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news
YouGov Profiles Top Gear and Guardian (source YouGov)"Quintessential" cyclist is middle-aged male Guardian reader - who's also a Top Gear fan
The “quintessential” cyclist is male, aged 40-59, works in engineering and belongs to social grades ABC1. He reads The Guardian, but in a departure from stereotypes, Top Gear Magazine too, and watches the Jeremy Clarkson-fronted programme almost as avidly as he does cycling highlights on TV.
That’s according to market research firm YouGov, which has launched a free Profiles app that enables users to search for pretty much any area of interest and see the demographic characteristics of people on its 190,000 strong database who have self-identified with it.
YouGov says that the Profiles generated through the app – in this case based on 20,006 “people who do cycling” – are not meant to reflect the average fan or customer of an activity or product, pointing out that “If it did, most groups would look very similar.”
Instead, it shows the “quintessential, rather than the average, member of that group,” by assessing their characteristics against a comparison group, and highlighting what differentiates them from the other members of it.
The problem is, it doesn’t reveal what the composition of that comparison group is – so you can’t tell whether “people who do cycling” are being contrasted against those doing other outdoor activities such as rock climbing or rambling, or against those using other means of getting around such as public transport or cars.
We’ve asked YouGov for clarification, but one example it does highlight which helps explain more is that some football teams are represented by a female character – in the case of Manchester United, aged 25-39 and from the C2DE social grades.
That doesn’t mean that the average fan of the club fits that profile – other research shows that following Premier League football is largely a male preserve – but simply that compared to other football clubs, it has more female fans than would be expected.
While the public app is open to anyone, there is a professional version reserved to subscribers, who YouGov says will be able “to profile your target audience across all channels, plan creative and design a media strategy for specific campaigns with greater granularity and accuracy than ever before.”
So, back to our quintessential cyclist. In terms of lifestyle, he shows an elevated penchant for mince pies, winter sports such as skiing (road cycling comes well down the list) and in general interests, cars and motoring. Oh, and his pet of choice is more likely to be a fish.
The Tour of Britain, Halfords, RideLondon and Garmin feature among the brands with which he has a particularly strong affinity against the comparison group, while in terms of TV programmes, Dangermouse – really – comes out ahead of Guy Martin on Speed and Top Gear.
Politically, he’s likely to be aligned to the left, although a caveat also applies here – YouGov says “simplifying a group of people onto a left-right axis is notoriously hard,” so “the left/right dial shows where this group *ranks* among their comparison set in terms of the percentage of Conservative voters among the total. So it’s really a measure of Conservatism.”
We’ve been playing around with some other search terms – Team Sky, CTC, the Tour de France, the Tour of Britain and British Cycling among them. If you come up with others that you think deserve sharing, let us know in the comments below.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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38 comments
Lance Armstrong was partial to a bit of Top Gear
Mince pies eee no ta don't like em and I spend far too much on things I don't need that I want so much for cycling, so can't afford to ski. The guardian is ok but I don't buy it. Top gear though, yes love it!
Assuming a 'Guardian reader' also takes The Observer on a Sunday, a year's worth of papers is £676.
Having worked in the bike trade for the last 7 years, the quintessential (taking that to mean 'the most common' rather than 'the perfect') cyclist is far too tight to spend £676 on anything unless their spouse tells them it's OK.
''QUINTESSENTIAL''
''kwɪntɪˈsɛnʃ(ə)l
adjective
representing the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class.
"he was the quintessential tough guy—strong, silent, and self-contained"
synonyms: typical, prototypical, stereotypical, archetypal, classic, model, essential, standard, stock, representative, true to type, conventional...''
...are we SURE about this?
Apart from Guy Martin - of course!!!
I can't abide Jeremy Clarkson, don't drive, am a fierce supporter of independence and would only read the Guardian as a last ditch cure for insomnia. I abhor mince pies and skiiing. I suppose that makes me unquinessential as feck; good.
It's important to distinguish merely watching Top Gear from buying into the Clarkson crypto-fascistic stage personality. Top Gear is essentially a comedy programme fronted by three performing monkeys, who are fully aware that they are depicting themselves as idiots. Nothing wrong with watching that!
This isn't the same as buying into the "abolish speed limits, build more motorways, and round up all green-minded types and bomb them all" position, offered by the performing monkeys as what I assume they think is a joke.
Sadly a lot of the equally idiotic sh1t-for-brains holding steering wheels out there on the road have interpreted this as a legitimate position, and that the TV show is leading this as some sort of crusade.
Some of us watch the TV show and ride bikes, in a "quintessential" manner or otherwise. I'd love to live in a society where I can ride from A to B without being run over, but that doesn't mean that this desire somehow controls my TV viewing habits.
For the record, Guy Martin is ace. Who would have thought that a TT racer and record-breaking mentalist would be the one to step into Fred Dibnah's place in our hearts?
Agree, Top Gear is presented by professional idiots and their personalities are somewhat staged. I think this must be the BBC's way of politically balancing their programming. Without it the BBC would be nothing more than the Guardian on TV. But the moronic personalities put forward by the BBC are evidence of their contempt for anything other than left-wing views.
The joke is clearly on the viewer.
An organisation falling over itself to cover UKIP (who are very right-wing) events and developments, while totally blocking any coverage of the Green Party (a very left-wing organisation), despite the former having had fewer elected representative than the latter throughout until a week or so ago, can hardly be described this way. If anything, the BBC political stance is random and unpredictable.
The evidence does not support your assertion that the BBC has left wing leaning bias
Top Gear? Noooooo. Even my 14 year old son's given up on it.
Pet - cat
No newspapers since 2006. I don't care what Tim Dowling thinks about anything.
Skiing? Tried it once. It was just queueing in the cold with people from Essex.
I still cycle in winter but I do like a mince pie - strictly between December 21st and 28th.
Some of the bickering that takes place on this site might tend to contradict the "quintessential" stereotype and highlight what a disparate bunch "we" cyclists are
99% of all statistics are made up.
Well it's been quite apparent from reading the comments on various articles on this site that most cyclists (who comment on this site) are lefties... or maybe it's a London thing.
Well, I comment on this site, and I live in London. I also attended the demo on Oxford St at the weekend, own a car and watch Top Gear.
With the exception of the guys who have been campaigning since the 80's or earlier, many of whom have a background in the environmental movement, I've found remarkably little common political background amongst London's cyclists.
Given Top Gear's enormous popularity, its one of the BBC's most watched shows, there's probably a better than average change the quintessential middle aged anything is a top gear fan.
I hate Top Gear and Clarkson is loathsome.
I hate mince pies, the Guardian, skiing on snow, etc etc
have a look at the UKIP profile it's just too good to be true:
https://yougov.co.uk/profiler#/UK_Independence_Party/entertainment
Cliff Richard - who'd have thought?
What a load of rubbish!!!!!.......i take the 'Telegraph'
I'm a Maoist who reads The Lady and has a pet toupé. Statisticians are fools.
Would rather have tagnut than wipe me hole on that paper.
Other than falling into the very broad age-range and liking a mince pie at Christmas ... Nope! Don't recognise myself at all.
Question. Who did they profile to get this steaming pile of horse apples? Guardian reading, croc wearing Walter Mitty types working up the city in IT. [Note: people in IT like to call themselves 'Engineers']
Yes. Tongue is firmly in cheek!
Some of us are.
I didn't think I fit the model of the quintessential cyclist as I never watch Top Gear (quite a challenge when it seems to be on everywhere I look), I tried skiing once and didn't like it, and though I have a car and have owned a couple of un-average ones (GTi, cabriolet) I just can't get excited about them as status symbols.
I like most animals but will not own a pet (can't deal with the emotional trauma when they die) and hate the way people tend to identify so readily with brands (I used to be in the business and now see it as a form of brainwashing).
But I just bought a dozen mince pies yesterday, so it's got me down to a T. When's Top Gear on?
It's never actually not on
Load o' fucking pish...
Thereby proving that the 'quintessential' Scotsman does not understand statistics.
BTW: I hate that word 'quintessential'. 99% of times it is used, the author has no idea what it means and actually means 'typical'.
Yes, you've got me bang to rights. Lack of statistical awareness is a famous Scottish stereotype. They speak of little else in Walton on the Naze...
Oh, and this is a great! It means you guys get to run a 'Is Skiing The New Cycling?' article, and everyone can debate it vociferously! Hooray!
ヾ(@^▽^@)ノ
I've always been confused that whenever I turn up for the club run, everyone else is in full ski gear - including skis. I guess it makes sense now...
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