Cycling UK Forum

I've been watching the rowing in Beijing and am transfixed by the many sensible bikes riding along the embankment as the rowing is in progress. It is a pleasure to see these practical bikes complete with chainguards, mudguards luggage carriers and riders in a proper sit up and beg positions. Who or what are these people. In fact wouldn't it be great to have sensible bike racing on these sensible bikes instead of all these funny looking plastic, cardboard fibre things designed by nerdy aero - dynamasists in backrooms. Another thing is that I've got so sick of this "Team GB" crowing and gloating that I'm hoping we loose in the rest of the events now . I cheered when China beat us in one of the rowing races and it seems we cannot take defeat in good grace. It seems their world will collapse by only getting a silver. Gut wrenching stuff.

Its great to see Great Britain doing so well after such a long period of poor medal winning.

It will hopefully encourage all these kids who sit in front 6f their TV's and game consoles all day to get out and try some sports. Especially ahead of the Olympics coming to London in 2012.

It must be really disappointing for these athletes who have been training for these olympics not to do as well as they would hope to do. I bet every athlete out there is Beijing wants to win a gold medal.

Have you thought that it is perhaps the commentators who are unrealistic rather than the athletes themselves.

Sensible bike racing - it just needs somebody to set it up - it won't start all on it's own. Might not be easy - it could easily take a few years. Lawrie9: why don't you go away and set it up and come back and report when it's all up and running ?

Lawrie9 wrote:I've been watching the rowing in Beijing and am transfixed by the many sensible bikes riding along the embankment as the rowing is in progress. It is a pleasure to see these practical bikes complete with chainguards, mudguards luggage carriers and riders in a proper sit up and beg positions. Who or what are these people. In fact wouldn't it be great to have sensible bike racing on these sensible bikes instead of all these funny looking plastic, cardboard fibre things designed by nerdy aero - dynamasists in backrooms. Another thing is that I've got so sick of this "Team GB" crowing and gloating that I'm hoping we loose in the rest of the events now . I cheered when China beat us in one of the rowing races and it seems we cannot take defeat in good grace. It seems their world will collapse by only getting a silver. Gut wrenching stuff.

It's a good job the athletes don't have to depend on your support then isn't it.

I didn't know know that I rode an unsensible bike but you live and learn.

Ianr is a bit touchy.

It may never happen again, but for one wonderful weekend tiny little GB was third in the world, beaten only by the two biggest countries in the world.

It felt lovely. And to think how many of those golds were cycling golds was the icing on the cake.

There was an story run on radio 4 a week or so ago about GB's prowess in games in general and the upshot of it is, we've never been as crap as is generally perceived.
Essentially we partake of a wide variety of sports, if you take the top 60 or so we are always very close to the top of the pack, our performance only starts to look poor when you pick off the top few that the general public are aware of.

In short we spread ourselves thin, but overall do rather well. Most other countries tend to be more 'specialist'.

bigjim wrote:Ianr is a bit touchy.

Just a comment about someone elses negative post.

Well there is the Brompton World Championships which seem to be more in the spirit of old-fashioned amature sport (back in the days when calling someone a proffessional was an insult etc)

edit: forgot the link- http://www.brompton.co.uk/bwc/index.asp

thirdcrank wrote:Might not be easy - it could easily take a few years...

Actually, it might be quite easy. The track, bikes, and competitors are already there alongside the rowing course. All it needs is some sensible medals.

Lawrie9 wrote:I've been watching the rowing in Beijing and am transfixed by the many sensible bikes riding along the embankment as the rowing is in progress. ...... Who or what are these people.

I can't tell you exactly who those people are, but I can give you a general idea.

If you are a really expensive rowing club, with oodles of money & not too many rules about who is allowed to interfere with the rowing, coaches & friends & the crew's sisters / brothers / pets etc. can can follow the race in a nice shiny varnished launch.

If you are a poor club you all get to ride along the towpath on bicycles.

I used to row at school, and one of the nice things about the boat club was that the 'senior' people would coach the juniors before having their own outing. Coaching mainly involved riding along a very eroded towpath on an ancient & cranky bike, trying to watch for obstacles at the same time as watching the boat, and using only one hand on the bars as the other was needed to hold the megaphone. Mountain bakes had not been invented, and an eight can easily maintain 15mph for a bit, so it sometimes became interesting.

The best trick was to do with moored barges. These were usually secured by chains that ran across the towpath from the barge to a mooring eye that was on the landward side of the path. Bumping over the chains was ok-ish, but if the wind blew the barge out from the bank at the wrong moment the chain could tighten, rise off the ground, and nicely entrap a pedal ............

Nick

ncutler wrote:I can't tell you exactly who those people are, but I can give you a general idea.

They are a very small %age of the 9,000,000 cyclists in Beijing.