Numbers in some road races may be down this year, but that’s only part of the story with Irish cycling this year as more and more people are out on their bikes.
The pandemic saw a spike in bike sales and in people taking to two wheels and now Cycling Ireland’s membership numbers are at a very health level.
Not only are numbers up since the 2020 and 2021 pandemic-hit years, they are also higher than in 2019 before Covid-19 struck.
In reply to queries from stickybottle, Cycling Ireland said that as of the start of this week, some 24,100 people had taken out memberships since the start of this year.
That’s 21 per cent up on the same day last year and 47 per cent higher than in 2020; the latter year taking a real hit as membership sales stalled once the pandemic hit.
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And even compared to 2019, membership numbers are now 18 per cent higher. In 2019 Cycling Ireland had 25,000 members before the end of the year, dropping to 22,000 at the end of 2020 and rebounding to 25,000 by the end of last year.
Cycling Ireland said it expected to exceed 25,000 this year. Cycling Ireland numbers peaked at 29,233 members in 2017.
In relation to the current numbers, there are encouraging trends when it comes to junior and youth riders. The current junior and youth numbers are 27 per cent higher than this time last year and a massive 39 per cent higher than in 2019, before the pandemic.
Similarly, leisure numbers are also up, which is positive news as leisure cyclists always account for, by far, the biggest section of Cycling Ireland membership.
The current number of leisure numbers are 15 per cent up on this time last year and 24 per cent higher than at this point in 2019.
