olympics is all about the CYCLING

kerz

isn`t it fantastic how the olympics from a GB point of view is now all about the cycling (well almost all) . it`s great how well our swimmers and rowers are doing and they my utmost respect for what some of them have achieved-rebecca adlington in particular- BUT our cyclists as a whole are the new generation of sport stars to arrive on our silver screens. cooke and pooley were immense and inspiring while our track team have been totally awesome.it`s about time cyclings grabbing the headlines from our other sports.
we already have cav as a nailed on future green jersey champ and with all the effort now going into producing top training programmes for our youngsters i`m looking forward to the day when a brit pulls on the yellow jersey in the tour de france after the final day on the champs elysees , or wins the giro,or the vuelta or the world champs.
if we set the bar that high then i`m sure we `re gonna do it .
cycling is no longer a minority sport - it never really has been in my eyes-.LET THE GOOD TIMES ROLL !

afx237vi

Watching Sky News a bit earlier... want to hazard a guess about what the first story on their "Olympic Report" was? Oh yes, Princess Paula and her glorious 23rd place in the marathon (you wouldn't know it, but a British athlete finished 6th in that race too).

Cycling is still a minority sport, even when British cyclists are kicking their opponents all over the velodrome.

iainf72

afx237vi wrote:

Cycling is still a minority sport, even when British cyclists are kicking their opponents all over the velodrome.

Also, people seem to think it might change attitudes towards cycling - I fear not.

Look at the comments on this.
And it's the Guardian so the people aren't as thick as some.

wildmoustache

just my impression, but it seems maybe more people are talking about cycling ... and not regarding it as totally weird?

Track cycling is highly specialist though ... and not something most people have, or willl, ever do ... so perhaps harder to relate to than swimming or running.

I too can't bear the Princess Paula fixation ... she was a superb marathon runner, whose best years look to be behind her. Remember though that the TV loves emotion and Paula certainly provides that (don't come first ... cue ... tears).

ride_whenever

actually i think the great british public just like to watch people fail, look at Tim Henman...

skavanagh.bikeradar

Well, my horse riding-mother-of-one-housewife-next-door-neighbour talked to me about track cycling yesterday saying that she'd never watched it before but it was so exciting! If people like that are watching it and finding it exciting (because GB are winning presumably) then that is a new thing to me. That's less in the closet than it was two weeks ago, and less weird.

The whole Radcliffe thing bugs me too. I don't even know the name of the woman that finished 6th, equaling the best ever performance by a British woman in the Olympic marathon but I DO know that Radcliffe finished 23rd and walked a bit, and cried at the end. I'd be a bit fed up if I was whatever her name is that was 6th.

thamacdaddy

I agree with above poster my mum even spoke to me about it on the phone yesterday when I called her and even wants to come with me to watch the world champs at manc velodrome. She had never seen it before either. Truth is she probably spoke to me about it because she knows I love my cycling but I don't agree that even this exposure isn't making it a little more well known. It will never be a totally mainstream sport but that does not bother me too much, just enjoying getting to see it all! 8)

Ambermile

iainf72 wrote:

And it's the Guardian so the people aren't as thick as some.

Where did *this* little nugget fall from?

Arthur

OffTheBackAdam

Isn't/wasn't Will Fotheringham the Editor of "Cycling"?
If he wrote in the "SCUM" (sic) I'd expect an identical artical.
Hopefully, success will breed further successes, with more sport-orientated kids/teens taking up cycling of one form or another, even BMX :shock:

SteveR_100Milers

John Inverdale on 5 today conveyed a real awe of what the cyclists have achieved and had an interesting interview with Dave Brailsford. Even the Daily Star is stunned with Hoy and co. News headlines in Sport now in News at 10 is about the pursuit. What will they all say after another 3 or 4 medals?? The "Olympic" effect is not to be underestimated, and it wouldn't be surprising if the velodrome is jammed in 2012.

Kléber

Track cycling is a small sport. Wiggins is the number one pursuiter and he beat the Kiwi Roulston. Both have had bit-part careers on the road. They're great riders but I have this feeling that if you trained Cancellara for two months, he'd be taking on whole teams by himself.

So we can take very good riders, train them right and work on the details like kit and mental preparation and it makes the difference. In some ways, we copied this from the Aussies and it looks like the Kiwis are copying this too and by 2012, this work is going to be done by many other countries who have access to deeper pools of talent than Britain. Indeed, you could see Brailsford being hired by the Chinese or Russians.

Nivacrom

Given the success of the track team hopefully it will encourage a good crop of future athletes to try and emulate them.
If off the back of this success young athletes try a bit of cycling out of curiosity some of the UK's best up and coming sporting talent may find they enjoy it and instead of aiming to compete in the traditional areas of sport they might decide it is worth aiming to achieve in cycling.
Here's a great photo of Bradley Wiggins on the Olympic website:

http://results.beijing2008.cn/WRM/ENG/BIO/Athlete/8/225168.shtml

redvee

The local BBC in Bristol got all excited about Ed Clancy and the others in 'his' quartet winning the gold in the team pursuit. They were saying that Bradley et al were riding in his quartet as if he was the leader of the quartet :shock: . I see it as they are all equal in the quartet with no 'captain'.

Patrick1.0

Unfortunately, crap women drivers still get in the wrong lanes at roundabouts, beep at you and put their finger up and get right up close to your back wheel when you take a normal line from the correct lane just because you're a cyclist and in their way. The thing is, people like this really exist and really believe they are in the right.

Kléber

Patrick1.0 wrote:

Unfortunately, crap women drivers still get in the wrong lanes at roundabouts, beep at you and put their finger up and get right up close to your back wheel when you take a normal line from the correct lane just because you're a cyclist and in their way. The thing is, people like this really exist and really believe they are in the right.

Just because you are out riding, things aren't going to change much. Would you respect someone more if they were kicking a ball in a park if England had won the World Cup? If anything, some git is going to shout "you should be lapping a wooden track, get off the road".

iainf72

Kléber wrote:

If anything, some git is going to shout "you should be lapping a wooden track, get off the road".

Yup.

I've had those kind of comments from the mother-in-law in the past.

I've been reading a lot of the news websites and without fail articles about the success of the cyclists will end up with comments about red light jumping, riding on the pavement and how cyclists are a menace.

SteveR_100Milers

Kléber wrote:

Just because you are out riding, things aren't going to change much. Would you respect someone more if they were kicking a ball in a park if England had won the World Cup? If anything, some git is going to shout "you should be lapping a wooden track, get off the road".

Agree totally. But is that such a bad thing, I mean (and purely hypothetically to make the point) if the outcome is a velodrome in every town?