Why no Ethnic Riders in Tour de France?

"vernon levy" wrote in message
...
Some of the
reasons are almost certainly cultural - amongst the asian lads, if they
want
to participate in sport they go for cricket but from their late teens they
have a fixation on fast cars and Max Power magazine.

This is common amongst most young lads. As soon as they reach 16, the bike
is thrown away and they get a moped, a car at 17 and so it goes on from
there. Anyone who doesn't follow this path is a dork amongst their peers.

Amongst my work mates I am considered a kind of nutcase since I cycle in
all year round, but just lately our "Green Office" team has been coming out
with lots of "new ideas" such as why not cycle to work and keep fit and
don't damage the environment etc and yet I'd *love* to be able to tell you
the lengths I have had to go to to try and get my leds lamps allowed on
site, it's been dragging on for 3 years, but I'm afraid I can't, not on a
public forum that is.

--
?

Al C-F wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:58:37 +0100, anonymous coward
wrote:

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were
many Asian riders there.

And those who were paying attention would have seen the brief article
on the Tour de Burkina Fasso during the TdF coverage.


....and talking of the Burkina Fasso tour.... The motorcycle "time man" ( the
one with the blackboard) comes from BF. He was invited by "le tour" to do
the job after asking a few years ago.

Jan

Wasn't there a Kenyan cycling team that got pulled over on the motorway
here a while ago - they were only doing 45mph which was considered
dangerously slow.

Quite apart from the fact that pedal-cycles are not allowed on Motorways???

A.Lee wrote:

: More to the point, why are there no British riders in it? (I know, because
: there are none good enough, and it is a small minority sport here!)

I think there's quite a few brits who would be pros if they were from Belguim.

The problem is that too much cycling in the UK consists of the total waste of
time activity of plouging up and down dual carriages at 3am....

Arthur

--
Arthur Clune http://www.clune.org
"Technolibertarians make a philosophy out of a personality defect"
- Paulina Borsook

Martin 'MSeries' Newstead wrote:
dannyfrankszzz wrote:
I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?


I think it stems from the fact that few young people with Asian or
Afro-Caribean background ride bikes as a serious pass-time.

The New York Fixie scene is at least partly influenced by the Carribean
track racing scene.

From http://oldskooltrack.com/files/home.frame.html

"And then, at least on the East Coast, you've got the Caribbean influence.
For over half a century, the everyday ride for kids in the Caribbean would
be a "fix" or a "track." Maybe they raced nationally or internationally. And
then they brought it to the U.S. The owner of New York City's "Second Avenue
Bicycles Plus" tells me that he remembers riding a fix back in Jamaica - in
the 1940's"


Wonder why it never happened over here ?

--
Andy Morris

AndyAtJinkasDotFreeserve.Co.UK


Love this:
Put an end to Outlook Express's messy quotes
http://home.in.tum.de/~jain/software/oe-quotefix/

anonymous coward Wrote:
On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:07:49 +1000, dannyfrankszzz wrote:


I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in
the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

I thought that there were Japanese riders and some other Asian
riders
who could make the cut.

Just wondering......

Wasn't there a Kenyan cycling team that got pulled over on the
motorway
here a while ago - they were only doing 45mph which was considered
dangerously slow.

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were
many
Asian riders there.

AC

There are cyclists from many, many non-European countries, just few, if
any that are in pro-teams that are good enough for the Tour de France.
Remember the Tour is the biggest pro-race, simply participating is a
goal for many young riders throughout the World and not every team is
invited to ride. Its hard to become a member of a top pro-team, you
need talent, determination, luck and a path to follow. The path exists
on the Continent which is why we see plenty of Belgian, French,
Italian, Dutch and Spanish riders. Now some of these countries have
large ethnic populations but as we have seen young people from these
backgrounds tend to be interested in cycling even less than non-ethnic
people. I recall reading last year, maybe in the Tour Centenary book
about a good black rider in the eary 20th Century. The name Major
Taylor rings a bell.


--
MSeries

anonymous coward wrote in message e...
On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:07:49 +1000, dannyfrankszzz wrote:


I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

Wasn't there a Kenyan cycling team that got pulled over on the motorway
here a while ago - they were only doing 45mph which was considered
dangerously slow.

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were many
Asian riders there.

itv2 did a spot on one of the motorcycle marshalls (the guys with the
blackboards) who was on a reciprocal swap with the national tour of
one of the former french colonies in Africa (I forget the country). I
*think* he was a former rider.

I don't think it as simple as saying black kids don't ride or there
aren't enough good riders. This was pretty much what was said about
afro-caribean footballers in Britain until, *whoops*, it turned out to
be good old-fashioned predjudice after all.

I would guess that it is institutional as much as, or more than,
personal

best wishes
james

MSeries wrote:

I recall reading last year, maybe in the Tour
Centenary book about a good black rider in the
eary 20th Century. The name Major Taylor rings
a bell.

Is correct. He was a World Champion on the track and has a velodrome named
after him in Indianapolis. I have a vague recollection of an
African-American trackie turning pro in the 80's after doing well in the
Olympics. (Googles) Nelson Vails.
--

Dave Larrington - http://www.legslarry.beerdrinkers.co.uk/
================================================== =========
Editor - British Human Power Club Newsletter
http://www.bhpc.org.uk/
================================================== =========

"james" wrote in message
om...
anonymous coward wrote in message
e...
On Sun, 25 Jul 2004 03:07:49 +1000, dannyfrankszzz wrote:


I was just wondering about this. How come there are no riders in the
Tour de France who are from a non-European ethnic background?

Wasn't there a Kenyan cycling team that got pulled over on the motorway
here a while ago - they were only doing 45mph which was considered
dangerously slow.

C4 was showing the Tour of Lang(a?)kawi a while ago, and there were many
Asian riders there.

itv2 did a spot on one of the motorcycle marshalls (the guys with the
blackboards) who was on a reciprocal swap with the national tour of
one of the former french colonies in Africa (I forget the country). I
*think* he was a former rider.

I think someone else has ID'd the country as Burkina.

I don't think it as simple as saying black kids don't ride or there
aren't enough good riders. This was pretty much what was said about
afro-caribean footballers in Britain until, *whoops*, it turned out to
be good old-fashioned predjudice after all.

I would guess that it is institutional as much as, or more than,
personal

I don't agree. To simply say that there aren't enough of
a particular group taking part in an activity doesn't
necessarily point to prejudice. How many 60 year olds take
part in dance raves? Is this prejudice on the part of
rave organisers?

I'd be concerned if people of a particular group were being
*prevented* from paticipating in an activity to the point
where there was *no way* they could take part (e.g. by
setting up an organisation under whose auspices they could
participate in that activity). However, if a person from a
particular group is aware of the opportunity to participate
in an activity but doesn't want to do so because he doesn't
like it, I'm not sure much else can be done.

--
Akin

aknak at aksoto dot idps dot co dot uk

I've done the etape du tour 3 times and can remember a couple of
occassions in particular 1999 at St Fleur at the finish when a guy
from TOP VELO cycling magazine approached me with a microphone
and asked me a few questions like, how did you find the ride, were
you 'en forme', what country do you come from etc. One off tape
question was: why so few black faces in any in L'etape. I couldn't
answer for anyone else but said I enjoyed cycling and had wanted
to ride L'etape for a couple of years before trying.

I asked him why he picked on me to interview from amongs all of
the cyclists mingling around. He said I was the first black person
he'd seen riding all day.

Michael Anderson


--
anderson