The professional cycling thread

[Some Gump]

ArnageWRC said:

Away from the Giro, it was another round of the MTB XC World Cup, this time in Nove Mesto na Morave, Czechia.

And a good weekend for Ineos with both XCO World Champions, PFP & Tom Pidcock winning the XCO races yesterday. And with Charlie Aldridge first Elite podium in 4th, it looks like we may see two British men in the Olympic MTB race.

Cracking display by Pidcock.

[Driveline Shunt]

Oops: Miguel Angel Lopez handed 4 year ban for doping, tested positive prior to the Giro in 2022.

[JuniorD]

Driveline Shunt said:

Oops: Miguel Angel Lopez handed 4 year ban for doping, tested positive prior to the Giro in 2022.

Apparently he's pregnant

[thegreenhell]

More craziness in the Dauphine today, after yesterday's huge crash. The breakaway group was led the wrong way at a junction by a Gendarme motorbike and an official's car, and they all had to stop and turn around, losing around a minute of their lead.

[DeejRC]

That is just totally shoddy.
For a professional sport, cycling doesn’t half cock it up quite a bit.

[Tim Cognito]

DeejRC said:

That is just totally shoddy.
For a professional sport, cycling doesn’t half cock it up quite a bit.

To be fair, there's quite a lot of opportunities for cock ups when a caravan of cars, motos and riders are travelling thousands of kms across a country at 45kph.

[Unexpected Item In The Bagging Area]

Correct, although things like this rarely happen during the Tour. No other race is organised to quite the same standard, which is understandable given the resources available.

[Salted_Peanut]

I was sad to read about Bradley Wiggins’s bankruptcy troubles—the possibility he might be forced to sell his Olympic medals is awful.

https://road.cc/content/news/sir-bradley-wiggins-m...

[JuniorD]

Salted_Peanut said:

I was sad to read about Bradley Wiggins’s bankruptcy troubles—the possibility he might be forced to sell his Olympic medals is awful.

https://road.cc/content/news/sir-bradley-wiggins-m...

Real shame. Reading down further in that article a name pops up that I know, Stan Knight. The man who Brad names as his abuser. I met Knight in 1997 when I was working at Heathrow and went to join the club Archer CC. I went on a couple of long rides with him, just me and him. Bit of a wierd setup I thought as I was hoping to go on club group rides but the club seemed to be a couple of old guys, a middle aged guy and an old woman. I distinctly remember Knight telling me about Wiggins, who he said had a really low, strong heart rate and who he beleived would one day win the Tour De France. This was in 1997! I still have a book he lent me, but I moved away at short notice and didn't get to return it. Cool story bro, eh?

[Salted_Peanut]

Today, we’ve got season 2 of ‘Tour de France: Unchained’ starting on Netflix. It should be entertaining!

[Randy Winkman]

Salted_Peanut said:

I was sad to read about Bradley Wiggins’s bankruptcy troubles—the possibility he might be forced to sell his Olympic medals is awful.

https://road.cc/content/news/sir-bradley-wiggins-m...

That's a real shame and does suggest he's really been ripped off. For me, Bradley Wiggins stands out as a really popular, marketable guy who was liked by non-cycle fans. That he hasnt made a mint is odd. Though the article does point out there's a separation between business stuff and personal stuff.

[lauda]

Randy Winkman said:

Salted_Peanut said:

I was sad to read about Bradley Wiggins’s bankruptcy troubles—the possibility he might be forced to sell his Olympic medals is awful.

https://road.cc/content/news/sir-bradley-wiggins-m...

That's a real shame and does suggest he's really been ripped off. For me, Bradley Wiggins stands out as a really popular, marketable guy who was liked by non-cycle fans. That he hasnt made a mint is odd. Though the article does point out there's a separation between business stuff and personal stuff.

He is marketable but I'm not sure he does himself any favours with some of his behaviour. I did a cycling weekend a couple of years ago where Wiggins was one of the guest riders, along with Chris Hoy and Johan Museeuw. Both Hoy and Museeuw were model ambassadors for the event, chatting with the riders, posing for photos and generally engaging throughout the whole weekend.

By contrast, Wiggins only did one ride and then climbed off the bike 30km before the end because he couldn't be bothered to finish it. He didn't engage at all with the guests and generally looked like he really didn't want to be there. At the final meal of the weekend, everyone else was outside in a pub garden chatting and mingling. Wiggins sat indoors with someone he obviously knew and failed to engage at all. I've no idea what the event organisers paid him but I can't imagine they felt like they got maximum bang for their buck, especially in contrast to the other celebrity riders, who were charm personified.

Although Wiggins did tell me my bike had the coolest wheels at the event, so he gets some credit for his good taste.

[JuniorD]

lauda said:

Randy Winkman said:

Salted_Peanut said:

I was sad to read about Bradley Wiggins’s bankruptcy troubles—the possibility he might be forced to sell his Olympic medals is awful.

https://road.cc/content/news/sir-bradley-wiggins-m...

That's a real shame and does suggest he's really been ripped off. For me, Bradley Wiggins stands out as a really popular, marketable guy who was liked by non-cycle fans. That he hasnt made a mint is odd. Though the article does point out there's a separation between business stuff and personal stuff.

He is marketable but I'm not sure he does himself any favours with some of his behaviour. I did a cycling weekend a couple of years ago where Wiggins was one of the guest riders, along with Chris Hoy and Johan Museeuw. Both Hoy and Museeuw were model ambassadors for the event, chatting with the riders, posing for photos and generally engaging throughout the whole weekend.

By contrast, Wiggins only did one ride and then climbed off the bike 30km before the end because he couldn't be bothered to finish it. He didn't engage at all with the guests and generally looked like he really didn't want to be there. At the final meal of the weekend, everyone else was outside in a pub garden chatting and mingling. Wiggins sat indoors with someone he obviously knew and failed to engage at all. I've no idea what the event organisers paid him but I can't imagine they felt like they got maximum bang for their buck, especially in contrast to the other celebrity riders, who were charm personified.

Although Wiggins did tell me my bike had the coolest wheels at the event, so he gets some credit for his good taste.

I really hate to see when sports people get ruined by bad investments or bad advisors. It's bad enough for when it happens to regular people, but has added impact when it is fall form grace story for public consumption.

Though from watching Wiggins over the years, the outward impression I get is of someone who thinks they're being clever, but in reality they aren't that clever.

[DeejRC]

Arise Sir Missile!

[llewop]

DeejRC said:

Arise Sir Missile!

indeed

But not to devalue it, reading the BBC articles about the honours this year, reminded me that Boardman hasn't had the same recognition - gets a CBE in the same list. There does seem to have been much more gong-giving for those in the limelight in the last decade or so.

[epom]

JuniorD said:

Driveline Shunt said:

Oops: Miguel Angel Lopez handed 4 year ban for doping, tested positive prior to the Giro in 2022.

Apparently he's pregnant

He ? They !!

[Talksteer]

llewop said:

DeejRC said:

Arise Sir Missile!

indeed

But not to devalue it, reading the BBC articles about the honours this year, reminded me that Boardman hasn't had the same recognition - gets a CBE in the same list. There does seem to have been much more gong-giving for those in the limelight in the last decade or so.

I think Boardman is too politically aligned with Labour to give a gong to as he was working for Burnham and spends a lot of his time criticising government policy on cycling.

In terms of absolute success Boardman's titles have been more than exceeded by the cycling knights that followed him and they were also sports personality of the year as well. Boardman's cycling success was in the 90's when cycling was associated with rampant cheating, he's the only participant in the 1998 tour who didn't fail an EPO test either when they retrospectively tested samples once a test was developed or at some point later in their career.

However I'd argue that Boardman's medal was probably the single most significant medal in British Olympic history. Back in 1992 British Olympians were plucky underdogs who came around the final corner in first place before being out sprinted and finishing fourth.

Boardman turned up the best prepared and equipped, made himself the odds on favourite breaking the record multiple times in the heats and then utterly crushed the competition in the final. His training methods were adopted by British cycling and his coach was the first performance director there once they got lottery funding. If he hadn't won his medal it's unlikely that all of British cyclings success would have happened.

I'm sure he'll get a knighthood once Labours cycling policy achieves something.

[JuniorD]

Talksteer said:

llewop said:

DeejRC said:

Arise Sir Missile!

indeed

But not to devalue it, reading the BBC articles about the honours this year, reminded me that Boardman hasn't had the same recognition - gets a CBE in the same list. There does seem to have been much more gong-giving for those in the limelight in the last decade or so.

I think Boardman is too politically aligned with Labour to give a gong to as he was working for Burnham and spends a lot of his time criticising government policy on cycling.

In terms of absolute success Boardman's titles have been more than exceeded by the cycling knights that followed him and they were also sports personality of the year as well. Boardman's cycling success was in the 90's when cycling was associated with rampant cheating, he's the only participant in the 1998 tour who didn't fail an EPO test either when they retrospectively tested samples once a test was developed or at some point later in their career.

However I'd argue that Boardman's medal was probably the single most significant medal in British Olympic history. Back in 1992 British Olympians were plucky underdogs who came around the final corner in first place before being out sprinted and finishing fourth.

Boardman turned up the best prepared and equipped, made himself the odds on favourite breaking the record multiple times in the heats and then utterly crushed the competition in the final. His training methods were adopted by British cycling and his coach was the first performance director there once they got lottery funding. If he hadn't won his medal it's unlikely that all of British cyclings success would have happened.

I'm sure he'll get a knighthood once Labours cycling policy achieves something.

Absolutely agree with all that.

[tertius]

JuniorD said:

Talksteer said:

llewop said:

DeejRC said:

Arise Sir Missile!

indeed

But not to devalue it, reading the BBC articles about the honours this year, reminded me that Boardman hasn't had the same recognition - gets a CBE in the same list. There does seem to have been much more gong-giving for those in the limelight in the last decade or so.

I think Boardman is too politically aligned with Labour to give a gong to as he was working for Burnham and spends a lot of his time criticising government policy on cycling.

In terms of absolute success Boardman's titles have been more than exceeded by the cycling knights that followed him and they were also sports personality of the year as well. Boardman's cycling success was in the 90's when cycling was associated with rampant cheating, he's the only participant in the 1998 tour who didn't fail an EPO test either when they retrospectively tested samples once a test was developed or at some point later in their career.

However I'd argue that Boardman's medal was probably the single most significant medal in British Olympic history. Back in 1992 British Olympians were plucky underdogs who came around the final corner in first place before being out sprinted and finishing fourth.

Boardman turned up the best prepared and equipped, made himself the odds on favourite breaking the record multiple times in the heats and then utterly crushed the competition in the final. His training methods were adopted by British cycling and his coach was the first performance director there once they got lottery funding. If he hadn't won his medal it's unlikely that all of British cyclings success would have happened.

I'm sure he'll get a knighthood once Labours cycling policy achieves something.

Absolutely agree with all that.

Bit harsh on the British rowing team who have won (at least one) gold at every Olympics since 1984. (Except Tokyo, where the best result was silver.)

[Leithen]

tertius said:

Bit harsh on the British rowing team who have won (at least one) gold at every Olympics since 1984. (Except Tokyo, where the best result was silver.)

Coe, Ovett, Cram, Thomson etc might also take exception.