Renshaw back to being leadout?

[Waterloo Sunrise]

Quality road racing, where the Olympic title might go to Mark Cavendish, who has far from the biggest aerobic output in the peloton?

Awful that they've banned hills now isn't it. Just going to have to to watch sprint after sprint after sprint as thats all there is in road cycling.

As for the idea track racing is not gimmicky - please be serious.

Madison racing, and points racing, are dictionary quality examples of a gimmick, designed to make the process of circuling 250m on a bike entertaining for spectators.

 

[woodie]

Awful that they've banned hills now isn't it. Just going to have to to watch sprint after sprint after sprint as thats all there is in road cycling.

As for the idea track racing is not gimmicky - please be serious.

Madison racing, and points racing, are dictionary quality examples of a gimmick, designed to make the process of circuling 250m on a bike entertaining for spectators.

Which are two of many races on the track and a lot of spectators have no idea what is happening half the time anyway.

Do you race a bike? Because you don't seem to have much respect for the riders. If you prefer the timed events just watch them

 

[Frosty]

Well i enjoyed the points race. Luck does come into it but then any race with people racing together will require some sort of luck. People get boxed in in road sprints and dont win despite them being the best sprinter in the field.

Feel sorry for Ben Swift that he wasnt lapped but was still a lap down but thats the way the sport is. At the end of that number of laps there are always going to be some stragglers - and people who have taken laps normally suffer and can end up giving the lap back. If it was that easy to make the lap up then more would have done it.

 

[Tei6chai]

Cycling can be about lots of things, but we're now heading towards an Olympics where there isn't a single individual event that rewards pure aerobic output. As such it loses significant connection with quality road racing, and becomes rather gimmicky

And where, exactly, in the traditional road calendar does "pure aerobic output" typically win you anything but a TT?

You seem to be conflating the words "gimmicky" and "entertaining".

The TdF's "aerobic output" era of Indurain, Armstrong and EPO was probably the most boring decade in the race's recorded history (even a few flashes from Pantani couldn't balance out that snoozefest).

Thankfully, there are other "gimmicky" races in the road calendar, to give the rest of us something worth watching.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

At club level in Australia, most of the young riders ride road and track. Track used to be very popular in Australia but as with many other countries now, the road is the more popular. Australia has a long history of world track champions. Track is obviously good for sprinting, positioning and riding tightly in a bunch. It has to help with bike handling. I think it all helps make a more versatile rider.

track above all teaches speed. basic speed. so any rider from track has great level of speed and are all quite fast therefore and pretty good itt guys. at leats short itt's. of course rest depends all on track disciplines too.

 

[movingtarget]

Awful that they've banned hills now isn't it. Just going to have to to watch sprint after sprint after sprint as thats all there is in road cycling.

As for the idea track racing is not gimmicky - please be serious.

Madison racing, and points racing, are dictionary quality examples of a gimmick, designed to make the process of circuling 250m on a bike entertaining for spectators.

Many track fans know exactly what is going on and they enjoy it. It is no different to the public watching one bike race a year and wanting to know how people can watch a road race for four hours when nothing is happening, according to them. I prefer road and used to watch a lot more track but I can appreciate both.

 

[abbaskip]

A lap is a lap, and it has to be on the "main field", it can't be on everyone, otherwise, what if two guys get a lap together?

Swift needed to get another lap, at the same time as Meyer, simple.

People should also remember, the advantage for attacking later, is that until you get a lap, you're also "winning sprints".

So if on a sprint lap, you're 3/4 of a lap infront, you get the sprint points, THEN the lap points assuming you make up that last quarter after you cross the line.