Project Introduction

The Tour de France's popularity and growth in the world has developed exponentially in recent years, especially in light of continued victories from non-traditional countries represented in the Tour such as the United States, Ireland, Australia, and as of 2013, even Africa. Canada certainly still lags behind these countries in Tour successes, however the country's success at other major cycling events including recent Olympic medals and Ryder Hesjedal's victory at the 2012 Giro d'Italia may well serve as a watershed moment for Canadian cycling.

Overall, research for this blog has uncovered that Ireland and Canada's successful riders, Stephen Roche and Steve Bauer, respectively, have failed to have a significant impact on developing a popularity for cycling nor a highly successful cycling program. There are several main differences  between these riders and the riders from Australia and Norway in question, Stuart O'Grady and Thor Hushovd, respectively. Roche and Bauer, first of all, lived away from their respective countries for much of the year. Secondly, sports coverage, especially cycling, was much less common in the late 1980s compared to the late 1990s and 2000s. Finally, there is nothing to suggest that either Bauer nor Roche viewed themselves in a leadership capacity for cycling in their respective countries.

Hushovd and O'Grady, on the other hand, had longer times atop the cycling world by comparison to the other riders under study. They see their respective roles as leaders for riders from their countries, as well. And finally, the exposure afforded to these riders through the modern age of internet and sports television has certainly made it easier to promote and grow the sport.

With regards to MTN-Qhubeka p/b Samsung, one sees a potentially bright future, though one which is at this time very uncertain. First of all, the team offers a great deal of hope to Africans. The team is working to provide bicycles to mostly rural Africans and offering a great deal of capacity through this initiative. But also, the development of African professional athletes serve as role models and national symbols, just as professional athletes do in other places. Moreover, MTN-Qhubeka is a new model of melding social justice causes with corporate advertising, often an uneasy alliance at best. So the future of cycling in Africa is still largely a speculative enterprise. Though, extrapolating some of the findings from studying the other riders in this project, it would be reasonable to suggest several things with regards to seeing a successful development of a cycling culture and professional cyclists in Africa: First, individual riders with longer-term success are important to the growth of the sport. Secondly, those riders must take an active role and interest in being leaders of their fellow countrymen. There are most definitely other factors which contribute to the success or stagnation of cycling in a country or nation, but a much deeper and broader consideration of the impacts of individual racers across the globe would be necessary in order to better understand these factors.