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Liège-Bastogne-Liège 2021 (April 25th)

Page 23 - Get up to date with the latest news, scores & standings from the Cycling News Community.
Yeah, I don't get the actively disliking riders either. There are riders I'm indifferent towards - mainly if I haven't heard about them, for now - but straight up hoping they won't win?
I have a hard time disliking riders as well, but I'm open to the idea that someone else might dislike them for a variety of reasons.
What's the problem if a person hopes that a certain rider won't win?
 
I have a hard time disliking riders as well, but I'm open to the idea that someone else might dislike them for a variety of reasons.
What's the problem if a person hopes that a certain rider won't win?

I can't quite explain it. It just seems like sometimes, there are people who don't care who wins, as long as it isn't [Rider X]. Or will complain endlessly if said rider does indeed win, even if they did everything correctly.
 
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I have no problem with fans liking or disliking any rider and for any reason

This is why we follow sport . Its a partisan pastime and in a way that is its purpose. Most sport provides fans with outlets for passion and tribalism . Otherwise many young men might be fighting on the streets to vent those feelings

And in fairness no one of us really know any of these riders. So our likes and dislikes are bias feelings and that is ok too

Statistics would say one in every 25 riders in a psychopath . So that is about 7/8 riding the Tour de France alone
Just because we see a picture of them hugging someone we are supposed to say 'hey that's a great guy'?
Sadam Hussien hugged people

The point is following sport is a complex past time and we want it to also be emotional.
We prefer the story of the flawed hero or the underdog who does well or the guy who has to overcome so many obstacles to win one stage of the Giro or the guy who was told to give up he would never make it but fought back to win a big race
This is what Hollywood gives us and this is what we want

Pogacar seems like a nice kid but it is hard to get emotionally involved in his victories unless I suppose you are Slovenian
It seems to come too easily to him and he seems so distant from it all as if he is riding around a park with his mates
There are so many riders in the peloton who want it so badly but will never get a sniff of what he will achieve
You can admire his talent but not be moved or engaged in his victories


(BTW about 2%-3% of the population is gay yet i never hear of gay pro cyclists ?)
 
Pogacar seems like a nice kid but it is hard to get emotionally involved in his victories unless I suppose you are Slovenian
It seems to come too easily to him and he seems so distant from it all as if he is riding around a park with his mates
There are so many riders in the peloton who want it so badly but will never get a sniff of what he will achieve
You can admire his talent but not be moved or engaged in his victories

^^It's interesting how the "struggle" makes a lot of athletes more likable. I have to admit that I'm cheering for Froome to come back, and my feelings for him changed after the 2018 Giro. Before that he was on a continual upward trajectory without any real setbacks, on a dominant team, so most of my emotional energy around him was focused on who could beat him/Sky. That Giro ride showed that he was more than just a team, that he had a ton of grit and desire.

I'm also a sucker for riders who look like they're giving it 110% -- Alaphilippe for example, Roglic, same with Nibali in his prime, and MvDP/Wout -- maybe they're fooling me but when I see MvDP collapse after a big effort you know he's given it his all.

Conversely -- and this might also be just my perception -- riders who make it look easy (Pogacar) or ride with what seems to be timidity (Quintana) or seem to always be underperforming (Landa) -- I tend to be a bit cooler on.

Regarding teams: I'm pretty actively neutral on teams, although I do prefer certain ones (DQS, any French team, any US team) for partly nationalistic reasons...
 
It's really hard to argue about why someone likes or dislikes a rider. Personally, I don't seriously dislike Pogacar - my feelings towards him are mostly neutral with a slightly negative touch. That's not down to how he rides - he does everything right. It's not about him being an unpleasant, arrogant guy - he isn't. I just have my favourites and I think I have a sweet spot for riders who come across amiable, sweet or emotional and he is just very cool and a bit offish, even when he won the Tour there were no great emotions. Neither has he ever shown anything like tears or being seriously touched (from what I've seen, I don't see Insta or something), which is understandable, because, and that's the second important reason I suppose, there never was a need for him to be. I haven't seen him fail. He just came along and conquered everything. Okay, so he lost Itzulia against Roglic, but that was hardly a bad loss. So, like someone suggested here, there is no "story" attached to him, how he fought for years, how he lost badly against so-and-so, how he crashed and lost the race in xy, how he was injured in yz, so that now I feel he deserves it. Well, of course he deserves it! But there is no epic justice he provokes.
The team he rides for and the ITT don't help.
I respect him and his clear head though. But I just can't like him, for now.
There were some teary eye moments on the tour podium and yesterday too. But of course he is no Alaphilippe for example Who lets all emotions out....He is also only 22, Alaphilippe for example has lost his father. Tadej, luckily, seems so have been spared from those hardships.

But Tadej also had to fight. In his early years he was always behind his teammates as he was super super tiny (I have some pictures, he was like 20 cm shorter than Ziga Jerman for example who is his age). He was always called “tamau”, little one and had to fight fight fight to hang on. Only in 2016 he seemed to grow and things changed for him.

He seems like a genuine sweet and friendly guy when you see him with his teammates and old slovenian friends. Just very humble and a tiny bit shy.

He is also sponsoring his old club now, which is now renamed to “Pogi Team”. Apparently all his personal sponsor money goes to that club now. He keeps only what he gets from his team wage (ok that is enough to live from :cool:). I find that a remarkable thing for a 22-year old to do, to be this involved and giving back already.
 
There were some teary eye moments on the tour podium and yesterday too. But of course he is no Alaphilippe for example Who lets all emotions out....He is also only 22, Alaphilippe for example has lost his father. Tadej, luckily, seems so have been spared from those hardships.

But Tadej also had to fight. In his early years he was always behind his teammates as he was super super tiny (I have some pictures, he was like 20 cm shorter than Ziga Jerman for example who is his age). He was always called “tamau”, little one and had to fight fight fight to hang on. Only in 2016 he seemed to grow and things changed for him.

He seems like a genuine sweet and friendly guy when you see him with his teammates and old slovenian friends. Just very humble and a tiny bit shy.

He is also sponsoring his old club now, which is now renamed to “Pogi Team”. Apparently all his personal sponsor money goes to that club now. He keeps only what he gets from his team wage (ok that is enough to live from :cool:). I find that a remarkable thing for a 22-year old to do, to be this involved and giving back already.

Marco Brenner apparently does that, too, with the sponsoring of Auto Eder I think...

Honestly, to me this is all more... well, the guys are more like characters in a series to me, I guess (so HelloDolly is probably right with the Hollywood stuff). I don't follow them other than on these cycling sites. I often don't even watch the podium ceremonies... I have a suspicion that if I met all those cyclists in real life, I would fall for Geraint Thomas, who really isn't my favourite cyclist.

Hodeg though, is really a nice guy, at least that's the story I've built myself around that Keisse photo... don't even know what it was like in real life and don't try to find out eagerly... wouldn't want to destroy my own story...
 
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I just don't see anything wrong with what looks like a very sensible shoe. I mean, as long as it is orthopedically sound...
 
Y'all need to get a grip. Pogi won because he rode like a 10 year seasoned and credentialed pro. Roglic went to sleep on a steep ramp at 12 km behind two of Pogi's teammatesx screening the gap that grew and then did absolutely nothing but contribute to a big gap that grew as they should. It was the deciding moment. Sorry to anyone that thought Tadej didn't pull enough or that The Old and Stellar Dude started his sprint too soon. After 160 miles of racing that's how the minor moves made the race when everyone is gassed. Tadej may have saved a nano element of energy less sitting on wheels (JA conserved alot after a good Wednesday effort and wisely let his team modulate for him) and the guy that actually deserved to win on pure credentials finished behind the podium after leading out the sprint. I absolutely loved that our American broadcaster broke down the positioning and sprint errors that were made by Valverde, et al after 6 hours or racing like it was some business park criterium. He should know better or go smoke another bowl in Bend or just stfu. Horner was analyzing beyond his pay grade.
It's BS to critique beyond the challenges the race poses to the riders and how they get there is somewhat chance after that long in the saddle. Pogi deserved it, Alaphalipe won on Wednesday and Roglic was probably as strong as any of them but just used his efforts and was marked heavily. My biggest hero was Gaudu. That's a long ride for a credentialed, lightweight freelancer. Chapeau to him!
I think you are discussing different things here. I don't think anyone is arguing the way he won here which was very good.

As to the other comments, there is the underdog factor to liking the cyclist or the team, like some of you have said. I feel it is like human nature to cheer for the underdog. Froome and Contador were good examples of it. I don't think they had as many fans when they were winning with ease as opposed to the end of their careers. Once you start seeing that the athlete is "human" or "mortal", after all, people start liking them more.
 
Sometimes winning too much or too easily is a reason enough for people to wish you don't win anymore.

And in cycling there's also this aspect of different specialities.

I haven't developed a dislike for Pogacar yet but it feels kinda wrong that the best climber in the world would be able to outsprint someone like Alaphilippe on a flat finish for a big win.

Alaphilippe's 2019 really rubbed me the wrong way, for example. First he won MSR after beating Sagan, Naesen and Kwiatkowski in a flat sprint, then won the Fleche, then won the ITT during the Tour and then finished 2nd on Tourmalet during the Tour. C'mon, you need to show some weakness somewhere, being good in every terrain is against the laws of nature. :p

Regarding specialities, big one day races, and grand tours, even in this era I don't think I'll find myself having problem with grand tour winner winning races like LBL, Lombardia, or even MSR that doesn't end in mass sprint. I didn't have problem either when a former Tour winner did top ten in Roubaix not so long ago.

Then former Roubaix top 10/ E3 winner won the Tour, that time I felt uncomfortable, though :D
 
Regarding specialities, big one day races, and grand tours, even in this era I don't think I'll find myself having problem with grand tour winner winning races like LBL, Lombardia, or even MSR that doesn't end in mass sprint. I didn't have problem either when a former Tour winner did top ten in Roubaix not so long ago.

Then former Roubaix top 10/ E3 winner won the Tour, that time I felt uncomfortable, though :D
Go back further, the 80s and early GC winners were strong one-day riders, and regularly won monuments or WC: Hinault, Fignon, Lemond, Roche, Bugno. Specialization (and given the timing, perhaps something clinic related?) changed that.
 
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Go back further, the 80s and early GC winners were strong one-day riders, and regularly won monuments or WC: Hinault, Fignon, Lemond, Roche, Bugno. Specialization (and given the timing, perhaps something clinic related?) changed that.
Lemond arguably started off the specialization era. After 86, he basically skipped the classics season for most of the rest of his career (oddly enough, he got a top 10 in Roubaix in 92). Indurain rode MSR and LBL most years, but not always as a serious contender.

Armstrong then kicked that up a gear, and it’s kind of been the model ever since. The point has been made here that there has surely never been a rider simultaneously with such good results at stage racing and such poor results in one-day racing as Froome.
 
Something complete random.
Roglic at todays news in Slovenian: "at first it was too slow for me, then it was too fast for me" :D

Those who thinks that this guy is a boring in interviews I assure you that this seems to be language barrier and he's not like that when he talks in slovenian language. He's very open, honest and even laugh sometimes. For real! ;-)
 
It's simply a sports things to like/dislike teams/riders or not to care about athletes/teams. I grew up an NFL and NHL fan. I have my favorite team and a few others I like and teams I cheer for whoever (within reason is playing against them). There are a handful of teams in both leagues I won't ever cheer for and when they play each other I don't care about the game at all.

As for Pogacar, like about 99% of the peloton I just don't have any feelings one way or the other for him.
 
As for Pogacar, like about 99% of the peloton I just don't have any feelings one way or the other for him.

You know, since there are significantly more than 100 riders in the pro peloton, from a mathematical perspective it would mean that at least part of Valverde is included in those 99%. So... the question is; which parts of Valverde do you cheer for?
 

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