I have a question for any Belgian members or those knowledgeable about Belgian cycling.
I've always understood that the Belgian passion for cycling stems from both the "Flanders Classics" and the "Ardennes Classics" which usually means that a lot of cyclists would come from these two regions, being the Dutch speaking one and the French speaking one.
My question is, that today's peloton when it comes to Belgian riders is dominated by those from the Dutch speaking part of Belgium who seem to make up nearly every Belgian cyclist and I've noticed apart from say Phillippe Gilbert and Maxime Monfort and a few others that there are hardly any French speaking Belgian cyclists. Is there any reason for this huge disparity?
I believe cycling is just more popular amongst the Flemish in general, but the could be other differences. In addition to the other cultural differences between the two halves, which other people are far more qualified than me to look at, you can look into the actual cycling world to see a basic reason. There are a lot more young development teams for the Flandrians compared to Walloones. Just off the top of my head there TopSport Vlaanderen, Wanty, Jong Vlaanderen and a half dozen other CT teams. Meanwhile there is only one Walloone CT team that I can think of. Not only that but I believe both Lotto - Belisol and OPQS draw most of their support and riders from the Flemish community and also base their development teams more on riders from the area (well more particularly Lotto, OPQS has a more international feel even in their development squad).
Edited by CountArach on 01-01-2014 15:39
Well for a strart, there are just - contrary to popular believe - a lot more Flemish people the Walloon people. The popularity is a lot bigger there as well, it's a major sport in Flanders, while football is on top in Wallonia. Another reason is that the Walloons have the reputation of being lazy, which is not good for a cycling carreer of course.
Opinions noted but I'd also like to throw in some facts.
I've read a couple of times over the years that the Ardennes classics were actually more popular than their Flemish counterparts at least in the beginning, which leads me to believe that cycling in the French speaking part could've been more popular.
Also the biggest four races are Tour of Flanders, Liege-Bastogne-Liege (I've no idea which would be classified as bigger) and then either the Fleche Wallonne and Gent-Wevelgem. Which demonstrates that there is a 50/50 split at the top end in popularity, despite the lack of Walloon cyclists.
Also what type of races does a young rider in Belgian dream of winning as a young rider, would it be the Flanders Classics or the Ardennes Classics?
Also the opinion that cycling is not so big in Wallonia is strange in a way, because they have France to the south, where of course cycling is huge and always has a huge amount of pro-cyclists.
Edited by Tafiolmo on 01-01-2014 23:05
Most French cyclists come from other parts of France though, like the Vendee (where Europcar has most of its youth set-up), and so the cultural influence isn't as stark as you would think on paper. If Aquarius sees this post I'm sure he will be able to confirm this (or dispute it).
Generally speaking the Tour of Flanders is considered the biggest race in Belgium and certainly that is the one that all young Belgian cyclists want to win. Sean Kelly regularly talks about one of his greatest regrets being that he never won the race because he saw the way that the Belgia people idolised the winner of it for the rest of their life. Belgian winners of that race become national heroes.
As for the popularity of the Ardennes classics in the past, it is really hard to compare that across time periods, particularly in a country like Belgium which has a long history of cultural differentiation and social upheavel (as well as outside influences obviously). Most of Europe west of Germany was obsessed with cycling pretty much up until the Second World War and even for a while after that. Most of this obsession came from France and Italy, and so it is easier to see why the Walloons would have been more exposed to it and, with the relative difficulty and expense of travelling, they would probably have drawn more French riders who were particularly idollised amongst the working class. This is just speculative of course.
I was asked which region the French cyclists come from lately, and couldn't come up with numbers or names.
Thing is there's a fairly decent amount of pros coming from Nord - Pas-de-Calais (the French region on the South-West border of Belgium), but I'd say that in regard of the global region population they're not so numerous.
The likes of Roubaix and Bretagne are smaller and their name are rather self-explanatory.
And, of course, outstanding talents will always be picked no matter where they originate from. That generally implies being part of the national teams (junior, U23) though.
Ollfardh wrote:
Well for a strart, there are just - contrary to popular believe - a lot more Flemish people the Walloon people. The popularity is a lot bigger there as well, it's a major sport in Flanders, while football is on top in Wallonia. Another reason is that the Walloons have the reputation of being lazy, which is not good for a cycling carreer of course.
just listened to an interview with Millar and he certainly disagrees
just kidding
This thread shows the huge impact of regional culture and history on the way cycling develops in those regions.
It is important to not stare only at country borders. Regions can cross borders and multiple regions can exist within one nation.
The regional differences in both Belgium and France are huge. Go 100 Km north of Brussels and you're in Holland, where cycling is (maybe) only 3rd-4th top sport, after football and ice skating (the latter happening mostly in the North, another regional difference).
Further emphasizing the extent of these strong local regional differences, you should keep into account that Belgium is about as big as the state of Hawaii, while Flanders is only as big as Connetticut, the 3rd smallest US state.
I'd say that the cultural difference between Flanders and Wallonia is way bigger than the difference between Flanders and the Netherlands.
All in all, my point is that in this case, there is a very big difference between cultural regions and nation borders, and these differences can even occur on a geographically very small scale.
Edited by ShortsNL on 06-01-2014 13:59
