Cycling has jumped the shark - i'm calling

[fatsprintking]

I dont know what the **** jumping the shark really means, but I think it has something to do with when a popular TV show that everyone has been talking about, turns out to be a steaming pile of poo and everyone stops watching.

I have just watched the start of the Australian coverage of todays stage and to be honest, I think that cycling has just lost the plot. I love cycling, but fat middle age guys are going to have to find a new golf .

Looks like I am going back to non mainstream again. It was good being kinda cool for a few years, but lets face it, cycling is a niche sport and maybe thats just the way it should be.

 

[rxgqgxnyfz]

Meltdowns from Cadel and Denis fans are quite amusing.

 

[stazzy]

Meltdowns from Cadel and Denis fans are quite amusing.

Agree.

Quite amusing really.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Fine, go watch another sport. It is kind of silly that somebody enjoys something based on it's popularity and not because they really like the sport. I don't like people who try to be non-conformists.

The Tour de France is getting over 500,000 viewers each night which is really big numbers for that time slot in Australia.

 

[fatsprintking]

Yuk it up guys.

 

[fatsprintking]

Fine, go watch another sport. It is kind of silly that somebody enjoys something based on it's popularity and not because they really like the sport. I don't like people who try to be non-conformists.

The Tour de France is getting over 500,000 viewers each night which is really big numbers for that time slot in Australia.

I am anything but a non conformist - its just my opinion. I have been involved in cycling at both a riding and an administrative level since the 80's. I think that lots of hard won gains are being lost. My opinion. I will remain involved in cycling.

 

[veganrob]

I dont know what the **** jumping the shark really means, but I think it has something to do with when a popular TV show that everyone has been talking about, turns out to be a steaming pile of poo and everyone stops watching.

I have just watched the start of the Australian coverage of todays stage and to be honest, I think that cycling has just lost the plot. I love cycling, but fat middle age guys are going to have to find a new golf .

Looks like I am going back to non mainstream again. It was good being kinda cool for a few years, but lets face it, cycling is a niche sport and maybe thats just the way it should be.

Don't think if I would say cycling has jumped the shark, but this particular TdF is really terrible to put it mildly. I watch hoping something exciting may happen. Still waiting.

"Jump the shark" , "Happy Days". When Fonz jumped the shark tank the show went from simple entertaining fun to the crapper.

 

[fatsprintking]

Don't think if I would say cycling has jumped the shark, but this particular TdF is really terrible to put it mildly. I watch hoping something exciting may happen. Still waiting.

"Jump the shark" , "Happy Days". When Fonz jumped the shark tank the show went from simple entertaining fun to the crapper.

Thanks Rob, I have always wondered what it actually means!! There is something appropriate with the Fonz link.
I am just saying that there is a bit of a perfect storm in that Lance in the States and this tour will impact on people's feeling about the sport in English speaking countries at least.

 

[DominicDecoco]

Don't think if I would say cycling has jumped the shark, but this particular TdF is really terrible to put it mildly. I watch hoping something exciting may happen. Still waiting.

"Jump the shark" , "Happy Days". When Fonz jumped the shark tank the show went from simple entertaining fun to the crapper.

Whether you like Sky or not this Tour De France has been anything but terrible. What a laughable conclusion.

 

[kanari]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_the_shark

 

[VO2 Max]

Jumping the shark isn't really about becoming rubbish as such, it's the point where the writers run out of good ideas but need to keep the show going so the story lines become stupider and stupider until it's impossible for the viewer to maintain their suspension of disbelief. Cycling isn't a scripted drama obviously so it can't really apply... but if it WERE then you only have to look around this forum at the innuendo and the fact we clearly need this thread stickied at the top to see that a lot of people's suspension of disbelief has been very much unsuspended after the last twenty years and now what we're seeing this week. If it were scripted drama then yes, a lad from the grupetto set to win the Tour could certainly be described as jumping the shark.

 

[Apollonius]

This has to be one of the more pathetic threads I've read on here. I loathe it when casual fans like this clown start spouting crap about the sport simply because their favourite cyclist isn't having the best of races.

 

[alberto.legstrong]

I thought this thread was going to be about Sky's performance kind of making the sport more and more like pro-wrestling. (But there's like a half dozen threads already doing that it seems.) From that point of view, I would have agreed, I am really not feeling where the OP is coming from.

 

[montagna lunga]

More like cyclingnews forums are "jumping the shark" ;-)

 

[barmaher]

I hate Sky, and I disliked all the week 1 crashes. But I think it has been a good Tour so far.

 

[Bonkstrong]

More like cyclingnews forums are "jumping the shark" ;-)

Yes, but don't forget it's July - we'll be back to normal in a few weeks...

 

[SafeBet]

You can jump the shark, but he'll jump back.
Vincenzo ftw.

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Niche sport?
Is not the tour the 3 biggest sports happening after Football WC and the summer Olympics?

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

Looks like I am going back to non mainstream again. It was good being kinda cool for a few years, but lets face it, cycling is a niche sport and maybe thats just the way it should be.

Lol get your *** in Europe and you'll see why everybody is laughing at this thread

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I thought this thread was going to be about Sky's performance kind of making the sport more and more like pro-wrestling. (But there's like a half dozen threads already doing that it seems.) From that point of view, I would have agreed, I am really not feeling where the OP is coming from.

The objective of pro-wrestling (whether it's successful or not is another matter) is to be entertaining, and ever-changing to keep audiences guessing. Nobody likes a foregone conclusion, and wrestling is the "sport" in the best place to avoid those.

To use wrestling parlance, this Tour de France has been a "squash match" with just a couple of "hope spots" to those not on Team Sky.

 

[BillytheKid]

It was good being kinda cool for a few years, but lets face it, cycling is a niche sport and maybe thats just the way it should be.

Is that why I am seeing more and more people on bikes here. Maybe it's just my local and the fact we have lots of bike road.

Growing swarms here. The Tour also draws a lot of people who just like to look at a moving post card in HD.

Profressional baseball is running ads during Tour coverage here pulling on the heart strings of its tradition. What sport is losing fan base? That ad spot is being run for a reason.

 

[imaz52]

Apart from the SKY farce there seem to be many complaints about the coverage on various TV stations.

Have watched it so far on RAI and they have been pretty much the same as usual with Felice Gimondi in studio today. Alessandra De Stefano's non cycling daily reports have been excellent. Today's was on the Lumière Brothers and the birth of Cinematography.

 

[Izzy eviel]

I wish cycling was as popular as the OP makes it out to be. Had to explain to my workmate the other day who Lance Armstrong was.

I would love cycling to be the most popular sport in the world - It would mean less people hurling abuse at me and trying to kill me on the roads... I can dream can't I?

 

[alberto.legstrong]

Is that why I am seeing more and more people on bikes here. Maybe it's just my local and the fact we have lots of bike road.

Growing swarms here. The Tour also draws a lot of people who just like to look at a moving post card in HD.

Profressional baseball is running ads during Tour coverage here pulling on the heart strings of its tradition. What sport is losing fan base? That ad spot is being run for a reason.

I separate the sport and cycling into 2 pretty distinct categories although naturally as ridership grows the number who will begin spectating (odd construct) will grow. But I ride with tons of people who do not have the foggiest idea about the sport.

Although I know of no one (where I am, maybe in europe it's different) that does NOT ride who watches the sport very closely.

If cycling was big enough and even if it considered ITSELF mainstream enough to run ads during baseball games that would be enormous in my opinion. I consider the sport to be very much a very small niche at least in America.

 

[H2OUUP2]

I separate the sport and cycling into 2 pretty distinct categories although naturally as ridership grows the number who will begin spectating (odd construct) will grow. But I ride with tons of people who do not have the foggiest idea about the sport.

Although I know of no one (where I am, maybe in europe it's different) that does NOT ride who watches the sport very closely.

If cycling was big enough and even if it considered ITSELF mainstream enough to run ads during baseball games that would be enormous in my opinion. I consider the sport to be very much a very small niche at least in America.

I ride with a few guys every couple of weekends and they know very little of the sport. Great riders though. It's weird actually. But I golf with guys who don't watch golf either, so I guess they just find it boring to watch......

The crappy part about being here is that I only get the 3 GT's on TV. The Vuelta maybe. Everything else I have to follow on the internet. it's why I really only post on here during the Giro, and Le Tour. I'm not watching the other races and find it hard to comment on anything. I know what's going on, but I'm not watching.