Should cycling emulate football to a season-long narrative?
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An individual season's leader doesn't work because Froome never races against Kristoff. And contenders can only do a certain amount of races. There's no conflict. But a team competition works because teams are all racing against each other, always.I don't think there's any harm in having a season leader's jersey of some sort, but I don't think it's ever going to be taken all that seriously. The idea of a season long team competition is anathema to me, I just can't see how supporting a team works.
Many teams do have supporters. Over the years the likes of Rabobank, Euskatel, Sky, US Postal, Cafe de Colombia, Orica, T-Mobile, CSC, Astana etc have tapped into a national audience. And just because you don't support anyone it doesn't mean it has no interest for you. Most people who watch the Champions League don't support any of them as their number one team. If you give a big prize and a big trophy, it becomes important to riders and fans.
Consider this:
Right now the WT rankings - including all riders, not just the top five as the official rankings do, stands like this:
1388 Sky
1381 Movistar
1343 Katusha
1166 Etixx-QS
1030 BMC
Look at those top three. Isn't that a thriller?
No it has no interest for anyone. Football needs a league or a cup competition to give it meaning - otherwise it's just a load of friendly matches and if you lose well there's another match next week. Cycling doesn't need that - the individual races have importance in their own right - winning Flanders or Roubaix doesn't need a season long competition to make it important any more than Wimbledon needs to be part of a season long tennis league to be important.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
It's not meant to give meaning to races like Flanders and Roubaix. It's there to add some interest in the post Tour season, which at the moment is a mish-mash of races that, Vuelta aside, no-one seems to care much for.
No it has no interest for anyone. Football needs a league or a cup competition to give it meaning - otherwise it's just a load of friendly matches and if you lose well there's another match next week. Cycling doesn't need that - the individual races have importance in their own right - winning Flanders or Roubaix doesn't need a season long competition to make it important any more than Wimbledon needs to be part of a season long tennis league to be important.
It also enhances the team aspect of cycling - and it's teams that get the sponsorship and keep the show on the road, so shifting the focus just a little towards the teams is attractive to sponsors.
Also don't make the mistake that what doesn't interest you is of 'no interest for anyone'. You're not the people the sport needs to appeal to. People who post on cycling forums are generally out of step with and far more conservative than the general audience.Twitter: @RichN950 -
I actually think there might be value to bringing back a ranking system for one day races. As it is now, the Spring classics are a huge focus and then everyone goes away for the summer with the post-Tour one-dayers lacking a bit in hype and interest.
Perhaps with a season long ranking, the autumn races would receive a boost in stature as all the best one-day racers came back after the summer recess. I doubt it would be all *that* successful, but for a bit of added late season intrigue, why not?
The GTs work as their own narratives, imo. You have the races targeted as warm-up races where we get a snapshot of where the big guns are. The fact that some will be at different races adds to the intrigue. As does the fact that often times there will be up-and-coming or unfancied riders going out targeting less prestigious races in order to pick up a major scalp - it all adds noise when trying to analyse the form on the eve of a GT.Team My Man 2018: David gaudu, Pierre Latour, Romain Bardet, Thibaut pinot, Alexandre Geniez, Florian Senechal, Warren Barguil, Benoit Cosnefroy0 -
It's not meant to give meaning to races like Flanders and Roubaix. It's there to add some interest in the post Tour season, which at the moment is a mish-mash of races that, Vuelta aside, no-one seems to care much for.
It also enhances the team aspect of cycling - and it's teams that get the sponsorship and keep the show on the road, so shifting the focus just a little towards the teams is attractive to sponsors.
Also don't make the mistake that what doesn't interest you is of 'no interest for anyone'. You're not the people the sport needs to appeal to. People who post on cycling forums are generally out of step with and far more conservative than the general audience.
Sponsors follow the audience and there is no audience for a season long team competition as demonstrated by the complete lack of interest in the current points situation despite it being so close.
If you try and make a focus out of a season long team competition you risk missing your main selling point which is the competition between riders in the big prestigious races. Focus on the strength of cycling and market that rather than trying to invent something new with absolutely no evidence it's what people want and plenty that it isn't.
Does anyone want a DS to start trying to maximise pro tour points rather than win races ?[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
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Move the vuelta to March. Worlds after the Tour. Job done.
Limits the high mountains. Ski resorts are still open and the roads mental.Napoleon, don't be jealous that I've been chatting online with babes all day. Besides, we both know that I'm training to be a cage fighter.0 -
Move the vuelta to March. Worlds after the Tour. Job done.
Limits the high mountains. Ski resorts are still open and the roads mental.
The Giro has enough problems with high mountains being closed even in May.
Move the Vuleta to October. Screw the worlds.0 -
Move the vuelta to March. Worlds after the Tour. Job done.
Limits the high mountains. Ski resorts are still open and the roads mental.
The Giro has enough problems with high mountains being closed even in May.
Move the Vuleta to October. Screw the worlds.
If you think riders are going to keep going till near end-Nov, think again
Over time the European racing season has got more and more extended. Added to this, riders are expected to turn up for their first races in Jan or Feb race-fit and ready, none of this easing back in (God knows what der Kaiser would have done in today's cycling, he'd have had no time to shed the effects of mum's sacher torte). As it is, by Sep teams are using stagiaires to fill up depleted squads.0 -
Move the Vuelta or Giro to Thailand at any time of the year. Crazy hard climbs. No snow. Sorted.Team My Man 2022:
Antwan Tolhoek, Sam Oomen, Tom Dumoulin, Thymen Arensman, Remco Evenepoel, Benoît Cosnefroy, Tom Pidcock, Mark Cavendish, Romain Bardet0 -
So you want to go back 20 years when the Vuelta started a week after Liege-Bastogne in April.Move the vuelta to March. Worlds after the Tour. Job done.
The Giro would start about the last weekend of May and still in June there could be Snow for Erik Breukink and Andy Hampsten.
The World Champs about the 3rd week of August.
Riders could do the double for GT's. ?Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 19720 -
No, you move the Tour Down Under to Thailand if you like because of all the Aussies on Holiday there.Move the Vuelta or Giro to Thailand at any time of the year. Crazy hard climbs. No snow. Sorted.Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 19720 -
So you want to go back 20 years when the Vuelta started a week after Liege-Bastogne in April.Move the vuelta to March. Worlds after the Tour. Job done.
The Giro would start about the last weekend of May and still in June there could be Snow for Erik Breukink and Andy Hampsten.
The World Champs about the 3rd week of August.
Riders could do the double for GT's. ?
Basically.
I'm a die hard fan of cycling and even my interest wains post Tour. The Tour sucks up so much attention and I get so involved that afterwards everything feels like it doesn't actually matter. Big whoop, Froome's out of the Vuelta. Like anyone really cares. He doesn't particularly. The cycling season is based around the biggest races, with smaller races being used as prep.
Post Tour, there's only really the worlds to prep for, and even that feels like a damp squib compared to spring.
Anything post Tour has basically become a shop window for riders next season rather than a competition to get excited about.
The worlds briefly pique my interest but even then it doesn't have the same thrill as the early season ones.
The olympics in 2012 however were quite exciting, because, in part, a lot of the riders we spent the last month watching and getting to know were there. I imagine the worlds after the Tour would be the same.0 -
The best thing about having the Worlds a few weeks after the Tour, is that you get the best GC riders and the best classics riders there in form. Not like now where most top class GC riders don't even turn up.0
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You mean like this in 1989. A hell of a race at Chambéry, France that I still feel sick about.The best thing about having the Worlds a few weeks after the Tour, is that you get the best GC riders and the best classics riders there in form. Not like now where most top class GC riders don't even turn up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJSgzHTRg38Organiser, National Championship 50 mile Time Trial 19720 -
Swap the Vuelta and the Giro, Vuelta starts a week earlier, Giro starts 2 weeks later than now.
Worlds held during August.
Based on the Pyrenees losing their snow a few weeks earlier than the Alps / Dolomites.0 -
Hmmmm, lots of playing about with the calendar, but I think Rick has the most valid point.
If you've invested any real time in watching the spring classics and the Tour then it's bloody difficult to a) get all that interested in what comes after and b) find the time to watch and follow. At least part of cycling's issue is that each event takes so bloody long, especially the GTs. Even watching just a daily half hour highlights package is 3 hours a week for a GT, and there's other stuff going on at the same time. Following the Tour properly is more like watching a football World Cup (which only comes every four years) in terms of commitment. Trying to watch three world cups a year? You need a sympathetic employer and at least two screens at work...Warning No formatter is installed for the format0 -
surely the other comparison is cricket rather than footy? they don't have a formal league for the test teams each season, they just play.
They have a world cup for the limited overs game but it's only every 4 yrs and not the biggest deal in the game, just one of many
cricket is also having to deal with too many demands on the players, something cycling should be mindful of if the expansion continues"I get paid to make other people suffer on my wheel, how good is that"
--Jens Voight0 -
Exactly.Now that is a bigger issue.
You want to follow the money? Flanders is an example of how that can go wrong.
I get why they did it. But it's made the race a shadow of what it was. Sense may prevail at some point.
2016 would appear to be a start. rumoured to incorporate the Muur. i don't mind the course as is, but could do with all 16000 blocking up the koppenberg every first weekend in April
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Post Tour, there's only really the worlds to prep for, and even that feels like a damp squib compared to spring.
So you want to go back 20 years when the Vuelta started a week after Liege-Bastogne in April.Move the vuelta to March. Worlds after the Tour. Job done.
The Giro would start about the last weekend of May and still in June there could be Snow for Erik Breukink and Andy Hampsten.
The World Champs about the 3rd week of August.
Riders could do the double for GT's. ?
Anything post Tour has basically become a shop window for riders next season rather than a competition to get excited about.
The worlds briefly pique my interest but even then it doesn't have the same thrill as the early season ones.
Dude, you're forgetting Lombardia... that's the pinnacle of the season.0
