• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

What type of supporter are you?

What type of supporter are you?


  • Total voters
    83
Obviously we are all fans of professional road racing but I wonder which types of supporter are most present amongst forum users. Since we're in the offseason, I guess it won't do any harm to ask you this question now and start this thread.

Are you a fan of one rider in particular, multiple riders, one team, riders with a certain nationality, ... or do you support every single rider equally? Feel free to comment which riders, teams, ... you support and why if you'd like.

I'll start:

I am a big fan of one team, Deceuninck Quick-Step, so I support every single rider on that team. Even in events like European or World Championships I'll cheer for any rider of 'my' team over my compatriots of other teams.

I've been a fan of the team ever since I started following cycling in 2004-2005 (I suppose it had a lot to do with the emergence of Boonen and my dad being a fan of Mapei and Museeuw before that).
 
I started following cycling around 2008-2009 and for some reason I liked Christian Vande Velde. Mostly because his name sounded cool to me. He became my favourite rider and I cheered for him to do well during Tour de France 2009. But Wiggins was doing better than him and was from the same team and Vande Velde was working for him so I started to root for him too. And then there were the sprint stages during which the other riders were fighting for stage wins. Why not cheer for Farrar who was from the same team?

And before I realised I had become somewhat a fan of the entire Garmin team. It was much more practical to cheer for a team rather than individual riders because the team takes part in all major races so there's always someone present to cheer for.
 
I always have multiple favs, usually 3. Retirements cause reshuffling. The current favs are #1-Nibali (elevated when Contador retired) #2-Roglic, #3 no solid choice. But Wout, Ganna (it's a shame he's on a team I detest but he is still alluring) and Pogi are all vying for the slot. Bala has been #2 or #3 over the last two decades but has tumbled off the list through no fault of his own.
If none of my top 3 are riding a race I'll just select someone to root for on the day.
 
I also like most of the riders at Quick Step. Aside from that I like various riders of different teams and nationalities. I can't really figure out what is the common thread that causes me to like the riders that I do, but once I decide to support a particular rider I pretty much stick with that until they retire.
 
Contador definitely was my favourite when I started watching due to the 2010 Tour, as well as Cavendish and then in 2012, Boonen following his wins in Roubaix and Flanders. Contador and Boonen have since retired, but others have suceeded them, like Nibali and then had a thing for french climbers like Bardet, Pinot, Ellisonde and Gaudu and the Quickstep team. Since then its changed more to the Jumbo team, mainly through Van Aert and Roglic, and the Bora team, due to Ackermann and any of the german speaking climbers since Buchmann got third on a stage in the 2015 Tour and Kaemna got a top ten last year on the climb from Foix.

Other than that (and Van der Poel and Pogacar) i'll support random riders during/after certain races and continue supporting them, like Hugh Carthy after being in the break in the Basque Country or Hirschi after his top ten at the E3 Harelbeke last year. Others include Guillame Martin, Mcnulty, Wellens, Fuglsang, Soler, Benoot, Stuyven, Mas, Teuns and Theuns.
 
I also like most of the riders at Quick Step. Aside from that I like various riders of different teams and nationalities. I can't really figure out what is the common thread that causes me to like the riders that I do, but once I decide to support a particular rider I pretty much stick with that until they retire.

For me it's just falling in love with a riders style and potential, if I find them early. But once I fall for someone 99% of the time he stays on my fav list until retirement.
 
Voted other.

Basically, it's some weird confusing mix of the main - non-other - options, with some more thrown in.
I support pretty much every team and every rider, or at least; there isn't any I wouldn't support, of course there are riders I don't really support because I don't really know who they are.
If a rider does something remarkable during a race, I'll support that rider, even if I have no clue who they are. (That's what various cycling databases are for.)
I randomly support riders based on such important criteria as; 'short', 'tall', 'has a cool name', or 'just seems nice'.
I probably support my compatriots a little bit more than the others.

And considering that all those options can easily be in play at the same time, I sometimes find myself a little bit in conflict with myself.
 
I chose "different riders, different nationalities".

My favourite at the moment is Hodeg, for whom I have a very, very soft spot, but I wouldn't call myself a big fan, I don't follow his social media or something.

In addition I have a rather big range of riders I like, some very much, some a bit, others I don't care about, others I really don't like. The reason for that might be anything, from a nice style on the bike, a quote from an interview, a nice smile, an anecdote... usually it's something about the rider himself rather than a success.

Whether I like someone might also change, slowly or rapidly. I used to be very supportive of Movistar a few years ago, they were my favourite team, but now they annoy me more and more. Quintana, then Bardet used to be my favourites until not long ago, now I still like them, but my affection, especially for Quintana has cooled a bit. Also I don't like the Yates like I used to. Instead I like Alaphilippe now way better than I used to. In general DQS is growing on me a lot. I don't think so badly about Ineos anymore, maybe because they did not dominate the Tour this year, but more so probably because I now like a lot of their riders personally, even though I don't like what's behind - a bit similar to DQS.
So it's basically a very flowing system in my head.

I feel that in general I tend to like the Colombians and the French. The Colombians, because they often seem quite nice and modest, even when like Bernal they are really stars in their country, the French because they tend to be attacking riders.
I don't care much more about the Germans than about others, but I think the current generation is quite nice, a bit demure and too matter-of-fact sometimes, which is why Kämna is my favourite among the Germans, he seems to be bit different (?).
 
I support spanish riders, and I use to like one more than others. But I dont like all spanish riders, and I like other country riders. And I like riders who show courage, and the ones who look good on the bike.
And I really dont like the arrogant ones.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
I like to watch good bike racing. I don't like to watch bad bike racing. I don't really care who's doing it.
I agree to a certain degree but I absolutely think that supporting a rider can further improve the experience of watching races. Pretty sure the final week of this years giro would have felt a lot more exciting if I had any sort of feelings, positive or negative, towards Hindley and TGH. I'm just a lot more invested in the races if I actually care about who wins.
 
I like a lot of different riders from various teams and nations with the common ground generally being that I enjoy their attacking style of racing.

Probably Sagan and latterly Remco are where I have got the closest to real fanboy type support.

Most of all I just enjoy watching intriguing tactical situations and outstanding displays of physical ability so will be perfectly happy watching many races where I have no specific stake in a particular rider winning.

In terms of the last decades big splitting point I liked both Contador and Froome so just wanted to see epic racing and it didn’t overly matter to me which one emerged on top.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan
all I can say is there is a pre forum/twitter and a post forum/twitter. I am Italian, following since 1993. in the winter 2013-14 I became a Sky fan because of the anti-Sky fans. and I´m afraid there´s no going back until they fold and every rider who rides/rode for them retires :tearsofjoy:

jokes aside, I am not a fan, for now, of VDP WVA Remco nor was a Sagan fan. those riders did beat and will beat so many riders I like ffs hahah!
ROHAN DENNIS gave me much joy this year
I LOVE FROOME
I am a late comer Landa fan, just started this year
Indurain was my idol and when you are a teenager and there´s no *** twitter it´s beautiful. it was great, pure awe, no useless words. grande Miguel

ps. if I spoke Spanish instead of English and instead of the anglo anti-Sky on the web I started reading all the Spanish locos ten years ago, well, I´d be a huge Contador fan 100%

the greatest thread on here was the LeopardTrek-Radioshack merger. that opened my eyes to the wild praries of the forum. I became aware of twitter when Lance came back in 2009. first twitter I ever read it was his timeline, I think from a link on here
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Sandisfan

TRENDING THREADS