>>1584125I've heard a lot of people peg road racing's current downfall on Lance and what he did and did not do for the sport in the eyes of Americans. I think that might be part of it, but I think there's a lot of contributors and it's hard to really delineate anything in particular with my grasp on the situation. Lance was an American hero when him and the USPS Doping Service were winning TdF titles, I still remember watching the prologue in 1999 where he blew everyone out of the water. I looked up to him at the time, I thought cycling was a way cooler sport than what I competed in throughout college, but learning about even the tip of the iceberg of his doping scandal soured me on him completely. But I had still developed that fascination with cycling thanks to an American being a real power player in the sport, which is why I probably picked it up after college. I think I was right around the cutoff of age to be able to remember the Lance era, and it really feels like I'm on the tail end of age for most road cyclists that I know, so maybe he really did have a big impact on things.
On the other hand, mountain biking, which I don't know enough about, really seems to have been picking up real traction around the same time as Lance. But to discount that theory before I even start it, I doubt many people who get into mtbing would have gotten into road cycling had mtb not existed.
Another possible contributing factor I think is the proliferation of these endurance events that focus on the experience, like tough mudder, that spartan race thing, and whatever else people are doing these days. They seem to be similar to what triathlon was in the early 90s, but again, I really don't know enough about them and the demographic who participates in them enough to say they're a smoking gun.
I think road cycling has a lot of shit to sort out. I like it, I'm going to keep doing it for as long as I can, but something has to change, the current course it's on is not sustainable.
