Cycling thread

Armel said:
Number of cyclists/nation in the WT. 256 Europeans on a total of 482. Bit disappointed in Spain only thirty left, before Puerto they had 61.

4d431ad0-2e89-4217-871d-435b43dc2df1.jpg
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I wonder what the situation would be like at Pro Conti level? Teams in this second tier seem to be almost exclusively run along national lines, and a couple of British teams have gone under this year, meaning there isn't much depth in terms of British pro cycling. I think other nations do a lot better in that regard.
 

Bruce Wayne said:
I wonder what the situation would be like at Pro Conti level? Teams in this second tier seem to be almost exclusively run along national lines, and a couple of British teams have gone under this year, meaning there isn't much depth in terms of British pro cycling. I think other nations do a lot better in that regard.
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I couldn't find a similar table for the pro-continental level so I hand-count them using the procyclingstats database.

I counted two: one in Norddisk and one in the Burgos team. There are no British teams in that tier. Yes it's somewhat run along the national lines, but not entirely. E.g: 4 Belgian teams: quite a few Dutch and French riders in there. Same goes in reverse.

Six continental British teams though; the same number as Belgium. Not a lot of riders in those teams though.

I somewhat blame the cycling press in the English speaking world (not the very specialized variety, even though they also could do better); it's okay to highlight the dark sides of cycling but it's not exactly conducive to only exclusively report on that. E.g: Keisse. A lot on that. Fine, but at least be bothered to write the positive things too, or maybe actual race results idk.

And please drop the fixation on the GT's; it's not the only thing. I remember an article in the Guardian saying something along the lines that because they are writing about the Keisse incident that they aren't writing about the 3 times in a row from Sanne Cant. Nobody's stopping you, other journalists manage it. You can do both.

And please write about the history: a couple of days ago it was the fifteenth anniversary of Pantani's death. Almost nothing. Pfff.
 
Armel said:
I couldn't find a similar table for the pro-continental level so I hand-count them using the procyclingstats database.

I counted two: one in Norddisk and one in the Burgos team. There are no British teams in that tier. Yes it's somewhat run along the national lines, but not entirely. E.g: 4 Belgian teams: quite a few Dutch and French riders in there. Same goes in reverse.

Six continental British teams though; the same number as Belgium. Not a lot of riders in those teams though.

I somewhat blame the cycling press in the English speaking world (not the very specialized variety, even though they also could do better); it's okay to highlight the dark sides of cycling but it's not exactly conducive to only exclusively report on that. E.g: Keisse. A lot on that. Fine, but at least be bothered to write the positive things too, or maybe actual race results idk.

And please drop the fixation on the GT's; it's not the only thing. I remember an article in the Guardian saying something along the lines that because they are writing about the Keisse incident that they aren't writing about the 3 times in a row from Sanne Cant. Nobody's stopping you, other journalists manage it. You can do both.

And please write about the history: a couple of days ago it was the fifteenth anniversary of Pantani's death. Almost nothing. Pfff.
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Aye, the press here are pretty rubbish at anything that's not football, rugby or cricket, with the likes of Dan Roan literally only interested in whatever scandal he can ring from the sport. The Pantani anniversary seems to have gone largely untouched across the English-speaking cycling world, as none of the cycling blogs I read covered it (although Cycling Weekly did a short piece).
 
Bruce Wayne said:
Aye, the press here are pretty rubbish at anything that's not football, rugby or cricket, with the likes of Dan Roan literally only interested in whatever scandal he can ring from the sport. The Pantani anniversary seems to have gone largely untouched across the English-speaking cycling world, as none of the cycling blogs I read covered it (although Cycling Weekly did a short piece).
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Yo bruv.
 


Nice article on the Beeb this morning

www.bbc.co.uk

Cycling & suffering - a special relationship

Three cyclists discuss their special relationship with suffering. And can science help expand the limits of exhaustion?
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

The climbs are the toughest for me, especially the long ones. Still remember the Mortirolo vividly. We'd already ridden the Gavia and it was crazily hot by the time we got to the bottom. I wasn't quite as fit as now and was undoubtedly setup with the wrong gears. It was just an interminable grind for what felt like forever. It's always harder mentally when you know you're physically done in. The Giau on the Maratona is always the same as with 5 mountains in the legs already you know you're not going as well as if you were climbing it fresh, and it's just an hour of toil.
 
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Bruce Wayne said:
Nice article on the Beeb this morning

www.bbc.co.uk

Cycling & suffering - a special relationship

Three cyclists discuss their special relationship with suffering. And can science help expand the limits of exhaustion?
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk

The climbs are the toughest for me, especially the long ones. Still remember the Mortirolo vividly. We'd already ridden the Gavia and it was crazily hot by the time we got to the bottom. I wasn't quite as fit as now and was undoubtedly setup with the wrong gears. It was just an interminable grind for what felt like forever. It's always harder mentally when you know you're physically done in. The Giau on the Maratona is always the same as with 5 mountains in the legs already you know you're not going as well as if you were climbing it fresh, and it's just an hour of toil.
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Good read that Bruce, thks.

There's a funny interview with Roger Hammond somewhere online where he talks about the time he nearly won Roubaix - he had a one in a hundred ride where everything went right and made the final group into the velodrome (and should have actually won). He talks about being in a selection with Museeuw on the cobbles and thinking this is awesome, I'm on the wheel of the Lion of Flanders over the pave, probably on the telly. The bad news is that I think I'm going to soil myself with the effort this is taking :)
Said it was a transcendent effort - didn't even feel a single cobble, just a semi-focussed blur of the stripe on Museeuw's rear tire in front of him.
 
Black Belt Jones said:
Good read that Bruce, thks.

There's a funny interview with Roger Hammond somewhere online where he talks about the time he nearly won Roubaix - he had a one in a hundred ride where everything went right and made the final group into the velodrome (and should have actually won). He talks about being in a selection with Museeuw on the cobbles and thinking this is awesome, I'm on the wheel of the Lion of Flanders over the pave, probably on the telly. The bad news is that I think I'm going to soil myself with the effort this is taking :)
Said it was a transcendent effort - didn't even feel a single cobble, just a semi-focussed blur of the stripe on Museeuw's rear tire in front of him.
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He was on a recent group ride I did on Zwift. Nice bloke.
 

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