A rising tide lifts all boats. This is from an article about US Cycling in 2009.
Lance has provided the opportunity for almost a prospective chronological study of the impact of an identifiable hero or icon on a sport like cycling. He was in the sport and successful for seven years and then out for three and now he’s back in. While Lance was at the top of the sport, our annual growth rates were, in terms of membership numbers, around 5 percent. When Lance retired three years ago, our growth did drop down to about 3 percent for a couple of years. Now Lance is back and our growth rates are back to 4.5 percent or close to 5. He definitely has an impact. Our membership numbers have more than doubled since 2002. Our number of races have gone up dramatically. Our number of clubs, all the things that you associate with growth of a sport, all those indicators are trending upward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/17/sports/cycling/17cycling.htmlThe fallout from that is well known, and I'm not surprised that participation in the USA is under pressure. There are obvious lessons to be learnt for the UK. Recent controversies about Wiggins and Froome can be seen a sort of protective pre-tarnishing, in order to lessen the business impact of a fall from grace.
The big trends I've seen at PBP and LEL have been the participation of Taiwan, Indonesia, the PRC, Thailand and India. That followed on from growth in Japan.
YACF is in a good position to tell the story of Audax, as it encompasses all the generations of its growth in the 'Anglosphere'. I see stories as integral to Randonee. The big change has come from how those stories are told. Ivo's focus on GPS is interesting, as that technology is embedded in the Strava narrative. That's part of 'active' storytelling, which also encompasses Twitter and Facebook.
I'm part of the long-form tradition of storytelling, and the AUK and RUSA magazines are an excellent platform for those stories. Those publications help sustain an 'armchair' membership, but there's a coming generation who don't read long articles, and can't write them as a consequence.
I'm interested in how much government involvement there is in promoting cycling in India and the Far East, I know that there's plenty in Taiwan.