Masculinities and the Culture of Competitive Cycling

Drawing on extensive ethnographic, qualitative and quantitative research, this monograph provides a novel account of masculinities in an individual sport: competitive road cycling. Chapters present varied analyses on male cyclists’ relationship with masculinity, the culture of competitive road cycling, cyclists’ attitudes toward injury management, sexual minority and women’s experiences in the sport, and autoethnographic accounts of the author’s own experiences of being involved in the sport for over ten years. The author also examines how masculinity impacts male cyclists’ attitudes towards competition, risk taking and doping practices. This book will be of interest to scholars and researchers in sports sociology, gender studies, and masculinity studies. Jack Hardwicke is a Lecturer in Sport and Health Sciences in the Faculty of Arts, Science and Technology at the University of Northampton. His research interests include the sociology of sporting subcultures, masculinities, socio-cultural approaches to understanding sporting injury and mixed-method social research.