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Professional cycling

theBlob

Bokeh master
Sep 28, 2011
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After watching the criterium de dolphin last night I came to the caustic decision that road cycling as a professional sport would be best disappearing entirely from the face of the sporting world. It is the saddest joke of a sport. You have the pellaton basically stopping to wait for some poor sap who happened to have fallen off. What a facade of sportsmanship. All the while they are all either dopers who aren't caught yet or ex dopers. The biggest of all is that stick insect Froome.

Meanwhile you have the two at the front who seemed to be excused from slowing down and waiting for Froome for some reason unknown to me. Anyway they were putting on their own embarrassing display of cycling sportsmanship by refusing to ride at the front or even ride at all, and battle it out like men instead insisting on trying to use the other to get a wheel and pop across the line at the end for the win. Yes, I know that is how the sport works and yes, that is my point.
 
So you understand it, but you don't like it, so you want it gone from the face of the earth. I suggest either sabotaging pro cycling somehow or go for world domination directly to achieve your goals. Good luck!

Try bike polo sometime, where the real men battle!
 
Alot of assumptions in that post... FWIW, I feel about the same about idiots kicking a ball around a field then collapsing for no good reason other than god knows what. Pro Cycling is part spectacle, part challenge, part etiquette, part sport and part commercial. Just like any 'Pro' sport.

BTW -

1) The guy that crashed was the race leader - it's part of etiquette /sportsmanship to hold up. Unlike most sports where it seems the norm to take adverse advantage.
2) Imagine a game of chess - at the end of a thousand moves, it's still about the Queen and a Checkmate.

p.s. Criterium du Dauphine ... not 'dolphin'. Dolphin is an animal ...
 
I suppose professional baseball shouldn't exist because they're all on roads and because the ceremonial first pitch doesn't count toward the score.
 
OK, now I am aware my post my have seemed a bit vitriolic, and as I am not the kind of guy to whine about problems without presenting solutions I have come up with a new approach for professional cycling. A two tiered approach to deal with the two major stains on the sport. Drugs, and lets just call it "Other pathetic behaviors"

The first thing is to split the grand tours into 2 tours running at the same time.

Division one is modelled off WWF with any and all drugs OK, wives that regularly have cat fights and dramatic scenes on the podiums. Competitors in this catagory can pretty much do what they want, ride what they want, anything goes. They start 20minutes in front of the second division racers.

Division 2 is basically like it is now, all the riders pretending they don't take drugs.

The overall rule changes are this. At the end of each stage a certain number of the last place getters are axed from the race and cannot compete again. Also any person who ends, say, more than 4 minutes behind the first place person is also axed.
The race continues as normal, with the field slowly getting whittled down. The number being axed is designed to ensure that the last 4 days there are only, say, 5 riders left.

These 5 riders will compete in the final 4 days.
Day 1 will be a TT,
Day 2 major hill day
Day3 rolling flats
Day 4 Super distance day - No drafting.

Each person starts the day off the line the amount of time they are behind.

So how do we watch what we want. Well there is only one broadcast and the watching audience decide by the way of an TV based voting system which division they will watch. ie More votes for Division one on day 7, day 8 the TV cameras follow Division 1. We will quickly see how many people care about whether they cheat or don't. Power to the people.

There we go! that is my solution to do away with all this drafting to a win week after week. Pretending they aren't drug cheats year in year out. They can do what they want and compete against the same type of cheats.
 
No professional baseball shouldn't exist because it is about as exciting as watching paint dry. The stuff you said is secondary.

You can add the continual spitting, the disaffected attitude(you'd be bored shitless too playing everyday of the week) of most of the players and the feeble attempts at a "rumble" and it's really starting to look like it needs a work over too. Thanks for bringing it up!

I suppose professional baseball shouldn't exist because they're all on roads and because the ceremonial first pitch doesn't count toward the score.
 
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Good luck with that....

or better yet, watch last nights Dauphine stage. That is what cycling is all about.
Or the Vuelta stage two years back with Contador/Saxo tore race apart on "transition" stage to take the lead, and the win, from Rodriguez.
 
Ok that was a pretty impressive win from behind.

Good luck with that....

or better yet, watch last nights Dauphine stage. That is what cycling is all about.
Or the Vuelta stage two years back with Contador/Saxo tore race apart on "transition" stage to take the lead, and the win, from Rodriguez.
 
Can anyone explain why course planners put a 90 degree turn within 200 metres of a finish? Is it so the finish line will be in front of the mayor's office, or to ensure a local tourist attraction gets 0.11 seconds of blurry air time?

Wait, I think I got it, is it so the mayor's private Jag/Merc can take it's usual route and not be inconvenienced by diverted traffic.
 
Alot of assumptions in that post... FWIW, I feel about the same about idiots kicking a ball around a field then collapsing for no good reason other than god knows what. Pro Cycling is part spectacle, part challenge, part etiquette, part sport and part commercial. Just like any 'Pro' sport.

BTW -

1) The guy that crashed was the race leader - it's part of etiquette /sportsmanship to hold up. Unlike most sports where it seems the norm to take adverse advantage.
2) Imagine a game of chess - at the end of a thousand moves, it's still about the Queen and a Checkmate.

p.s. Criterium du Dauphine ... not 'dolphin'. Dolphin is an animal ...

Tim.... I prefer the 'Dolphin' version
 
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