Belkin pull plug on team sponsorship after just one year

The racing is just fine as it is. What we probably need to do is convey it better to the public.

I know the Pearl Izumi Tour Series is built for TV, and whilst they still struggle to present a clear message all of the time, it does alright really.

I think half the battle is hours and hours of live coverage, when a one hour highlights programme would be far more appealing. However, you can sell a lot more ads over a 2-3 hour period than an hour, so we are left with some pretty boring coverage.

Making the races shorter, the teams smaller won't change the racing. A shorter race just gets raced harder, and all that happens is there is less attacking as everyone wants to/thinks they can have a go and the speed neutralises things... smaller teams mean an unpredictable race, which can easily be overcome by the teams by letting a big group of say 10-15 riders go off up the road on day one, get 20 mins, and suddenly the race is a load more controlled again.

Enough of these high-tech/media corporations - it's time to bring back the sausage manufacturer, I say! I want to see a sprint finish between Molteni and Walls

I really don't agree with cutting the size of teams down to 6/7. Maybe down to 8 as opposed to 9, but if you only 6 riders per team you're really forcing a team to either focus on sprinters or GC, perhaps with a time triallist thrown in who can give a leadout/do the first pull up the mountain. So on any given day only half of the teams are interested. On a mountain stage, the grupetto might as well form as soon as the stage starts, because half the teams are getting dropped and the organiser won't dare exclude them. At the end of a sprint stage, half a dozen teams are fighting to be at the front because they have nothing else to be in the race for: add a narrow road and it's crash time, every day.

And if you only have 12 WT teams with half a dozen riders and then fill the peloton with lower-level teams, you've got that frantic environment filled with less experienced riders (of racing, and of each other). It'd kill the sport stone dead.

And if there are no sponsors, who would Gkam try and mither for free stuff?

I was holding this one back, because I didn't want to be the sole voice and look like I was the only one who had a problem with what is happening in the mens racing.

I'd like to see teams cut back for the bigger races. None of the 9 man teams, get it back to 6/7, get a few more teams in the race to make up the field to a full amount.

That way, one team would struggle to dominate any race by sitting on the front the whole time. Each team would really have to send their strongest guys there, not like at the moment, where they put out a team, so that they can have riders who control the pace for most of the stage, then let the guys who are in form/GC places take over.

So shorter stages, most teams with less riders and lets liven up the sport a bit for the next generation of viewing public. At the end of the day, without the fans going to or watching on TV. The sport of professional cycling wouldn't last long.

Without air time, the sponsors aren't going to hang about, where is the money going to come from?

Rabobank still paid a hefty sum this year, so Belkin got a huge discount. Now that they have to pay all of the costs, they pull out right away and won't even cover one full year themselves. Very selfish.

However, the doping talk in the Netherlands has mostly died down, so perhaps a big Dutch sponsor is willing to go for it. AkzoNobel, DSM, ASML, TNT, Ahold, Shell, TomTom, etc, etc. So many big businesses that can easily afford it.

+1 about getting rid of race radios.

Some of the Giro stages were fantastic!

Yeah, we need some excitement in road cycling-bring back the drugs!

Only kidding.

One thing that I find a touch tedious is the tactical riding but with big teams that's going to happen. The British Tour series where a team wins so has to get its riders to the front, not just one man, is good to watch in that respect.
Possibly bigger bonuses for stage positions might get overall contenders pushing harder. the thought of missing out on 5 minutes of bonus for not being in the top 10 over then line would get them moving. I for one bemoan the shortness of races. Agreed sprinting is fun to watch but so is discovering who has the long term strength. I guess modern logistics and laws would prevent full a days riding rather than a third of the available day light. There is not argument that the riders couldn't race that far. Of course they can. They do 150 miles in a third of the time I do so doubling or tripling that should be on. After all it was perfectly possible an hundred years ago.
It won't happen of course but it would be fun to watch. Bit like the Dakar rally I suppose.

I agree with Gkam for once, and so does Sean Kelly, who suggested during Eurosport's TdF commentary a couple of years ago that they should shorten the stages to liven it up. I've pretty much given up on watching stage races because it's just as Gkam says, every day the same. I might as well just watch the last fifteen minutes of the highlights and skip the loanshark adverts. The exceptions to the rule are much too few and far between.

I saw bits and pieces of it, but it took 7 1/2 stages to get to that point, where Sky sat on the front and made the race very stale.

The other thing I would do away with. Prologues.....If you HAVE to have a time trail to begin a stage race. Make it a medium length TEAM time trial. Maybe around 40km.

I kinda knew Belkin weren't in it for the long haul.

They stepped in to save a team that was going to the wall otherwise and were hailed as saviours. I bet they have made a bit of cash on the back of that. It was never going to be a long term investment for them.

To be fair, if I had a massive company who could afford to sponsor a cycling team for say 5 years. I wouldn't be putting into a Pro mens team. That is for sure.

The borefest that has become mens cycling this year and to some extend last is just dragging the sport down.

It seems like alot of the riders are just going through the motions and turning up, doing a race and getting paid. There seems to be a lack of excitement in the peleton.

The whole scene needs an overhaul. It is not fun to watch IMO anymore. I will be watching the TdF because it is the pinnacle of the sport. That is the only reason, there are alot of young exciting riders coming through, being held back to a certain extent by the old guys set in their ways.

Lets shorten up some of the racing. Not till it is Crit style, but cut it back at bit. Have it fast paced from the off. Not this, lets just roll through the first 60-70 miles, let a break go up the road and then control it. Reel it back in with 10km to go and then hammer it for the last 3....BORING.

I was never convinced that Belkin had any cycling synergy at all, in my mind, a bedroom geek brand, however GIANT SHIMANO is a massive own goal if they pull out, not that I buy Belikin, or Giant, or Shimano......maybe advertising doesn't work on me!

Finding big names who are happy to sponsor a historically scarred sport for an extended period is getting tougher.