.

 

[fossyant]

I'm a late comer to this thread, but it's been a big 'question' for me for 22 years - it's a world wide sport, the UK is a very 'mixed bag' of ethnic backgrounds, but why is cycling still mainly white - has me flummoxed - see loads of folk of all backgrounds commuting, but mainly 'white' usually, especially just going to the full Roadie/MTB'er....

Never really understood why, but a couple of quotes her from Crock...about family things with cars.....

We have a big hire place in Rusholme which does Lambo's, Ferrari's etc....seems busy, cars in and out.... it's some place that wouldn't work outside an Asian area - so maybe that's it ?

I dunno..... it's something I've never been able to answer..it's just so odd - no real ethnic mix in bike racing.....

Good to see some input to this thread !

 

[dodgy]

We have a big hire place in Rusholme which does Lambo's, Ferrari's etc....seems busy, cars in and out.... it's some place that wouldn't work outside an Asian area - so maybe that's it ?

Hmm

View: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=uW9CfM2fl3E