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
Rendel Harris 1 hour ago
@eburtthebike One of my best mates, a former rugby teammate of mine, is a Kiwi and a teacher (over here). I can imagine him making precisely that joke and he's a mad keen cyclist! Honestly, if this is the whole story it's a hell of an overreaction to a remark that deserved a mild reprimand about appropriate conduct if that (different if it was coming from a police officer or a driving instructor or similar, maybe). Having worked in a number of schools it's my experience that when senior management take agin someone they'll grab any excuse to get rid of them, I wouldn't be surprised if that was the situation here.
Andrewbanshee 2 hours ago
Hi I wasn't implying the ramps were equivalent to a pump track. I was saying many forestry trails are pretty hairy rather than a well designed pump track. The ramps are definitely not suitable and need replacing, but they are replacing with a new design. I suspect much more tame.
eburtthebike 5 hours ago
Oh dear! With my sense of humour, I should have been sacked a dozen times: every year. The Kiwis I've met all seemed to have a reasonable sense of humour, and one was excellent, but perhaps they weren't working for a school.
ktache 6 hours ago
"neither student laughed..." Well, it elicited a wry smile from me...
Rendel Harris 11 hours ago
@60somethingcyclist Unfortunately there are a couple of problems with that: firstly in order to try to manage some of the chaos in the Italian political system, for several decades when a mayor wins an election in large towns they are automatically given a guaranteed majority of 60% of the council seats, and also if a decree of the mayor's is overruled by the council that automatically triggers a no-confidence vote which then dissolves the council and forces a new election. So in order to vote down this decree not only would opponents need to persuade a considerable number of the mayor's own party to vote against him but also effectively to vote themselves out of office with no guarantee of return.
matthewn5 23 hours ago
My first road bike was a Raleigh, too. A 1976 Raleigh Record. I dragged it out of the shed a few years ago and got it working again. 14kg it weighed! A 52/42 crank and a 14-28 five speed 'cluster' at the back made hills pretty hard work...
matthewn5 23 hours ago
@Destroyer666 Campag cranks use replaceable standard cartridge bearings, pressed onto the axles. They're a slightly unusual size but you can find them easily enough on bearing specialist sites or elsewhere.
Bright Strider 1 day ago
More use of compulsory purchase is needed. Active travel route providers need the same kind of financial and legal power that Highways England and analogous bodies have. On the other side to the jam factory, by the junction in Histon, the busway path narrows as it goes past the bus stop and housing. It is the kind of pinch point where enforcement of the limit is most likely.
Bright Strider 1 day ago
Yes. Local users of the maintenance track have said such things. Continuing to say them to decision makers is likely to encourage better decisions.
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.