Originally Posted by
Psimet2001
Thoughts?
You're getting older. The friends you're talking to are getting older.
This sounds -exactly- like the "back in my day" discussions that occur about every sport as athletes age through it. See NBA ("used to be more physical!") and NFL ("we'd practice 4x/day for 9 months!") and you know, every other sport.
There's probably a measurable decline in participation numbers in amateur racing because there isn't a popular american cyclist outside of cycling spheres. No Merckx or Lance right now to get the sport on TV outside of relatively-tiny cable channels.