road.cc live blog: Olympic BMX hopefuls wanted, hidden messages on Zwift, poll says cycling 8th most boring sport and much more
The news agenda is starting to pick up after the Christmas and New Year break …
Wed, Jan 10, 2018 14:54
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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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Latest Comments
yodhrin 12 minutes ago
I'm sure everyone involved is very well intentioned but I'm sorry Scottish Cycling, young people don't need "confidence", they need safe infrastructure. They need a national government that doesn't repeatedly fail to live up to its previous promises on active travel spending and then tries to obfuscate that fact, while diverting huge obscene sums of money to road building and blocking attempts by councils to implement congestion charging. They need local councils that are actually incentivised to deliver infrastructure at pace where funding is available rather than soft-soaping and slow-rolling constantly to try and avoid bad press from deranged anti-cycling wingnut columnists in local rags. Most relevantly, they need people with access to power and politics who're willing to advocate for those things, certainly far more than they need a Tour-themed rebrand of the ineffectual Bikability scheme which is what this initiative seems to amount to.
mark1212123 32 minutes ago
@Rendel Harris "Did you have to have counselling after every game because of the hurtful things you heard on the pitch?" Great question. For a rational, steady, logical, response, sadly don't hold your breath. I say "sadly" because most cyclists have a dislike for linguistic accuracy and authentic meaning. I don't think Rendel has a wish to "live in North Korea" though. He's only expressing disdain for a two word lump that resides along the lickspittle spectrum. North Korea seems like an incredible leap. Do you use a TV stick a lot No Reply?
No Reply 57 minutes ago
@Rendel Harris I have read your comments for a good while. What I see is someone who preaches tolerance but is completely intolerant to any other views which don’t align to yours. Many of your comments are personal slurs. You post some very personal and nasty responses. If someone gets so upset at a throwaway remark such as bum chum, the issue is with you. It’s an off the cuff remark, not a bloody homophobic slur. Get a grip. You can be offended. That is your right. But it is also my right to say something which someone else may find offends them. The remark is not offensive, no, you find it offensive. That my friend is free speech, enjoy it while it lasts in this country. People who go on forums looking for things to be offended at should not go on said forums. It is liberal views such as the ones you regularly show on here which are the reason why this country is such a mess. So you are a rugby player? How did that go? Did you have to have counselling after every game because of the hurtful things you heard on the pitch? And you are happy for someone to use the C word, but apoplectic if someone uses a term you don’t like. Have i touched a nerve Rendel? Is there something you’d like to tell me? For what it’s worth I didn’t get nasty and personal. You did. This forum is sadly going the way many forums have, where the liberals shout louder than everyone else to drown out a different opinion, and the result is a left wing biased forum where any dissent is frowned upon by those who feel superior to others. Perhaps you’d prefer us to live in a society like North Korea, where the state monitors and punishes opinions expressed? Maybe not, because you would be dealt with soundly.
mark1212123 2 hours ago
@Rendel Harris Rendel Harris November 7, 2026 at 10:41 am @mark1212123 Thank you for answering my question. Get well soon. Hugs xxx Oh my. I wont address you again Rendel. You are discomforted. Please, accept my sincerest apologies, for making you feel like you are. I will, of course, from time to time, maybe mention your leaden effects upon the cycling community.
arowland 2 hours ago
If Waymo are allowed to patent a system to detect fallen/falling pedestrians and cyclists, it means no-one else may use the same method without incurring licencing fees -- unless Waymo waives their rights. (If that is their intention, why don't they just publish the method without spending money on a patent -- they don't come cheap?) And they would be in a position to block anyone else using it. The method sounds pretty common-sense to me (rarely an issue with the US Patent Office), so other developers may find they have to remove parts of their software if they've already gone down that route. So safety research plus patent will end up costing lives. If your car swerves to avoid a tumbling pedestrian, its manufacturer could get sued. Still, I'm sure Trump would support moves to make such patent-abuse illegal...
Rendel Harris 2 hours ago
@mark1212123 Thank you for answering my question. Get well soon. Hugs xxx
mark1212123 2 hours ago
@No Reply "Vanthourenhart is a smacked ass cheat." You may not have noticed but cycle racing is built on the cheat foundation, homo sapiens. Witness, even, Rendel Harris trying to cheat you from your free speech flagpoles on this very thread. Rendel is a cyclist he's informed the forum before regarding his bike stable. If you are against cheating why do you follow cycle racing?
thax1 3 hours ago
Not a lawyer, but not sure awarding a patent on a safety feature that only really benefits the non-contracted party (I.e. the cyclist) is the right way forward. Hopefully they do not make the proliferation of a feature restrictive, as it would benefit the greater good. I think Volvo did that with the 3-point seatbelt? PS. Having used Waymo as a passenger, I feel their city driving is waaaay better than pretty much any Uber driver - at least in the US.
mark1212123 3 hours ago
@Rendel Harris I've been reading you hurl your curtain twitcher approach on many others. I think being grammar police around cycling is simply someone wishing to be publicly pompous. Your strawman argument highlighting "difference" and "appreciation" would be interesting to get into but they are two distinct areas, not one, as you implied by landing, bumpity, bump..........bump, on "problem." I'm wondering now, if you can explain the difference between "swearing and homophobic slurs" it will get us all on the same page? Don't just google it either, use your own strength so we can see.
wtjs 3 hours ago
@genesis cops are not our allies... I think we can all cope with that, it's the Axis of the Police and the Judicial system being both our sworn enemy and the unreasoning Friend of the Driver that constitutes the danger
7 thoughts on “road.cc live blog: Olympic BMX hopefuls wanted, hidden messages on Zwift, poll says cycling 8th most boring sport and much more”
Quote:
WEell F1 can be interesting (note “can be”, not “is”) due to the technical aspects of it and certain (usually weather or crash-related) situations. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve turned off some proper bore-fest F1 events and if you asked me I’d struggle to even remember what happened at any one circuit or indeed which circuits were “best” but then I’d struggle to describe to you what happened in any given stage of this year’s Tour or Vuelta as well so maybe I just don’t concentrate.
If you had half as much data and camera angles available in road racing as you do in F1, it might liven things up a bit. Some of it comes down to the commentary as well; the F1 commentary onf Sky SPorts F1 is generally excellent and knowledgeable but there are some dire cycle race commentators. Millar and Boulting are excellent but even they can struggle through a 6hr TdF stage.
Cycling is the new golf. Or
Cycling is the new golf. Or is it the other way round?
Why isn’t buzkashi on the list?
Obviously an insular list to
Obviously an insular list to UK. That said, the big issue with cycling is the incredibly long and boring flat stages…sometimes there’s four or five hours of absolutely nothing before the final sprint. I can start the feed, go to the gym, do grocery shopping, and still make it back home before it’s over. It’s just hard to make cycling spectator friendly for people who haven’t participated and know what it’s like. This is where cyclocross and mountain biking have the leg-up. Unfortunately, every time there is discussion about whether there’s need for 200km long stages, everyone acts like their cereal just got pissed in.
There is a need for 125+mile
There is a need for 125+mile ‘boring’ days because if you try to have balls out racing over three weeks then you don’t have a three week race. Unless you want to bring in blood doping and all that. There has to be something in it for all teams who prioritise different things.
A flat stage can often turn out to be a deciding factor, just look at what happened in the TDF a couple of years ago when the time gained on a flat stage that was meant to be a ‘boring’ stage. The time gained by Froome was virtually the difference over Quintana at the end of three weeks.
As for F1, used to love it, now it’s an utter snoozefest. Gone the way of soccer in that it’s purely about business and is corrupt as fuck, at least F1 doesn’t steal as much money out of the UK as soccer does.
American Football is tedious for the most part, 8minutes of highlights includes multiple replays, test match cricket must be up there though and I did used to play limited overs BITD alongside playing rugby league and squeezing a bit of cycling in too.
I guess followers of each sport like parts of it and loathe some of it also.
I think one of the worst sports is beach volleyball but watching a 10,000m, 20/50k walk or marathon is about the most boring at the olympics.
The problem with cycling is
The problem with cycling is you mostly only get stage racing on terrestial TV and this is really only appreciated by the hardened follower – like test match cricket. I bet if there was more crit and track racing people would change their view. My wife hates TdF when its on but loves coming to the velodrome when I go.
Track racing is boring, just
Track racing is boring, just going round and round the same oval. But I realise I’m not typical, because I think athletics is boring, and this surveys shows most people disagree with me.
Stage racing is very much like test match cricket, in that if you follow it closely the tactics make it interesting, and sometimes exciting, but it demands a certain amount of commitment to follow the whole thing. Otherwise you’re just watching people on bikes. Which, don’t get me wrong, I could happily do all day, but I understand why not everyone would want that.
Mark B wrote:
Maybe you’ve been watching the wrong kind of track racing. Us BMX racers ride on a track and in no way can BMX racing be descrcibed as boring. Maybe we need more BMX or MTB racing instead of other cycling sports to show that being on two wheels really is pretty special.
I note that British Cycling is now reaching out to more people to ride BMX so as to be ready for the 2020 Olympics. Well that makes a change, seeing as how BC deliberately blocked some top UK riders from competing before. Perhaps it’s part of the change underway within BC but I do wonder why Tre Whyte in particular was blocked from attending the BMX Worlds at his own (sponsor’s) expense prior to the last Olympics. By blocking him from the BMX Worlds, it meant Tre was not eligible for the Olympics. The British Olympic squad was allowed to take more BMX riders than it did to Brazil, despite having some quality, world class riders who ended up sitting at home.
There have been allegations of sexism and racism aimed at the previous BC management. I could be more specific, but I’d rather avoid the risk of a libel case thanks. I’ll leave that investigation/reporting to a cycle specific news organisation to dig into some of the back room conversations within BC that have seen some riders being prevented from competing, despite having the skills and ability. I’ll also not go into detail why there is a massive schism between BC’s treatment of BMX racing (as being secondary to track and road) and the BMX racing fraternity in the UK. There are questions in the UK’s BMX fraternity as to why young riders are now blocked from competing properly with rankings in the UK. There are also questions about how the Olympic BMX hopefuls are blocked from racing in favour of training, despite racing being one of the most important factors in training for BMX.
I could go on. But I’ll leave it to the Road CC team to investigate further.