Uptick in cycling interest following Glasgow Worlds

What tangible impact cycle racing has on the cycle market is a topic that has been wrestled with by industry pundits and businesses for decades.

It may be hoped that the recent unprecedented 10-day UCI Cycling World Championships will have a positive impact on the trade. Indeed, the event was seized on by bike trade companies, organising events and product launches (like Specialized’s Tarmac SL8), suggesting an ever more intertwined relationship between the everyday cycle trade and the highest echelons of cycle racing than is usual.

Visit Scotland has, you might expect, been monitoring the situation and has seen a 195% increase in ‘family cycling routes’ in the last day of the Worlds alone. Arguably, that’s a particularly interesting insight, suggesting that cycle racing has impacted on broader cycling activities, like family days out, rather than a more logical uptick in searches for top level cycle gear and how to ride faster, etc.

Naturally, organisations like Visit Scotland are looking to make the most of that and have some landing pages designed to help interested parties turn their plans into reality. Moving into the realms of a comment piece, has the industry also put two and two together to serve those who’s interest has been picqued by the Worlds and set about creating landing pages, shop windows or social media posts designed to ease the ‘customer journey’ from general enthusiasm about the Worlds to actually being quite interested in picking up a new bike and how do I go about that please?

To labour the point, the opportunities to grasp new customers are precious. When times are tough, like they are in 2023, it’s hard to remember just how events like the Covid lockdowns got new people in the saddle – we’ve examined some of the stats on that earlier this week – and pro cycle racing on the scale of Glasgow’s Worlds (and its coverage) is/was another opportunity to lure some new punters in, which is (or should be) the name of the game.

Image by lukemills90 from Pixabay