Worlds USA

[knewcleardaze]

it was actually a lame attempt at a joke based on the superbowl being the "world" american football championship, the world series in baseball, the nba finals being "the world championship", then hocket, etc etc etc...

it was never meant to be making a point, it was, as a post, much like the american cycle team, a joke..

if you didnt take it so seriously it was actually mildly amusing..

I didn't view this as a lame attempt. I think it's quite accurate. In America, they like to call it The World Series, yet it only involves teams from Major League Baseball. I don't believe any teams from other baseball playing nations qualify.

Same goes for the NBA World Championship. No teams from other basketball playing nations are eligible.

As to the Super Bowl,the winning team like to refer to themselves as World Champion Super Bowl winners. Though only teams from the NFL may compete for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

I think it's just a case of semantics. With a touch of arrogance, as is widely perceived by other nations.

 

[usedtobefast]

the truth is, american sports fans do not really follow bike racing. we have 63,000 licensed riders of all types in the usa. pretty small for a country this size. how many play the big sports? i don't know myself, but you could look it up. it is surely a much larger number of participants. just baseball/softball will dwarf cycling. the talent pool is shallow by comparison. our really good riders are world class, but how many are there? at the very top 10 women, and maybe
20 men, give or take. we do well with the good ones we have, but it is a job.
an athlete can make much more money doing anything else. i have confess,
watching a time trial on tv can be damn boring. they can be exciting sometimes,but John Q Public is just going to glaze over. unless you understand
the sport and all it's machinations, most folks just change the channel. i could go on, but enough for now.

 

[icefire]

9 teams qualified 9 riders for the worlds...there top riders were
Australia 1
Russia 2
Spain 3
Belgium 6
Italy 8
Germany 11
Norway 12
Great Britain 52
USA 59
There are 2 nations here who didn't quite perform...

Although I don't know the details, I understand that the number of riders for each national team is based on UCI rankings. For one reason or another most of the best ranked USA riders did not ride at the World Champ, so there might be some connection between this fact and the actual result. IMO this calls for a revision of the criteria to determine the number of riders per team, perhaps taking into account not only UCI rankings but also the actual performance in the last World Champ edition. If the best do want to ride the World Champs and their national team does not perform well, they should be penalised somehow in the next edition.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

Did no one notice, or care that Tom Zirbel was 4th in the ITT, just missing a medal?

Or that Kristin Armstrong won the woman's ITT?

Or that Peter Stetina was 13th in the U23 RR?

Or that Tejay Van Garderen 13th in the U23 ITT?

Was everything about winning the Men's RR? Why? I actually am proud that Craig Lewis raced as well as he did to finish 59th. And Duggan, Peterson did well. And Jason McCarthy was there and finished. It doesn't surprise me at all that Tommy D was a DNF though. Still, I'm okay with these overall results, and proud of the team we sent. Lance, George, Levi and the old guys can stay home for all I care, especially if they are indeed indifferent about it. Which seems painfully obvious. If they aren't interested in going, I'm not interested in having them there.

 

[fatandfast]

I really hate cycling numbers. 63,000 lic racers. OK how many TV viewers does that equal? Does the NFL do it this way? Man U comes on the telly and they base the ad rate on how many people play? or how many people watch? My **** started by sending a bunch of warm bodies to a race to Rep for my country. We are already doing that in congress and Iraq and we are loosing there also. The Pres should make this priority 1, we will get health care later.The Shaq show would bring cycling some press if he raced Lance or Bos. Beckham rode a bike in LA afew times and that had to be good for sales.

 

[Astana1]

I didn't view this as a lame attempt. I think it's quite accurate. In America, they like to call it The World Series, yet it only involves teams from Major League Baseball. I don't believe any teams from other baseball playing nations qualify.

Same goes for the NBA World Championship. No teams from other basketball playing nations are eligible.

As to the Super Bowl,the winning team like to refer to themselves as World Champion Super Bowl winners. Though only teams from the NFL may compete for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

I think it's just a case of semantics. With a touch of arrogance, as is widely perceived by other nations.

Again, ignorance reigns supreme. The World Series is called the World Series because of some tie it had with the World's Fair back in the day.

Show me another American Football team in the world that could beat the NFL Champion and I'll concede. But that will never happen.

Ditto for the NBA champ. Everyone knows that any player around the world worth it, ends up in the NBA.

But thanks for the basketball analogy. When our best guys actually decided they want to care about international basketball we totally dominate. But that only happens every so often. Most of the time they just can't be bothered.

Our cyclists are nowhere near as dominant but they also probably can't be bothered for the most part.

And we still don't like David Beckham. He's totally overrated.

 

[badboyberty]

IMO this calls for a revision of the criteria to determine the number of riders per team, perhaps taking into account not only UCI rankings but also the actual performance in the last World Champ edition. If the best do want to ride the World Champs and their national team does not perform well, they should be penalised somehow in the next edition.

Totally agree. The Netherlands and France raced like they wanted to win, the USA might have well have had three riders for all the difference it would have made.

Worlds participation should involve a bit of a jury system as well as just rankings so countries that don't put in an effort one year can't assume automatic selection the next.

 

[flicker]

What is the man worshipping?

Alpe you are a hardcore fan. K. Armstrong is something. I think the women deserve big respect. They put out big effort.
I expect way more from Pete S. He and Taylor P. are the new US champions right.
I could not find a source to watch the Women and U23 riders.
Zirbel was light years from Spartacus. He was in a different Universe from 2nd and 3rd places.
If the US wants to watch anything different then the fossils Lance or Levi, we had better come up with something new.
It won't be on TV after Lance. Not enough good male riders. I would rather watch the women less crying, twittering and whining.

 

[hoogerland]

The top US racers are all dinosaurs right now and probably need to rest up after a long season and to be honest they just don't care about worlds anymore. Heck, Lance chose Leadville. It will be a few years but a lot of up-and-comers that came through the system will race and compete in Worlds...the new breed is racing much more in Europe than ever before. I'm talking about TJ, Stetina, Howes and Phinney. Phinney is the next Cancellara IMO.

 

[Anonymous]

from an americans fans point of view i would be concerned..

what network is going to want to show a race that has no american riders making an effort in it.. the only good thing is with the TTT making a return at least there may be some pressure on networks from sponsors to cover the race..

i will give the bbc and their red button some qudos for this one, although its a shame they dont advertise whats on the red button very well.. all sorts of hidden gems on there..

 

[TRDean]

I didn't view this as a lame attempt. I think it's quite accurate. In America, they like to call it The World Series, yet it only involves teams from Major League Baseball. I don't believe any teams from other baseball playing nations qualify.

Same goes for the NBA World Championship. No teams from other basketball playing nations are eligible.

As to the Super Bowl,the winning team like to refer to themselves as World Champion Super Bowl winners. Though only teams from the NFL may compete for a chance to go to the Super Bowl.

I think it's just a case of semantics. With a touch of arrogance, as is widely perceived by other nations.

This is pretty stupid...arrogance? WTF!! First of all...Baseball was invented in the US...pretty sure about that. And there were no teams around the world...just the US. It has been called the World Series for a long time, before Japan, South America, etc. started to play the game. There is no arrogance there. Same with the NBA...US invented sport. The league actually calls it the NBA Finals and not the world championships. The NFL is a US sport...now there may be some arrogance there...but please find me a team from somewhere else who could even compete..so they are most likely the world champions. Now the NHL is really a Canadian league, and maybe one of the most international of sports. I don't hear leagues in Finland, Russia, etc. complaining if they call themselves the world champs...which they don't...I believe it is the Stanley Cup Champions.

 

[Astana1]

This is pretty stupid...arrogance? WTF!! First of all...Baseball was invented in the US...pretty sure about that. And there were no teams around the world...just the US. It has been called the World Series for a long time, before Japan, South America, etc. started to play the game. There is no arrogance there. Same with the NBA...US invented sport. The league actually calls it the NBA Finals and not the world championships. The NFL is a US sport...now there may be some arrogance there...but please find me a team from somewhere else who could even compete..so they are most likely the world champions. Now the NHL is really a Canadian league, and maybe one of the most international of sports. I don't hear leagues in Finland, Russia, etc. complaining if they call themselves the world champs...which they don't...I believe it is the Stanley Cup Champions.

Good stuff. I guess the Eurotrash will never miss a chance to get their digs in.

Oh and if the Canadians want to call their Curling Championship, or if the Aussies want to call their AFL championship the "World Championship" we'll understand why. And 50 bucks says the Euroweenies won't say a peep about it.

 

[karlboss]

But thanks for the basketball analogy. When our best guys actually decided they want to care about international basketball we totally dominate. But that only happens every so often. Most of the time they just can't be bothered.

Athens olympics...bronze

 

[Anonymous]

Athens olympics...bronze

.........

 

[Astana1]

Beijing Olympics... Gold

In Athens they couldn't be bothered.

 

[The Sheep]

If the USA didn't win it means they couldn't be bothered.

This is basic knowledge people!

 

[Balleballe]

If some European countries had bothered with american football, they probably would have won it, but we don't care about these ridiculous sports that you are playing over there.

 

[Astana1]

If some European countries had bothered with american football, they probably would have won it, but we don't care about these ridiculous sports that you are playing over there.

Pffffffft. Yeah right. Maybe if you had one team representing the entire EU the euro-weenies would have a shot after maybe 50 years of preparation.

 

[usedtobefast]

Pffffffft. Yeah right. Maybe if you had one team representing the entire EU the euro-weenies would have a shot after maybe 50 years of preparation.

yeah no offense, but try it first. then get back to me.

 

[Anonymous]

If some European countries had bothered with american football, they probably would have won it, but we don't care about these ridiculous sports that you are playing over there.

Have to agree with the others here. Meet:
Ray Lewis

Troy Polamalu

Brian Urlacher

and Jared Allen

That sting, followed by a warm feeling is your head coming off and shit going down your neck. You and anyone else you want to bring wouldn't last 10 minutes.

 

[OJ....]

In America Football means NFL, eating out means MLB and cycling means TdF. Simple as that.

 

[karlboss]

Have to agree with the others here. Meet:
Ray Lewis

Troy Polamalu

Brian Urlacher

and Jared Allen

That sting, followed by a warm feeling is your head coming off and shit going down your neck. You and anyone else you want to bring wouldn't last 10 minutes.

Folks reading this forum are mostly cyclists, and odds on posses a body type that doesn't lend itself to football codes. However Rugby Union players and League players would definitely last and excel if they swapped codes, physical abilities are similar.

As for a specific example...Ben Roethlisberger...I think he has a pretty ring

 

[Astana1]

Willis McGahee meet Ryan Clark.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGRFqOipcTg&feature=related

 

[karlboss]

Willis McGahee meet Ryan Clark.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGRFqOipcTg&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkbjtAfpNc4
note the lack of padding

 

[karlboss]

Back on topic, I think it would have been a credit to the USA if they fielded a full strength team. When you think of big names who was missing apart from contador? I think they could have animated the race and done really well.
Levi said he didn't want to come 4th again, so you only enter races where you are the favourite? I'm willing to tip Evans wasn't odds on before this one.