US licenses increase by six percent

In year one after seven-times Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong's retirement as a professional, American cycling seems to be doing even better than in 2005. USA Cycling has announced that the total number of membership licenses sold has surpassed the 57,000 barrier this week. The most recent count of 57,218 licenses represents nearly a 6 percent increase over the 54,190 licenses sold throughout the entire 2005 calendar year.

Of those, 36,352 licenses are specific to road and track cyclists, and 10,995 represent competitive mountain bikers. Other membership numbers include coaches (1,147), officials (1,988), and mechanics (175).

In addition to individual license sales, 1,800 licensed clubs were also registered, which is already a 16 percent increase compared to last year’s year-end total of 1,554.