Gregor Brown (Velonews, etc)
In my research I came across an interesting phenomenon. I've read that Velonews, or at least some of their reporters (and by extension Velonews itself) is not entirely on the up and up. A bit dodgy. I do not have conclusive evidence of this, but I haven't looked either. I think the inference was they were pro-Armstrong / anti-USADA.
This particular interview, however, put my spidey senses into overdrive.
Given the role the media play in communicating professional cycling reality to the masses, I feel the following is rather damning.
At the Dauphine, post stage 4 (June 7th), Wiggins had an press conference. Cycling News were present. CN posted the article on June 7th - ie the day of the post-stage press conference.
Here is what Brad said:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wiggins-lauds-new-training-philosophy
Breaking it down, we have:
* coach not in cycling long
* swimming coach
* training like a swimmer
* constant training through the year
* maintaining 95-97%
* constantly working
* downside mentally difficult
* found it pretty good
* only 4 races
* long periods to freshen up
* long periods to do good blocks of training
* not going from race to race
Now. Brad is racing less (only 4 races), but his work rate is not down. He's doing good blocks of training between races. Constantly working. The downside of what he is having to do is mentally difficult, but pretty good. His coach is a complete unknown in the cycling world, and in fact used to coach swimmers.
On the swimming points listed.
1. coach not in cycling long: average Joe would understand it makes no sense that someone with little or no experience at something is very successful at it - questionable by Joe. Someone who just picked up a cricket bat for the first time isn't going to be much of a cricket coach.
2. swimming coach: average Joe would understand it makes no sense that an expert in X would be expert at Y - questionable by Joe, who does not believe the local footy coach is going to be any good for his son's cricket team
3. training like a swimmer: unless Joe is a competitive swimmer, he has no idea how swimmers train, so will accept whatever you tell him. even if he does swim, it's only "like a swimmer" and can mean hard, or long hours, or early. there's no real detail other than "all year" which is no different to cyclists, even if you tell me it is, but to Joe public? - not questionable by Joe
If I wanted to paint a different picture of what Brad is doing, remove some of the negative aspects of what he's going through, perhaps dilute the fact that his coach doesn't have a clue about cycling, I'd remove the words in bold above.
3 weeks later (June 27), Velonews posted an article. At first I thought Brad must have been reading from a script, as he said exactly (almost) the same thing, it was uncanny. Reading again carefully, I saw the "explained earlier this month", so the following is taken from the exact same press conference as the one CN reported on above.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/06/news/brad-wiggins-men-pushing-towards-tour-win_225834
* coach not in cycling long
* swimming coach
* training like a swimmer
* constant training through the year
* maintaining 95-97%
* constantly working
* downside mentally difficult
* found it pretty good
* only 4 races
* long periods to freshen up
* long periods to do good blocks of training
* not going from race to race
NB: they have to say "constant training through the year", as it allows them to denigrate and differentiate from the Jan Ullrichs of the peloton who hit January and THEN get fat and unfit. These riders are a myth, btw. Noone has been fat and unfit in January for many years.
If you wanted to use the "racing less" argument to say Wiggins is less fatigued and therefore racing better, the second article is the one you would use.
If you wanted to obscure the fact that a cycling-clueless swimming coach was the reason for Wiggins' impressive form, yep, second interview.
If you wanted to "massage the message" and present the best possible scenario for your rider, regardless of what he has said, you'd get his press conference published 3 weeks after the fact, having edited him accordingly.
Conspiracy theory, right?
Go look at the author, Gregor Brown's twitter feed. There is not a single mention of Kimmage, USADA, or anything the Daniel Benson, nyveloicty, Shane Stokes or David Walsh's of the world are talking about. The only mention is that it's Lance's birthday, on September 19th. Neither does he interact with any of these other cycling journalists. https://twitter.com/gregorbrown
Something isn't right here.
In my research I came across an interesting phenomenon. I've read that Velonews, or at least some of their reporters (and by extension Velonews itself) is not entirely on the up and up. A bit dodgy. I do not have conclusive evidence of this, but I haven't looked either. I think the inference was they were pro-Armstrong / anti-USADA.
This particular interview, however, put my spidey senses into overdrive.
Given the role the media play in communicating professional cycling reality to the masses, I feel the following is rather damning.
At the Dauphine, post stage 4 (June 7th), Wiggins had an press conference. Cycling News were present. CN posted the article on June 7th - ie the day of the post-stage press conference.
Here is what Brad said:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/wiggins-lauds-new-training-philosophy
Breaking it down, we have:
* coach not in cycling long
* swimming coach
* training like a swimmer
* constant training through the year
* maintaining 95-97%
* constantly working
* downside mentally difficult
* found it pretty good
* only 4 races
* long periods to freshen up
* long periods to do good blocks of training
* not going from race to race
Now. Brad is racing less (only 4 races), but his work rate is not down. He's doing good blocks of training between races. Constantly working. The downside of what he is having to do is mentally difficult, but pretty good. His coach is a complete unknown in the cycling world, and in fact used to coach swimmers.
On the swimming points listed.
1. coach not in cycling long: average Joe would understand it makes no sense that someone with little or no experience at something is very successful at it - questionable by Joe. Someone who just picked up a cricket bat for the first time isn't going to be much of a cricket coach.
2. swimming coach: average Joe would understand it makes no sense that an expert in X would be expert at Y - questionable by Joe, who does not believe the local footy coach is going to be any good for his son's cricket team
3. training like a swimmer: unless Joe is a competitive swimmer, he has no idea how swimmers train, so will accept whatever you tell him. even if he does swim, it's only "like a swimmer" and can mean hard, or long hours, or early. there's no real detail other than "all year" which is no different to cyclists, even if you tell me it is, but to Joe public? - not questionable by Joe
If I wanted to paint a different picture of what Brad is doing, remove some of the negative aspects of what he's going through, perhaps dilute the fact that his coach doesn't have a clue about cycling, I'd remove the words in bold above.
3 weeks later (June 27), Velonews posted an article. At first I thought Brad must have been reading from a script, as he said exactly (almost) the same thing, it was uncanny. Reading again carefully, I saw the "explained earlier this month", so the following is taken from the exact same press conference as the one CN reported on above.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/06/news/brad-wiggins-men-pushing-towards-tour-win_225834
* coach not in cycling long
* swimming coach
* training like a swimmer
* constant training through the year
* maintaining 95-97%
* constantly working
* downside mentally difficult
* found it pretty good
* only 4 races
* long periods to freshen up
* long periods to do good blocks of training
* not going from race to race
NB: they have to say "constant training through the year", as it allows them to denigrate and differentiate from the Jan Ullrichs of the peloton who hit January and THEN get fat and unfit. These riders are a myth, btw. Noone has been fat and unfit in January for many years.
If you wanted to use the "racing less" argument to say Wiggins is less fatigued and therefore racing better, the second article is the one you would use.
If you wanted to obscure the fact that a cycling-clueless swimming coach was the reason for Wiggins' impressive form, yep, second interview.
If you wanted to "massage the message" and present the best possible scenario for your rider, regardless of what he has said, you'd get his press conference published 3 weeks after the fact, having edited him accordingly.
Conspiracy theory, right?
Go look at the author, Gregor Brown's twitter feed. There is not a single mention of Kimmage, USADA, or anything the Daniel Benson, nyveloicty, Shane Stokes or David Walsh's of the world are talking about. The only mention is that it's Lance's birthday, on September 19th. Neither does he interact with any of these other cycling journalists. https://twitter.com/gregorbrown
Something isn't right here.
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