BBC Blog Network

User Profile

FixedGuru

Listed below are comments made by FixedGuru between Saturday, 16th August 2008 and Monday, 25th August 2008.

«Newer
Older»

World view of Beijing 00:19am on 25 Aug 2008 Nice to see that this year it is NOT Team GB which is having to celebrate their single non-gold medal. It makes up for previous dissappointments!
Next generation of GB cyclists already looking good for 2012 1:13pm on 19 Aug 2008 Cycling is unlikely to let go of Dave Brailsford and Peter Keen is alstready doing this at UK Sport.
Next generation of GB cyclists already looking good for 2012 1:12pm on 19 Aug 2008 As to the madison being "crazy", well it probably one of the most complex sports events. To follow what is going on requires concentration for the whole event, it is probably the one sports event where the spectators are more informed than the competitors!
If you look away for a few seconds you can miss a critical move, it is an officials nightmare!
It is probably the only remaining sporting event from the novelty era of the late 19th/early 20th century and was dreamt up to make the track distance events more exciting.
Its is quite common for teams to celebrate a win, only to find out that they haven't won, because they missed some seemingly unimportant move earlier in the event, or even on the last lap. Furthermore incidents at the back of the field can be significant, as well as the obvious ones at the front. Watch the Canadians to see why.
The madison should perhaps be considered as the physical equivalent of the more cerebral activities of curling, chess or snooker/pool.
So the reporters comments are probably valid if you try to take it all in from a soundbite.
Think of it more as a game of tag, combined with a relay race.
How do you spot a future Olympic star? 00:40am on 19 Aug 2008 There has been a lot of research into matching individuals with sports in which they might, one day become champions, often a by-product of the East-West one-upmanship during the Cold War.
Understandably, such work tends to focus upon the physical body type. "A sprinter should be X, Y, Z,; a distance runner should be A, B, C, etc"
However, there are numerous individuals who deviate from the expected "standard" and yet still succeed.
Comments have been made that Usain Bolt was considered too tall for a sprinter! Presumably the 100m is now a distance event.
Britain's cycling success - is it cricket? 11:57pm on 18 Aug 2008 The overall success is probably no different to that which the East-West Germans, Russians, Czechs, Australians and US have sought in the past and partially achieved.
A few years ago the Germans had a siimilar strength in depth on the track, with several sprinters of similar ability to Chris Hoy (Jens Fielder for one) and pursuiters like Jens Lehmann.
Britain's cycling success - is it cricket? 11:11pm on 18 Aug 2008 As to the money, Cycling may have recieved some £22 million over the past to run the sport/pastime but the paid staff now number 150 (perhaps £3 million in wages!) and most has gone to supporting grass roots activities. True, the elite squads now receive enough to support them properly, hence the medal successes, but they do have to produce results to keep a lot of that.
In contrast, the sport in Europe is dominated by road racing and the typical budget for a road team competing in the Tour de France is probably around £6 million - not enough to get one decent Premier League player! There are 20 in the TdF each year.
The strategic decision by British Cycling to focus on track is laudable and has produced the desired results and public profile. European professional (road) teams can afford the odd track rider on the payroll, but in the UK the domestic teams have rarely had that luxury. Road teams also have a packed calender and their commitments may limit the preparation a trackie could make for the Olympics, similar to the problems the FA has with England players with Premiership committments.
Britain's cycling success - is it cricket? 10:29pm on 18 Aug 2008 For the record, we have lost several of our meagre stock of cycle tracks in recent years; Coventry, Leicester, Nottingham, Harlow, Paddington, while several others are more suitable for mountain bikes than track bikes. We still only have 24 tracks of which only 3 are indoors, of which one is not really suitable for competition. In contrast, France has about 100, Australia about 80, suprisingly the US only has 24. While it was probably the best decision British Cycling ever made to push for sufficient funding to build Manchester fully indoors, move their office there and include facilities to support the national squads. However, Manchester only has about 3000 seats, as money was too tight to build it any larger, and Newport only has 500 seats. Neither of these venues can actually pay their way without subsidies, especially since British Cycling's membership was historically around 10,000 (it is now 23,000). There are probably only 500 regular track riders in the UK - a tiny minority compared to those riding road races, time trials or MTB events.
Let the great G.O.A.T debate commence! 8:25pm on 17 Aug 2008 A few other contenders:-
Ray Ewry (USA) won 3 medals in the same events (standing long jump, standing triple jump and standing high jump) at each of the 1900, 1904 and 1908 Games.
So he has three different events and defended these titles on two occassions.
Eric Heiden in 1980, won every disciple in speed skating 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m, basically dominating as a sprinter and endurance athlete.
Storms bring out the Smurfs 06:14am on 16 Aug 2008 Just don't pray for rain at the Velodrome!
Actually it is indoors, but many tracks are outdoors, Meadowbank at Edinburgh for example.
It doesn't need more than a few drops of rain on a wooden track to make it dangerous.
Why China needs more Dog & Ducks 05:49am on 16 Aug 2008 If you think the football situation is bad!
In a similar vein, China has the world's highest overall number and proportion of cyclists, together with most of the worlds largest bicycle manufacturers, yet as a nation they have very little impact in the sport.
They really should be almost as dominant as they are in table-tennis! Fortunately for the UK riders, they aren't.

«Newer
Older»

^ Back to top

BBC MMVI

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites

BBC.co.uk

BBC Blog Network

Find and talk to the BBC's bloggers.

User Profile

FixedGuru