What do you call teams in your head

[Armchair Cyclist]

Some teams have short, simple durable names, so when I think of the team of Valverde, I think Movistar.

But others are either novel or far too lengthy (Intermarche-Wanty-Goubert Materiaux), unwieldy (Team EF Education First-Drapac powered by Cannondale), corny (Ineos Grenadiers) or objectionable (Bahrain Victorious) to be the name that comes to mind, or even to lips unless we are obliged by speaking professionally about the teams.

There are obvious abbreviations (usually discrediting second sponsors), but I suspect I am not alone in having less logical and obvious other names I give the teams.

So I am afraid that I never think 'Groupama', but always of FdJ;
I think "EF1" for Education First;
"Blue stripes"before the letters DSM come to mind;
still "Sky" rather than Ineos;
"BEX" rather than Bike Exchange

but most strangely, "Lemon Juice" for Jumbo Visma, on the grounds that when they were LottoNL-Jumbo, their trigramme was TLJ, which I mentally switched to PLJ, thinking of the lemon juice brand that was a constant of the kitchen cupboard when I was a kid.

So how does anybody else annoy the sponsors by totally failing to get their names into their awareness?

 

[RedheadDane]

For me it's two things: Lazyness, and which sponsor has stuck longest with a team. Hence why it will always be "Lotto", "Quickstep" and "FDJ" to me. The main exception being those teams that are named for countries.

BTW, "FDJ" refers to both the team Uttrup rides on, and the team Pinot rides on. I just assume people can guess which team I'm talking about based on context. (Though the Women's team have an easier full name now).
Of course, I generally refuse to make differentations between men's teams and women's teams: "Movistar" refers both to the team Norsgaard riders on, and the team Norsgaard rides on.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

For me it's two things: Lazyness, and which sponsor has stuck longest with a team. Hence why it will always be "Lotto", "Quickstep" and "FDJ" to me. The main exception being those teams that are named for countries.

So do you still call UAE Lampre?

 

[RedheadDane]

So do you still call UAE Lampre?

No, I just include the 'Team' part.

But, actually, in my head I mostly refer to teams as "This Team", "That Team", and "The other Team". But even I realise that makes for a rather confusing conversation.

 

[tobydawq]

No, I just include the 'Team' part.

But, actually, in my head I mostly refer to teams as "This Team", "That Team", and "The other Team".

Do you really do that?

 

[RedheadDane]

Do you really do that?

I just don't use teamnames in my head.

 

[tobydawq]

I just don't use teamnames in my head.

That sounds rather bizarre...

 

[tobydawq]

I mostly just call them by the first word in their names. As long as it isn't the word Team.

 

[RedheadDane]

That sounds rather bizarre...

I don't need to tell myself "Well, that was an attack by rider from [Team X]".

 

[tobydawq]

I don't need to tell myself "Well, that was an attack by rider from [Team X]".

But you do tell yourself that it was a rider from "this team" or "that team"?

I also hardly think that's the only situation where it could be handy to mentally refer to a team....

 

[RedheadDane]

But you do tell yourself that it was a rider from "this team" or "that team"?

That depends on which team it was.

 

[Netserk]

Did you know that Vine broke his contract with this team to change to that team?

 

[RedheadDane]

Did you know that Vine broke his contract with this team to change to that team?

No... he broke his contract with That Team to change to The Other Team. Get your facts straight!

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I generally just use first sponsor as the name. Sometimes I'll forgot they've changed so I often still call Ineos Sky, Groupama FDJ, dsm sunweb, Intermarche Wanty.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

I just don't use teamnames in my head.

What if four or more riders from at least four different teams attack together and you have no clue who the riders are?

 

[RedheadDane]

What if four or more riders from at least four different teams attack together and you have no clue who the riders are?

"Awesome attack! Who the frick are those guys?"

 

[Samu Cuenca]

"Awesome attack! Who the frick are those guys?"

But don't you look at their jerseys to try and narrow the options?

 

[tobydawq]

But don't you look at their jerseys to try and narrow the options?

She's evidently not going to admit to anything of the sort. One can only wonder why when it quite obviously is implausible what she says.

 

[RedheadDane]

She's evidently not going to admit to anything of the sort. One can only wonder why when it quite obviously is implausible what she says.

I know what teams I'm looking at. I just don't verbalise their names in my head.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

She's evidently not going to admit to anything of the sort. One can only wonder why when it quite obviously is implausible what she says.

Well I do believe the part about her being confused whenever there are more than three riders/teams on the screen.

 

[tobydawq]

Well I do believe the part about her being confused whenever there are more than three riders/teams on the screen.

As long as there are not 36.5.

 

[RedheadDane]

As long as there are not 36.5.

That would be rather gruesome indeed!

 

[lemon cheese cake]

As long as there are not 36.5.

Terrible team name as cutting riders in half is probably illegal just like cloning riders and they also only have 23

 

[Netserk]

I know what teams I'm looking at. I just don't verbalise their names in my head.

Some can't verbalise anything in their head. I guess you are the half full glass.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

I generally just use first sponsor as the name. Sometimes I'll forgot they've changed so I often still call Ineos Sky, Groupama FDJ, dsm sunweb, Intermarche Wanty.

I mean, Wanty still sponsors Intermarche.