Where does the Olympic Road Race rank in prestige?

[The Hitch]

I mean, is there anyone here who really believes Samuel Sanchez is more famous than Mark Cavendish, Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans or Tom Boonen?

lol. Great trolling.

Im still trying to figure out who the sockpuppet you were boasting about on velorooms yesterday is. Have you posted with him on this thread yet?

Ill figure it out though

 

[El Pistolero]

Mark Cavendish has more followers on twitter than a couple of Olympic champions in cycling(road and track).

 

[The Hitch]

Mark Cavendish has more followers on twitter than a couple of Olympic champions in cycling(road and track).

Justin Bieber has more followers on twitter than Hugo Chavez.

Your turn.

 

[Froome19]

I haven't seen a different attitude of many cyclists so far this season. Cancellara, Boonen, Gilbert, Wiggins, Nibali, Cavendish, Freire, Sagan, Joaquim Rodriguez, Cadel Evans, etc are all riding pretty much the same program as last year.

Of course most of them will ride, it's not like there's another race going on at that time and they all want to experience the Olympics at least once. Does it make the race more prestigious? Don't think so. I'm pretty sure this year's Olympic champion will have been on the podium of Milan-San Remo in the past.

Guys like Wiggins and Evans only ride the road race because they want to do the time trial.

I mean, is there anyone here who really believes Samuel Sanchez is more famous than Mark Cavendish, Alberto Contador, Cadel Evans, Fabian Cancellara or Tom Boonen?

All the riders you mentioned have won many, many highly prestigious races.

sanchez has just won 1, so logically he wont be considered as famous

I dont know about you, but i have seen tonnes of riders this year claim their season targets include the Olympics.

 

[Fetisoff]

Mark Cavendish has more followers on twitter than a couple of Olympic champions in cycling(road and track).

Twitter, really? /facepalm/

Justin Bieber has more followers on twitter than Hugo Chavez.

Your turn.

Bingo. Wouldn't surprise me if he has more than Obama too, does he?

 

[El Pistolero]

All the riders you mentioned have won many, many highly prestigious races.

sanchez has just won 1, so logically he wont be considered as famous

I dont know about you, but i have seen tonnes of riders this year claim their season targets include the Olympics.

I'm not claiming the Olympics are trash however. Think you should check out what option I voted on.

Like I said, why wouldn't they make it a goal? There's no other race going on at that time.

How do you think the Tour got so popular in the first place anyway? What other sport event can you watch in July? Besides footy every 4 years.

I'll ask you a question:

Are you a better cyclist because you won the Olympics instead of Milan-San Remo? Because the way I see it, this event will be won by the same guys that can win in Milan-San Remo.

 

[Lanark]

All the riders you mentioned have won many, many highly prestigious races.

sanchez has just won 1, so logically he wont be considered as famous

I dont know about you, but i have seen tonnes of riders this year claim their season targets include the Olympics.

So have I, just like every year when tonnes of riders claim they targer the world championship whenever their is a route that favors a particular rider. The only reason it's mentioned more with those races is because the route is different each year (so the same riders don't target the world championship or olympics each year, contrary to the classics), and in case of the olympics, it's not a yearly recurrence.

 

[williamp78]

I think that if Cav wins the ORR then he might be the best person to answer this question. IF (a big if) he wins then he would be the reigning World and Olympic champion and has won a monument in the past at MSR.

Being a home olympics I reckon the mainstream attention he would get would exceed last years world champs win and far exceed his MSR win. I can't say i know enough about the "cycling world" to comment on that but within the "sports world" i reckon the ORR would be more significant.

 

[woodenswan]

Justin Bieber has more followers on twitter than Hugo Chavez.

Your turn.

Touchdown Team Hitchens

 

[The Hitch]

Twitter, really? /facepalm/



Bingo. Wouldn't surprise me if he has more than Obama too, does he?

He does

http://twittercounter.com/pages/100


Pistrollero missed his turn so ill go again.


Someone called Nicki Minaj (nope, not a ****ing clue either) has more followers than, actually, i cant find a serious name in there.

 

[El Pistolero]

Justin Bieber IS more famous than Hugo Chavez. Not my fault this world is ****ed up.

Does being more famous make you a better person(or athlete)? Nope, and that's what Hitchens needs to learn.

Samu can get all the fugly statues he wants, it's not going to make him a better cyclist.

 

[The Hitch]

Being a home olympics I reckon the mainstream attention he would get would exceed last years world champs win and far exceed his MSR win. I can't say i know enough about the "cycling world" to comment on that but within the "sports world" i reckon the ORR would be more significant.

Some of the articles here after his worlds win said it was a test event for the real thing in July.

 

[Fetisoff]

Eurosport were mentioning Gilbert and his wins all the time in the Tour and I am sure they would mention his Ardennes treble more than any gold medal.

Just look at this poll I saw a few months ago where it says 49% of Londoners don`t care about the Olympics.

Remember its a YouGov poll who are respected BTW.

http://www.itv.com/news/london/2012-04-18/londoners-split-over-the-olympics/

Well, Gilbert had an Ardennes season of ages that will probably not be repeated for years to come. Nuyens and VanSummeren did not ride, how often did they mention Goss' MSR win?

As for the poll - well that doesn't really surprise me, or matter really. There are a lot of people not into sports, that's hardly a surprise.

 

[El Pistolero]

Some of the articles here after his worlds win said it was a test event for the real thing in July.

That's what Paul and Phil said. Including articles on CN.

Yup, we got a winner here. Of course those are the same guys that think Boonen won Oman and Nibali was second overall(erm?) in the Tour of Flanders. And the same guys that say ToC is bigger than the Giro.

 

[El Pistolero]

Well, Gilbert had an Ardennes season of ages that will probably not be repeated for years to come. Nuyens and VanSummeren did not ride, how often did they mention Goss' MSR win?

As for the poll - well that doesn't really surprise me, or matter really. There are a lot of people not into sports, that's hardly a surprise.

Goss wasn't good at the Tour, so they didn't mention him often. If however he would've won a few stages you'd have heard it way more. If Samu sucks in a race the commentators aren't going to spend a lot of time talking about his Olympic victory, but focus on what's going on in the race instead.

Mark Cavendish gets more media attention this year than Samu did in 2009. Rainbow jersey. Commentators here mention every single time they see Ballan that he's an ex world champion. Kind of a silly argument Hitch has. Who really cares what nonsense some commentators come up with.

 

[The Hitch]

Justin Bieber IS more famous than Hugo Chavez. Not my fault this world is ****ed up.

Does being more famous make you a better person(or athlete)? Nope, and that's what Hitchens needs to learn.

Samu can get all the fugly statues he wants, it's not going to make him a better cyclist.

lol keep it coming, no one is actually going to take this seriously.

Your attempted wind ups have failed badly in this thread . Retreat and try again with some other thread

Thats my advice. If you feel like it, keep it coming though,

 

[Sylvester]

Riders value it a lot. The general public values it a lot.

That's it really.

 

[Froome19]

I'm not claiming the Olympics are trash however. Think you should check out what option I voted on.

Like I said, why wouldn't they make it a goal? There's no other race going on at that time.

How do you think the Tour got so popular in the first place anyway? What other sport event can you watch in July? Besides footy every 4 years.

I'll ask you a question:

Are you a better cyclist because you won the Olympics instead of Milan-San Remo? Because the way I see it, this event will be won by the same guys that can win in Milan-San Remo.

The Euros, cricket, rugby, tennis, golf.

I dont understand the comparisom with San Remo..... they are two different races who cares if they are won by the same riders.
Also if you are asking where the competiton is better, San Remo or the Olympics. Then I would say that they are about the same yet it changes due to the 5 rider rule.

So have I, just like every year when tonnes of riders claim they targer the world championship whenever their is a route that favors a particular rider. The only reason it's mentioned more with those races is because the route is different each year (so the same riders don't target the world championship or olympics each year, contrary to the classics), and in case of the olympics, it's not a yearly recurrence.

Indeed but it is still a very prestigious race in terms of that riders would not claim they focus on it if they didnt care about it. Would they?

I am not claiming it is better than the monuments which riders target specifically as well, but it is close to them.

 

[Fetisoff]

Justin Bieber IS more famous than Hugo Chavez. Not my fault this world is ****ed up.

More famous in the western world - maybe, but more famous in the world? Really?

 

[The Hitch]

Mark Cavendish gets more media attention this year than Samu did in 2009. Rainbow jersey. Commentators here mention every single time they see Ballan that he's an ex world champion. Kind of a silly argument Hitch has. Who really cares what nonsense some commentators come up with.

The repeated Cav comparison which you seem keen to smother this thread with, will only work if you start arguing that Cav's fame is entirely a result of his 2009 MSR win.

You prepared to go down that road?

 

[woodenswan]

Someone called Nicki Minaj (nope, not a ****ing clue either)

now, u wanna b careful there.. after all she's the female weezy

 

[El Pistolero]

More famous in the western world - maybe, but more famous in the world? Really?

I don't see Chinese people getting excited about Hugo Chavez...

Besides, isn't Lady Gaga(even more famous than Bieber) in Vietnam right now? And isn't the concert sold out?

What makes you think Hugo Chavez is even close to being as famous as Bieber anyway?

 

[The Hitch]

Besides, isn't Lady Gaga(even more famous than Bieber) in Vietnam right now? And isn't the concert sold out?

Ill take your word for it. This is your field, not mine.

 

[El Pistolero]

Sorry for reading a newspaper. Not sure if it's Vietnam anyway, could also be Indonesia. Some Asian country anyway and a group was protesting against her being there because they think she's a bad influence on the kids yet the concert was sold out.

 

[Fetisoff]

I don't see Chinese people getting excited about Hugo Chavez...

Besides, isn't Lady Gaga(even more famous than Bieber) in Vietnam right now? And isn't the concert sold out?

Well, as far as I know Chavez is fairly popular in China. Even if he's not, this sort of ties in to the very first post I've made in this thread.
Our Canadian office is on the outskirts of Stratford, Ontario, so every ****ing dog knows Justin Beiber, of course. You get into Latin America, Eastern Europe, even Iran FFS, they be like "Justin who", but everyone knows Hugo