Author Topic: PBP Registration website  (Read 86959 times)

frankly frankie

  • I kid you not
    • Fuchsiaphile
Re: PBP Registration website
« Reply #625 on: 14 April, 2019, 09:41:14 am »
   Country      2019      2015      Incr      %   
         PreReg      Start      (19-15)      Incr   
   United Kingdom      669      450      219      49%   

Hmm.  Historically, in recent PBP years around 2/3 of UK SRs go on to finish PBP (in 2015, approx 400 of 600).  And in recent PBP years the number of UK SRs is approximately 9% of the total AUK membership (at year end)(as against 5-6% in non-PBP years).  That membership figure is likely to be around 7800 this year.
Graph of AUK randonneur activity by year

Doing the math suggests around 700 UK SRs,  so 470 UK PBP finishers and so (from the above, x450/400) about 530 Starters.  Around 140 UK pre-registrants (let's be very safe and just say "well over 100") either won't enter or won't make it to the start.
when you're dead you're done, so let the good times roll

Re: PBP Registration website
« Reply #626 on: 14 April, 2019, 12:51:12 pm »
In 1999 the steerer broke on my bike at Lassay les Chateaux on the return from Brest. While I waited to get it sorted, I went into the cafe, where I chatted with some of the locals. One bloke said he wasn't into cycling, he was into football. That was the year after France's win in the World Cup.

In 2011 I went into the same cafe, during a DIY 200 during a visit a few weeks before PBP. I was curious to know what people did in these small towns and villages, and if there was much unemployment. The answer was that anyone unemployed move to the cities.

So I look at the small absolute decline in numbers of France PBP registrants, and I think about the relative success of the French football team, and French riders in the Tour de France, and it makes sense. Then I factor in the preference of St Quentin en Yvelines for the Ryder Cup over PBP, and it reinforces a sense of the shift away from cycling.

The growth in cycling in the UK makes sense, as we've become better at it. The decline in the USA is a fallout from Lance's disgrace.