Abstract

This is an accepted article with a DOI pre-assigned that is not yet published.

Building on ethnographic work with German recreational cyclists, this paper analyzes competitive motives in hobby races and training. Laying open the construction of non-competitive recreational sports as part of the dichotomy between work and leisure, the analysis turns to competitive stimuli in performative experience and examines their effects. These range from short-term efforts in races and group rides to the structuring of training and race schedules. Looking at how motives fluctuate between different layers of competitiveness, three main developments and currents influencing road cycling are observed: the popularity and possibility of big urban events, the increase of quantification, the transparency and availability of data and knowledge, and the permeability of life worlds to competitive norms.

Keywords

rationalization, road cycling, mass sports, competitiveness, quantification

Publisher Notes

• This article was previously published by Museum Tusculanum Press.