Rule change

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ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
We have a minimum bike weight limit. How about a minimum BMI to eliminate those scrawny Froome and Quintana types? Give bigger riders a chance! :laugh:

That has just reminded me what a 'freak' Indurain was. How did someone that big manage to climb so well? (Assuming that he was 'clean' ...)
 

brommers

Years beyond my wisdom
Location
Clacton-on-Sea
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Here's your next winner then. Resplendent in the Maillot Jaune.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
I thought that the UCI runs cycling?
To a point, but it doesn't usually organise races or pay teams, while the ASO now owns or part-owns the Tours de France, Yorkshire, Oman, Qatar and l'Avenir, plus the Vuelta, Dauphiné, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Flèche Wallonne, Paris-Nice, Paris-Roubaix, Paris-Tours, Critérium International, World Ports Classic and Arctic Race of Norway.

That's a quarter of the current World Tour events and a competition without two of the Grand Tours and two of the monuments would be seen as incomplete, but basically ASO threatened to move all of those from World Tour to Europe Tour (with greater ability for ASO to choose the participants) or to national registrations if there was no way for teams to graduate from Europe Tour to World Tour based on success.

The recent team stagnation seems a likely consequence of the UCI's opaque multi-year licensing system and it would only get worse if there was the perpetual franchise rights that some teams are thought to want. I think 2013 is the only season so far where a team joined the World Tour (Argos-Shimano) without another team closing or voluntarily stepping down, and that happened mainly because of the farce of UCI failing in its attempt to strip Katusha of its licence.

More about the most recent UCI-ASO dispute at http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/professional-cycling-council-approves-2017-uci-worldtour-calendar/ and linked articles.
 

mjr

Comfy armchair to one person & a plank to the next
That has just reminded me what a 'freak' Indurain was. How did someone that big manage to climb so well? (Assuming that he was 'clean' ...)
Reportedly, he lost a chunk of weight like Wiggins did before winning his first Tour - he's actually an inch shorter than Wiggins, although Big Mig does have a large chest capacity which I think is part of the reason for the nickname.

The romantic fan part of me hopes that he was clean and his retirement after seeing 1996's Tour prizes all won by Telekom and Festina riders was partly deciding it wasn't going to be possible to win clean for a few years and retiring, rather than turn to needles. It seems he's still riding and was still in pretty good shape when retested in 2012, according to Wikipedia.
 

rich p

ridiculous old lush
Location
Brighton
Didn't David Millar publicly accuse Big Mig of doping?
Possibly not having looked again.
There is circumstantial evidence out there but nothing more. I suspect he did but whether anyone has the will to prove it, is doubtful.
 
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smutchin

Cat 6 Racer
Location
The Red Enclave
Reducing team sizes would be great, not only because it would make it more even, it could also allow a couple more teams to be added.

I like the sound of this in theory, but it's not without its potential downsides - eg more teams jostling for position at the end of a stage leading to more crashes.

Not to mention the dangers posed by the relative inexperience and lack of ability of riders used to racing at a lower level.
 

Catweasel

Active Member
Location
Vienna
I'd vote for passive/aggressive misogyny and integrate the TdF.

:smile:
 

nickyboy

Norven Mankey
I'd vote for passive/aggressive misogyny and integrate the TdF.

:smile:

I like it. You have to have your team composed of 50% male and 50% female riders. And all the jerseys are decided on your best male and best female results combined. Thus giving the teams the quandary of whether to pace their male GC or their female GC.

I'm still all in on the beer every 10km but for as we're going mixed teams it'll have to be a "glass of white wine for the lady" every 10km
 
From "Pedalare! Pedalare!" by John Foot, which I was re-reading last night, pp236-237:

"By the 1970s, then, cycling had changed dramatically from the golden age of Coppi, Bartali and Magni. Cyclists were fitter, equipment was better, the roads had been vastly improved, teams were organised in a businesslike way, doping was more effective (and becoming more scientific) and there was far more money around. Racing was, as a result, much faster and much more predictable. One of the results of these changes...was that cycling became more boring. There were fewer breakaways, fewer heroic solo rides, fewer falls...

Technology mattered as well. Equipment failure became less significant, the weather counted for much less and new types of riders emerged - all-rounders and pure sprinters, specialists who no longer needed to ride the Stelvio on their own for hours in order to win or become rich. Time trials were more and more central to overall victory. The days of un uomo solo e al commando were gone, more or less for ever...Increasingly, the peleton <sic>/gruppo became hegemonic over the efforts of individuals, as all the riders became faster, and team organisation much more scientific. Improvements to the sport and its participants thus destroyed much of it fascination. An intrinsically individual sport became imprisoned by the power of the collective."

So there you have it...
 
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Aravis

Putrid Donut
Location
Gloucester
From "Pedalare! Pedalare!" by John Foot, which I was re-reading last night, pp236-237:

"By the 1970s, then, cycling had changed dramatically from the golden age of Coppi, Bartali and Magni. Cyclists were fitter, equipment was better, the roads had been vastly improved, teams were organised in a businesslike way, doping was more effective (and becoming more scientific) and there was far more money around. Racing was, as a result, much faster and much more predictable. One of the results of these changes...was that cycling became more boring. There were fewer breakaways, fewer heroic solo rides, fewer falls...

Technology mattered as well. Equipment failure became less significant, the weather counted for much less and new types of riders emerged - all-rounders and pure sprinters, specialists who no longer needed to ride the Stelvio on their own for hours in order to win or become rich. Time trials were more and more central to overall victory. The days of un uomo solo e al commando were gone, more or less for ever...Increasingly, the peleton <sic>/gruppo became hegemonic over the efforts of individuals, as all the riders became faster, and team organisation much more scientific. Improvements to the sport and its participants thus destroyed much of it fascination. An intrinsically individual sport became imprisoned by the power of the collective."

So there you have it...
Thanks for this. One for the Christmas stocking I think.

Following a similar lead, I successfully petitioned for a copy of Geoffrey Nicholson's "The Great Bike Race" for my recent birthday. This is an account of the 1976 Tour, with several diversions to earlier Tours along the way. I found it very striking that by the mid 70s the whole feel of the event seemed remarkably similar to how it is today, radios being perhaps the most conspicuous addition. I loved the way Poulidor still stuck to the traditional "four bidons a day" because that's the way it used to be done.
 
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