Newieadonna doing a coming-of-age performance just 7 years after she got a top 5 in the Giro d'italia.
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He's just witnessed something unique, one of a kind, rare, unrepeatable... that's how he's supposed to feel and understand.The buyer who happens across it because they're surfing the channel is a novice to the sport, though, so it doesn't matter whether this is something new and innovative or something which is par for the course as long as it is new to them. Cycling wasn't new when any of us started watching it, but we all got bit by the bug. Saying "the women have never had races with this much climbing before" if anything suggests that this is a one-off, so if you were excited or inspired by it, it isn't normally like this. Saying "the women have never had races with this much climbing before in such a high profile race" is more accurate and doesn't lose anything to the sell (because the Giro Rosa of a few years ago where they did have multi-col stages and the likes did not have anything like the audience reach or coverage that the TDFF has had).
That are finesses.I just feel like they're selling the previous generations, and the race organisers with less clout than ASO, short in order to present an ASO-sanitised version of the history of the sport whitewashing their entire period of refusing to turn the cameras on at Flèche Wallonne and taking as many steps as they could to do as little as possible for women's cycling, only to then turn around and demand we congratulate them on how they're so much better than everybody else because they finally caught up with the pack. Their status and the branding may mean they may be able to run where others could only walk, but you'd think if they want to encourage people to watch more (and they should, since they have a stake in Unipublic, and they run several of the women's classics, and also need to sell hosting rights for future editions of this race), then directing them towards other events that may enable them to see more of what they saw here and drive the audience figures up might be advantageous.
Blythe's just a shill - and there's nothing inherently wrong with that as whoever pays the piper calls the tune - but he just isn't very good at doing the shilling without it being too transparent.
I don't understand why they've given the super-combatif to Vos. They should have given it to Kasia for her coming of age performance.
Thanks for sharing those!!I was at the race on Friday, near the Breitfirst (technically, the continuation of the Platzerwalsel). Here are some shots of an excellent day and location to watch the race...!
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Crusher of dreams, AVV:
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Vollering. Notice the chainline...! This was a 10% stretch.
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Longo Borghini. Again, that chainline...!
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Kasia Niewadoma is very catholic it seems (like most Polish). She even has a cross tattoo'd somewhere in the valley between two hills. I leave this for your imagination!
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Second chase group after the first 3 riders.
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The yellow jersey / Vos peloton
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Clavicula cranks...(and I dig those wheels!)
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Frain didn't look happy. She would finish OTL
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Voiture Balai. I've been in that situation once. Not a good memory!
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What is the greatest accumulation of vertical meters in a female race?What on earth is Orla on about regarding Niewiadoma? How is this a coming of age as a general classification rider, she's been a general classification rider for at least seven years?!
WHAT ON EARTH IS BLYTHE ON ABOUT REGARDING NEVER DOING THIS AMOUNT OF CLIMBING?
They've been up fricking Stelvio, Mortirolo, Zoncolan, Ventoux?!
Yes, multi-col stages have been lacking but this is the Vosges, not the high Alps!?
If, after the European Championships final today, the pundits started yelling that no women's match had ever ended with a goal in the second half of extra time, it would have sold how dramatic it felt... but it would also have been pretty objectively false, no?He's just witnessed something unique, one of a kind, rare, unrepeatable... that's how he's supposed to feel and understand.
Drama is all that matters.If, after the European Championships final today, the pundits started yelling that no women's match had ever ended with a goal in the second half of extra time, it would have sold how dramatic it felt... but it would also have been pretty objectively false, no?
The problem is that most of the toughest profiles date back from the 90s when Luperini was around or the likes of Joane Somarriba, before the advent of Unipuerto stages in the early 2000s that Edita Pucinskaite complained about. In recent years the tendency has definitely been toward Unipuerto, and getting hold of profiles from some of the smaller races can be tough especially going back 10-12 years unfortunately.What is the greatest accumulation of vertical meters in a female race?
From what I've seen of routes, most are mono-climb (or "faux mono-climb" like La Course 2018). I'd think Innsbruck is the hardest profile when you keep distance in mind, but I'm more interested in pure mountain stages.
But hyperbole that is that objectively false reflects poorly on the pundit. If a pundit actually was to say after the game that no women's match had ever been settled in extra time before, then unless they put in a qualifier restricting the data set that made it true, they would be absolutely pilloried for making such an asinine and objectively false comment. After all, it's why Andrew Messick's "California is the fourth Grand Tour" schtick - and Bavarianrider being reduced to talking about the quality of the tarmac in defence of the race - produced so much ridicule. Don't say "they've never done anything like this before", when many of these riders have competed in equally difficult stages less than a month ago. You can easily say "they've never done anything like this on this type of platform before" or "on this kind of stage before", and while I may balk at the shade being thrown on the Giro, the fact of the matter is that the Tour, with full ASO backing, is a superior platform to the Giro, with RCS providing minimal backing.Drama is all that matters.
...the truth is stretchy.
But hyperbole that is that objectively false reflects poorly on the pundit. If a pundit actually was to say after the game that no women's match had ever been settled in extra time before, then unless they put in a qualifier restricting the data set that made it true, they would be absolutely pilloried for making such an asinine and objectively false comment. After all, it's why Andrew Messick's "California is the fourth Grand Tour" schtick - and Bavarianrider being reduced to talking about the quality of the tarmac in defence of the race - produced so much ridicule. Don't say "they've never done anything like this before", when many of these riders have competed in equally difficult stages less than a month ago. You can easily say "they've never done anything like this on this type of platform before" or "on this kind of stage before", and while I may balk at the shade being thrown on the Giro, the fact of the matter is that the Tour, with full ASO backing, is a superior platform to the Giro, with RCS providing minimal backing.
As Red Rick pointed out, the problem seemed to be very much a case of the presentation post-race seeming to be "mission accomplished. The women have had their Tour de France", when this was a nice and promising platform to build on.
What on earth is Orla on about regarding Niewiadoma? How is this a coming of age as a general classification rider, she's been a general classification rider for at least seven years?!
WHAT ON EARTH IS BLYTHE ON ABOUT REGARDING NEVER DOING THIS AMOUNT OF CLIMBING?
They've been up fricking Stelvio, Mortirolo, Zoncolan, Ventoux?!
Yes, multi-col stages have been lacking but this is the Vosges, not the high Alps!?
The part I took exception was when he said that they've never done stages like this before. Which is hyperbolic nonsense as discussed - there were two stages that can compete with these stages in the Giro this year alone.Blythe's right though. If you look at the Women's World Tour, outside of the Tour they have gone over 1000m only five times. Three of those were in the Giro. He said there are not many of those efforts on the calendar, so no-one's training for them.
I am sure you point to races in 2010 or 2016 etc, but cyclists don't tend to train for races that happened several years ago.
Well that depends entirely on the marketability of the race. If it earns revenues for sponsors and shareholders it shall thrive, if not die.I just hope the momentum doesn't slow now and this is seen as a good springboard, because there's so many options out there. “The world is divided into people who do things and people who get the credit. Try, if you can, to belong to the former. There’s far less competition.” - Dwight Morrow