when did we start supporting teams instead of riders?

[LukeSchmid]

As a relatively new cycling follower who knows hardly anything about cycling compared to a large number of people on here I came to follow cycling from following other sports in a team oriented way. This means I follow BMC, largely because of Cadel Evans, and have made it my team in a similar way to teams in other sports I follow(ed). I also do support Australians, my biggest display of joy on the here would have been when Goss won Milan - San Remo. I do however try and moderate my pro-BMC contributions as there is plenty of BMC barracking on here without me going over the top as well all the time.
With the advent of Greenedge I am going to have a bit of divided loyalty because of them being a Aussie team. It will help that it appears they will not have anyone to rival Evans.

 

[auscyclefan94]

the question is would you like GVA, phinney and TGAK if they weren't on BMC? how many times have we even seen phinney and TGAK race this season that we could actually become fans from watching them?

phinney featured in 2 prologues(one of which was yesterday!!!) and TGAK won the norway champions which weren't even on TV.

of course not as much, but I follow BMC because some of my favourite riders race for them being Cadel and George. I have come to like nearly all the riders because of my close following of BMC and now that I have become interested in them, when a guy like AK moves to another team I will still follow him because I have become attached to him.

 

[NickBVK]

I definitely have only followed individual cyclists (mainly Aussies but definitely got my fave internationals) up until now with GreenEDGE's arrival. I wouldn't mind if it was like football and I may very well follow GreenEDGE like I do football but teams and cyclists come and go too often to build a real bond to any one team.

Until Vaughters dream of "franchises" and footballisation occurs I think many people will still mainly support individual riders and have a soft spot for teams from their country.

 

[hrotha]

I don't understand being a fan of a team. Many of them are fleeting things, changing sponsors and jerseys all the time, they have no geographical focus (geographical, not national; there's no hometown team or anything, although of course teams like Euskaltel are pretty much this), and the sport is mostly an individual affair. When I was a kid I sort of liked Lampre because I had their jersey and they had Fondriest, Tonkov and Svorada, but that never made me root for, say, Outschakov or Conti. I liked their jersey and those riders I liked, period.

I'm not saying this to bash those who are fans of a team. I realize times change and the sport is getting more nationalistic and what not, but I still can't get on board of that trend.

 

[hatcher]

It's an interesting one.

Going into the start of last year I was excited to see that at Sky a lot of young British talent was going to be getting a good shot at some good races, but I certainly had no intention of supporting Sky as a team. Somewhere along the line though, watching Thomas work for Henderson in a sprint for example, it's hard not to root for the guy that your guy just dropped off near the finish line. You watch Lofkvist turn himself inside out for Wiggins, and it becomes hard not to root for Lofkvist.

I'd say it does differ from supporting football teams. I love watching Cav win, but I'm not really sure I want him to join Sky. No way in hell would I be against Messi joining Leeds.

The next interesting part for me is what I do with those riders that leave Sky. Will I still be pulling for Henderson next year? If I do, will that be a step back towards supporting individual riders?

 

[nobilis]

I'm also they type of person who roots for a team because of 1 cyclist. I remember supporting Banesto for Indurain then Once with Olano and Beloki later. Later, I moved to supporting Kelme / Communidad Valenciana for Valverde and it continued through Caisse d'Epargne and Movistar (Hopefully next year, he'll be back with them)

 

[Ferminal]

If I was a big fan of the Schlecks, I wouldn't automatically want everyone else on Leopard to win, if that makes sense.

Most of us loved Vino, but that didn't translate into every other Astana rider.

In some of my least preferred teams, there are still those who I very much support, say Sky/Thomas, or Radioshack/Klöden.

Favourite teams at the moment are probably Movistar and Euskaltel, but that doesn't mean I support x individual on one of those teams over any other individual.

 

[hrotha]

I wonder if there's a divide here between traditional cycling nations and the new blood?

 

[nevada]

I don't understand being a fan of a team. Many of them are fleeting things, changing sponsors and jerseys all the time, they have no geographical focus (geographical, not national; there's no hometown team or anything, although of course teams like Euskaltel are pretty much this), and the sport is mostly an individual affair. When I was a kid I sort of liked Lampre because I had their jersey and they had Fondriest, Tonkov and Svorada, but that never made me root for, say, Outschakov or Conti. I liked their jersey and those riders I liked, period.

I'm not saying this to bash those who are fans of a team. I realize times change and the sport is getting more nationalistic and what not, but I still can't get on board of that trend.

I think the Sky and Slipstream ethos are really what you buy into and that is what will attract the sponsors where they too can see some longer term gains.

 

[Machu Picchu]

My support is fleeting, I have riders I like/dislike however this can change in an instant and I’ve often cheered for a rider I ‘dislike’ simply because he is the one attacking/energizing the race. For me it doesn’t really matter which team he rides for and certainly not what nationality he is but rather how he’s rode the race.

 

[hatcher]

I wonder if there's a divide here between traditional cycling nations and the new blood?

I wouldn't say so. Rabo and Euskaltel certainly have a huge amount of team specific fans.

 

[bicing]

I wonder if there's a divide here between traditional cycling nations and the new blood?

I love to see it when Taaramae (Estonians), Sagan (Slovak), Szymd (Poles) go well. I love it when GE signed Daniel the Eritrean and that Cofidis rider led the peloton in the TdF. Even the Norweigans! And I love it that Sohrabhi has been at the top of the victory standings for so long. I just love it when I see a non-Western Europe, non-native English flag in the top of the final standings.

Countries I'd love to have riders in the big leagues one day:
- Iceland
- Romania
- Middle East countries
- Argentina
- Costa Rica
- France

 

[hrotha]

I wouldn't say so. Rabo and Euskaltel certainly have a huge amount of team specific fans.

I think Euskaltel is different because it is, for all intents and purposes, the only national team they have competing at the top level in any sport. Euskal Herria not being an independent nation, that sort of thing is understandably more important.

The Dutch are just weird, but even then I'm not sure they support Rabo as such rather than every single Dutch rider on Earth.

I might well be wrong though. It's a random thought that popped up in my mind, I haven't spent more than 1 minute thinking about it.

 

[Arnout]

I think Euskaltel is different because it is, for all intents and purposes, the only national team they have competing at the top level in any sport. Euskal Herria not being an independent nation, that sort of thing is understandably more important.

The Dutch are just weird, but even then I'm not sure they suppose Rabo as such rather than every single Dutch rider on Earth.

I might well be wrong though. It's a random thought that popped up in my mind, I haven't spent more than 1 minute thinking about it.

Athletic Bilbao comes to mind. But I get your point.

 

[Michielveedeebee]

My support is fleeting, I have riders I like/dislike however this can change in an instant and I’ve often cheered for a rider I ‘dislike’ simply because he is the one attacking/energizing the race. For me it doesn’t really matter which team he rides for and certainly not what nationality he is but rather how he’s rode the race.

This.
Oh and all of the Belgians It's mostly a nationalistic thing for me. Although I am in no means a nationalist I do support my countrymen in sports.

 

[Fus087]

Countries I'd love to have riders in the big leagues one day:
- Costa Rica

Amador?

Countries I'd love to have riders in the big leagues one day:
- France

Quoi?

 

[hrotha]

Athletic Bilbao comes to mind. But I get your point.

Even then, Athletic has to compete with Real Sociedad and stuff, because they are football teams and they get a more traditional kind of following. Some years ago it looked like Kaiku might steal Euskaltel's thunder, but then they folded.

 

[bicing]

Amador?



Quoi?

I mean the big leagues.

 

[greenedge]

Parrulo nice thread. I am now starting to cheer on GE as they are coming about hence the name.

However ACF/ DLS do have points to go for BMC. They are team based because it helps the morale of the team to have more wins. Also next year BMC shall have quite an exciting team, so it's not as if there will be nobody's like this year ( except for Phinney, Ballan, GVA )

 

[goggalor]

When did we start supporting riders instead of racing?

 

[saganftw]

When did we start supporting riders instead of racing?

i d still rather watch exciting racing from riders i dont like than boring racing from my favourites

 

[Mambo95]

When did we start supporting riders instead of racing?

About 120 years ago

 

[MatchstickMan]

... Is cycling becoming football?

i fully understand supporting a team when it has some sort of national factor in it like the dutchies for rabo and the brits to sky both teams who have been doing a good job developing national talent. but to multi national teams?

Is that such a bad thing? In the good old days (or at least, so I'm told), football supporters would applaud good play by either side. As long as cycling fans don't become as partisan as football fans are these days, having more people interested in the support can surely only be a good thing?

I write as someone who became intrigued by the sport after watching the TdF 09. Having a team to follow (sky), built around a few of my compatriots, some of them recognisable names (from Olympics etc), was then a great way to build up an understanding of the other races going on through the course of the year.

That provided the chance to get to know just how exciting the sport could get, and since much of the great cycling was provided by non-sky riders (especially in 2010...), introduced a set of other riders to follow. Now passionate about the sport, and for much beyond sky, I've seen how having a 'team' to follow can be a great 'hook' to pull people into following cycling. If that helps raise the profile of the sport, why not encourage it?

 

[Gabriel Gray]

Hmm...as i started watching cycling i cheered for Indurain, Beloki, González de Galdeano and of course as german for Ulle, Zabel...other teams or riders were not really interesting for me...ok i hoped they would fail in competing with my "favs"...then most of the guys above retired, so i changed my "interest", not sure how or why, but it happend...with the end of T-Mobile, i became more and more interested in High Road...the follower of "our german team"...

the sprint was getting more and more my attention, i love these fast guys, these trains, these strong organised teams...(yeah i know...there will be a lot of guys here, who don't understand this)....more teams got my attention next to HTC - Garmin,Cervelo, Sky...maybe GE next season...

personally i dislike teams and riders from teams like Moviestar, Euskatel, Europcar, Ag2r, FDJ, Astana...all these "attacking style teams"...of course it's a part of cycling, they get my respect for their affords, trys to animate a race, succeed in breakaways - but i'm cheering more for the guys who chase them down, who ride in the peloton, who ride for a "sprint royal"...

my conclusion: i started to cheer for teams instead of riders when the teams got more structured, the races got more organised, more and more sprint-trains were build and perfected

 

[William H]

Supporting a Pro Tour team means that you'll have some riders to support in any race.