UCI Reform
Saw this on twitter. Inner Ring have a summary.
Fewer teams (16 vs 18) with fewer riders (22 vs 30) in an 'A' group with a further 8 teams in a 'B' Group.
http://inrng.com/2014/03/uci-world-tour-reforms/
Haven't had a chance to read it in full yet
Fewer teams (16 vs 18) with fewer riders (22 vs 30) in an 'A' group with a further 8 teams in a 'B' Group.
http://inrng.com/2014/03/uci-world-tour-reforms/
Haven't had a chance to read it in full yet
0
Posts
Teams in races should be one man smaller too.
"It’s not in the small PDF but currently a rider’s sporting value is the sum of their points for the last two years, so a bad injury in one year need not ruin their/the team’s sporting value. But your point’s still very valid as risk concentrates in a few riders.
I suppose with the new system a dropped team could hope to rise back up… then again a rider on a relegated team invokes a break clause and moves."
Two, IMO, but one would be a step in the right direction.
Wildcards do come down to things like nationality and politics, but with more wildcard slots more are available on merit.
As for sponsor investments and salaries - it's not sustainable financially. The World Tour teams alone support over 500 riders at a minimum wage of 40K. That's too much. Golf and tennis attract far more money and can't support that. Sorry to sound like a heartless capitalist, but the sport's wage bill needs to be downsized.
I'm happy to manage the volume by reducing the number of riders racing in each team but that should be balanced by more guaranteed spots for teams/riders ...
Very few are on 40k. My point was more that world no.300 in golf & tennis is barely breaking even, yet cycling is trying to support even more than that.
Of course ... But after that it just becomes a matter of your ambition vs investment ...
This as well. Really not sure how this would work. Would we not end up with a load of velodromes and badminton courts half way up mountains? (Might be good for the sprints, not so good for distance events!)
http://100hillsforgeorge.blogspot.com/
http://www.12on12in12.blogspot.co.uk/
Winter games are niche and have always been a shadow of the main event.
If it doesn't move and should, use the WD40.
If it shouldn't move and does, use the tape.
with you...
Within that context this reviewof the Economics of Professional Road Cycling is worth a read (I'm aware that the author is not everyone's cup of tea). The book itself is a classic academic publication and costs £114. But the bottom line is that it appears to debunk much of the Velon and other calls for cycling reform.
There isn't nearly the money available for redistribution that Velon and others might claim. The big sponsors aren't really interested and the smaller regional sponsors aren't really motivated by the globalisation effort. So an argument could be made that actually pro-cycling's best future is in just muddling along as it is... rather than franchises, new races, and all that other malarkey...
Surely a pre-requisite for winter games is that snow or ice are involved in some way or other?
It would tempt a few over from XCO between the summer games I suppose,
- @ddraver
Although, on the other hand, a number of winter Olympics sports are fairly marginal or dominated by a few countries anyway compared witht he Summer games.
There's about as much logic having cyclocross in the winter games as there is with rugby or football being included.
Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
Wasn't the squeeze to balance the number of events for men and women?
BTW this thread is so OT UCI reforms but hey ho...
Then watch the pressure come to have Cyclo Cross in the Olympics at Winter Time.
I'm old fashioned to remember the Track Cycle Racing season in GB starting on Good Friday on proper one Kilometer tarmac tracks and in full flow with late evening daylight hours until it finished in September. The only hold these days for, Track Cycle Racing in summer meetings is the Olympics.
With all these small Indoor Velodromes then "IF" it were moved to the Winter Olympics then a full program of events could return instead of these constant Time Trials.
I remember Chris Boardman against Jens Lehmann in the 1992 Olympic Pursuit Final and jumping out of my chair with excitement when Boardman caught the German.
Within a few months I realised it was not such a great feat because he had only caught him in 250 meters and not the normal (at that time) 500 meters.
What, you mean like "J-Pow" who goes to Belgium every year saying he's going to take it, like, super serious this year and finishes about 20th?
- @ddraver
They're all on grass - they all occur during winter.
They could all, in theory, be played at the height of summer too.