It might have hit the headlines for a very unfortunate reason recently, but Hyrox has been surging in popularity for the last three years, just as participation rates in road cycling events appear to have dipped.
The sports are utterly different, of course, but with both based around clubs and a community culture, the contrasting fortunes of the two pursuits have piqued our interest, and led us to question what the people promoting Hyrox are getting so right, that the cycling world is missing.
To dig deeper, I spoke to several elite cyclists and former pro riders who have thrown themselves into the new sport, and visited a Hyrox gym to give it a go for myself.
While people have been racing bike for well over a hundred years, Hyrox has the advantage of being a comparatively new activity, which obviously gives it a bit of a youthful bounce. But it also appears to appeal to a real cross-section of society, with around 38% of competitors being women, and two‑thirds of racers being 30 or older.
From around 175,000 racers in 2023, participation numbers sprinted past the 1.2 million mark this year
This has clearly played a part in the fast evolution of the event from a niche form of cross-training, conceived in Germany in 2017, to a full-on fitness phenomenon, now popular right around the planet. From around 175,000 racers in 2023, participation numbers in organised events sprinted past the 1.2 million mark this year, and ever-more gyms are bringing in equipment to cater for the pursuit, which combines fast 1km runs with elements of strength-focused circuit training, spread across eight bases.
The Hyrox race format
- 1km run between each ‘station’
- Station 1: 1,000m SkiErg
- Station 2: 50m Sled Push
- Station 3: 50m Sled Pull
- Station 4: 80m Burpee Broad Jumps
- Station 5: 1,000m Row
- Station 6: 200m Farmers Carry
- Station 7: 100m Sandbag Lunges
- Station 8: 100 Wall Balls
Unlike its closely related sibling, CrossFit, Hyrox activities are strictly prescriptive and will be exactly the same no matter where you go to train or compete. These include 1000-metre stints on a SkiErg and rowing machine (but sadly no static cycling), a 50-metre sled push and pull, burpees, weight-burdened lunges and farmer’s carry, plus the throwing of wall balls.
It’s hard to tell if it’s a sport, or a brand, and no one can even agree where the name came from (the most popular theory, that it’s short for ‘Hybrid Rockstar’ horrifies some participants, who prefer the ‘Hybrid Obstacle Race’ descriptor). And yet, there is already a concerted push to make it an Olympic sport. That might be an ambitious notion, but these people are good at pushing. And pulling.
At the same time, participation rates in cycling races, especially road cycling, are skidding rapidly downhill, with fewer people joining old-school clubs or taking part in traditional races each year. British Cycling’s membership has apparently dropped by such a degree that the sport’s governing body has had to suffer through several successive years of financial losses.
Meanwhile, the number of closed-circuit cycling races held in Britain has fallen by 14% in the last four years, with 100 events withering through lack of entrants and dropping off the calendar since 2022, and road races experiencing a similar decline, dropping by 16% decline according to figures supplied by British Cycling.
So, what can cycling learn from the meteoric rise in the popularity of Hyrox?
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Optics
Even if you haven’t been pulled into its orbit directly, you will likely have been exposed to Hyrox via social media, specifically Instagram and Tik-Tok, mediums for which it almost seems tailor made. The fact that it’s supremely photogenic is certainly central to the sport’s success.
Cynics might add that the tendency of many of Hyrox’s most enthusiastic proponents to shoot and share themselves doing it in various states of undress doesn’t hurt either. As The Streets might rather acerbically observe: yes, they are fit, but my gosh don’t they know it?
As The Streets might rather acerbically observe: yes, they are fit, but my gosh don’t they know it?
Cycling finds it hard to compete on that level, and no one is seriously suggesting it should try. It’s horrendously hard – not to mention massively dangerous – to film clips of yourself riding a road bike, let alone look good while you’re doing it, and as for cycling semi-naked… well there are some events where this happens, and it’s highly debatable whether that increases participation rates or puts people off altogether…
Obviously there are some riders with large profiles out there, but visually orientated road cycling social media isn’t doing the heavy lifting that the Hyrox equivalent achieves. And it never will. It’s a different story with gravel riding, however, a cycling sub-culture that is certainly growing fast, where mucky photos of dirt-splattered riders are always doing the rounds.
And this is also where the figures we get in a flap about – metrics around the decline in club membership and people entering races – are arguably completely distorted. It seems very possible – probable, even – that more people are cycling now than ever before, but they’re just not fee-paying members of a road riding club, or the kind of person that will enter a race. A survey recently conducted by Cycling Weekly on social media revealed that some 64% of our readers/followers have never competed in a race, and 83% wouldn’t consider starting racing.
Instead, they might be part of a newer kind of club, one organised through social media that has no formal structure, and whose members are more focussed on doing DIY challenges and independent rides. Again, the indie culture of gravel riding appeals exactly to such freewheeling folk. That’s not less people cycling, it’s more people cycling in a different (and annoyingly quite hard-to-measure) way. But still, the overall picture is far less bleak when viewed this way.
Nikki Brammeier was no stranger to tough races in her cycling days
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Community and accessibility
But anyway, attributing the appeal of Hyrox entirely to its superficial good looks is reductionist, and completely unfair, too, because as I’ve discovered while speaking to people and visiting gyms there is a lot more going on here, as both the sport’s strong community feel and its popularity with people in their 30s and above attests.
While cycling at a decent level requires people to get out and train for many hours, and necessitates the purchase of some pricey equipment, Hyrox sessions can easily be done before work, or arranged to fit around family and other commitments, and so long as you live relatively near a gym, all you need is running shoes, shorts and a T-shirt. This level of accessibility really adds to its appeal.
Former pro rider, Olympian and British cyclocross champion Nikki Brammeier got into Hyrox in 2024, when a friend invited her to do a doubles event.
“I’d never even heard of it, but I was looking for a new challenge and thought I’d give it a go,” she told Cycling Weekly. “Coming from a big cycling background, I’d always wanted to incorporate more strength training and HIIT [high intensity training] into my routine, and Hyrox fitted really well around life as a busy mum of two. I was pretty much hooked from the first event.”
By then, Brammeier had built a successful post-cycling career as a coach, training a new generation of riders, but she was looking for more fitness challenges for herself. “Hyrox gave me something new to work towards, and I’ve always loved sports where you’re going full gas for around an hour, so it seemed a good fit,” she recalls.
Hyrox is wildly popular because it offers a combination of accessibility, competition and community.
Hyrox is wildly popular, she says, because it offers a combination of accessibility, competition and community. “You know exactly what to expect on race day, and there’s always a time to chase or something to improve on. And it’s for people of all ages. There are some incredible 70-year-olds giving it a go. You can compete individually or in doubles, travel to events around the world, and train with other people at your local gym. I think once people try it, they get hooked because there’s always another goal to aim for and a great community around it.”
By contrast, Brammeier says cycling is harder for newcomers to get into, and tougher to manage with an other commitments.
“Cost is probably the biggest barrier, alongside fewer races and concerns around road safety,” she explains. “Grassroots racing also relies heavily on volunteers, but people seem to ride for smaller teams rather than traditional clubs these days. The way races are organised can be restrictive, too, with expensive entry fees and having to commit weeks in advance. For people with busy lives and families, that can make racing much harder to fit in.
“I think the biggest lesson cycling could learn is that you need to build a community around the sport, not just put on events and expect people to turn up. Hyrox gyms give people structured training programmes, shared goals and a group to train with.
“Cycling could do more to bring people together, make racing more accessible and help newcomers feel part of something. It’s about creating a reason for people to get involved and keep coming back, not just getting them to enter a race. I think there used to be a lot of cycling clubs which created a similar feeling but there are very few around now which is a real shame. Bring cycling clubs back!”
Charline and Lee Jones finish the Glasgow Hyrox
(Image credit: Courtesy of Charline Jones)
Races and safe spaces
Charline Jones, a former track cyclist who won a silver medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and retired from cycling in 2016, took up Hyrox in 2025, after having her second child.
“I wanted to do mixed doubles with my husband [Glasgow Warriors and Scotland rugby union player Lee Jones],” she explains. “We both signed up with a coach, and the gym was right across from the house… That was October, and then we competed in March at the Glasgow Hyrox.”
Upon finishing that event, Jones, clearly still buzzing, wrote on Instagram: “That’s definitely as close to cycling race day vibes I’ll get again.”
I asked her to explain what it is she gets out of a Hyrox competition: “I love working towards an event and then being there, the music playing when you’re in the tunnel. It reminded me of being at a tour series, or crit racing, where you’re at the start line, they’re hyping up the crowd and you’re about to go and race.”
Importantly, she can work towards such an event and compete at a high level without forfeiting her family time. “When I was racing [track], I was doing so much more, including a long ride at the weekend, which would take four of five hours out of the day. You can do that with a family, but I didn’t want to. I want my time at the weekend to be with my kids, with my husband.
“Even though I love cycling – and I love it so much – at this point in my life, it just doesn’t fit in, because of my time constraints. Doing some gym work, and some runs, that’s the best way. It just happens that Hyrox trains your cardiovascular system, but also your strength as well, and I’ve always really enjoyed gym work as part of cycling.”
Jones believes the social media presence of Hyrox has helped in some ways. “Lots of young girls are into Hyrox because it looks glamorous,” she says. “I don’t know how to make cycling more glamorous, but now, at the Track World Championships some winning riders are wearing makeup on stage. They getting their nails done. They’re doing their hair. You don’t have to do that, but actually it’s saying, ‘if I look good, I race well.’”
But there is a bigger issue at play around cycling, which Jones is keen to address. “I spoke to a few girls at the gym, and I asked them: would you rather be a racing cyclist or do Hyrox racing? They all said racing cyclist straight away. But the problem is, they don’t know how to do that. It’s the accessibility. It’s the knowledge. Like, how do they know how to get into cycling?
“And how are women going to feel safer on the roads? We need more women guiding maybe, leading organised rides. It’s almost as simple as that. You could get so many gym people into cycling by making them feel safe. In gym culture, they’ve created a safe space, and cycling just hasn’t kept pace with that.”
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Doing it all
On a more positive note, both Brammeier and Jones believe Hyrox is highly compatible with cycling, and if you can do both, it can make you a better athlete and rider.
“I do a mix of running, strength training and gym work, with cycling for recovery or the occasional couple of hours out on the bike,” says Brammeier. “I still love cycling, but I enjoy a bit of everything now.”
“For cyclists, Hyrox is a great way to work on strength in the off season, by incorporating some running and giving yourself different goals. It can also help build your overall fitness. Equally, cycling is a great way for Hyrox athletes to build their aerobic engine and endurance without adding as much impact as running. The two sports can complement each other really well if you get the balance right.”
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