A poster said that cycle racing is an elitist sport. It's an interesting observation, and in a sense is true as far as the US is concerned, but in Europe it was just the opposite; it was very much a working class sport. With some exceptions, many, if not most, pro riders came from humble backgrounds; Motor sports were for the elites. Part of the reason is that the common man in France or Italy couldn't afford a car until the nineteen fifties. The common man could identify with the riders, but not necessarilly with sports car drivers. Cars were available to many Americans in the nineteen-twenties
When I was growing up in the forties and fifties, cycling was an activity for children, eccentric teachers and Radcliffe girls in Cambidge. Then in the sixties, cycling had a revival begun by students who may have been to Europe. So it does have an elitist reputation in the US.
But this doesn't stop us from enjoying cycling.