Where Cycling Has an Uphill Battle for Fans

The world famous cycling competition, the Tour de France, kicks off this weekend, running from June 29 to July 21. It’s touted as one of the biggest sporting events in the world, and according to statistics by Médiamétrie, attracted a television audience of 150 million viewers across Europe in 2021. But how popular is it on a country-by-country basis?

Statista Consumer Insights shows that one stereotype does hold true: the Dutch do really love their bikes. The data from selected countries collected between April 2023 and March 2024 revealed the Netherlands to have the joint greatest share of competitive cycling fans, with 28 percent of its sports fans saying they followed the competitions, leagues and/or teams of the sport. The French shared the same result while Spanish and Italian sports fans were close behind at 26 and 25 percent, respectively. In the U.S. the share is just 8 percent - a far cry from the temporarily glorious era of the now disgraced Lance Armstrong.

The sport has been plagued by doping scandals over the years, one of the potential reasons the sport is apparently facing an uphill battle to win over fans in a lot of countries.