Hammer Series
pottssteve
Posts: 4,069
FYI,
The Hong Kong leg of the Velon Hammer Series in Hong Kong has been cancelled due to the ongoing protests. This is a shame but entirely understandable. This means that Jumbo-Visma win this year's event.
The organisers say they hope to be back in HK in 2020 - hopefully not under the watchful gaze of the CCP as they impose martial law....
Steve
The Hong Kong leg of the Velon Hammer Series in Hong Kong has been cancelled due to the ongoing protests. This is a shame but entirely understandable. This means that Jumbo-Visma win this year's event.
The organisers say they hope to be back in HK in 2020 - hopefully not under the watchful gaze of the CCP as they impose martial law....
Steve
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Don't be embarrassed - I think most people couldn't give a hoot about it.
Since moving to HK it's basically the only local, live pro race I can watch....serves me right for leaving the Netherlands, I suppose.
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Hi J, I hope that all is well. I think you may be confusing HK with the Saitama Criterium:
Unfortunately, at the moment, this would be more appropriate for HK:
You realise that Japan is surrounded by sea? Mind you, you wouldn't be the first to suggest that I can walk on water...
So MTBers rather than roadies...and a bit like the UK will be in a few weeks.
It would seem that everywhere is screwed. The HK "government" has just resurrected a law banning the use of face masks at public assemblies. Rather than engage with people in meaningful dialogue it's another example of exactly the kind of behaviour that is making people very angry. Meanwhile, if I decide to move back to the UK....Lord only knows. :roll:
Looks like my UK passport won't be accepted anywhere else, so it will have to Blighty!
They seemed to be only streaming them online this year - Velon had it live on YouTube.
What was interesting/embarrassing was the tiny number of people actually watching it.
https://www.cyclingnews.com/news/velon-starts-legal-battle-with-uci-via-european-commission-anti-trust-complaint/
Velon spreading the blame around a bit.
I'll be happy to tell them why they're getting small numbers.
Because they've got a censored product.
It is a somewhat confusing format. I watched it live in HK last year and had no real inkling as to what was going on. I found out who had won when I read about it on the way home! The HK leg is run on a small circuit in downtown Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon. There are lots of other places it could have been staged to provide more interesting and varied racing but that would have involved closing too many roads, so we are stuck with the downtown circuit. Mind you, I am very familiar with the parcours of the Limburg leg and that's hardly a rivitting couple of days.
So I agree with Iain - it's currently not the most stimulating competition....still, it's all I had....
I think there has always been a sense amongst younger audiences that cycling is too slow for too long and there isn't enough racing for too much of the actual races, and that the value was really in the action, so creating more action in theory created more value for fans.
I don't think it really is that tbh. I certainly get as much if not more out of reading and learning the more interesting stories from each rider after the race.
Cycling's big advantage is there are 180 odd athletes all doing the same race, and they all have their own experiences we can't see.
That's why podcasts seem to work so well in cycling; there's a hundred stories to digest and a decent journalist can pick the interesting ones out.
But you're not gonna get those varied and interesting stories over just two hours of racing.
And this is fueled by the over-saturation of coverage. You broadcast hours and hours of nothing happening and it's not good for the sport.
You're right - It works really well for reading about. I think cycling and mountaineering are similar in this regard.
Thinking you're going to improve cycling by creating a series of pro-team kermesses where a team wins based on a complex points system baffles me. And don't get me started on on-bike footage.
I gotta say I love having it on in the background while nothing happens. Honestly, I am 20% better in my mental health with a bike race on in the background.
The Hammer Series is just too complex in terms of scoring so makes it hard to get involved. A series of short, simple point to point races would be better, I think. For example, a 75-100km ride in the morning and then a 50km ride in the afternoon? Would that work? I think while riding laps makes the logistics of road closures etc easier it really over-complicates it.
Teams need a revenue split and must be more independent from sponsorship funding. A system must be established to build teams up as brands that don't go under/rebranded all the time. That builds fan loyalty and long term engagement which is good for everyone.
Not the ones I listen to.
Revenue split is not an answer though, as Inrng points out
https://inrng.com/2019/01/revenue-sharing-revisited/
Answer to what question?
Changing the model of cycling / making teams more sustainable.
I'm not convinced the model needs to change. What needs to happen is it needs to get a bit more professional and not send someone in a tracksuit who raced bikes in the 80s to try and secure €25m in funding.
Team longevity is overrated.
Post Tour Crits
Discuss their popularity! Mini Hammers?
Popular because you can see the big names up close, riding around your local town centre. Nobody over the age of 12 cares who wins as it's usually been decided beforehand. I went to the RaboRonde Heerlen a couple of times - great fun, but not a race.