City of Roanoke, VA’s Post

Is there a direct correlation between practicing a sport and consuming a sport? Is cycling to niche? This is a very interesting post by the great Andrew Petcash that provides some insightful highlights of the current state of cycling and sparked some thoughts, specially after reading some of the post comments by people that seem to be way more into the sport than I am. 🚲 Despite showing noticeable growth numbers, there's still a perception of being a very niche and fairly high-barrier entry sport, especially at a non-casual level and mostly due to expensive gear. 🚲 Although the numbers show increasing participation and significant global viewership, the feeling is of not being very democratized and being fairly elitist. Also, despite the increasing numbers, there's seems to be disconnection in the correlation between practice and viewership. 🚲 There seems to be a generalized blaming towards many brands in the space that position cycling as a very aspirational, elite & unreachable for the average Joe through their products, prices and brand messaging. Based on those perceptions that I detected, here are a few thoughts: 🚲 Usually the democratization of a sport is the responsibility and best interest of the organizations/properties that are in charge of organizing the sport like federations, associations, leagues, etc. For brands that interact with that sport in particular ways, democratization might be interesting, but not necessarily and that takes me to another point. 🚲 Specifically talking about cycling, did anyone thought that maybe some of these brands that are positioning the sport as something aspirational and elite, are not actually interested in general democratization but more into creating smaller niche communities with unique profiles and interests? Seems to me that many of these brand's strategies are to be very boutique, with not massively distributed products but yes, with very high prices to cater a very specific audience. That's their brand and product strategy. 🚲 Why wouldn't companies, especially in this kind of sport, position their brands, products and messaging as something aspirational and exclusive? Ultimately I think those are messages that a lot of folks connect with. You get into these kind of sports to get out of your comfort zone aiming to accomplish stuff that is difficult to achieve, to try something different and exciting. That's at least in the semi-professional cycling space, obviously not in the average casual cyclist around the neighborhood one. There might actually be an interesting opportunity for new brands in that segment. 🚲 Not all sports have a direct correlation between practice and viewership/engagement, that's why they are niche sports. Cycling in a semi-professional level still seems to be a niche sport and general democratization might never happen. It's not basketball or football. Probably a very very little percentage of F1 followers actually practice competitive motorsport.

And in case you wondering what the UCI Cycling World Championships is all about…Check this short article out! A first of its kind and one we hope to see continue its success in the future.

𝐑𝐨𝐛 👦 𝐯𝐬. 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭 🤖 – 𝐔𝐩𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞 #3 Here’s the third update of the 𝐑𝐨𝐛 👦 𝐯𝐬. 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭 🤖 competition, with another comparison to the model of CyclingOracle, and the prediction of upcoming Sunday’s 𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘦-𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘦-𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘦. This race traditionally marks the end of the classic season, though for the Scorito Classics game, 𝘌𝘴𝘤𝘩𝘣𝘰𝘳𝘯-𝘍𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘧𝘶𝘳𝘵 will be the actual last race. I’m again comparing the performance of my model with the performance of WielerOrakel.nl, see below. 𝐈𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐬 (𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝑫𝒆 𝑩𝒓𝒂𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒔𝒆 𝑷𝒊𝒋𝒍 𝐨𝐧𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐬) 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐥𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐜𝐭, with scores of both my and CyclingOracle’s model dropping considerably the last races. This can partly be explained by the course of those races, resulting in some surprising names ending on top. This goes to largest extent for yesterday’s 𝘓𝘢 𝘍𝘭𝘦𝘤𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦, where most of the top favorites dropped from the race due to harsh, wintery conditions. My model did score well in 𝘋𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘢𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘴𝘦 𝘗𝘪𝘫𝘭, by predicting the actual winner Benoit Cosnefroy as #2, who wasn’t included in CyclingOracle’s predicted top 10. 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐚𝐤𝐞 𝐂𝐲𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐎𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐥𝐞’𝐬 3-𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠𝐞! However, my model’s average score is still below that of CyclingOracle, so let’s see if I can sneak in further with my prediction of 𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘦-𝘉𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘦-𝘓𝘪𝘦𝘨𝘦, where we will finally see Tadej Pogacar and Mathieu van der Poel battle for victory again. My model also seems to be expecting a lot from this clash, clearly depicting them as the top favorites for upcoming Sunday! 1.     Tadej Pogacar 2.     Mathieu van der Poel 3.     Mattias Skjelmose Jensen 4.     Aleksandr Vlasov 5.     Dylan Teuns 6.     Tom Pidcock 7.     Benoit Cosnefroy 8.     David Gaudu 9.     Marc Hirschi 10.   Maxim van Gils

Last week the BBS Team were onsite at QUT (Queensland University of Technology) to launch Australia’s first ever cycling esports championship. Effectively telling your organisations story through news media is one of the most trusted and effective methods to generate audiences and brand recognition for events. If you want to gain media attention for your organisation or an upcoming event, contact us to discuss today https://lnkd.in/gkHE5X2i #MediaRelations #MediaRelationsBrisbane #Communications #CommunicationsBrisbane #PublicRelations #PublicRelationsBrisbane

"Marginal Gains - 1%" The fate of British Cycling changed one day in 2003. David Brailsford had been hired to put British Cycling on a new trajectory, who introduced the "aggregation of marginal gains,” which was the philosophy of searching for a tiny margin of improvement in everything you do. Brailsford and his team continued to find 1 percent improvements in overlooked and unexpected areas. Just five years after Brailsford took over, the British Cycling team dominated the road and track cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, where they won an astounding 60 percent of the gold medals available. Lesson:- 1. Identify the area, where you need improvement. 2. Improve by marginal %age. 3. Be consistent. 4. Observe the performance. 5. Maintain patience. Improving by 1 percent isn’t particularly notable—sometimes it isn’t even noticeable—but it can be far more meaningful, especially in the long run. The difference a tiny improvement can make over time is astounding. For ex:- If you learn only 1 new word everyday, by the end of the month you will have 30 new words in your vocabulary. #Shashi #LnD #SIRCLE

Is bike racing accessible in your community?

⚡️Paris 2024 is Calling⚡️ --- CYCLING --- A total of 180 cyclists (90 per gender) will race through the plains and climbs of the Paris 2024 road cycling course, with four of them racing on home soil: as host nation, France has been allocated two quota places per gender. Each NOC can qualify a maximum of eight athletes (four per gender) but there are specific limitations for each event: - 4 cyclists per gender per NOC - maximum for the Road Race - 2 cyclists per gender per NOC - maximum for the individual time trial There are three ways to qualify for the road races: UCI Road World Ranking by Nations, the 2023 UCI Road World Championships Elite Road Race, and the 2023 Continental Championships (except for Europe and Oceania). National Olympic Committees (countries) that do not qualify for any quota places through the UCI Road World Ranking by Nations or the results of the 2023 UCI Road World Championships can qualify a maximum of one quota place per gender through the Elite Road Race from the respective 2023 Continental Championships as follows: - Africa: 2 highest ranked NOCs, 1 rider qualified per NOC - America: 2 highest ranked NOCs, 1 rider qualified per NOC - Asia: 2 highest ranked NOCs, 1 rider qualified per NOC In this case, African countries like Zambia will use the Accra 2023 Africa Games to be held in March 2024 as a qualification opportunity for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, specifically for the road race cycling category. #paris2024 #TeamZambia #cycling #roadrace

In cycling, one-day races, often referred to as Classics, are standalone events that are completed in a single day, unlike stage races that take place over multiple days. These races are known for their prestige and often feature challenging routes. Examples of famous one-day races in cycling include Paris-Roubaix, the Tour of Flanders, and Milan-San Remo. Incorporating one-day events in tennis, similar to one-day races in cycling, would require the development of a new system for counting points and ranking players, and could be an interesting addition to the sport outside of the traditional ATP and WTA tours. Establishing this system would require collaboration between players, tournament organizers, and maybe governing bodies to ensure it aligns with the sport's overall growth and integrity. The introduction of one-day events in tennis, especially in the context of the Thirty30 tennis initiative, can be seen as a progressive step towards diversifying the sport and making it more dynamic and accessible. The Thirty30 format, where every game starts at 30-30, aims to shorten match lengths and provide a faster-paced, more intense form of the game. This format aligns well with the concept of one-day events for several reasons.

What does ‘good’ look like? Or ‘great’ even? This is often a surprisingly hard question to answer. Take for example cycling and the current Tour de France – how do you determine who is the best? Is it someone like: 🚀 Mark Cavendish, who has won more stages than anyone else? 🎯 Biniam Girmay, who has the greatest consistency of high place finishes? ⏱ Tadej Pogacar, who has the lowest total cumulative time? 🌍 Mathieu van der Poel, who won the World Championships? 📣 Jonas Abrahamsen, who has showcased his sponsors the most? You could make a strong case for all of the above, and many others, which is part of what makes cycling really interesting as a sport. What links them all though, is that every one of them made a choice to specialise in one area, and then be the best at that. If you spread yourself too thin, and try and do everything, then you often end up just being average. A jack of all trades, master of none. The same is true in business. That’s why indieVelo chooses to work with other companies rather than compete against them. By specialising in just a few narrow, but vitally important, areas such as credibility and tactically interesting racing, indieVelo can focus on doing what it does best, and let others do what they do best – together we can then create something truly great. #CyclingEsports #CommunityDriven #VirtualSport