Time to change cycle race formats?
jam1e
Posts: 1,068
Given the much deserved success of our cyclists competing in China the sport is experiencing a large increase in viewers. However colleagues of mine, who have a broad sporting outlook in general have suggested that the formats for some of the races are a bit bizarre - "I watched some but they were just standing still in the middle of the track" and "Why mess about?, why not just go for it straight away" being a couple of examples of the comments heard over lunch.
The sports news anchors also highlight the aspects of the events which are outside the norm and this will only spread the impression that for a relatively simple sport (no judges, artistic merit etc) it's quite complicated.
Do you believe that changing the formats of some of the events in order to make them more accessible to the average sports viewer would be beneficial for the long term popularity of the sport? Or, do you believe that further education is the way ahead?
Considering we stand a chance of attracting considerable attention in London off the back of these games, more accessiblity could result in more grass roots support and participation.
The sports news anchors also highlight the aspects of the events which are outside the norm and this will only spread the impression that for a relatively simple sport (no judges, artistic merit etc) it's quite complicated.
Do you believe that changing the formats of some of the events in order to make them more accessible to the average sports viewer would be beneficial for the long term popularity of the sport? Or, do you believe that further education is the way ahead?
Considering we stand a chance of attracting considerable attention in London off the back of these games, more accessiblity could result in more grass roots support and participation.
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Comments
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TBH I'm not sure how we would simplify the events. OK so the points and the madison could be just made into scratch races (ZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz) and we could get rid of the Keirin all together. But the match sprint...just force them to go full gas from the front and remove all the tactics?
I think all the track events are exciting, sure some of them seem plain ridiculous, but it's more interesting than the various different distances in swimming/running.You live and learn. At any rate, you live0 -
Should we ask the footballers to remove the offside rule so that women ( :twisted: ) can undersrtand them?Rich0
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Don't get me started on the swimming! :evil: Butterfly is to front crawl what hopping is to running, slower and harder. Backstroke = the backwards running race from school sports days! Breast stroke - possibly ok for ultra long distance but in a sprint - why bother when crawl is faster?
Sorry if any swimmers don't agree
I think a 100m cycle sprint (from a standing start) would be quite exciting though...
Offside? - Yep, that can go. We'll replace it with the classic playground rule - goalhanging!0 -
It is rather curious how different sports have different numbers of formats.
Olympic rowing for example is always over 2000m. Canoeing and Kayaking on the other hand have a varilety of distances. Personally I think Olympic bumps racing in the rowing would be best. It is by far the most exciting way of racing.
While you're dissing swiming - remember that Mr Hoy has won a number of medals for doing essentially the same thing - going really fast over a lap or two. OK the formats are slightly different and there are plenty of tactics, unlike swimming, but [donns flack jacket].
Maybe they should have an oval swimming pool with no lanes and do sprint races.0 -
I dunno, talking to people at work, they like the barmy cycling events more than the pursuit races. They think they are better and more exciting to watch.
As for olympics bumps... I was discussing this with a coaching friend, and the best solution would be to do it over a long course, say 5-10K with lots of narrow bends etc, to really give the coxes something to do!
BTW will, seeing as you mention bumps, which city are you from Oxford or Cambridge?0 -
I don't have any objection to sports that either:
- Have a variety of disciplines (e.g rowing, boxing, etc)
- Have a variety of distances (e.g athletics, etc)
It is where they have the different disciplines in all the different distances... (swimming)Rich0 -
ride_whenever wrote:Oxford or Cambridge?I'll never succumb to the dark side.............0
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This is rapidly heading off topic but hey, we can reinvent whichever sports we want!
Cyclists don't deliberately handicap themselves by inventing a new, less practical method of riding a bike. Imagine if for every main cycle event (ie madison) there was an offshoot event (butterfly equivalent) in which you could only use one pedal and had to keep your "spare" foot on your top tube, or one in which you had to swing your left arm around in circles to match your pedalling cadence, any breach of this style in terms of cadence timing etc results in a DQ. Harder and slower than normal cycling and with no practical application other than actually within the new cycle disciplines of "Riding and Arm Swinging" and "One Legged Cycling" themselves.0 -
jam1e wrote:This is rapidly heading off topic but hey, we can reinvent whichever sports we want!
Cyclists don't deliberately handicap themselves by inventing a new, .
No they handicap themselves by sticking to an old design of bike. I'd love to see an 'open class' of anything goes cycle racing (ie bents etc) That'd be good for bike technology development.0 -
What about introducing the slow bike race - one lap of the track, last across the line without putting a foot down or ever stopping or going backwards wins.
I’d like to see a Devil take the Hindmost race because it’s more tactical. And maybe an Omnium, sort of a pentathlon of different track events.
Overall I think there’s too much bias to track events, 10 of the 18 cycling medals are on the track – why don’t they have a road team TT, or hill climb TT, or for that matter a mountain-bike downhill or a cycle-cross event or even a cycle-ball tournament?0 -
Or a 2 week 'Tour Olympique' of the host country.0
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Unicycling?0
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The sport I've competed in by far the most is dinghy racing and that gets rather arcane for the uninitiated. I've been watching a lot of the Olympic sailing on my PC via the BBC iPlayer and find it fascinating but I'm sure most people who've never raced sailing boats would find it boring. Though they may have enjoyed the last leg of the 49er medal race when the whole fleet capsized at some point - even the ultimate gold medallists capsized 200 metres from the line.
The same applies to the track racing disciplines but doesn't mean the disciplines should be changed. Probably the most difficult to understand sport is American football and that remains popular in the US.
I'm a regular spectator at the velodrome and I think track racing is far the most entertaining form of the sport for non-competitors. I've also watched mountain TdF stages and whilst that's a brilliant experience (mainly because of the ride out, the scenery, and the atmosphere) but it isn't so visceral as an evening of high quality track racing.
GeoffOld cyclists never die; they just fit smaller chainrings ... and pedal faster0 -
The only time I've really enjoyed track racing is at indoor 6-day races, where there's been atmosphere with live music and beer flowing, and cheering and loud excitement every time when the bell was rung for next points round. The spectators were almost as entertaining as the cyclists!Geoff_SS wrote:I'm a regular spectator at the velodrome and I think track racing is far the most entertaining form of the sport for non-competitors.0 -
[quote=". But the match sprint...just force them to go full gas from the front and remove all the tactics?
.[/quote]
Did you never wonder why the don't do that anyway as a tactic??
The person at the back would always win because they would have the slipstream, which is why the tactics exist and are required.0
