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Guess so.
I guess so, Manny did make it from point A to Point B and beat you in each arguement, so that was SIMPLE.First one to Tpark's dom. I win. WOOHOO!
Guess so.
T Park, name one country that riding a bike is a top ten sport? Globally, I'm guessing that bike riding isn't in the top 25 most popular sports.
You can't be a top five athlete ever when the sport you participate in doesn't have compe ion.
You mean besides France?
Ok, let's go clear some things...
No, it isn't. The greatest of test of human endurance is this http://www.raceacrossamerica.org/.
Cylcing from west coast to east coast of USA. But not in stages... In one piece. People only stop for like 2 or 3 hours of sleep per day ant that is it.
This year it took the winner Jure Robic (Slovenian, also won last year
But Tour de France certainly is the biggest endurance test in which a mass of proffesional athletes participates.
Ok for your info: This year there is going to be a race called LeTour Direct... Which will have same rules as RAAM but it will be driven along the path of Tour de France...
I don't think you are being objective here... Just because something isn't the most popular sport in USA it doesn't mean the sport lacks global compe ion. I would say that cycling is a top 10 sport in pretty much most of European countries, with much higher position in some countries (Italy, France, Holland). (And I believe that it should be very popular even in some South American countries judging by all the Colombians that come to Tour and Giro each year).
Ok, for your info: There are 20 teams in the Pro Tour, each of those teams is employing about 15 - 20 cyclists... And only the best teams can come into the Pro tour (you could say it's something like NBA - an elite group). But there are many, many more professioanl teams. I would estimate that around 1000 people are living of driving a bike professionaly (and this goes just for road races) making decent money. I don't think many other individual sports cover that many professionals.
And just because you Americans like to judge the popularity of things from the TV ratings, here is more info for you:
Eurosport (main TV station covering sports in Europe) is having 3-5 hours of live transmition of Tour de France and Giro di Italia each year...
Lots of national TV stations also cover Tour de France live, despite the fact that most people catch Eurosport...
I haven't found one place that says that riding a bike is a top ten sport in any country. Even on a French site, it didn't rank bike riding in the top ten.
Holy Captain Chaos, Batman! Maybe I'll watch!
As for Lance, all i can say:
My hat is of to him...
He certainly does not seem like an ass giving interviews, or during the races. He is one of the most proffesional and fair cyclist that I know. (Typical example was during the end of the stage yesterday. During the climb, there was a little descent with a very sharp right corner. Lance was leading the group of 4 riders (they were leading the stage also) and he actually gave a mark with his hand that there is a sharp right corner coming... (this is usually done when the complete group of 200 riders is packed and it his hard to see the corners for some inside the group, but very unusual when the group consists of 4 people)....
As for drugs: The man has been tested probably more times than any other person on the world. And they never found nothing....
Yeah, right.
A quick google search indicated that there have been three total deaths in the 100 years of this bike riding thing. One of those was because the guy was on so much juice he had a heart attack. The other two happened in 1995 and 1935.
Nice try.
Trying doing a google search for deaths in cycling events...since cycling is the Sport and the Tour is just one event...
3 deaths on the Tour in @90 years...
How many deaths have occurred in the World Series in @100 years?
Yeah because we all know death is the sign of a great sport.
He and Bush are friends(it's more like Bush is a big fan of his)...that doesn't mean they have the same politics...he doesn't like Bush's politics, he has actually told Bush that he doesn't like his politics, and is actually quite proud of the fact that he did so...He did say that Bush doesn't hold it against him and he doesn't hold Bush's politics against him...
Last edited by whottt; 07-13-2005 at 03:28 AM.
Enlighten us...tell us what makes a sport a great one.
I can say freely that this is about the last sport I would want to do professionally...because it seems like a lot of hard work and risk of health with little or no upside...IMO there's only one truly fun endurance sport and it's not for spectators(usually) and you don't get paid to do it(usually)
What that tells me is that the people that are involved in that Sport are passionate about it...and therefore that is what makes it a great sport.
IMO, the reason it's not more popular is because it is such a to undertake as a career.
Saying Kobe or someone could do it if they chose to is pure BS(and I know it wasn't you that said that)...
Exhibit A: Jordan - Baseball
so he disagrees with everything he believes in, but campaigns for him.He and Bush are friends(it's more like Bush is a big fan of his)...that doesn't mean they have the same politics...he doesn't like Bush's politics, he has actually told Bush that he doesn't like his politics, and is actually quite proud of the fact that he did so...He did say that Bush doesn't hold it against him and he doesn't hold Bush's politics against him
Makes sense.
BTW, got a link to that info?
Tour De Lance ... all the way thru France...
Whottt is right, T Park. Lance is a damn commieI had assumed, because he and Bush were Texans and I'd seen pictures of them laughing and joking in the Oval Office, that Armstrong was a Republican. But he says his politics are "middle to Left". He is "against mixing up State and Church, not keen on guns, pro women's right to choose". And very anti war in Iraq.
P.S.
Whottt the fact that it's such a tough sport works against it being a very credible sport. How many people WANT to be a pro bike rider? That number probably pales in comparision to almost every other sport in the world.
I could be the world's best swimmer with-raw-meat-tied-onto-my-back-in-shark-infested-waters and have won ten championships in a row ... but that doesn't make me a great athlete. It'd make me good at what I do.
Without a great amount of compe ion, I can't label an athlete as great.
When did I say anything about his biking? I just said that he irritates me. I didn't say anything about his accomplishments.Kori, have you ever done any hardcore biking? If you have, you would know it is one of the most painful and tiring things in the world.
^^ That's what I said earlier in this thread.I know his whole story and I know that he has helped a lot of people. And believe me, I've lost enough close relatives to cancer to be near to his cause/story. But it doesn't mean that I have to like him. In life, some people (or their public personna) can irritate you. They might be good people in many aspects of their lives, and they might be horrible people in other aspects. But it doesn't mean that everyone has to love them.
I'm almost certain cycling is more popular than the NFL! The NFL is an American thing. Ask almost any european and they won't give a hoot about American Football. They have rugby instead. South America doesn't give a crap about the NFL either. So yeah, I'm sure cycling is more popular then the NFL, worldwide that is.
Yeah bike riding is probably more popular. But I'm saying find a country where riding a bike is a top ten most popular sport. In the US, football is a top two sport.
Belgium
And FWIW...Lance makes 28 million a year.
HOLY !!! I definately did not know that! DAAAAMN!
Here are some quotes from UCI (International cycling federation) publication about the orgainisation:
http://www.uci.ch/imgarchive/UCI_PLAQUETTE_ENGL.pdf
Throughout the world the uci represents:
the interests of:
more than 170 National Federations
5 Continental Confederations
1200 professional riders
600’000 licensed riders
millions of cycling athletes who train regularly
more than a billion users.About the top 10 sport. Here is a list, that might not prove much:Sports co-ordination
administratively supports each cycling discipline vis-à-vis all partners: National Federations, Trade Teams, Race Organisers and sportsmen and women
registers almost 1200 professional road racers, from around fifty countries
registers more than 1600 international races, from all disciplines, on the UCI calendar
produces and updates the regulations of each discipline which clearly define the fundamental principles of cycling and guarantee their standardisation throughout the world
appoints and trains more than 650 international commissaires who guarantee the legality of international compe ion proceedings for each discipline through the application of UCI regulations.
France:
http://www.france-pub.com/esport.htm
http://www.vacations-paris.com/info/sport.html
Qoute from Encarta: The most popular professional sports are soccer and bicycle racing (see Cycling).
Italy:
http://www.bugbog.co.uk/european_cou...vel_guide.html - Ok, this might not be the best source, but it says cycling is one of the most popular sports in Italy.
Lithuania:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sports_in_Lithuania
Australia:
http://www.yesaustralia.com/Estilo-esportesing.htm
Germany:
http://yorkshiresport.org.uk/ccpr/A2.htm
What I am trying to say is that you have a completely wrong opinion about the popularity of cycling in Europe. It is much more popular than you think and there are lots and lots of amateur bikers cycling for fun and occasionally trying their luck on amateur races... You mihgt be right about proffesionals, of course number of proffesionals is much smaller. But as I said before, there are not many more individual! sports where more people are living from their paycheques.
I know I am not going to change your opinion, but the view on cycling in Europe is certainly very different from what you imagine.
The Tour de France is not for your "local" bike rider and the fact that there is limited compe ion is because it is so freakin' hard to do. I never knew that were that many people competing in ping pong, cricket or handball.
I can't remember the last time I saw a world championship of cricket on TV.
Being the best has nothing to do with how many are competing.
So an NBA championship doesn't mean crap since there are professional basketball teams over in Europe and other parts of the world?
Armstrong out to break cycling's last taboo
(AP) - Every other great cyclist's career ended badly. Lance Armstrong knows that.
It's been a given in the livelihood he chose, at least until now. Cycling tests endurance like no other sport, but has this in common with them all: At some point age trumps desire, and all too often, mocks it. "The older you get the higher the risk you have," Armstrong said Thursday at a news conference in Challans, France. "I can't argue with my birth certificate."
Too much high-living levelled Jacques Anquetil at 30. Bernard Hinault was finished at 31, done in after double-crossing teammate Greg LeMond, a move that backfired. Eddy Merckx, still considered by many the greatest all-around cyclist, simply ran out of gas at 29.
Even Miguel Indurain, who surpassed that trio of five-time Tour champions by winning his all in a row, was forced to surrender at 31 - though he managed it with such stealth that rivals on every side refused for days to believe what they had seen with their own eyes.
"It was," writes author Daniel Coyle in a new book about Armstrong, "the cyclist's perfect demise: five and half years of impermeable stoicism followed by a few seconds of collapse, the sphinx crumbling into dust."
If Armstrong needs any more motivation, there it is. His rivals have seen him crack, but never break completely. He turns 34 in September, already the only six-time Tour winner and still going strong two years after all the other greats were humbled. Armstrong has defied cancer, historical precedents, rumours of drug use, and turmoil in his personal life, so that only one taboo remains: to go out on top.
That's why he's retiring...if he can win he'll be the only one of the great champions to go out a winner...he'll have 2 more wins than any of them, 2 years older than any of them...and he'll have won them all in a row.
What more does he have to gain by staying around until he fails?
He'll be the Legend that never faltered if he wins this one and retries...and he won't have quit early...he'll have quit, and won, later than any of them.
Last edited by whottt; 07-13-2005 at 06:23 AM.
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