This is just dumb...

UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD

Uncle Dave wrote:
UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD


Television $$

On Sep 26, 9:46*am, Uncle Dave wrote:
UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! *Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD



Dumbass -

I've watched those events in person at the Olympics and my take is:

points race = exciting for a real cycling fan
madison = exciting for a real cycling fan
pursuit = yawn

Pursuit's boring. There's no tactics.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.

"KG" wrote in message
...
On Sep 26, 9:46 am, Uncle Dave wrote:
UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD

===============
Dumbass -

I've watched those events in person at the Olympics and my take is:

points race = exciting for a real cycling fan
madison = exciting for a real cycling fan
pursuit = yawn

Pursuit's boring. There's no tactics.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.
================

But to anybody who's ever ridden a pursuit, they're riveting. You know what
it's like to be out there, dying, but hoping the other guy dies first. Lots
of psyche games too (it's incorrect to state that there are no tactics; a
huge early lead can be demoralizing, or having someone claw their way back,
gaining on you each lap, that can be demoralizing as well... there's a lot
more to it than meets the eye).

So there are at least 10,000 people out of 7 billion who believe the pursuit
should be in the Olympics and are guaranteed to watch it.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USAKurgan. presented by Gringioni.

On Sep 26, 2:45*pm, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
wrote:
"KG" wrote in message

...
On Sep 26, 9:46 am, Uncle Dave wrote:



UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD

===============
Dumbass -

I've watched those events in person at the Olympics and my take is:

points race = exciting for a real cycling fan
madison = exciting for a real cycling fan
pursuit = yawn

Pursuit's boring. There's no tactics.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.
================

But to anybody who's ever ridden a pursuit, they're riveting. You know what
it's like to be out there, dying, but hoping the other guy dies first. Lots
of psyche games too (it's incorrect to state that there are no tactics; a
huge early lead can be demoralizing, or having someone claw their way back,
gaining on you each lap, that can be demoralizing as well... there's a lot
more to it than meets the eye).

So there are at least 10,000 people out of 7 billion who believe the pursuit
should be in the Olympics and are guaranteed to watch it.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycleswww.ChainReaction.com
Redwood City & Los Altos, CA USAKurgan. presented by Gringioni.

At least 10,000??? Only if Lance decides to ride the pursuit, but
otherwise, no.

KG wrote:
On Sep 26, 9:46 am, Uncle Dave wrote:
UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD



Dumbass -

I've watched those events in person at the Olympics and my take is:

points race = exciting for a real cycling fan
madison = exciting for a real cycling fan
pursuit = yawn

Pursuit's boring. There's no tactics.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.

Agreed, but to elaborate, points race scoring means that your favorite
or the race favorite riders are not trying to score on each sprint. Add
in riders taking or losing a lap and it's very confusing for the viewers
who aren't accustomed to reading the race. Same thing for madison, but
add in that every other guy is slowly riding around the top of the track.

Pursuit is no less tactical than swimming but at least swimmers are
going head to head, giving a greater sense of battle.

OTOH, the road TT is even more boring than the pursuit, as it is 10x as
long and has even fewer data points.

A miss and out could be entertaining if you can train the audience to
watch the action at both ends of the field.

I don't think an omnium is the answer though, especially since they are
still including a round of pursuits and a points race for it.

But once again, it must have been driven by TV money.

On Sep 26, 9:31*pm, KG wrote:
On Sep 26, 9:46*am, Uncle Dave wrote:



UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! *Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD

Dumbass -

I've watched those events in person at the Olympics and my take is:

points race = exciting for a real cycling fan
madison = exciting for a real cycling fan
pursuit = yawn

Pursuit's boring. There's no tactics.

I would say it's one of the most tactical races there is, how many
times are pusuits won by riders doing the right thing at the right
time and lost by doing the wrong thing? Often. Neither the madison
and points races are races which can be understood by most non-cycling
people and the concept of the first rider across the line not
necessarily being the winner at the end is completely foreign to most
people's idea of sporting endeavour. The man to man combat of the
pursuit is something people can easily understand...

UD

On Sep 26, 9:50*pm, z wrote:

snip

But once again, it must have been driven by TV money.

The Madison is one of the worst possible races for TV. I used to be a
six day fan going to 1 or 2, sometimes more, events each season. Yes,
I knew it was mostly fixed and I got pretty good at spotting it too,
but the madisons were (for the most part) clean and for the majority
of spectators entirely inscrutable. They cheer when the commentator
tells them to because they have no idea of what's gong on. Some
crowds are more knowledgeable than others and the last night of any
six is mostly real fans as it's mid-week but the rest of the time -
Joe Soap? The Madison?! Forget it. Watching one live you have to
concentrate 100% to keep abreast of what's going on - you have to
watch the front, the back, the riders coming through the field, where
the leaders are in relation to each other and so on. You simply can't
follow it on TV and, too often, nor can the commentators. If you pull
out so you can see the whole track it's OK but you can't see the
detail you can live and so crucial moves are rarely spotted by the
cameras as they pick up and folloe specific riders or groups.

So the TV argument is definitely not in favour of the madison, or -
for similar reasons - the points race. They are pretty bad TV.

UD

On Sep 26, 1:45*pm, "Mike Jacoubowsky"
wrote:
"KG" wrote in message

...
On Sep 26, 9:46 am, Uncle Dave wrote:





UCI plans major shake-up of Olympic track programme

http://tinyurl.com/ThisIsJustDumb

"Individual pursuit, points race, madison may vanish from Olympics

The UCI is planning a major shake-up of the Olympic track cycling
programme and will propose radical changes to the International
Olympic Committee (IOC). The changes are designed to bring parity to
the men's and women's programmes, with five events for each at the
2012 Games in London."

Points race was only ever a novelty and the madison has no real place
in mainstream track racing IMHO, but the individual pursuit has always
been a premier event and has been the start point for some great road
riders over teh years and not just Brits! Parity between the sexes is
one thing but to keep the team sprint (just a sop for those riders not
good enough to compete for a medal in the individual) and keirin (I
love it but it's only there because the Japanese paid the UCI loads of
money to include it) and get rid of the pursuit is a very strange
thing to do.

Why would you do that?

UD

===============
Dumbass -

I've watched those events in person at the Olympics and my take is:

points race = exciting for a real cycling fan
madison = exciting for a real cycling fan
pursuit = yawn

Pursuit's boring. There's no tactics.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.
================

But to anybody who's ever ridden a pursuit, they're riveting.



Dumbass -

I've ridden pursuit. Granted, I sucked at it, but that's beside the
point.

The worst thing was the pursuit qualifying. The qualifying was
stupefyingly boring for the casual cycling fans. The person I took to
the event fell asleep. The medal rounds were decent, but the Olympics
need to be better than decent. The demographics and the attention span
of the audience is changing very quickly.

thanks,

Kurgan. presented by Gringioni.

On Sep 26, 10:46 am, Uncle Dave wrote:

Why would you do that?

Present much more dramatic racing and attract more fans to a nearly
dead sport.