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Sports Personality of the year

What a joke. I can't believe that Cav wasn't even in the top 3. It just goes to show that however popular cycling is in this country it's still very much a minority sport that the general public don't understand.

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9 comments

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macnmud | 13 years ago
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Yes, unfortunately this show always seems be more about 'personality' than 'sports' and have long since given up watching it.

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workhard | 13 years ago
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We had a straw poll in the pub. Not one of us cyclists voted for Cav! None of us like what we perceive to be his persona. In real life he may be great but in the media he comes across as a bit mardy.

Watching the last 10 of the live show I was worried the darts bloke would have a coronary every time he had to trot up the stairs.

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TheHatter | 13 years ago
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I think this article sums up the problem:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/dec/18/bbc-sports-personality-of-the-year?INTCMP=SRCH
I particularly like the rule "Anything that allows you to eat a pie while you're doing it isn't a sport" - though would this outlaw cycling?

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antonio | 13 years ago
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Darts, dart board, board games. Board personality of the year?

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Jon Burrage | 13 years ago
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agreed and phil taylor clearly has a nice persona.

Look at the others on the list...
Lee Westwood, personality?
Tom Daley? great athlete but personality?

At least Cav is divisive.

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Gregoire500 replied to Jon Burrage | 13 years ago
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Jon Burrage wrote:

agreed and phil taylor clearly has a nice persona.

Look at the others on the list...
Lee Westwood, personality?
Tom Daley? great athlete but personality?

At least Cav is divisive.

I don't know if its fair to say Daley and Westwood have no personality-I think to get a sense of that you really have to have an interest in the sport, and that in itself will of course vary on the popularity of the sport in question also. Compare the number of folk that golf to high-dive for example! Westwood's done amazingly over the last couple of years, from being in a total slump to dusting himself off and being world no. 1, and he's fond of a cigar and a pint so I'm all for him  3

I'm ashamed to say there was a few athletes short listed I'd never heard of, but the fact that they've been nominated is praise in itself. Cav? The fact most of his racing is done on the continent means relatively few people will have hear of him outside Sun 'expose's' of his lastest model g/f so I'm not surprised he didn't win... I don't know if divisiveness even came into it.

Darts though. Come on. Any game that can be played in the pub...  3

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KirinChris | 13 years ago
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Yeah but, it's supposed to be Sports Personality of the year, not just best sportsperson or person who won the most, although obviously that has an influence.

And frankly when it comes to personality I think you'll find even the cycling fans are a bit divided over Cav.

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Jon Burrage | 13 years ago
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What I admired about Cav this year was seeing him in pain on the tourmalet, you could hear him hurting - thats what made his winning sprint into bordeaux a couple of days later and the champs elysees even more captivating for me.

The perception seems to be "anyone can cycle but darts is hard"

Yeah, darts at the level of Phil Taylor is impressive but again Id go back to the comment I made same time last year, what is a sport? I would say its something competitive that requires hours of physical and mental training and causes physical pain when done at the highest level.

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Super Domestique | 13 years ago
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Exactly. Cav played it very humble too whereas most made their sport sound so difficult.

The 'public' just don't get how hard pro cycling is and the comment of sprinting at 50 mph was lost over most heads.

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