Pro cycling “has been failed structurally and commercially”

[Punkawallah]

Your swimming pool must be a higher class than mine, as I’ve never seen anyone goggles-posing (not even with Form goggles).

White swimwear is a bad idea unless you’re an exhibitionist

Ah. When working as a lifeguard it was my job to people-watch. Absolutely not stalking, honest.

 

[kingrollo]

Not sure if I completely agree.

You certainly need to spend, to compete at a good standard. But when does "sport" start.

Riding a sportive? A huge variety of bikes are used.

Time trials? I was riding a 30yr old track frame and fixed gear on one of my "comeback" phases. And returned some good times.
"Road bike" categories are now in most time trial events.

There are even Brompton races!

I thought alu bikes were the default for crits ?

 

[the_mikey]

Getting away for a moment from the CC obsession with the price of the most expensive bikes and the fact that it's a bad thing.

I read that report. Well, sort of. I had to skim a lot It is unbelievably badly written and poorly structured. I'm really gobsmacked that they can release such a dreadful document.

Their fundamental beef is that the calendar is a bit of a buggers muddle, which is pretty true. It's a mishmash of the truly great, the generally good and the things that no one cares about. Individual riders' calendars are entirely random. Could it be improved? Undoubtedly. Does this document have a cogently argued alternative? No. Every now and again they come up with a sensible idea but they never have any reasoned argument.

It reads like the manifesto of an extremely earnest political party that knows that it doesn't have a hope in hell of gaining power so they can say what they want. "If elected we will clear the streets of crime using flocks of well trained weasels".

By the way I saw a bike for sale the other day that cost several thousand pounds! Wot a liberty.

The problem with this document is it fails to acknowledge their sport relies entirely on the goodwill and recognition from government of the countries, towns and regions where racing is held, it relies on acceptance from the people who live there, it relies on support from business and services who operate in those areas, it relies on race organisers, none of it relies on Rapha, and the UCI doesn't have much of a handle to influence the governments of the world to make racing better, even the Tour of Britain is restricted largely because of conditions imposed by the police and government, it could be a better race but it won't be better without commitment from the authorities to make it a plan to improve the quality of the racing by enabling road closures and doing what's needed to secure world tour status for example. Having a gripe with the UCI achieves very little.