How cycling changed through the Century

Cycling often seems to be a conservative sport according to some criticizers but nothing is as it seems. Many things stayed the same but cycling is on many ways not anymore the same sport as it used to be. Being born in the late 90ies and growing up surrounded by cycling I saw many of the most famous & lesser known cyclists of the last 20 years in all kind of different races. In this article I list down my perspectives in different parts. You might recognize some things or stepped in earlier or later in the sport. But this is where my story begins.

World Tour races

In the mid 2000s, the World Cup got replaced by the ProTour, the new top level of cycling including some of the best classics and stage races. You might expect that these races might be organized on a higher level then the other races but in fact you oftten could only notice it by the bigger media attention. You could still easily come close to your favourite riders and not many protocols were in charge.

Around 2010, a lot changed in these kind of races. VIP arrangements got introduced and the ordinary fans were put like cows behind fences. The organizations also professionalized through the 2010s, every year you could notice more protocols, more commercialization, bigger podiums, big TV screens, more fences. Everything got bigger.

Criteriums

In the early 2000s and before you could easily spot many of the best cyclists in the world racing around the local church. It was a great moment to take pictures with your favourite riders or ask for a signature for your collection. The gentle atmosphere around these kind of 'races' also made it a nice trip with family or friends. Through the 2010s less & less top riders came to these races and the riders that still came were less & less famous what made that many criteriums started to dissapear or lose popularity.

Continental races

The races in the Europe Tour are very diverse. You have races that are organized on the same way as the WT races but you also have races where not much changed since even the 1990ies. No website, no social media, buying entrance tickets in the local pub,... It's very hard to get information about some of these races before but at the same time there are also not many restrictions for the fans so you can still easily get close to your favourite riders and hear volunteers talking about the race or get the latest rumours out of the peloton!

Womens cycling

I'm following womens' cycling since 2010, a time where they almost only broadcasted the Worlds and occasionally (summarizes) of other races. When you had to search for results on CQ ranking instead of reading them in the newspaper. There was also only little attention in the cycling magazines back in the days. One or two articles maximum. The sport grew fast through the years. Some WWT races got organized on the same way as their male counterparts while many others remained like in my childhood. The differences betweens the best & worst teams in 1.1 & 1.2 races became also much bigger then in most men's races. I was at races where the biggest teams got a big bus with all needs while other riders had to get dressed behind the team car.

Broadcasting

Most 1.1 or ProSeries are still broadcasted the same way as 20 years ago but the biggest WT races often introduced new things in their broadcasts from the mid 2010s on. Cameras in the team cars, little cameras on the bikes, use of drones, new race formats through Velon, stats of the stages getting showed during the broadcasts. There is definitely a lot more to look at then 10 years ago.

 

Press

5-10 years ago the press could often be asked for all kind of interviews, articles, occasions by all kind of media. In recent years everything became much more monitored by the teams. I noticed this also myself in the past years. My audience was never as big as it is now but it also was never harder to arrange an interview as it is now. Sometimes riders agreed on making the interview but the team blocked the even positive interviews in the end. The very free press in the sport a few years ago became a lot more controlled and limited in recent times. A sad evolution because it's through the media that more fans discover the sport, what brings extra possibilities to riders, teams and sponsors. 

Fortunatly there are also very kind exceptions and I would like to especially thank Canyon//SRAM, Alpecin-Deceuninck / Plantur-Pura, Bora Hansgrohe, Ceratizit WNT through this line.