Les Payne

Why I Watch Bicycle Races.

Today is the start of the 95th edition of the Giro D’Italia, the first grand tour of the year and, arguably, the one with the most exciting course. It’s an open race, with no clear favourite - which should, on paper, make for some excellent racing. The parcours also seem congruent with making the race good to watch on the television, with plenty of opportunities to attack and gain time on competitors.

And that’s really what I want to talk about here: what makes a race good to watch on television? The brilliant Inner Ring recently published an interesting article that, amongst other things, pointed out that the majority of the French audience watch Le Tour De France for ‘Les beaux paysages vus a la tele’ (beautiful countryside seen on the TV), and perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising - considering the massive viewing figures Le Tour gets, no one should expect them to all be dedicated cycling fans.

But what about those dedicated cycling fans? What do they watch for? What specifically is it about cycling that attracts us to a sport that sees a large number of men/women riding their bicycles for long periods of time? The answer is of course varied and multifarious, but for me it’s for those brief moments of spark and brilliance, the spectacle of an athlete pushing themselves to the limits of their physical capabilities, the fruits of years of dedicated training and living like a monk for a shot at glory.

The legendary Stephen Roche, now a representative of the UCI on the Professional Cycling Council, recently caused a stir in the cycling community with some comments on the state of modern cycling - citing unzipped jerseys, the drafting of team cars , loitering at the scene of a crash, and the much discussed race radio as things he sees as problems. He also said that “if they haven’t got the public behind them, there’s no reason to have guys riding bikes.” Jonathan Vaughters was, as usual, ask for his opinion on the matter and was eloquent in his riposte, stating that cycling has bigger issues and that “We don’t need to be over-regulating things that don’t affect the core outcome or safety of races.” I’m inclined to agree - the recent UCI legislation concerning sock length, for example, smacks of time and money wasted that could have been better spent on other more important issues.

I’ve recently been reading Put Me Back On My Back, by William Fotherington, a brilliant chronicle of the cycling career of Tom Simpson that I would wholeheartedly recommend to any cycling fan. There’s a short passage early on in the book that sums up everything I love about road cycling, I could write a whole essay on it:

‘Simpson was perfectly capable of riding himself to death without drugs in his system. He ‘became twice the man’ when he pulled on the Union Jack jersey, says Denson, and was prepared to ride himself ‘into unconsciousness’ for his country.’

Obviously I’m not saying I want to see cyclists riding themselves to death, certainly not; only that for some reason there’s a romanticism to the athlete who pushes on the limit of human capabilities - over mountain passes, through the sun, rain, wind, snow and across more miles than I would care to drive. That’s what professional cyclists do day in day out, and that’s why I watch bicycle races.

Simon Bromley

“GOOD IS SOMETHING YOU DO, NOT SOMETHING YOU TALK ABOUT. SOME MEDALS ARE PINNED TO YOUR SOUL, NOT TO YOUR JACKET.”

bigringriding:

JUST READ THIS ON CYCLINGNEWS - THE INCREDIBLE STORY OF HOW BARTALI HELPED SAVE UP TO 800 JEWS FROM THE NAZIS, BY SMUGGLING DOCUMENTS IN HIS FRAME WHILE OUT ON 380KM TRAINING RIDES.

MINDBLOWING.

via + THANKS LYNDON WADE.

(Source: cyclingnews.com)