USA Cycling has its share of controversey every year, and certainly it’s a governing body with its share of “warts.”
But for the past five years, USA Cycling has also been able to showcase the popularity of the competive component of the sport.
And it’s the same scenario this year. At the close of the 2008 license sales season November 30, USA Cycling listed 63,280 licensees, a 2.9 percent increase from 2007.
Likewise, the number of sanctioned clubs rose 1.8 percent with USA Cycling listing 2,155 teams. USA Cycling also sanctioned 2,551 events, a 3.1 percent increase from 2007.
The growth in membership continues the trend which has seen the number of licensed racers in America increased by 48 percent since 2002. During the same span, the number of events sanctioned by USA Cycling has risen 50 percent, while affiliated clubs have grown by 30 percent.
USA Cycling spokesman Andy Lee speculates cycling’s most notable events, the Tour de France and the Olympic Games, as primary factors for the sport’s recent boom.
The most significant growth occurred throughout Lance Armstrong’s dominant seven-year winning streak at the Tour de France between 1999 and 2005. Success by several other Americans on the sport’s biggest stage since then has encouraged continued interest.
USA Cycling believes the 13 major internationally sanctioned professional men’s and women’s races scheduled in the U.S. in 2009 as well as Armstrong’s return to the sport and his commitment to compete next February in the Amgen Tour of California are likely to continue to the sport’s popularity increase.
In other quick 2008 stats:
Road, track and cyclo-cross grew by 3.2 percent; mountain biking increased 1.2 percent; the number of professional riders in the U.S. increased by 6.3 percent and the numer of student-athletes competeing for collegiate clubs increased 2.5 percent.
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