Coronavirus and pro sport

No_Ta_Doctor

Friday beers on lockdown in Copenhagen. My favourite craft beer bar is closed, but opened for bottle carry outs from their draught.

blazing_saddles

bobmcstuff said:

Or, it still goes ahead for now, at this rate that will change in the next few hours.

And it has.
However, somehow RL seems immune as their games last night and tonight have gone ahead.

Oh and the badminton too, if anybody is remotely interested.

gweeds

Flanders is off apparently. Looking for a new date. Roubaix will most likely follow.

kingstongraham

I really fear for radio 5 live. They have so many broadcasters whose sole job is to talk bollocks about what might happen in the football. What will become of all those hours?

bobmcstuff

blazing_saddles said:

bobmcstuff said:

Or, it still goes ahead for now, at this rate that will change in the next few hours.

And it has.
However, somehow RL seems immune as their games last night and tonight have gone ahead.

Oh and the badminton too, if anybody is remotely interested.

Apparently someone on one of the teams is showing symptoms so they probably didnt have much choice. Even though cold symptoms are hardly remarkable.

I've got my parents staying, it was supposed to be stereophonics, 6 day and the rugby final... I'm really surprised the stereophonics went ahead, I was checking even as we were walking to the venue... they've got two more dates left on the tour in Cardiff, I reckon they won't both happen. Their support act bailed because they were worried about Trump stopping them getting back in!

RichN95.

kingstongraham said:

I really fear for radio 5 live. They have so many broadcasters whose sole job is to talk bollocks about what might happen in the football. What will become of all those hours?

5 Live have a mountain of podcasts to fall back on and they do news as well as sport. It's Talksport that's going to struggle. Two months of 'would any Man Utd players get in the Liverpool team?'.

gsk82

RichN95. said:

kingstongraham said:

I really fear for radio 5 live. They have so many broadcasters whose sole job is to talk bollocks about what might happen in the football. What will become of all those hours?

5 Live have a mountain of podcasts to fall back on and they do news as well as sport. It's Talksport that's going to struggle. Two months of 'would any Man Utd players get in the Liverpool team?'.

Everyone knows that that can be agreed in one word, no.

They could discuss "how far down the League do you need to go to find a team which a manyoo player would get in?"

blazing_saddles

kingstongraham said:

I really fear for radio 5 live. They have so many broadcasters whose sole job is to talk bollocks about what might happen in the football. What will become of all those hours?

Well, seeing that the BBC have replaced today's 6 nations match with a re-hash of weekday, female orientated magazine fluff, I fear for the sanity of the male population the longer this sports quarantine goes on.

pblakeney

gsk82 said:

RichN95. said:

kingstongraham said:

I really fear for radio 5 live. They have so many broadcasters whose sole job is to talk bollocks about what might happen in the football. What will become of all those hours?

5 Live have a mountain of podcasts to fall back on and they do news as well as sport. It's Talksport that's going to struggle. Two months of 'would any Man Utd players get in the Liverpool team?'.

Everyone knows that that can be agreed in one word, no.

They could discuss "how far down the League do you need to go to find a team which a manyoo player would get in?"

Talksport seem to have resorted to subjecting their guests to quizzes.

pblakeney

I predict Japan getting much more Olympics medals than usual.
What happens if they hold the Olympics and nobody shows up?

RichN95.

pblakeney said:

I predict Japan getting much more Olympics medals than usual.
What happens if they hold the Olympics and nobody shows up?

I was thinking today with the near total shut down of sport, a shrewd sports person may deliberately get infected to get it out the way and leave them free to train for the Olympics/Tour/whatever without fear of the virus popping up nearer the time and disrupting training.

Pross

Assuming things improve in time then the Tour should be a cracker this year. Everyone should be injury free as there'll be no races for them to crash in and no Giro to split the focus of contenders.

I was thinking yesterday, what would it be like if the Olympics ended up taking place behind closed doors then realised that World Athletics had given us a preview of that by holding the World Champs in Doha.

Lanterne_Rogue

Proposal: Run the TdF but make it very clear that it's thought likely that coronavirus infection rates will rise and if they do the race will be cancelled at short notice. Result: day after day of bonkers attacks as everyone tries to blag the yellow jersey when it gets canned.

No_Ta_Doctor

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Proposal: Run the TdF but make it very clear that it's thought likely that coronavirus infection rates will rise and if they do the race will be cancelled at short notice. Result: day after day of bonkers attacks as everyone tries to blag the yellow jersey when it gets canned.

A 21 stage 3000km TT. Keep your distance.

blazing_saddles

One easy step that the ASO can take to instantly cut the roadside crowds by 50-60%: Get rid of the publicity caravan.

focuszing723

Bernard Hinault could get that down another 5% I reckon.

sherer

blazing_saddles said:

One easy step that the ASO can take to instantly cut the roadside crowds by 50-60%: Get rid of the publicity caravan.

do people really turn up for that ? Only been once and we were there for the race.

With less chance to flog their wares, the sponsors would want a reduction

blazing_saddles

sherer said:

blazing_saddles said:

One easy step that the ASO can take to instantly cut the roadside crowds by 50-60%: Get rid of the publicity caravan.

do people really turn up for that ? Only been once and we were there for the race.

With less chance to flog their wares, the sponsors would want a reduction

https://inrng.com/2015/07/tour-caravan-show-marketing/

Which bring us to the exodus of day trippers. The sun was beating down and they’d got their of freebies and it was time to go home. The race itself just didn’t interest them, here was a chance to get a few free pens, sweets, hats and washing powder. It’s not just anecdotal, there’s data too with surveys by TNS Sofres, a marketing agency, showing the prime motivation behind the decision to go and watch the Tour de France is the publicity caravan itself. Forget illusions of cheering on a local hero or the deity of the maillot jaune, believe the report and the largest segment of the crowd is there for a Bic pen and a Skoda hat and will even go home before the race arrives.

I am sure the ASO put the data out a few years back I just can't remember where I saw it.

Lanterne_Rogue

Everyone loves a free lunch. Or five, in the case of Ullrich.

RichN95.

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

bobmcstuff

RichN95. said:

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

Presumably virus goes away = everybody wins?

But seems likely to me that itll just come back as soon as they relax the rules. Although obviously I'm not a virologist or whatever...

RichN95.

bobmcstuff said:

RichN95. said:

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

Presumably virus goes away = everybody wins?

But seems likely to me that itll just come back as soon as they relax the rules. Although obviously I'm not a virologist or whatever...

But it doesn't go away. There's been a lot of criticism of the UK's approach, but it makes so much more sense to me. I think maybe some of the shutdowns may be about elections.

rick_chasey

RichN95. said:

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

Don’t want A&E services to handle bike accidents

pblakeney

rick_chasey said:

RichN95. said:

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

Don’t want A&E services to handle bike accidents

That would make more sense if they also banned driving.
#easytarget

TheBigBean

And DIY

redvision

RichN95. said:

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

They know it doesn't go away, just slows the speed the virus spreads. It's a desperate measure, but one which does appear to have worked in China (so far at least), reducing the number of new cases to more manageable levels.

From the news today Boris is coming under increasing pressure to issue similar emergency measures, essentially confining everyone but essentially healthcare workers and the emergency services to their homes. Although how a food/ supply shortage would still be prevented if this happens I'm not sure.

Would be typical though if this does happen just as the weather is about to improve. End of this week looks lovely and the possibility of riding on dry roads without gale force winds. I can't actually remember the last time I rode in such conditions.

One thing I'm stunned hasn't happened yet is that the likes of zwift and Netflix etc haven't exploited the situation and whacked their prices up!

Dorset_Boy

Just read elsewhere that the Welsh Rugby Union have stopped all rugby in Wales at all levels.

sherer

i was expecting a rise in cases from China, now they have lifted restrictions but that doesnt seem to have happened so far.

Thanks for the quotes blazing, that wasnt what I saw last year, but ive only ever seen once stage so dont have much data to go on.

No_Ta_Doctor

RichN95. said:

bobmcstuff said:

RichN95. said:

Apparently Spain have banned cycling - any of it in their 15 day lockdown. I'm no expert but these lockdowns don't make sense to me. What's the end game?

Presumably virus goes away = everybody wins?

But seems likely to me that itll just come back as soon as they relax the rules. Although obviously I'm not a virologist or whatever...

But it doesn't go away. There's been a lot of criticism of the UK's approach, but it makes so much more sense to me. I think maybe some of the shutdowns may be about elections.

Full lockdown - only go out of the house for essential purposes - is purely there to reduce demand on health services at peak. It isn't sustainable.

Partial lockdown - as we have here in Denmark (schools closed, public sector workers sent home, anyone that can work from home doing so, bans on mass gatherings) - is to slow the spread so the peak isn't too high to begin with. This can be done for longer periods.

There are, of course, a huge range of measures between these.

The timing of these is essential - too strict too early and you can't sustain it, you relax the rules and get an explosion. Too strict too late and you're left with a peak you can't cope with.

And yes, it *will* come back, it can't be eradicated now without a vaccine (and even then it might be a yearly cycle, like the flu). But there's no evidence that we can develop the famous "herd immunity", so even if you get a massive peak and the entire population gets infected you still have a risk it's coming back (albeit your vulnerable population may not be around to be at risk the second time).

Sorry, I'm not a virologist or an epidemicist either. It makes sense to me to implement the measures that will slow the spread fairly early (partial lockdown) and to try and make sure there's financial support for those with a huge economic risk (I've talked to bar owners and staff, the guy that runs my local coffee shop etc, they're all going to feel it). And I'm *still* arguing with people that think it's basically just the flu.

Lanterne_Rogue

Reports from Italy (via AP, so presumably reliable) that closing schools drove a 20% jump in cases as people treated it as a holiday and took kids out skiing etc. Just goes to reiterate how much of this is going to be situational and non-perfect (would keeping schools open have been worse in medium term?)