Whats makes pro cycling special?

[AcademyCC]

Allow me to introduce myself....

Ive always been a huge sportsfan but up until a the last tour de france have never followed cycling that closely. Everything has changed! The 2011 TDF blew my lights out.

Tommy Voeckler defending the yellow jersey with his life
Andy Schlecks breakaway win on the Galibier
Cav just smashing the peloton to bits in the sprints

I was up out of my seat shouting at the TV!

What a magical sport. At the same time its massively flawed for obvious reasons.

In your opinion what makes it such a great sport?

 

[The Hitch]

The Giro

 

[RedheadDane]

Oh! So much!

- The fact that it, unlike most sports, isn't one against one (either one team or one player)
- The fact people of all types of sizes compete against each other
- The fact that they (almost never) stop because of weather
- The spectacle of the sport
- The awesomeness when a lesser known rider wins a big race
- The fact that basically they do something that so many people do, just... 100 times as crazy
- The awesomeness of following a GT. Riding approximately 3500 K over three weeks, only resting for two days a week apart is just crazy!

 

[Zam_Olyas]

The Giro

Hallelujah!!!

 

[AcademyCC]

Explain to me why the Giro is better or is this an 'in' joke? How can it be?

 

[Richeypen]

Jens Voigt

 

[janraaskalt]

Oh! So much!

- The fact that it, unlike most sports, isn't one against one (either one team or one player)
- The fact people of all types of sizes compete against each other
- The fact that they (almost never) stop because of weather
- The spectacle of the sport
- The awesomeness when a lesser known rider wins a big race
- The fact that basically they do something that so many people do, just... 100 times as crazy
- The awesomeness of following a GT. Riding approximately 5000 K over three weeks, only resting for two days a week apart is just crazy!

This. And it's a sport, not a game.

 

[janraaskalt]

Explain to me why the Giro is better or is this an 'in' joke? How can it be?

The Tour de France is by far the most important race in cycling. It also attracts people who know only little of the sports. For us insiders this means a lot of hype and "stupid" questions/opinions.

The setup of the stages of the TdF is not spectacular. A couple of boring sprint stages and then the mountains, where the last decade in most cases the GC was fixed after the first mountain top finish. The Giro d'Italia has much more passion and typically Italian stage finishes. For the connaisseur a real treat.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

Oh! So much!

- The fact that it, unlike most sports, isn't one against one (either one team or one player)
- The fact people of all types of sizes compete against each other
- The fact that they (almost never) stop because of weather
- The spectacle of the sport
- The awesomeness when a lesser known rider wins a big race
- The fact that basically they do something that so many people do, just... 100 times as crazy
- The awesomeness of following a GT. Riding approximately 3500K over three weeks, only resting for two days a week apart is just crazy!

Fixed it for you But yeah, pretty much this. Also acadamyCC, The Giro has w/o any doubt been the most exciting GT the last 3 years

 

[Richeypen]

Fixed it for you But yeah, pretty much this. Also acadamyCC, The Giro has w/o any doubt been the most exciting GT the last 3 years

Personally I thought it was the dullest this year. Last year was immense though.

The Cobbled Classics **** all over any GT anyway



However maybe that what makes cycling so great. What other sport has events so diverse as P-R and the Giro.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Explain to me why the Giro is better or is this an 'in' joke? How can it be?

The Tour is often raced by 30 people who don't want to lose (hence why we had two weeks of jockeying for position with little real action before it exploded in the final week). The Giro is usually raced by 15 people who really want to win. Hence the racing is more aggressive, the parcours usually better (no "we will have a week of flat stages before anything of any relevance" for them), and because it doesn't have the world's eyes on it, it's less of a fear factor to lose.

In the 2010 Tour, for example, on one stage, Garmin put their team on the front on the run in after the final mountain. Why? Because Chris Horner and Rubén Plaza were in the breakaway. Why was that a problem? Because it meant Ryder Hesjedal would lose 10th place. 10th!!! In most races losing 10th place is nothing, you just go out and attack the next day to get it back. Look at what Kanstantsin Siutsou did in the Giro to get that top 10 place back - let it go, waited for a transitional stage and went. And the teams of riders like Arroyo, placed just outside the top 10, were happy to let him go, because they figured they could get back in the same way.

To be honest, this year was an awful year for GTs. The Giro was sewn up after a week, with Contador being so clearly better than anyone else, and was tainted by Wouter Weylandt's unfortunate death. It did, however, give us some of the best stages of the year, with the stage to Rifugio Gardeccia being probably the best racing all year. There wasn't one guy on the suicidal break out of desperation - there were multiple GT contenders going for it three mountains out. The Tour was open until the last minute, but only because nothing happened for two weeks except half the field crashed out. And of course there will be crashes if there is nothing to break the field up, because everybody still has interests to defend. Useless. And the Vuelta at least remembered a GT has to be more than a week long, but unfortunately forgot it has to be more than 2 weeks long, and besides, seemed incredibly reluctant to put any challenges more than 20km from the end of their stages.

 

[Michele]

Libertine, you could add that geographically Italy is more suited for have easily hilly stages even on 1st or 2nd week wherever you are in Italy (thanks to Appennini) while in France you dont have as much choice.

 

[T-Nielsen]

ProCycling is special because it is the image of life.

There is great heroes and awfull villains. You have glorious victories and painfull tragedy, even the blackest you can find. You have endless boring stages and races, followed by the most hectic and actionpacked moments.

You name it, cycling has it.

 

[LaFlorecita]

Alberto Contador

 

[Vino attacks everyone]

Vinokourov, cycling without Vino is like football without brazilians

 

[AcademyCC]

The Tour de France is by far the most important race in cycling. It also attracts people who know only little of the sports. For us insiders this means a lot of hype and "stupid" questions/opinions.

The setup of the stages of the TdF is not spectacular. A couple of boring sprint stages and then the mountains, where the last decade in most cases the GC was fixed after the first mountain top finish. The Giro d'Italia has much more passion and typically Italian stage finishes. For the connaisseur a real treat.

No need for that banter mate. Just asking the question

 

[RedheadDane]

Fixed it for you But yeah, pretty much this. Also acadamyCC, The Giro has w/o any doubt been the most exciting GT the last 3 years

Okay... so I wasn't quite sure how long they actually ride. Either way: It's nuts!

And that's another thing I love about cycling/cyclists. Here we have a bunch of guys who all share the life-dream of suffering for three weeks! Yup! Those guys are all nutters and man do I love it!

 

[ferryman]

No need for that banter mate. Just asking the question

Stick around and you will see plenty of that banter Another thing you need to understand is the passion this sport stirs in its followers. You have already experienced the pro Giro guys but equally there are pro Tour guys and pro Classics guys. And I will not even try to describe what individual riders mean to some and not to others. It's passionate alright if not always rational.

And then there's the nationalism if you are English you can't see past Cavendish or Wiggins. if you are Australian Evans etc etc.

 

[jens_attacks]

all the stories around

 

[LaFlorecita]

Vinokourov, cycling without Vino is like football without brazilians

True.
........

 

[Bustedknuckle]

Explain to me why the Giro is better or is this an 'in' joke? How can it be?

Ride in France, then ride in Italy...question answered. The Giro is by far the best of the 3 grand tours. More heart and soul, more majesty, more beautiful, it's in Italy, afterall.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

Stick around and you will see plenty of that banter Another thing you need to understand is the passion this sport stirs in its followers. You have already experienced the pro Giro guys but equally there are pro Tour guys and pro Classics guys. And I will not even try to describe what individual riders mean to some and not to others. It's passionate alright if not always rational.

And then there's the nationalism if you are English you can't see past Cavendish or Wiggins. if you are Australian Evans etc etc.

fair comments..and than their is ricco,the hog, pat with uci ..whats not to love about cycling?

 

[The Hitch]

Explain to me why the Giro is better or is this an 'in' joke? How can it be?

Tale a look at the parcors.

The Giro is interested in producing top quality racing.

The Tour is interested in making money, I assume because there can be no other explanation for why they think having 15 sprint stages is something to be proud of, nor why else they would insist on finishing stages in towns, so far away from the mountains climbed, rendering them essentially meaningless.

The Giro tries to look for new mountains ever time, finding great gems now and again.

The Tour just throws in the Tourmalet.

The Giro had a succesful stage on mud so they put the mud sections in again the year after.

The Tour had a succesful stage on cobbles, so they decided to not include cobbles again for another many years, even though the Tour this year goes right through the ****ing region.

If they had had the same attitude in 1909, the organizers would have decided that since mountains were a success, to savour the success (or so I assume the logic goes) they should only be included once every few decades.

 

[sublimit]

One day races like P-R, and early year Belgian classics/semi classics are where its at.

wasted, mud splattered bike riders giving it everything.

 

[cineteq]

Tour de France pulled me in.
Riders, teams and tactics have kept me in.