Cycling Ireland Membership Update!

Hope I'm not opening another can of worms but I got a newsletter from CI today which included details of membership numbers which I thought were really interesting!
Firstly total membership has nearly doubled in just 4 years from 3,727 to 7,005 which is a good indicator of the general increase in the popularity of cycling in Ireland recently.
Secondly there are just 289 holders of Restricted Licences (people who just have MTB competition licences) as opposed to 1571 Full Licences and 1450 Club Licences. While I understand that some holders of full licences will race MTBs as well as road it would appear that mountain bikers are outnumbered by about 10-1 in terms of competition licence holders!
I might be misinterpreting these numbers but it probably gives some indication as to why we don't seem to carry much "traction" within CI despite the best efforts of Fergal, Sean and the rest of the Commission!

We may be outnumbered 10-1, but did you see 300? If we stand firm on the EWOKS bridge the roadies can come in their thousands, we will skin those motherless goats! The midges will block out the sun!

I got the newsletter too just read it at lunch, before even reading the licence stats at the back, the whole newsletter was clearly dedicated to road.

Not everyone who goes mountain biking knows about CI (or cares about them for that matter), and not everyone joins clubs, if it wasn't for clubs there would be even less with licences.
There are still no end that sign on at the DH races without a club or a CI licence (i'm sure Sean and Adam could give you a percentage from the weekend), if you could get those guys then the figures would look a lot better.

Well them stats might not be accurate Richard, I was given an A3 full competition licence as your one said it was easier to process than the international one or something like that..... I think a good few other people got A3 full competition licences aswell as they were just lazy in making them.
So half of those full licences could be mountainbikers and not roadies at all....unlikely though!

I think i'm on A3 as well that covers MTB and Domestic and International BMX, I do own a road bike but never ride it. So don't panic the roadies aren't taking over. The one thing to get worried about is the average age of a licence holder is in the 30's, CI need more kids.

the thing is road cycling is a pretty old sport..its had plenty of time to create clubs and build numbers.
As a sport Mountainbiking is relatively young..we have no retired Mountainbikers starting clubs and organising spins..or being admin people.
We still have a hefty presence considering our smaller numbers..
until we all grow up, the Club Numbers won't grow..
We definitely need more kids in the sport though..but like I say ,we are all too busy enjoying our own riding to give it up ..
Considering our smaller numbers we have a lot more pull than you might think but that has more to do with Seans political abilities than numbers
Richie