What a stupid narrative. Your comparison is just pathetic. All upcoming cyclists want to come to Europe because this is predominantly a European sport and all the best races are here. As you rightly state the US has very few races for semi-pro and pro levels, and this will not change. I am a lover of Basketball, and every upcoming player longs to play in the NBA because it has the best competition, kickboxers and martial artists go east for training
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Yes, with the status quo that’s what happens. But what if the US racing scene got better, perhaps from athletes with big followings, like Justin and Corry Williams, racing exclusively here and gaining interest in crit racing? You know, like how soccer (football) is popular and successful in countries other than Britain? Even if the most money is available there, that doesn’t mean that they have all the best players in the world.
Do you think such a thing is completely impossible? If not, then how will it ever happen if nobody ever tries?
IMO, “X can never happen because it hasn’t yet” is a stupid narrative.
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Yeah that seems like a perfect response if you’re content with things remaining stagnant in the industry/sport. Change requires disruption, and that’s what they’re aiming to do. In the From The Gun podcast he elaborates on their mission, with branches of the team in different regions of the US, almost like he’s trying to create a league.
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I agree with @TheGreyRouleur that it’s very unlikely that Europe will ever relinquish the prestige they have with all their races. Like the NBA, the best players will be over there trying to win monuments and grand tours. But there is no reason we can’t create something unique here. From what I understand crits are a pretty American type of event and why not try and build up a league much like Spanish basketball leagues are pretty legit and give athletes from Europe the local exposure to the NBA scouts?
Then once you have more American pros and there is a bit more of a cycling fan base here, then who knows where that goes, but it will probably take somebody like L36ion to spark that interest.
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Cycling has been engrained in European culture in a different/deeper way than the USA. More kids grow up riding bikes because more parents and more of society rides bikes; more people riding means more clubs and more structure for people to follow to grow into the sport; more pro and experienced riders give back to the local club scene which helps to further develop young riders; with more people involved there is more money invested from top to bottom.
Besides maybe NICA the USA has very little in the way of structure to get kids riding in clubs/teams and then develop them. Not long ago racing was way more local shop team oriented. It seemed like every other shop had a club/team you could join and get involved in the sport to some degree. Maybe it’s just regional but, that has gone away. Perhaps this was a reason for the ride of NICA? IDK just musing.
Anyways, it’s clear the USA needs a different formula to get more involved. Longer term plans for Legion include chapters in big cities. Maybe these anchor points will be the beginning framework to give kids a way to grow up in the sport…with some support and mentorship.
In the end, Justin is correct though. Sponsors demand an ROI. This is no different but, I hope to hell it is the beginning of a similar movement NICA tapped into.
Crits are perfect example of “americanization” of the sport (in a good way). Be honest - from point of view of casual cyclist, road races are boring as f… many of us love them but for many people the watch is worth 15 last minutes. Americans have amazing ability to “condense” any sport. If they could do this with daytona racing (on paper there is no possibility to make riding in the circle and turning only left entertaining - but they could) they can do this with crits. And I hope they do! Personally I do not like american crits because they are usually lacking any sort of climbs but if you add some punchy climbs you can have awesome racing formats. This year couple of road races in europe were on repetable circuit and they were great to watch.
My conclusion is - if anyone can take boring sport and make it appealing to the people, it can be only USA. But I think there is lack of determination and business opportunities, as cycling is not a business - it is rather pumping money into something you love but the returns are rather miserable in comparision to many other sports. But hey, if lacrosse can generate revenue I bet cycling also can.
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A lot of angles, and ultimately I think it comes down to ROI. A promoter like Justin needs to come along and promote crits to the point where they get cable/streaming visibility at the level of say the WWF (cable TV) or NCAA Women’s Softball (ESPN). And that takes promoting personalities, either by creating them like WWF (I’m going to put crits in this category) or because they repeatedly win the only well known bike race (Lance and Tour de France). And a whole lot more.
In addition to getting more kids racing (around here it is mountain biking), another angle is talent identification. Just had my monthly coach convo, and he recently put together a power profile chart for parents and juniors to help with talent identification. And seeing @jarsson in the thread reminded me of his comments about sprint ability (sorry jarsson!):
I joked with him about a profile chart for masters 55+ weekend warriors, and he spoke briefly about the amount of work that went into that Coggan-esque Junior Power Profile Chart.
A lot of moving parts, and tireless promotion will be required. The loss of the Amgen Tour of California has left a void, that event and the TdF were the only NBC Sports promoted cycling content here in the USA. And now NBC is shutting down the NBC Sports Network. So I guess it may come down to building a larger-than-life criterium persona on Red Bull TV or (stretch goal) ESPN2? I can’t help but think it will need to be something like a Friday night crit series in a hip downtown area, where fans line the streets with beer/wine/whatever in hand to give it the buzz to make it interesting to watch. This might sound harsh but I believe roller derby has seen more TV and streaming coverage than criteriums 
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ESPN2 has bowling and competitive cornhole tournaments.
Cycling’s worst problem is cycling. I really like what Justin is doing and I think he “gets it” in terms of the modern media / marketing landscape. He comes across as a pretty funny guy too. I hope he succeeds.
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Promotion and personalities. Throw in some larger than life stunts and you might start attracting eyeballs. Competitive cornhole on ESPN2 says a lot about a ‘sport’ having arrived.
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I agree. Motorsports is dealing with a lot of the same problems as cycling. Outside of NASCAR, Indy Car, and some of the factory teams in endurance racing, there are very few paid full time drivers. Most have sugar daddy’s, have day jobs, or have jobs coaching / etc to pay the bills. Their racing “income” is just the privilege of having a ride. Pro motorcycle racing is struggling as it is experiencing the same shift, but motorcycles are a little less marketable than autoracing (it’s a young man’s sport and harder to get those rich older sugar daddy’s to write the checks).
I’m pretty stoked for what Justin has planned and I hope I can do my part, even just as a fan. I thought it was annoying that people were trying to rip him for the Lambo shots… like clearly he didn’t go out and buy one with the GoFundMe. People suck.
Not in anyway the same thing as what Justin is doing, so I don’t mean to draw comparisons, but I like how Tommy D is trying to set up his team programs and be more than just a cycling coaching group. People I respect tell me if you can get past his pro career and the baggage that has, he actually is a really nice guy who genuinely wants to help people be better cyclists and be better people through cycling. It at least helps broaden its appeal, and I know he wants to expand it further into scholarships / team building for young riders and is really supportive of his women’s teams
The sport needs more of that as it’s slowly greying and feels pretty stale here in the States.
Oh no hard feelings - I know my place when it comes to sprint 
At least, according to this chart (I like the positive nomenclature “has potential”), as a 36 years old junior, I am exeptional beside having a potential in 1 min power. Bur put me on shorter effort than 1 min and I would be “poor” in wko terms 
Something clearly went wrong during my 40+ years of junior development!
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Just piggybacking and adding to your post…
Grassroots interest/involvement in cycling is needed more than promoting pro/elite events. We need to make it easier, cheaper and more enjoyable to ride a bike…more of a lifestyle. We need to give opportunity for poor kids to have access to bikes like we give them opportunity to play football. Give them a place to be social with other kids doing the same thing. Promoting a ToC event doesn’t do anything in this regard. So, I think it’s a waste of time to emphasize cycling like this. Maybe some day but, not now.
The only young kids I see coming up are from wealthy families with one or both parents who ride/race as well. The vast majority of kids don’t have anyone advocating for them. No chance for them to even ride a bike much less train, develop, race.
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I dunno, IMHO kids tend to follow the money and heroes. Similar to what happens with the academically gifted.
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I’m a millennial (early 30s). My path to cycling was BMX (peak X Games era and racing was still big), then the urban fixie thing. A lot of crit racers / riders in their late 20s - mid 30s followed that path and got into it via Red Hook. I really don’t know what Gen Z (college and HS aged kids today) really have to look at. I think MTB’ing really caught their eye as it has exploded in their adolescence. That and CX / gravel is a lot more palatable to parents as it keeps them off the roads.
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This is the interesting aspect - my personal observation and experience is that almost all the kids have access to some sort of a bike. But they mostly think about bikes as a means of commuting or hanging out not as a tool to race or even go for a longer ride. I am not sure if accessibility is the cause or rather that cycling is not considered a sport by many people. It is like having a football (soccer) but never playing it, only holding it in hands. Maybe the sport itself is simply boring for younger people. Cycling on purely amatuer level is quite accessible in my opinion (we are talking about having any bike, not a racing bike) but it is not reputable sport itself.
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I’m not far from poor sections of town, and ride through them routinely. I see plenty of bikes. Here in woke California the homeless ride bikes. Lots of homeless on bikes riding to tent cities along the freeway and rivers and railroad tracks. Next time I go to Sams/Costco in South Sac I’ll take a picture of a tent city and all bikes.
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@jarsson @bbarrera I din’t make my point very well apparently…having access to a bike, like a football, doesn’t mean the kid will race a bike or play football. It’s the structure behind the sport that gives it’s future. I think this is where Legion is trying to go. Provide a mechanism that can help parents help their kids (to train and perhaps race).
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Just looked it up, AFAIK this is the only structure we have locally for 8-14 year old: Clipped In For Life - Folsom Grom but maybe there is stuff at junior high level. I dunno.
Not much, at least we have some local structure that supports bottoms up. I don’t think youth cycling programs are common in the USA (for any demographic), but to be honest that is merely perception not fact.
Also cycling struggles with image because cycling is transportation if you don’t have a car, and post-LanceA a lack of ‘heroes’ versus other sports like basketball, baseball, football, soccer, etc.
The problem has to be attacked from both top-down and bottoms-up.
I think there’s several major aspects to cycling not being successful as a sport in the US.
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Basketballs, baseballs, etc are standardized and not expensive to get something that performs good. Bicycles are expensive for something good and many kids have cheap bikes (cost, likeliness of being stolen, going to outgrow it soon are all reasons). Bikes are also highly not standardized. There’s so many different types and options that it overwhelms even adult enthusiasts.
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A good vs bad bike makes a big difference in your experience. Yes, someone can get fit riding a junker, but nobody is winning a decent size Cat 3 race on one.
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Tradition and Velominati. There’s way too much gatekeeping in this sport. That turns away anybody that isn’t willing to conform. We are our own worst enemy. Obsession with tradition (race orgs and fans) means the sport doesn’t evolve. So it appeals to the older generations but is stifling to the younger ones. This is a feedback loop.
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Racing takes place in the open, so there isn’t money to be made on admissions. There’s some money in TV rights, but you need a critical mass of attention first. Also, TV advertising is suffering thanks to social media stealing ad dollars.
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It’s really hard to watch. Good luck finding the race to watch. Nobody has all the rights. Most road races are too long with too little action. The rules and tactics are hard to comprehend if you aren’t a racer yourself. Riders are hard to identify. There’s very few stars, mostly domestiques. Most sports have more regular action with more of the team players having notable contributions. Also, no home team to root for.
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