« I just watched the bike industry commit suicide.
And they still don't realize what they did.
A couple of years ago in Bali, I discovered something fascinating on the Gili Islands.
They have 7 nightclubs.
Each club is only allowed to open 1 night per week.
Every single club is packed every single night.
Cycling, however, tried the opposite approach:
Ireland: The Gorey 3 Day used to sell out 200 spots in days. This year? 21 people registered. The race was cancelled.
UK: Road racing is in "crisis" with races and organizers disappearing from the calendar. Some races now have fields of only 35-40 participants.
US: USA Cycling membership peaked in 2012 and has been declining since, "driven mostly by road - it's road where we're seeing the biggest drop".

What killed road racing?
Choice.
The bike industry gave us:
Road bikes for racing
Gravel bikes for adventure
Cyclocross for winter
Mountain bikes for trails
E-bikes for commuting
Time trial bikes for aerodynamics

Each discipline got its own:
Equipment
Events
Communities
Media coverage
Sponsorship dollars
The participation got split across everything.

Gravel events, gran fondos, and cyclocross "have all grown in popularity while road continues its slide".

My hot take:
Road racing didn't die because people stopped wanting to race.
It died because the industry created too many alternatives.
When you have unlimited choices, participation fragments.

The Gili Islands figured this out:
Restrict the options = concentrate the energy.
One club, one night = guaranteed crowd.
But cycling went the opposite direction:
Seven disciplines, seven events, seven communities = nobody shows up to anything.

More options don't create more customers.
They create smaller crowds for everything.
Netflix has 15,000 titles. Average viewing time per title is plummeting.
Restaurants with 200-item menus vs. In-N-Out with 4 burgers.
Software companies with 47 features vs. tools that do one thing perfectly.
The most successful businesses restrict choice:
Apple: "Think Different" - by giving you fewer options.
Starbucks: 3 cup sizes, not 12.
Amazon: "Customers who bought this also bought" - limiting infinite choice.

The bike industry learned the wrong lesson:
They thought more categories = bigger market.
Instead: more categories = weaker individual markets.
Road racing was the biggest, most established discipline.
Then they gave people 6 other places to spend their time and money.
Now road racing can't reach minimum viable participation.

Poor optics kill momentum.
Empty races discourage new participants.
Sponsors move to disciplines with better attendance.
The fix isn't more innovation.
It's fewer options with better execution.
Smart businesses concentrate demand rather than fragment it.
What's the best example you've seen of success through restriction rather than expansion? »

Roadman Cycling, facebook, 13 octobre,
référencé par Pasquale Stalteri, photographe de cyclisme de 2006 à 2017, puis gérant de la boutique de vélo Bicycles McW depuis 2017

COMMENTAIRES

« The bike industry doesn't equal racing. In fact - it's almost the opposite. Less than 1 in 1000 bike owners race. Giving more people more options for bikes is going to get more people on bikes. The advent of MTB's got more people on bikes. The advent of enduro bikes got the waining DH community on a bike more suited to their real life use. EMTB's are keeping people on bikes, longer. Gravel bikes are road bikes you can take anywhere. »
Chuck Davis

« Last year four clubs in my area I contacted regards membership, none got back to me. Can we point out the uncomfortable fact that from a perspective of new people getting into it it's anything but a welcoming environment?

I ended up just racing unattached, moved into duathlon, literally just asked about a club one day and said I'm not into triathlon so wouldn't need all the club can offe. A week after that conversation the club came back to me to see if I was still interested and put me in contact with other people in the club at my level who I can train with.

I'm just giving an example of someone not in these circles trying to get in but because I dont meet a certain grade or am not known personally its almost like a blank wall. There would definitely be more heading into this field if there was more normal representatives in it to draw people in.

An ex pro I've been blessed to live near put it brilliantly to me about 2 years ago. He said when he first joined a cycling club there was almost as much work going into beginners as those at the high end of racin. Now cycling clubs are too big for their boots and imagine themselves as racing clubs, when really they should worry more about teaching people to cycle than to rac. It's almost as if he knew along the line that this bottle neck is coming. You can see the same demise in construction jobs, people only want someone with experience, now that the experienced people are worked out and moving on they're panicking to find new hires and they can't because nobody bothered with an industry that needed prior experience to get into »
Oneill Paul

« I understand what you're saying but I ride all. If I could afford a 6th bike I'd buy a mountain bike. I watch them all, they all excite me for different reasons. Cyclocross in the winter, the classics in the spring, the grand tours are their own beasts, the innovation of the grand prix with a mix of so much and the MTB bikes with drop handles bars, etc. Its all good, its all exciting and its spread out.< br> I like watching the pros delve into each discipline, Pidcock, MVDP, WVA, they're dipping into other disciplines and fans follow and then appreciate the sport when they're not there. I think we could do with blurring the lines more. The gravel stages and the cobble stages in the grand tours does it well. »
Steven Hadcroft

« I guess the rest of us that ride bikes for transportation are doing fine... Somehow UCI will come after bicycle commuters next... I can see it UCI Official Bicycle Commuter Standards.... »
Chris Pierce

« Cycling used to be the largest spectator sport in the United States. Times change. Bike design returning to the roots of a multi terrain vehicle is an unstoppable phenomenon, no matter how much the velominati complain about it. »
Mike Beck

« And to cap that, the UCI calendar puts the gravel world champs on at exactly the same time as the Paris Tours. What are they playing at? »
Steve Winkybob

« Roadies didn't go to mtb or cx they've gone gravel. And I suspect they've gone because its fun, friendly, less rules, better events, cheaper, etc. etc. There seems to be massively over-subscribed gravel races from what I've seen on YT. »
David Cook

« The cost of a new road bike in the US has priced the public out of the market. I remember buying an awesome Litespeed titanium bike in the 90s for under $1500. Then 10 years ago I bought an Orbea carbon bike for under $3000. The same company where I bought my titanium bike now sells them for $14,000. So instead of wanting a new bike I thought of going to Di2. Nope. Over 2k to convert »
Von Campbell

« There is no communication from the Top. As a club that organises a stage race, open race and has 10 club races a year. We apply for dates (this is already done for 2026) no one has the joined up thinking to chat with each club to ensure that there is no overlapping of races. This was supposed to be done but never happened. Sort the calendar first to ensure each race has the best chance to get a good field. We held an open race and added back in a c1 section for 7 riders to show up. »
Declan McKenna

« The bike industry brought us Dull looking internal cabling, electronic everything, disc bikes riden by NPC's with zero personality who's credit card shines brighter than their personality. The simplicity of a bicycle and the characters in the hobby are ghosts of the past (unless you take time to look). Particularly in the sport of " listen to us were the experts but stay silent of the nonsense of" pro Cycling. Just my observation »
Geraint Jones

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