New to cycling world, Can anyone help out?

[RedheadDane]

Naah... those teams does have a very tiny blink-and-you'll-miss-it flag-band on the rider's torso.

ianstannard: In case you're wondering about "those teams", some teams have a rather... minimalistic... approach to their nat champ jerseys.

An example would be Sagan's Slovakian championship kit.

 

[Buffalo Soldier]

Naah... those teams does have a very tiny blink-and-you'll-miss-it flag-band on the rider's torso.

 

[RedheadDane]

I eat my words...

 

[mariposa]

Agree with a lot of what has been said. The only thing I would really add is don't just look at the winners, although it is nice when one of your favourites wins of course. Watch how much work the domestiques do for the team leaders. I used to love cheering for Chente Garcia Acosta when he rode even if he didn't win much and now have a soft spot for Vasil Kiryenka and Imanol Erviti amongst others. If you are going to follow Sky you will see people like Vasil, Geraint Thomas, David Lopez etc etc working their buts off for the team leader.

We often only see the last 50K or so of a race on TV. If there is a race or a stage of a race on in it's entirety it is often worth watching to see how the work horses allow and control the breaks. Sometimes this part of the race can be more exciting than the finish in my opinion.

 

[SaxonUK]

I would also like to know some riders wear jerseys of their country. For example, Greipel wears a jersey with the German flag colours, why is that and how do they earn it?

Look out for time trials though, as the national road race champion isn't permitted to wear their nations colors in the time trials, that honor goes to the time trial champion of that nation.

 

[will10]

I would also like to know some riders wear jerseys of their country. For example, Greipel wears a jersey with the German flag colours, why is that and how do they earn it?

http://forum.cyclingnews.com/showthread.php?t=17571

 

[TheBean]

Great thread of discussion, throughout.

Welcome to the sport, OP.

As far as rider rivalries and being a fan goes, I am a fan of rivalries. So, for the classics, I am a fan of Boonen as well as Cancellara. Either's accomplishments would not be as significant if they did not occur (often) against each other. Cycling can be similar to boxing in this way, where a purist can be a fan of a great fight more than a fan of an individual fighter.

I'm also a fan of up-and-comers, or new splashes of talent such as the emerging Sagan and Kittel.

Being American, I usually like to see US riders do well, but was never a fan of Landis. My national loyalty for Lance waned after about his 3rd victory when it became apparent that everything wasn't on the up-and-up.

An interesting thing about cycling is that there are often intra-squad rivalries (Wiggins and Froome, Lemond and Hinault) that seem FAR more bitter than rivalries between teams. That said, there are national rivalries between teams from the same country. Here, Trek, Garmin, and BMC are rivals. This doesn't seem to play a role in many races, but it was notable when Garmin chose to reel in break containing Hincapie a few tours ago, thus depriving Hincapie from a yellow jersey.

One of the best things about being a cycling fan, IMO, is the rich history of the sport. For any new fan, I would suggest going to a local bike shop and asking for suggestions about some good reading about the sport's past.

 

[RedheadDane]

As far as rider rivalries and being a fan goes, I am a fan of rivalries. So, for the classics, I am a fan of Boonen as well as Cancellara. Either's accomplishments would not be as significant if they did not occur (often) against each other. Cycling can be similar to boxing in this way, where a purist can be a fan of a great fight more than a fan of an individual fighter.

I can only agree about the Boonen-Cancellara rivalry when it comes to the classics.
For the last two years Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix has been, if not (at least in my opinion) exactly boring, then at least somewhat of a let-down because first Cancellara and then Boonen crashed out of Flanders and was unable to start P-R.

As for the in-team rivalries; I think a good fairly resent one would be Cavendish and Greipel. Honestly; to be it looks like they get a long a lot better after not being team-mates anymore.

 

[ianstannard]

Is Geraint Thomas considered a top rider?

 

[Netserk]

Is Geraint Thomas considered a top rider?

Do you consider him a top rider?

 

[ianstannard]

Do you consider him a top rider?

How do I know, I have on started watching cycling a few weeks ago lol.

 

[Zinoviev Letter]

There isn't really a definitive answer to that question. Thomas is clearly talented and he is already a very good all round support rider - any leader would be happy to see his name in their squad. But to what degree he will develop into a regular winner in his own right isn't yet clear. Some obvious talents never do.

He has the additional problem that while he's good at most things, he's primarily a rouleur, most obviously strong on the flats, the rolling countryside and the smaller hills, strengths which are hard to turn into wins, unless he develops a faster sprint or better climbing legs. Cycling is a bit unfair like that - some specialties bring you glory, some others are more likely to bring your leader glory. Perhaps the area where people have been expecting him to break through is the cobbled classics, but he hasn't done so yet.

Of course, he's at Sky, so for all we know he will turn up at some point having lost half his body weight and climbing like he has a rocket strapped to his bike. In the meantime, this Paris Nice is a big opportunity for him to prove his credentials.

 

[Cimber]

ianstannard, you seem to think cycling teams are like Football teams? Cycling fans mostly (not always always though) support individual riders instead of teams, and there is no big rivalry between teams.

Totally agree. However, that is very different from the newer British fan base who actually have a football approach, and root for Sky as if it was a football team. As a result that might be the reason that some of us old timers dont always fancy those fans and Sky as a team (but we still can root for several of the Sky riders. Personally I like Nieve and Henao fx).

 

[gunara]

Guys, I have some basic questions:
How do teams program their race schedules and trainings exactly? Especially Pro-Conti teams with the uncertainty of WT wildcards etc.. Some of their rosters don't seem to have many enough good riders for WT races. I don't think they should just show up in WT races with weak B-team or tired leaders (because he raced all year).
And how do non-WT big races organizers limit the participants? By invitation only? Or do teams send application to participate? Is there any chance they turn down WT teams applications?

Is Geraint Thomas considered a top rider?

I think he's good at anything Kwiatkowski is good at. But only a half to 3/4 as good so far. And Kwiat is a top rider and younger.

 

[Catwhoorg]

Good question, the basic composition of the races are:

For .HC races
UCI ProTeams (max 70%)
UCI professional continental teams
UCI continental teams of the country
National teams of the country of the organiser

For .1 races
UCI ProTeams (max 50%)
UCI professional continental teams
UCI continental teams
National teams

For .2 races
UCI professional continental teams of the country
UCI continental teams
National teams
Regional and club teams

The exact process of determining what teams get invites to what races is mainly down to the organisers inviting teams and teams deciding if this is a race they want to do. It seems mostly they have a core block they invite routinely, then make up the numbers to the maximum with later additions.

I don't think there is a uniform approach.

 

[gunara]

Good question, the basic composition of the races are:

For .HC races
UCI ProTeams (max 70%)
UCI professional continental teams
UCI continental teams of the country
National teams of the country of the organiser

For .1 races
UCI ProTeams (max 50%)
UCI professional continental teams
UCI continental teams
National teams

For .2 races
UCI professional continental teams of the country
UCI continental teams
National teams
Regional and club teams

The exact process of determining what teams get invites to what races is mainly down to the organisers inviting teams and teams deciding if this is a race they want to do. It seems mostly they have a core block they invite routinely, then make up the numbers to the maximum with later additions.

I don't think there is a uniform approach.

Thanks, Catwhoorg, that's very helpful. The maximum percentage of WT teams explain it for me.
And I still have my first question I mean some teams like MTN or NetApp have big squads with many types of rider that enable them to look for wildcards from WT races all year long, but other than guys like Ciolek, Konig, or possibly Gerdemann, I don't see anyone is on WT leaders' level, and they can't just ride everything from PN to Lombardia, can they? To me IAM is possibly the only one that looks able to just plan their schedules like a WT teams. I can also understand the schedule of French, Italian, and Spanish teams more as their calendars are more familiar to me.

 

[Netserk]

Good question, the basic composition of the races are:

For .HC races
UCI ProTeams (max 70%)
UCI professional continental teams
UCI continental teams of the country
National teams of the country of the organiser

For .1 races
UCI ProTeams (max 50%)
UCI professional continental teams
UCI continental teams
National teams

For .2 races
UCI professional continental teams of the country
UCI continental teams
National teams
Regional and club teams

The exact process of determining what teams get invites to what races is mainly down to the organisers inviting teams and teams deciding if this is a race they want to do. It seems mostly they have a core block they invite routinely, then make up the numbers to the maximum with later additions.

I don't think there is a uniform approach.

Though as with many UCI (and cycling in general) rules, they are somewhere in between rules and guidelines. I'm quite certain fx. that more than 50% of the Strade teams were WT (11 out of 18 teams were WT)