I was away on holiday over the weekend, spending some time with friends in West Wales, so I did something reasonably unusual - I watched cycling with people who don’t like cycling. Let me rephrase that, I subjected some of my friends to the Paris Olympics men’s road race on Saturday, and another friend to the women’s road race on Sunday. How often do you actually do this? Your housemate or partner might walk in and quickly out of the living room while you watch a stage of the Tour de France, but it feels rare to watch an extended period of time with someone who has no real interest in the sport.
It’s moments like this that make you realise how insular and niche bike racing is. Pretty much everyone understands the basic rules of football, or can work out what’s going on in the 100m sprint, or even the mountain biking. But the road race is different, seemingly more complex, and opens up a whole load of new questions.
