posted Aug 16, 2008

<<So how many countries actually bother to cycle. How many black cyclists. No one bothers. That is why GB wins so many medals.>>

It happens that blacks are poor cyclists, can't be good at everything.

I must reiterate that Nicole Cooke is outstanding.

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posted Aug 16, 2008

<<"In cycling several dominant nations have simply stopped track racing in favour of road racing, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Germany."
If that's true Sabcarrera then their cycling organizers should be fired, I mean what were they thinking? 'Well its only 9 or 10 Olympic medals, hardly worth bothering.' The mind boggles.>>

In Italy cycling has completely slipped out of the power of the Italian Olympic committee and Italian cycling federation.

Road races run by local clubs that involve many riders are quite competitive and have become big business.

Italian cycling is getting nothing from the Olympics except aggravation, and so the huge numbers of cyclists in Italy are turning to these races.
They're the future.

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posted Aug 16, 2008

Well done to all.

I just hope that the powers that be take this as a forum to really promote 'cycling for all' - improving secure cycle parking which can be relied upon to be present when visiting the shops or a new area, cycle friendly road planning (not just in the towns) and so on.

Fingers crossed.

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posted Aug 16, 2008

If you haven't already, read the following. It explains why British cycling is where it is today.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/cycling/7534073.stm

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posted Aug 16, 2008

If the performances of the GB Cycling team don't make the great British public sit up and take notice of a fantastic sport I don't know what will. Unless I'm mistaken we have 11 riders competing on the track - Including the 2 girls riding off for gold in the All british final we have to date won 9 medals - with Victoria and Cav still to ride. - Sounds like Sports personality of the year awards individual and team should be coming from the Cycling fraternity.

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posted Aug 16, 2008

I just wish people would stop talking about how the reason we're doing so well is because of all the taxpayers money poured in.

Football has had a fortune flow into it and look what happened in qualification the last time around.

Three things have made cycling great: -
1) The commonwealth games in Manchester meant state of the art facilities being built (and not later ripped down) - thanks to the revenue from the games the facilities were built.
2) Management processes were put in place to make gradual improvements. Our dominance in Beijing isn't by chance. It took 15 years of hard graft and gradual improvement. With success came the funds and sponsorship to further improve.
3)Foresight and unwavering dedication to a less popular form of the sport and determination to achieve at it by the athletes. Several have professional rides for the season but chose to drop out in order to be part of team GB. The team went to Beijing politely saying 4 medals would be good but privately I bet they were already thinking that anything less than 7 golds they would consider failure.

The article mentioned above makes it sound like Dave Brailsford just took over something perfect and could only ruin it. I don't believe that. I believe that we'd have failed to improve from where we were then - which is when the target of 4 golds was seen as a stretch target.

Well done to them all. The riders, the coaches and the management. This display of utter superiority is down to them all. They all deserve all the plaudits and the lucrative Sky contract. I look forward to watching them riding down the Champs Elysees on yellow bikes with yellow handlebar tape and drinking champagne.

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posted Aug 16, 2008

Shortwords:
I read the article you suggested,and I think the most telling part is the followingstaement from the elite performanc director: "In fact, it wasn't until late 2001 that the penny dropped. I needed to clear out riders and coaches who weren't obsessed with winning."

Some other sports need to learn the same lesson. Especially some of our pampered sprinters.

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posted Aug 17, 2008

What would be nice is if a few (no, lots) more Brits would be persuaded to take up cycling just because it's a great way get outdoors for a bit of cheap but excellent aerobic exercise. Cycling as a means of transport might not be a bad reason either. Look at the Italians and French and ask why they live longer healthier lives that their British counterparts. It's as much because they aren't sitting on their backsides just talking the talk as any other aspect like diet.
The British track cyclists are great and they deserve all the credit and applause coming their way. But I think it will all be a flash in the pan as far as the world class faddist Brits are concerned. They'll buy the bikes, for sure, for all the wrong reasons then hang them in the shed when they realise how hard it is to be a world class cycle racer. It would be nice to think Brits could be weaned off their love of all things faddish and quackish and become a nation of active healthy sports lovers as a result of this Olympic success. But I wouldn't put any money on it.

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posted Aug 18, 2008

It seems that the unsung hero is John Major
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/08/18/do1804.xml

Good on him

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posted Aug 18, 2008

To those who are saying that the other big european nations arent competing I can only say that we are beating the teams that are there. We are also breaking world records so things are certainly competitive.

Ultimately those cyclists are lifting us above the Australians and what better prize can there be than that. COngratulations to the cyclists for their hard work and dedication and thanks to Chris Boardman who strted it all off.

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