Cycling UK Forum

Some opinions please.

I've become dissillusioned with professional footballers (esp Premiership) who increasingly seem to spend 90mins arguing every decision, trying to cheat by diving etc etc and trying to get each other booked or sent off. I have tremendous respect for the fact that they are athletes at the top of their sport, but cannot believe how they have so little sporting ethic.

I find it massively ironic that cycling is slated about cheats with drugs, then we watch Match of the Day and see cheats of every other kind, albeit without drugs. (?)

Without opening the drug debate (please could we leave that aside), can anyone in the know comment on wider sporting ethics within the peloton? Is it fair within the peleton with a high degree of mutual respect - on the road as well as off, or are you all launching complaints against each other, throwing spent bottles around at a critical moment, and trying to sabotage gear mechs at the last minute!

I am taking a much keener interest in cycle racing (as a TV viewer/reader) and am encouraging my young son to do the same. - he thankfully doesn't understand drug issues yet. Is this a good idea or am I being naive?

The TV channels certainly give an extremely good feel to the world of cycle racing and professional respect between racers.

Cheers.

I appreciate CTC may not be the best forum for this query, but some of you may be in the know?

Well I time trial and it is some years since i attempted road racing. i was not aware of anyone trying to sabotage the peloton (apart from some stray dog nr. Malvern once) in those days, nor do you see anyone's supporters trying to sabotage rival time triallists, certainly not at my level.
We might have a lot of rivalry out on the road but we are all friendly in the HQ afterwards when chomping tea and cakes.

Don't know if it is still true but I did hear years ago that Wednesdays were very dangerous days during the week of the national track championships. By this time many of the elimination heats had taken place and eliminated riders would be on their way home, so too would some of the other bikes........

I used to race (in a very humble way) off road rather than on. My observations were that 99% of the people were very friendly and encouraging to each other. There were the odd incidents, especially in mixed class racing where one of the better riders would be held up by one of the lesser riders on a narrow bit and a lot of swearing and the odd nudge would ensue. Some people think that these tactitcs were OK - I don't as it didn't do a lot for getting newbies into the sport: if you are an experienced rider entering a mixed class race then you should accept that you will be held up. Indeed, one noteable incident put me off using a certain well known shop for good: a rider representing this shop was held up for a couple of seconds at most by a young newcomer so he just swerved into the newbie and put him into a tree - hardly good publicity for the shop that he was representing! Funnily enough, when I did the same to this experienced rider he had a very adverse reaction
But, as I say, these incidents were rare. Far outnumbered by experiences of people encouraging each other, etc.

DavidT - I, like you, have recently been converted to the awesome sport of road racing. I watched last year's Tour de France in awe and amazement. I'm not too worried about the drug situation as I feel it's being sorted out (all be it slowly), since if it's not, the big sponsors will leave anyway. And respect is the right word - there is an enormous amount of respect in the peleton, but do remember when the race is on, tactics will come into play. And there are times when a rider will be 'punished' by the peleton for breaking the 'code'. I am still learning myself about the sport - but the achievements of these pro riders is very inspiring.

I also agree about footballers, and you are right about the 'cheating' that goes on on a football pitch. But, being a Manchester United fan, I am also very happy with last night's result!

Yes, ride some BCF 3/4 cat road races, prefer the LVRC events when I can get some, and do some open TT

I'm sure there are underhand things, but on the whole I'd agree that the main issue for cycling is drugs. In other respects, cycling comes over as a great sport. Footballers exaggerate a glancing contact; cyclists pile face-first into the road and get up and carry on.

I was remembering just today the time when a group got away in the last miles of a TdF stage. One rider punctured, so another team car changed his wheel* (he had no time to get back to the group, but they did at least thereby let him finish ahead of the pack).

*Couldn't do that now of course as wheels aren't all interchangeable any more

Good to hear a number of you have the same positive vibe about cycling.

A good point about other team (cars) helping out stricken riders. I think there are numerous examples of such sportsmanship and codes of conduct?

To contrast again with football, I remember when there was a player apparently injured the other team would put the ball out of play? Now it seems quite common that the player down is just applying for an Equity card so they can disrupt the possession of the other team! How much do they earn as "professionals"?! Some sport.

I've followed the Tour for many years and but increasingly want to follow the other races and team/rider news throughout the season. (From an armchair!)

All of my family race. Any medicines we have prescribed we check they are OK (British Cycling has a UK Sport link to check on medications). Whilst most of the time you are unlikely to be tested, when you enter an event you sign to say you agree to be tested and face the consequences.

My daughter was tested when she was about 14. She had enetered the ladies national 10 mile TT and was one of the chosen random samples. She thought it was cool to be tested. [she was clean].

If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear.

I've never done any competitive cycling but am tempted to see what I can do in a time trial. I was a runner and did lots of cross country, track and road races and wondered if I could do as well in a bike race. I was very much into the Tour de France when it was on Channel 4 in the 80's during its golden era when there were lots of characters like Lemond, Delgado, Fignon, Kelly, Roche, Theunisse, Mottet and Rooks etc. I recorded quite a lot of Le Tour like the mountain stages and it is quite fascinating. I have the 1989 Paris stage on video which was a 25km time trial in which Greg Lemond won by 8 seconds and also the 1987 stage at La Plange in which Steven Roche clawed back so much time over arch rival Pedro Delgado.
With running it is very much a level playing field but with competitive cycling it seems like you have so spend a fortune on specialist lightweight aero dynamic kit. Anyway I will turn up on my £40 racing bike at the local time trial and see how well I do.
The Giro de Italia starts today on Eurosport at 3.30pm.

My son rides Premier Calendar races which is the highest level you can do in GB. On the whole they are a friendly bunch. He's grown up with many of the younger ones and, even though they are on different teams, the riders still get on. There is none of the "tribalism" that you get in football.

If you get in a break, you are expected to do your share of the work and not "sit in". It is accepted that if you have a team mate up the road, then you aren't going to work to bring him back.