Question weather vs cycling

[ciranda]

This is the topic where we figure out if cycling competitions can coexist with 'weather'.

 

[Anderis]

Is this "weather" a slang word for something I was not aware of?

Otherwise how can a race take place without any weather? There's always some.

 

[Krokro]

Wtf is this? I'm so mindf*cked atm.

 

[DJ Sprtsch]

I like it with weather.
But changing weather conditions in a TT is a bummer.

 

[RedheadDane]

I think all bike races should be held in space, in order to avoid weather.

 

[SafeBet]

The only races without weather I can think of are those Zwift gimmicks I was forced to watch out of desperation during lockdown and they were so incredibly bad that I switched to Temptation Island.

So yeah I guess I choose weather.

 

[gregrowlerson]

This is the topic where we figure out if cycling competitions can coexist with 'weather'.

The track cycling thread is elsewhere.

 

[gregrowlerson]

I was already finding it nigh on impossible to keep up with all the goings on on the forum during this condensed season, and now I find myself wasting time on this...

 

[gregrowlerson]

Slightly more seriously, wind is good on a flat stage (head wind on a MTF is not so good), but rain is not that good (except for Nibali) for the extra danger that it creates (though that doesn't mean that I agree with Tony Martin neutralisations) and maybe the riders are more likely to get sick if they are racing in 40 degree heat one day, 15 degree and heavy rain the next.

 

[BlueRoads]

Well, the question is not as stupid as it sounds. So far I'd say: Koronin: No. Me: Depends. Everyone else: Yes! But to find out whether this really is how things stand, we could use numbers. So, everybody, vote. (I can't as depends is not on the menu.)

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm also on team "Depends", there are times when neutralisation/cancelling really is the only option.
However, I also think that the "depends" should be aimed, not only at the weather but also the race.
The kind of weather in Harrogate last year would probably have been a reason for cancellation if it had happened during a stage of the Tour de Yorkshire.
Three years ago, a stage in the Tour of Denmark was cancelled because of bad weather, the same kind of weather might not have been a cause for cancellation in a bigger race, but since many riders rode as prep for the Bergen World Championships they obviously weren't going to risk their health.

 

[Leinster]

Obviously extremes of any kind of weather are not good for bike races. We’ve seen stages of the Tours of Dubai/AbuDhabi cancelled because of heat and wind in the past, I think I recall the Tour of Utah cancelling a stage due to the threat of lightning, and snow has declared roads impassable during all the Grand Tours at some stage.

But a lot of racing that happens in the near-cancel conditions is the racing that we end up remembering for longer. Say what you will about the Yorkshire Worlds course, the race was great stuff. The bit we could watch, anyway.

 

[Broccolidwarf]

This is the topic where we figure out if cycling competitions can coexist with 'weather'.

I'd like to see races take part in a vacuum!

 

[Leinster]

I'd like to see races take part in a vacuum!

“How are the Colombians still breathing so easily..?”

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Too bad we can't do rank order pools. Which things you like best with cycling? Rank order from like most to like least.
Weather, gravity, bicycles, blood transfusions, ambiance, toothpaste, Android, northwest.

 

[RedheadDane]

Too bad we can't do rank order pools. Which things you like best with cycling? Rank order from like most to like least.
Weather, gravity, bicycles, blood transfusions, ambiance, toothpaste, Android, northwest.

I'd definitely put bicycles at number 1.

 

[Koronin]

Technically you cannot hold an outdoor event of any kind without weather. A sunny day in the 80's F is weather. I wouldn't consider holding any kind of outdoor event in the middle of a hurricane (also weather).
Unless you are holding the event indoors you are going to contend with weather. Heck even indoors there is artificial "weather". Just ask NFL teams that have claimed the air conditioning can create wind.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

I like all kinds of weather, even now at 11.59pm local time and 'pitch dark' weather outside right now
Speaking darkness reminds me of The Lion King's skeleton farewell ride in Calabria 1K promenade TT in a Giro prologue late evening in mid 00's. Quite a spectacle.
Edit : reading Koronin I remember participating in a Tri olympic distance in early 90's which was completed even with wind gusts up to 25 m/s, worst during cycling discipline. I think that must be the limit.

 

[Tonton]

The weather is a part of outdoor sports, sometimes reshuffles the cards, After that, you like it or you don't: like it when it gave Senna with a lesser car his breakthrough in Monaco, and I thought that the stoppage robbed him of his first win, but I also think that the NIce stage this year should have been neutralized. You saw me coming...I'm biased but I admit it.

Stage races may be different. A one day race, one can stop, the few gladiators who make it write a page in their biography: LBL '80. Some not so great riders can brag that they raced it and finished it. Respect. For great riders, I think about Fons decried for being soft because he couldn't handle being the new Merckx, he was 4th if I remember correctly. What a Champion he was.

Entertainment vs. safety, where you draw the line, I don't know. But watching the snow and sub-zero cold in an NFL game, the rain during that Seattle vs. Kansas-City game twenty years ago, there is something to say about the Man vs. Nature, hundreds of thousands of years struggle for mankind that every once in awhile we win. I was in the middle of hurricane Isaiah chasing for my outdoor furniture at work being blown away. Facing the wind I could hardly walk; humbled with rain on my face. But I felt a deep sense of freedom, a timeless feeling I think. I loved it.

 

[Zoetemelk-fan]

Speaking limits, mud slides as in the Tour stage 19 is definately a show stopper.
I haven't seen LBL'80 but watched Gavia Giro stage in '88, which set a dipstick for future limits.
But races like Harrogate '19, Flanders '85 or P-R '02 are definately high on my list.

 

[Cookster15]

Oops. I Answered thinking the question was about me doing races in "weather". I answered no. But of course if its watching pros, then yes I like "weather" ....