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couchprofessor

Listed below are comments made by couchprofessor between Friday, 25th April 2008 and Wednesday, 3rd June 2009.

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True greatness beckons for boy racer 5:12pm on 03 Jun 2009 As much as one has to respect 'Srchrs' Hoy, i do have to say that Cavendish's is already the more glittering palmarés. it will be a travesty if he never gets at least a mention in this SPOTY thing, but the thing is that people expects a 'popular' type of sportsman to win these sort of things nowadays. Hoy won because he was constantly portrayed as an all conquering god with leviathan thighs since his olympic performances; i doubt Cavendish will really get that much media saturation. he does not seem like the kind of guy who would hold his tongue when he finds something not to his satisfaction and this sometimes gets him into trouble.

i don't believe that SPOTY will be high on Cav's personal wishlist. if he wants to be stopped in the street while with his bike he can just walk around in some Tuscan street..

i have to wonder what planet NikosBG is actually from? Cavendish certainly IS the sprinter to beat at the moment.
From prodigy to superstar 2:53pm on 28 May 2009 @205.
very interesting views. the premiership is leagues ahead of the primera liga? you are enjoying a nice dream. Barcelona's victory, not to mention general history, proves this point. the premier league is billed as the greatest league by bitish pundits - you really oughtn't believe your own hype.
hyperbole that has gone too far, for too long. it is interesting that the two most accomplished midfielder on the pitch yesterday (and probably on earth at the moment) hail from the Spanish side? but then again, they might not be able to do this in the spanish league because all their opponents are one legged hunch backs as compared to the mechanical marvels that are premier league opposition right?

Ronaldo is probably a better player at some things, but all round, he is not that special. i would not be surprised if, by the end of his career, he is classed in the same group as Joao V. Pinto, who in his early career accumulated similar plaudits to Ronaldo, but in a different media era.

Premier league teams fare marginally better than continental teams because they have greater funding and thus can afford to poach the best talent developed from other leagues. as soon as this changes, and you better believe it eventially will, the premier league will suffer more than the others are at present. the premiership is focused around 7-8 athletes having to run around the pitch at 90 miles an hour while a couple of skilful players pull strings...not a good recipe.
Britain and the bike: a bumpy ride 9:55pm on 21 May 2009 #7
that is pretty funny, considering the sport you compete in has its roots in commercialisation. have you ever looked at a cycling jersey? my team jersey has more names on it than i can remember. not that i am ranting at you at all, but just pointing out that our sport has had no 'golden amateur' era. virtually all of us amateurs who race do so because we are not good/willing (or able to obtain exposure) enough to become pros.

the beauty of cycling is that you do not need a ticket to enjoy it. just turn up with your picnic hamper and enjoy yourself. and this is up to the very highest level. cycling is a beautiful sport to follow, and chances are it will never end up like football from a fan's point of view.
Britain and the bike: a bumpy ride 9:48pm on 21 May 2009 I agree with the comments about the lay public not being 'willing' to take the time out to understand the finery involved with group racing. Continental cycling has only got about an 80 year head start so i think in Britain we are not doing too badly. most of the problems start with how to accomodate cyclists and cycling in towns that have previously shunned them. these attitudes have to be transformed from a lawmaking standpoint before they will ever have any resonative effect upon the general public.
it will be many years before the urbanite in their huge 4X4 decides that the cyclist they are about to crush deserves to be on the road, but this is an attitude that has persisted for years and the desired progress will take time.
that said, however, i have found that cycling has become easier over the last couple of years as more drivers are mindful of our needs for space when we are on the road. larger service vehicles have shown the best improvement, in my opinion.

from a racing standoint, i would say that the government really does need to provede more for the premier calendar races. it is beyond disappointing for a cycling fan to travel to a race only to find that it cannot be held because of some ridiculous red-tape, but once again, this affects more aspects of our life than just cycling. the changes need required are more fundamental than just providing closed roads for roadies ro race on.

the really sad thing is that all this is taking place at a time when Britain has the strongest represtntation in professional road racing that it has ever had, from both genders. our heroes will never be truly 'British' heroes (apart from the olympians) because they spend more time on the continent than they do here. that is pretty ironic.

I Bet Cav will feel more at home in Italy than he will in Britain, eventually.
IPL move takes shine off India 09:52am on 26 Mar 2009 corporate cricket will be the same, regardless of where it is played out. the backers of the IPL are not going to mind that they are in SA now. they have acccess to a public with greater spending power!
needless to say, some of this money SHOULD end up in domestic indian cricket coffers. i do not see how you have even begun to demonstrate that indian cricket is suffering because of this. sure they have lost a lot of supplementary economic activity that the IPL would have brought, but normal service will resume next year, and the ICL should still go ahead, or will that move as well? perhaps you can put your finely tuned ears to those sounds now?

England and English cricket will not have the upper hand in relations with BCCI because they are increasingly reliant on lucrative series cricket against India, so Modi's 'flirtations' will have done little to damage an already dominant relationship.

i'd personally rather have sportsmen playing in a safe environment, wherever that may be, than in a potentially dangerous environment, especially when political motives are high on everyones agendas. the unfortunate thing about modern professional sport is that it is too intricately tied up to the political engines of society. whatever the case, life, and indian cricket, will go on unashamedly.
Fairer than the evening air? 1:55pm on 20 Mar 2009 Chambers must be laughing his hearty head off. the BBC, through the errant spoutings of their bloggers, especially Herr Cram, have provided the ultimate in market saturation when Chambers would have wanted it most.
The poster who talked about david Millar has made a most valid point. it seems that contrition is more important than individuality if you are a previous drugs offender, to the BBC at least. Or maybe Millar just has a wonderful personality, which Chambers seems to lack? or may there be some other, darker bias present?
whatever it is, i doubt Chambers minds it either way any more. it keeps him in the spotlight when he desires to be there most.
i salute him, drugs or not.
without mistakes there would never be redemption.
The jeers and not enough cheers in Turin 11:54pm on 08 Mar 2009 As always, you are a Dwain-hater.
athletics is not so much my sport, but as an ardent cycling fan, i would have to say that the issue of drugs is always lurking under the clear coat of the glossy face of things.
One thing surprises me. there is a British cyclist who had come back from a drugs ban somewhere near the time when Chambers made his return to sport. people seem to love the fact that he is a 'reformed' soul, and thus accord him some sort of exalted status.
maybe the difference between Chambers and Millar is that Chambers actually decides that he has an opinion. or had one, at any rate. i do not hear him making some of the points he was making a few years ago regarding drugs in his sport, and i suppose he would know, considering he was a part of the cream at the time.

For all his mistakes, or whatever you want to call the infractions he committed, Mr. Chambers is now a hopefully clean athlete and a sound qualifier from reform school. i suggest you cut him some slack and look for something else to moan about. your pieces are going to be read by many, for sure, so stop sensationalising things. Give Dwain his due and try and focus on positive things he is doing now..
it becomes hard to listen to a moaner after a while.
When Hoy's bid almost hit the buffers 11:32am on 16 Nov 2008 Even if he carried two bikes, he'd want to have his favourite machine repaired for use. Sometimes a bike takes on more than just its physical identity..a soul, if you like.
for the record, Obree's bike just used the bearing from a washing machine because that allowed for a narrow bottom bracket. oh, and one of the crank arms was a scavenged piece of roadside metal, apaprently. there was also some reynolds tubing used on the bike.
When Obree tried to challenge Moser's hour record, he did not use this machine and instead used the one made specifically for the event by the man who made Boardman's own 'lotus' bike. unfortunately, he failed at the first attempt and then used his 'old faithful' bike to finally break the record the next day..
this all goes to show that the way one feels about a bike makes a difference to how one performs on it. i would think that Hoy would have moved heaven and earth before using a spare machine. then again, he might not have cared...

what does it matter though? things like this happen to riders at every big event. the Beeb are just trying to make it seem out of the ordinary when it really is not..
Engaging Bilic soothes travel woes 4:21pm on 08 Jun 2008 Bilic seems a little bit of a patriot. And a wealthy one probably, what with having been a professional footballer up until not too long ago. therefore it is reasonable to assume that money is not going to be his god. i think that he should stay where he is a little while longer because then he will certainly be an idol among his countrymen for the rest of his life. that is something that no amount of money will ever be able to buy.
Besides, which Premier-League chairman is going to allow his manager to strum on a guitar during office hours?
If all he makes is the quoted figure each year then he is something of a rarity in the upper echelons of football - someone not completely financially minded. Bravo.
New Zealand make a quiet arrival 09:29am on 25 Apr 2008 i dunno, y'know. something tells me that an afternoon watching England at home to New Zealand could be fairly interesting. obviously the IPL thrill seekers will disagree, but surely test cricket is essential viewing for any true student of the game. the casual observer is excused!
it would be a stunning achievement if the caps managed to win even one of the longer games since their squad just does not look up to scratch...

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