>Cycling is such a strange sport. It's like Formula 1 for rich fitness enthusiasts. There's a really interesting cultural divide in that respect. In the heartl

>Cycling is such a strange sport. It's like Formula 1 for rich fitness enthusiasts. There's a really interesting cultural divide in that respect. In the heartlands of road cycling it was long viewed as a sport like boxing, a way for tough kids from bad neighbourhoods to make something of themselves. Like boxing, many of the sponsors and promoters were from the same sort of background - businessmen with opaque arrangements and friends in low places. The revenues brought in by the new global audience of middle-class, middle-aged men in lycra has professionalised and legitimised the sport to a significant extent, but there's still a strong undercurrent of the old days and the old ways. Standing outside of that cultural context, the glamour is much more apparent than the grit. Roubaix looks quite scenic from a helicopter, but it's one of the poorest towns in France.