Cycling pre-Wiggins....

[Ted Striker]

I'm less able to convince myself it's not solely down to Wiggins success (it indirectly was - I never really 'got' TdF cycling tactics and culture until my mate sat me down and told me basics of the rules/strategy/ettiquette etc)...

But...

After taking a bit of an interest in cycling...the enormity of the history and the scene and how great it all (Grand tours etc) was, is something quote remarkable, and my knowledge, whilst embarrassingly slim is also bewildering that it seems to have completely passed the UK by.

is it really my (and just my ) dim-ness? I remember a few Olympic triumphs of yesteryear (particularly one year Boardmans Lotus bike being acclaimed for CB's victories more than the man himself), but short of a couple of flashes at the TdF on the TV, it's felt like the Heysel years of the Champions League - Overnight it has become the most interesting and Britishly victorious sport/event.

I can still only name a couple of British riders that were 'faces' of the Grand/UCI World Tours. Is this down to my 'scratching of the surface' of the sport?

I mean, to hear (well, watch via the Flying Scotsman fillum) of Graeme Obree's story - you'd think he would/should/could be a minor hero to any sportsman.

 

[littlebabyjesus]

The history of cycling is very interesting. In mainland europe it was one of the very first professional sports. In the uk team sports such as football, rugby league and (partially) cricket were the first to be professionalised. I guess you can't buy heritage. Just as other countries don't have a cup competition quite like the fa cup so the uk doesn't have a deep cycling heritage.

 

[trabuquera]

Not to do down any of the current generation, or the pre-1960s lot, but I read something recently which made me go at the sheer corruption of race cycling pre-Wiggins and the sheer blatancy of all the cheating ... not a sport of gentlemen for many decades according to this:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n22/david-runciman/everybody-gets-popped

 

[butchersapron]

I'm less able to convince myself it's not solely down to Wiggins success (it indirectly was - I never really 'got' TdF cycling tactics and culture until my mate sat me down and told me basics of the rules/strategy/ettiquette etc)...

But...

After taking a bit of an interest in cycling...the enormity of the history and the scene and how great it all (Grand tours etc) was, is something quote remarkable, and my knowledge, whilst embarrassingly slim is also bewildering that it seems to have completely passed the UK by.

is it really my (and just my ) dim-ness? I remember a few Olympic triumphs of yesteryear (particularly one year Boardmans Lotus bike being acclaimed for CB's victories more than the man himself), but short of a couple of flashes at the TdF on the TV, it's felt like the Heysel years of the Champions League - Overnight it has become the most interesting and Britishly victorious sport/event.

I can still only name a couple of British riders that were 'faces' of the Grand/UCI World Tours. Is this down to my 'scratching of the surface' of the sport?

I mean, to hear (well, watch via the Flying Scotsman fillum) of Graeme Obree's story - you'd think he would/should/could be a minor hero to any sportsman.

Wait for a bit . There is miles of history. Forget the Olympics - not abut that.

 

[Ted Striker]

Sure...I'm currently looking at the Paris Roubaix race and the awesome tales and rivalries on steel frames etc.

 

[twistedAM]

Not to do down any of the current generation, or the pre-1960s lot, but I read something recently which made me go at the sheer corruption of race cycling pre-Wiggins and the sheer blatancy of all the cheating ... not a sport of gentlemen for many decades according to this:
http://www.lrb.co.uk/v34/n22/david-runciman/everybody-gets-popped

I don't think Wiggins has anything to do with that.

 

[trabuquera]

Me neither, (and neither does the author of that article) but the scale and psychology of cheating which it describes did come as an unpleasant surprise to me (totally non sporting person with little interest in commercial or amateur sport) ... I had vaguely thought 'oh well, yeah, sure, there would be the odd drug cheat in cycling like there were those steroid users in the sprinting', etc, but had honestly never begun to perceive just how the WHOLE deck was stacked in favour of drug-takers or how much cycling success really did depend on what drugs you were using, during the 80s/90s.

 

[geminisnake]

The history of cycling is very interesting. In mainland europe it was one of the very first professional sports. In the uk team sports such as football, rugby league and (partially) cricket were the first to be professionalised.

And they are/were the ones that get tv coverage. You try being a fan of a different sport and try watching it on tv Hubby has watched a lot of cycling over the years, Giro d'Italia, Tour de France and various velodrome stuff etc but they are mainly shown on eurosport. The corruption in cycling bodies over the years is horrendous!!

 

[Sigmund Fraud]

Cycle sport in this country has long been regarded as a fifth columnist sport and distinctly 'continental' nee Francophile. Men meeting on a Sunday morning in tight fitting clothing has been a European tradition for a century but its still seen as un-British and the antithesis of men meeting on muddy pitches to kick 7 bells out of each other at football. In Belgium, Holland, France, Italy the sport is universally viewed as something natural, normal. Here it isn't. If we were more integrated into Europe we might think differently but as long as we remain at arms length geographically and financially we will stay culturally disconnected too.

That said Britain has steadily produced good calibre riders...just that they either stayed in the (weaker, lower quality) domestic scene or were shat out the back of an uncompromising european peleton who spoke funny and had foreign ways. People like Simpson, Hoban, Millar, Yates, Boardman were top, top level pros against this backdrop - which makes their achievements even more telling.