Professional cycling

[karlboss]

It's started a number of times in a number of different threads, so i thought I'd make a dedicated thread.
Why is professional cycling boring? and what can be done to fix it?

In this context I mean boring as in HTC controlling the break all day to deliver Cav to the line, or Liquigas controlling entire Giro stages for a 3km showdown. The absence of GC contenders who are not named Alberto Contador attacking outside the last 3km. Especially with the advent of strongly TT dependent week long races like the Dauphine, Romandie, P-N, etc

Some posters insist it is parcours, doping, the WT license/point structure, race radios and other technical innovations, increased money concentrated in few teams, or riders riding with their shirts open.

As with all things I'm sure the answer lies somewhere in combination, what do you think has been the main contributing factor and when did it all change?

What can be done to change it?

 

[hughmoore]

Its not boring, its a game of chess with lots of strategies and varying tactics going on, lots of sub plots. You have to look closer to understand whats happening.


Hugh

 

[saunaking]

Agree,
Its not boring and its not a problem.
And its good for business.

Cycling is exciting. Despite some of the postings on here, the result of a race is generally in doubt. Compare that with other sports - look at the winning % of top teams/individuals.

People shouldn't get too caught up in very recent history. Yeah Wiggins just won 3 races, doesn't mean he is the next Lance and going to win the TDF every year.

Even when the winner is 'predicted' by many people, its still exciting. Sagan in today's stage, Boonen in PR, Cav in the worlds. Every race can't be a ding-**** battle like Rabottini v Rodriguez on that one stage in the giro.

I guess I just love watching the pros cycling. Even 'boring' races like last years worlds or Contador in the 2011 Giro were exciting to me.

 

[ElChingon]

All sports can be boring but it all depends on what you want out of it. Sure some races lack the attacks and key riders doing their thing due to other goals of the riders at your entertainment's expense.

I do think people want to see the carnage of attacks and counters attacks that devastate some riders in the process and not to mention some good old fashion rivalries between contenders in their specialty. Some of this has been watered down due to the the hugging/buddy/pal/wait for me/I only attack when everyone agree's its ok through majority vote/ aspect which has infiltrated the ProTour as of late. Sure they said they did wait due to this and that in the old days but there were more back stabbing attacks in the old days than there is now, for sure, read up if you don't think so. Heck even inter team rivalries were epic and added to the drama.

I still think its exciting but also do think its a bit more boring than years gone by and I have also alluded to a possible reason but that is in the clinic (link here Clinic Angle), many of you boring commenters didn't participate. Riders for some odd reason fear rivalries and talking about their opposition in any bad light, even stating they are not up to par.

 

[Afrank]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6n_3s7ST1YM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71afFPYQSoI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vucdIUv-eaA&feature=fvwrel
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlGqIXz0HJQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnJ25v2uugs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnCEU9OGR4Q
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf6aQsRDiU

Looks like a pretty exciting sport to me.

 

[karlboss]

I knew I should have put boring in inverted commas.

Sauna king, the folk who state things are boring were writing what a poor stage Rabottini vs Rodriguez was. As all the favourites waited for the final 3km to attackand weren't separated by much at the end.

What I'm really talking about is El Chingon's second paragraph. I'll try to add a poll.

Edit: Afrank that's a good list, but folk will still disagree with you. Cauberg should have been in RV, MSR was still 285km of boredom, with 10km of aggressive riding, already mentioned st 15 of the Giro. Are these folk whinging? Possibly. Other great days this year include days in Turkey and Trentino.

Edit Edit: mods feel free to close this thread, most of the points are covered in the clinic thread.

 

[Morbius]

One fairly simple thing that could be done to stop for teams controlling races (or at least make it harder) would be to reduce the numbers of riders on each team

 

[The Barb]

I like bike.

 

[Hammerhed]

A well-produced, well-commentated televized bike race is not boring: The '09, '10, '11 Giro de Italias were spectacular events, perfectly suited for television. This year's Giro, was, IMM, semi-boring, though I did enjoy the last few stages. However, though I watched every second of the race, including the "bonus" time before the race went "On Air," how anyone can go to road race, stand around all day getting stewed, to watch the boys go by in five minutes, is beyond my ability to comprehend, and I grew up on the sports car endurance racing circuits of Central Florida (Sebring and Daytona)!
However, enjoying even a well done bike race is still an acquired taste, like Scotch or licquorice or, well, you get it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Its not boring, its a game of chess with lots of strategies and varying tactics going on, lots of sub plots. You have to look closer to understand whats happening.


Hugh

Pray tell what the "varying tactics" have been this year.

For the most part, we've seen tightly controlled sprints, tightly controlled reduced sprints for Sagan, and races with way too much ITT mileage for the meagre climbing. It's been far too easy to control.

This year has been a vastly inferior year of racing than 2011 thus far, which in turn was vastly inferior to 2010.

One of the problem is there are a handful of dominant riders with strong teams, so often results are fairly predictable. You can say that the outcome is in doubt, but misjudging a solo breakaway is the only thing that stopped Peter Sagan winning 6 out of 8 stages in California. We were saying Wiggins would win easily as soon as the joke that was the Dauphiné was announced, and lo and behold he did.

One day races have, by and large, been pretty good this year. Omloop het Nieuwsblad, Milan-San Remo, Paris-Roubaix, E3-Prijs, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Rund um den Finanzplatz were all pretty good, after a fashion. De Ronde was a disappointment as riders were very cagey without really knowing the new route, but by and large the only really predictable races were the ones that usually end up that way anyway - Kuurne-Bruxelles-Kuurne, The Official Worst Race In The World® and the annual 2km Subida al Mur de Huy hillclimb event.

Stage races, by contrast, have been woeful. You saw how upset I was by the País Vasco parcours (though a couple of changes/things that hadn't really been noted on the profiles meant my complaints were partially misguided), but that's still one of the best stage races of the year so far. Dunkerque has been good, Tirreno-Adriatico was decent, but generally, there's been a real lack of good racing. Some of the Spanish calendar had some good racing, but Castilla y León and Asturias are both overly short shadows of their former selves, and the Italian calendar appeared to have lost its mind by replacing the hilly Sassuolo stage in Coppi e Bartali with a mid-length ITT.

There have been some pretty mediocre routes to match some pretty bland racing this year. The Dauphiné is truly the nadir, and one of the worst races I have seen in years. Designed to be awful and raced even worse. At least Catalunya had the excuse of the weather ruining the queen stage, even if it was mismanaged as hell. They didn't mean for it to be as crappy as it was, they just misjudged things, overcommitted to plan A and made a mess of things. The ASO actively went out there to make the Dauphiné a worthless race and ruin all of its sense of character, independence and autonomy.

 

[norwegian]

It is not boring.