Nostalgia for cycling of yesteryear

In the peloton, on the side of the road, in front of the TV, or on social media, they are everywhere: nostalgics rewriting history and casting a critical eye on today’s cycling. Without taking into account the evolution of the sport and society.

By Guillaume Judas – Photos: pxhere.com, flickr.com

The history of cycling has been nourished by its legends, its champions, and race reports magnified by the lyricism of their authors, back when television had not yet arrived to broadcast live and in full, following and verifying every single race event.

Closer to our own practice, amateur cycling brings back certain traditions that have been perpetuated for several decades. For a long time, people rode, ate, and drank in the same way, extending received ideas that have since been debunked by serious scientific studies. And this concerns equipment as much as training, or the segmentation of disciplines (competition or cycle touring). Thus, someone who started cycling in the mid-80s did not have a radically different experience from that of their grandfather, fifty years earlier.

The passion of nostalgics was born from moments spent with an ear glued to the transistor, listening to reporters on motorcycles.

The nostalgics we are talking about here certainly lived through that era, when their passion was born from moments spent with an ear glued to the transistor, listening to reporters on motorcycles. When recalling their first memories as a racer or touring cyclist, they refer to the smells of embrocation and tubular glue, and the magnificent steel machines with thin, custom-cut tubes that they aimed to acquire. Digging into their supporter memories, they recall champions with undeniable charisma, dream-makers, and examples of incredible destinies. Let’s acknowledge a certain nobility in the practice of this sport, sometimes practiced in very difficult conditions.

From today’s perspective, yesterday’s cycling always seems more beautiful, simpler, and purer. And its champions stronger and braver. Look at the palmarès. The comparison is irrefutable in the eyes of nostalgics.

Unprecedented Internationalization

Many things have changed over the last thirty years. Starting with the internationalization of this sport, once limited to Western Europe and now practiced almost everywhere in the world. The Berlin Wall fell in 1989, and after this event came the Eastern riders, until then confined to a parallel cycling world. Americans became interested in cycling, and with them the entire Anglo-Saxon world, including the British and Australians. South Americans arrived on the major European races, before Asians and soon Africans in turn showed their talent. From 300 pro riders, we have gone to 2000 in forty years! This results in entirely different competition, but also different perspectives and strategies. Rider salaries have exploded, and so have investor expectations.

Among amateurs, people start cycling a little later, race less, train better, can participate in races, sportives, and touring rides in the same season, are not necessarily licensed to cycle assiduously, and equipment can be designed in the United States, manufactured in Asia, and bought anywhere in the world. There are fewer true competitors, but there are always more people cycling for leisure.

Cycling in the broad sense is now appreciated by affluent segments of the population.

Should we regret these inevitable evolutions, when they simply reflect societal changes? Possibly, because not everything is rosy. Originally a popular discipline in both senses of the word, cycling in the broad sense is now appreciated by affluent segments of the population. This interests investors and creates new markets.

But automotive pressure is also increasingly present in all countries of the world, making it more and more difficult to organize events or gatherings, not to mention the fear of letting children or teenagers go out alone on the road.

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Televised and dissected, high-level events are also commented on social media, a space where all opinions can be shared, even those of nostalgics for a bygone era.

A Selective Memory

Often overwhelmed by these inevitable changes, nostalgics are distinguished by their selective memory. The great rides of yesteryear, those that forged the legend of cycling, were achieved thanks to the apathy of an exhausted peloton of heterogeneous level, and sometimes under the influence of substances that would melt any analysis vial (which for a long time did not exist).

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Cyclists have been and remain men, with their strengths and weaknesses.

Above all, they were ignited by talented journalist-reporters, whose stories captured the collective imagination. Cyclists have been and remain men, with their strengths and weaknesses. A champion from the 2000s is no more perfidious than one from the 50s or the early 20th century. Moreover, by digging a little into newspapers from different eras, one finds divergent opinions, scathing criticisms, and – already – the expression of a certain nostalgia.

All generations have at one time or another regretted a glorified past and a present where one must face a reality not always easy to confront. One cannot really blame a nostalgic; the passage of time is often cruel, and it can be comfortable to retain only the happy moments of youth, or to slightly distort reality to imagine having played a role in the construction of today’s world.

Yes, yesterday’s cycling had its charm and contributed to the popularity of today’s. Yes, champions from another era would have their place in 21st-century cycling and its ultra-organized teams, thanks to their talent and extraordinary will. There is no doubt about that. But differently and with more competition, that’s obvious.

And paradoxically, the multitude of competitions, events, disciplines, and categories, as well as the numerous sources of information available to us, allow everyone to find their place and at some point achieve their moment of glory or share their point of view. May nostalgics draw inspiration from this so as not to get lost in their memories.

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