🚴 Cycling is the new golf.
The premium travel industry hasn't fully noticed yet.
🏌 For decades, the golf course was where deals got done. Not because of the sport - because of what it signalled: access, membership, time.
Something has quietly shifted. Walk into any C-suite in Zurich, London or Berlin and ask who rides a road bike. More hands go up than you'd expect 🙌
Cycling is replacing golf as the sport of senior leaders. Not only because it's trendy. Because it reflects a different set of values.
"The current generation of executives aren't interested in walking around slowly. They want to do something physical. Outdoors. And they want to measure it.", Max Levchin, PayPal co-founder
Here's why the shift is real and permanent:
The body actually matters now. Today's executive wants to perform, not just network. Cycling is training. Golf is strolling with interruptions.
Yes, golf has data too. GPS, strokes gained, swing tempo sensors, real-time wind corrections. Golf tracks every millimetre.
But there's a fundamental difference: golf data optimises your performance inside an artificial environment. It tells you how well you play golf.
Cycling data is biometric. HRV reflects Monday's stress meeting. Watt output shows whether you actually recovered from the weekend. Elevation is physical reality, not a handicap system. Cycling data tells you how well you live. That's a different level of self-knowledge! For executives who manage performance for a living, that distinction matters.
No club walls. Golf exclusivity was about who could get in. Cycling exclusivity is about what you can physically do. You can't buy a KOM. You earn it. That shift - from access to performance - is deeply generational.
The great equaliser. On a climb, nobody knows your title. You're just the person suffering next to someone else who chose to show up. That creates a different kind of trust than a handshake at the 19th hole.
Golf costs half a day minimum. Bike-to-work integrates perfectly with office hours. Cycling doesn't ask you to choose between performance and productivity.
Cycling trips to Mallorca or Tuscany have replaced golf weekends in Pebble Beach. Strava is the new LinkedIn, KOMs are the new handicaps, epic ride stats the new business card.
And yet: the premium travel industry is still largely asleep on this. The actual buyer is a 40+ executive with real disposable income, a data obsession, and a clear preference for experiences over possessions. They don't want a package tour. They want a curated week on great roads, with great people, great food and a Garmin that confirms they earned it.
👇 Are you a leader who rides? Was it the data, the freedom, the network or something else?
Marisa Reich Amanda von Trapp Olivier Calvar Sebastian Petrusch Timothy Grosser Henrik Kjellberg Ulf Heyden Andreas Schaffner Sandra T. Dimitris Floros
#cycling #leadership #csuite #travel #strava #womenincycling #biketowork #ciocharity26 #data #cycleweek