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Good money, no team tactics and cute dogs: the rise of pro cycling freelancers

(www.theguardian.com)
28 points PaulHoule | 1 comments | 22 Oct 24 02:53 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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jsnell ◴[22 Oct 24 04:11 UTC] No.41911111[source]▶
Does anyone follow gravel racing? If I wanted to watch a couple of past races (ideally on YouTube) to see if it's for me, is there anything you'd recommend?

For context, I'd thought I wouldn't like pro cycling as a spectator sport, since my exposure to it was just from Tour de France and track cycling both of which I find somewhat ridiculous for different reasons. But I was totally riveted by the road races at the Olympics this year.

(Aside: What's up with the "cute dogs" in the title? The article body text has nothing to say about dogs.)

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1. Saig6 ◴[22 Oct 24 07:14 UTC] No.41911947[source]▶
About the dogs, from what I've seen the social media presence for these US gravel pros are a much bigger part of their income compared to pros in the European road racing circuit. Being a privateer is advantageous if you are a "top social" rider. This is probably comparable to what has happened in College sports where the top college athlete influencers are pulling in huge amount of eyeballs and income from their social media.