Is Rowing the new Cycling?

There was a time around five years ago in 2012 when cycling took over the country. Bradley Wiggins had become the first British Cyclist to win the Tour de France. Additionally the London 2012 Olympics were a huge success for the British Cycling team. Twelve Olympic medals were won by the British Cycling team, with eight of them being golds. This overwhelming dominance that Britain saw in this sport in that year lead to the nation picking up the bike. Everywhere we looked we would see people of all cycling abilities riding their bikes. Whether it was a middle aged man with a belly putting on the Lycra or some children racing about trying to become the next Sir Chris Hoy. It seemed that the country had developed a passion. Cycling was viewed by many as an easy, simple way to get fit. It does not have to eat into the limited time we have in our busy days as people can cycle to work in the time that they would be commuting anyway. It seemed that as quickly as this cycling addiction started it soon faded out. The image of cycling was damaged. Drugs. Doping. The sports well earned reputation as being a good sport for everyone had been ruined. Lance Armstrong admitted to cheating. Alberto Contador and other top class riders were also found to be doping in some way or another. This meant that people were put off cycling. The numbers of cyclists seen on the roads began to decrease. With this decrease other sports must have seen an increase. Being a rower myself I believe that rowing was one of these sports that have seen an increase in participation. With rowers like Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent the sport has some good role models with impressive Olympic records. Bradley Wiggins has recently announced that he intends to compete in the Indoor Rowing event in December with aims to go to his sixth Olympic games in a rowing boat. If top athletes in cycling are starting to make a change for the first time from cycling to rowing, then I expect that people at lower levels of the sport will also be making the change from wheels to water. The sports are both actually rather similar as they are both based on time. What time split can you get? How many Watts are you putting down? These are questions that are commonly asked by members of both sports. The link between them should therefore be relatively simple. The New Zealand Olympic champion in the pair Hamish Bond has recently taken up cycling as he takes some time away from rowing. This shows how the sports are linked and that people should be able to enjoy either sport. As the sun starts to come out again, and this years Tour de France gets underway, I have noticed an increase in the number of bikes on the road. Maybe the sport that we were all so fond off is returning to its former glory.