Sky’s biggest achievement in cycling? Getting more Brits on bikes, says Brailsford

Our club membership peaked at 400 the year after Wiggins' Tour-Olympic double. It has declined gradually since then, to under 300 for the last couple of years. The head coach at the club noted that there was no growth in interest after Geraint Thomas's Tour win last year. While G is a popular and likeable guy, and he did the rounds on telly etc, I'm sure Maindy Flyers will have been overwhelmed but it hasn't hit clubs like ours.

Time trialling participation is declining very gradually, according to a 'state of the nation' article in the Comic last week. Not sure about circuit race entries, though they seem to have declined (is Zwift to blame?) in the last couple of years and many organisers continue to struggling to attract women to compete. Cyclo-cross is booming and is the one discipline that is bucking the apparent trend. I'd certainly not want to give Team Sky the credit for its popularity.

But there are significantly more people riding socially. Quite how many I'd not like to say but, as pointed out above, the term MAMIL didn't exist before Sky and there are groups and individuals logging decent miles at weekends who wouldn't have been doing that 10 or more years ago.

But I don't believe that Brailsford really thinks that cycling participation - whether using BC membership numbers, LBS & online sales or whatever other metric you use - is the team's greatest achievement. If it was then surely he'd be on telly talking up the leisure cyclists, sportives and utility cycling. There would still be Sky-branded events or perhaps they'd address their fanbase directly. He would be talking about infrastructure and latent demand that definitely exists ("build it and they will come"). And he wouldn't be spending all of the team's £35 million budget, or whatever it is, solely on trying to win the biggest (male) cycle race in Europe.

Agreed. Our kids did much more cycling through the local Go-Ride club, which was largely possible because of the Sky money through BC. They got into BC cyclocross and velodrome sessions, which then got me into competitive cycling (or entering races, I’m never going to trouble the podium).

Yep ^ this.

There will always be naysayers but, love it or loathe it, Sky's involvment in cycling has been beneficial.

Those of us who have been doing this sport for long enough can recall times when it was considered a geeky, niche sport. Back then, if you asked Joe Public to name a famous cyclist they might have said Eddy Merckx. Now if we use the same test, replies would include Wiggins, Kenny (both Laura and Jason), Cav, Storey, Thomas plus loads more. Sky's input has assisted this increase in profile of cyclists and cycling.

We have seen the introduction of new phrases such as MAMIL. Would all of those middle aged blokes have got on their bikes (mostly Pinarellos) if it wasn't a trendy acticvity or would they have carried on playing golf? Sky's support probably aided the factors that influenced the choices these people made.

The catrchphrase was inspiration to participation and it has been worthwhile. Undeniably, there is still work to do on urban planning, safety, rights and education but the increase in BC membership adds weight to the lobbying and advocacy that cycling in the UK needs. Sky's support enabled this.

The changes that have happened to cycling are down to many factors. Sky's involvement is one of these and for that we should be grateful.

The Sky rides target was a million people I think,which Im sure they claimed they'd achieved before handing over to HSBC.You can debate how they counted that,but for BC membership to have increased by 130,000ish, ok I do know a few people who joined and dont ride bikes (no I've no idea why either), but that's still alot of people inspired to start cycling and paying money yearly to be a member of a cycling focussed organisation.

Plus I'm sure Brailsford would argue overall numbers might now be static,or declining depending on your metric take,but without Team Skys existence that number would have declined a lot further & faster.

They combined together & essentially pushed cycling into the spotlight in the UK in such a way their riders became household names.

More people cycling, how many exactly, quoting more people to sign up to British cycling is not the same as getting more people cycling regularly. People turning out on Hi-Vis rides on closed roads does not and never will transfer to people getting out their cars in any significant way. 

As the stats showed recently, the UK as a whole cycles a bit more in distance but actually overall numbers have remained static.
post the last four olympics plus the TdF et al, we've seen no increases over the country as a whole.

Are more people interested in competitive riding, in some quarters yes, but that's not the cycling we really need/want to change the way things are, too make the roads safer giving vulnerable road users more/better protection and in the justice system, to make getting around more relaxing for those groups plus all the other upsides.