All it takes is a sunrise walk along any riverside or beachfront road in Perth, Western Australia to see the sheer volume of recreational cyclists we have on our roads. Diverse in many ways – age, gender, number, speed; these cyclists are part of a community. A community diverse in the characteristics above, which is linked by the social tie that is cycling; they engage in a common activity together and share common perspectives on the world around them. These are fundamental aspects required to form a community (MacQueen et al., 2001)). This community has changed and evolved since the genesis of cycling, but even more so with the recent help of social media. This paper will analyze how social media has taken the interconnectedness of the cycling community to another level, shifting the focus from the open skies to the personal screens – changing the way in which cyclists interact with one other. Cycling was historically a European sport with unique versions spread across the globe; it has become more interconnected, international, competitive and linear across nations as a direct result of new social media. Two social media developments directly related to cycling are Strava and Zwift; a cycling specific social media and an online platform for cycling virtually. Although both are targeted towards cyclists, they provide two different functions for the community, and therefore have differing methods to bring the cycling community online. They both increase online communication between cyclists, broadening the geographical connectedness of the community, with a tradeoff being the slight reduction in connections to cyclists within a local physical community.

People within the sport of cycling have formed a community, and communities, and the way in which they interact internally and externally, have evolved alongside every human development in history (Hampton, 2016). The cycling community is no different; with the invention of the wheel came the subsequent invention of the bicycle in the early 1800’s (Berto, n.d.). With the invention of the bicycle came the sport of cycling, which became professional before the turn of the 19^th century (Mignot, 2016). At the very basis of the sport is a strong sense of community; the social side of the sport stands directly alongside the health benefits as a core reason for its popularity around the world. As the 1800’s rolled on, the popularity of cycling steadily increased and after the first competitive races were held in France, recreational cycling began to boom across Europe (Oosterhuis, 2016). Cycling became a popular mode of transport for those who could afford the financial outlay to buy the bike. This turned it into a pastime easily available to only those in the middle and upper classes of the developed world – particularly Western Europe (Patel, 2015). From here, cycling started to develop its identity as a community of like-minded people, rather than a simple means of transportation. As time passes, you start to see groups of people riding together, chatting, stopping for lunch, touring around the countryside, or racing together – all elements of shared perspective and group activity. Cycling begins to develop into a multifaceted activity. People were choosing to participate to fuel different parts of their life – social interaction, physical and mental health, a sense of competition or achievement and belonging to a group or club. Cycling had now developed into a sport that provided a place for community to prosper.

During the nineteenth century, this community was made up of a raft of small communities across the world, all with their own induvial characteristics and ways of doing things. In a general sense, nineteenth century communities can be described as close knit and internally focused (Hampton & Wellman, 2018). With a lack interaction amongst separate communities because of inferior communication methods when compared to the 21^st century, communities were less accepting of individuality, questioning of the hierarchy, interaction between communities and general change to internal community standards (Hampton & Wellman, 2018). In relation to cycling specifically, this meant that cycling communities in different parts of the world were all exposed to a slightly different version of the sport. Riders in Western Europe were deep in pro cycling territory, with their experience shaped by traditional races such as the Tour de France, and massive one day classics in Belgium. Riders in Australia were exposed to smaller, community style cycling with an eye on diluted coverage of the happenings in Europe (Jarratt, 2016). The roads on which each community rode, the clothes they wore, the bicycle available to them and the types and lengths of rides they chose to do were similar yet slightly different at the same time. Influences largely came from those in the rider’s immediate periphery, rather than what was happening in the world cycling community more generally.

Evidence of such differences can be seen in the types of racing traditionally seen in Australia versus European countries. Handicap road racing is a style of racing hugely popular in Australia; groups are set off at time intervals according to their perceived ability, with the slowest groups first and fastest groups last. Historical Australian races such as the Melbourne to Warrnambool (Fry, 2013), The Collie-Donnybrook (Collie Cycle Club, 2012) and various other races around the country were all run in the handicap format. These were huge events at the time, attracting some of the best cyclists around the country – they garnered almost no interest from the top athletes in the Northern Hemisphere, see the lack of European champions on the honor roll (Melbourne to Warrnambool, 2022). It took until 1914 for the first Australian cyclists to venture across to Europe to participate in what was known as the ‘real professional peloton’, a handful of racers travelled to race in the Paris Roubaix – one of the world’s most famous races (Healy, 2014). Cycling had already been a sport in Australia for many years, and the fact that it took until 1914 for cyclists to travel to the birthplace of cycle racing is evidence of the disconnectedness between the two cycling communities of Europe and Australia. As the years went on, more and more cyclists have started traversing the world in the pursuit of racing, touring and new roads and trails to explore. As the barriers to travel reduced with the development of fast air and rail travel, cycling communities have become more connected. Even with these advancements in travel, there has still been a level of disconnectedness; however. A flight from Australia to Europe is still >$1000 and 15 hours away. This type of advancement in instantaneous communication has opened doors of intra community communication many never thought possible.

So, this community is slowly moving online, the platforms onto which it is moving are diverse but all rather similar. Defining social media is hard, almost impossible. There is a raft of different definitions scattered across the internet and in books, but very generally, social media is an internet-based mass communication tool that facilitates user to user connection (Carr & Hayes, 2015). Zwift (Zwift Inc, 2022) and Strava (Strava Inc, 2022) are two internet-based communication tools specifically catering to cyclists. Coming onto the scene from two differing angles and providing users with very different experiences, both have brought the cycling world closer together through the use of the internet. Launched in 2009, Strava has steadily gained popularity amongst cyclists as the go-to place to post and analyze rides, keep up to date with friend’s cycling exploits and compare oneself to pros around the world. In 2021, it boasted 76 million users, a figure that seems to increase year on year alongside the volume of activities being posted (Curry, 2022). Zwift was founded five years after Strava in 2014, and has enjoyed a similar (albeit smaller) trajectory of user engagement, culminating in 2.5million active users in 2021 (Smith, 2022). Zwift defines itself as “an app that makes indoor training fun and delivers serious results.” (Zwift, 2022, para. 2). Essentially, it provides users with a virtual space in which they can ride with other cyclists from anywhere in the world – providing they have a smart trainer to connect their bike to and access to the internet. The world economic forum estimates that there are over 2 billion bicycles around the world, a number which when compared with the amount of cyclists using Strava and Zwift seems quite large (Sibilski, 2015). However, when one considers the vast range of cycling ability and commitment verses the target market of Zwift and Strava (somewhat competitive cyclists), the respective user counts are reflective of a level of market dominance in this space.

It has been established that both Zwift and Strava have grown swiftly in the market of competitive cyclists since their inceptions in the 21^st century. These two social media players have impacted communication and sharing of ideas within the cycling community in various ways. Strava has made it significantly easier for cyclists to maintain contact with a network of friends, without having to actively work on making connection. Hampton’s description of pervasive awareness relates directly to Strava’s influence on the cycling community. He describes pervasive awareness as people being able to maintain contact over time and distance without having to make any significant effort, for example peer to network interactions on Facebook (Hampton, 2016). Strava works similarly to Facebook in that a cyclist can choose to follow a mate or someone from the other side of the world, they will see a map of every ride the person uploads, along with any photos and various statistics. A glut of information that when followed for a while, tells the story of what a person is getting up to daily. There is, however, no direct messaging feature on Strava, only the opportunity to comment or ‘kudos’ a ride.  An element of cycling that this level of awareness has changed is the ability to turn any stretch of road into a virtual race. Pre Strava, if a cyclist went out on a ride by themselves, they simply had no one to race against but themselves. Strava has virtually divided up almost every kilometer of road into ‘segments’ which have live leaderboards with the fastest times from friends, pros, amateurs, people from last year or people from this morning – every stretch of road is now competition (Meg, 2021). Seeing all your friends from around the globe going out and chasing leaderboard times could inspire a cyclist to get out and get it done in their own city. They have times to chase, and inspiration from around the globe – meaning there is less of a requirement to ride in packs to fuel the competitive, and to some extent, social need.

Zwift, through providing a medium of persistent contact, has allowed riders around the world to continue riding with friends, even when they are thousands of kilometers apart. Persistent contact essentially involves the ability to maintain contact with people that one moves away from, for example friends from school after graduation, or hometown friends after moving away (Hampton, 2016). Up until the inception of Zwift in 2014, there were no viable options for cyclists to virtually congregate and go for a ride; they were confined to traditional forms of communication technology to stay in touch. Examples where Zwift is useful in maintaining persistent contact can be found in cycling teams around the world. Australia’s e-sports world championship team was made up of riders competing in the same race from their lounge rooms, whilst representing trade teams based in both Europe and Australia (AusCycling, 2022). Even though team members may not have seen each other for months due to some moving to Europe for on-road racing requirements, they were still able to race together virtually, a possibility thanks to the development of Zwift alone.

Essentially, the development of Strava and Zwift has enabled the cycling community to move away from a disjointed location-based community to a worldwide interconnected community. It has allowed riders to take inspiration from cyclists around the world, instead of only gaining satisfaction from the community they see around them as the community has done throughout its history. Cyclists can now keep up to date with friends riding on the other side of the world (pervasive awareness), compete in races and socialise online using virtual worlds (persistent contact), posting of rides and the segmentation of real-world roads by Strava. Some may argue that this takes away from the real-world local community of riders, resulting in smaller bunches and less real interaction. But when real and online cycling is combined, it only results in a more diverse and thriving community of cyclists.

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