Cycling's Other Pros

Chris Marshall-Bell speaks to five riders who’ve turned their passion into income using social media.

For time immemorial the heroes of the cycling world have been the professional riders hitting amazing speeds in a sprint or conquering mountain passes. But in the last decade a new breed of cyclist has come along to challenge them, one more relatable, more flawed, more like the rest of us.

They are cycling’s ‘influencers’ — a term they unanimously despise — and they combine their passion for riding with promoting brands, manufacturers, tourism boards or events with Instagram posts, YouTube videos, tweets and blogs.

Cycling Weekly spoke to five of them who together boast a combined audience of over 150,000 Instagram followers and 88,000 YouTube subscribers.

While that’s well shy of Peter Sagan’s 1.4million Instagram followers it still makes them huge players in the cycling marketing world.

Making their lives public is something they all say they have all fallen into by chance; a popular online presence is a by-product of their love for cycling. Cameron Jeffers, national eRacing champion, says: “I come from a BMX background and my friends and I would make videos of our jumps and edit them together with music. The BMX atmosphere is a lot more fun. Everyone is so serious in road cycling so I wanted to bring more fun into road cycling, showcasing my team-mates having a laugh and some banter.”