FEATURE
“In the past, it would be very male
oriented but there’s a lot more balance now with a lot more female cyclists getting involved.
“I think the rise of professional female
cycling is really helping inspire a lot of women and girls to get out on the road, which is great.”
The cycling demographic is changing. And for the better
“The rate of growth in terms of the number of trips we get and the number of passengers is growing significantly,” adds Fox. “People had their travel restricted during that Covid period. Beyond that, events are now taking place properly again. “A lot of them had restrictions around how you interacted with each other with biosecurity zones etc. “Thankfully, we’re past all that now.”
Trendspotting
While some consumer behaviours have been influenced by the pandemic, some have changed naturally. And the travel market is no different. “There’s less people actually taking bikes themselves on trips,” says Fox.
“If we can provide a hire bike for them, they’ll opt for it. “More than half of the people who travelled with us to Lombardia last October actually hired bikes from us which is something we’ve never seen to that level before.” As well as saving hassle at the airport, it offers the chance to potentially ride something more premium, and in Fox’s words “you don’t have to worry about it being crushed on a flight.”
Beyond this there are a number of other trends which
Fox has spotted in the cycling industry. “People don’t buy a £500 bike and then upgrade it two years later anymore,” he comments.
“There are lots of people going straight in at £3,000 or £4,000 and they’re expecting to keep that bike for seven, eight, nine years.”
As well as seeing a rise in the value of bikes, Fox is also witnessing a change in the demography of people booking trips with Sportive Breaks. “We have seen more couples coming in because more couples are riding together, we get more groups of female cyclists as well,” he explains.
16 | August 2024
Talking cycling up In his day-to-day work, Fox is communicating with a mix of personnel. Some from the travel industry, plenty in the cycling trade, and of course a portion of the general public.
From his perspective, cycling remains something to be
spoken about positively as opposed to always highlighting the negative.
“There’s a lot of negativity within cycling at the moment, whether that’s news of another retailer or distributor going, prices being slashed, or this anti-cyclist message which rears its head every now and again,” he says. “I think it’s a pity. Cycling needs to be talked about in a much more positive spirit. We’ve got the Paris Olympics where Team GB traditionally does very well, and Cav [Mark Cavendish] has just secured his 35th victory [at the Tour de France]. “Also, the new bikes that are out there are absolutely fantastic to ride. I’ve just got a new Giant Defy and it’s just brilliant. “From our [Sportive Breaks] point of view, we’re seeing more people travel with us, so therefore there must be more people riding.”
While still acknowledging the unique market conditions
created by Covid, Fox says that a lack of decent weather is one of the real factors compounding cycling’s problems, as it has done for other sports. “I think we probably would have had even more people booking stuff with us for this year had the weather been a bit better, there’s no two ways about that,” he says. “Certain sports appear to have been hit harder after this particular winter. I’ve just seen the first quarter numbers for golf participation and they are down on last year, which is no surprise because so many courses have been closed.” Despite these headwinds, there is still more to be done
to champion cycling and its benefits. In short, you can only control what you can control. “We definitely do need to be more positive as an industry,” adds Fox. “Rather than letting people talk it down, let’s try and
get together as one and encourage people to get out there riding.”
www.bikebiz.com
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