CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
"World Road Cycling: Mark Cavendish and Britain win road race title"
(18 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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Watched a bit of the live coverage on Eurosport this morning. Well done to Mark Cavendish!
(Eurosport have an hour and a half highlights programme starting at 6.45pm).
Posted 12 years ago # -
Watched the finish live (BBC Red button), was on the edge of my seat! Great result for the team :)
Posted 12 years ago # -
"
carltonreid:Miss it? Want to relive it? 14 mins of Eurosport from yesterday's victory by @MarkCavendish http://t.co/PKbIxCFk
Original Tweet: http://twitter.com/carltonreid/status/118221410467459072
"Posted 12 years ago # -
"Mark Cavendish’s victory in yesterday’s world road race championships put him - partially - on the front covers of the Guardian, the Telegraph and the Times. And the BBC asked Could cycling become the UK’s second-favourite sport, after football."
Posted 12 years ago # -
I was shouting at the computer screen. Gripping finish and all round excellent performances by the British team. It says something that the other 7 riders would work so hard to put Cavendish in a position for a shot at the title even though they can't (officially) share in it. And then there are all the other professional riders who had to work very hard to ensure that GB could take an 8 man team to the event and give themselves the best possible chance at it.
And very sporting of Cavendish to acknowledge all these people without whom he couldn't have done it.
Not sure if shrink-wrapped helmets will catch on though.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Could cycling become the UK’s second-favourite sport, after football.
Nice thought, but very unlikely. Cricket, rugby, tennis, for starters.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Nice thought, but very unlikely. Cricket, rugby, tennis, for starters."
Spose it depends how "favourite" is defined.
Press mentions? TV coverage (inc. Sky etc.)?
People copying or cheering?
Tennis is Wimbledon + Andy M when he's doing well/badly.
Cricket - well, even allowing for it being higher profile south of the border, surely not as favourite/popular as even golf(?)
Rugby - again, apart from current series, hardly mainstream.
One problem with 'cycling' is that people probably just about 'got' track racing - Hoy, Olympic Golds etc., but how to explain a race where one person won in the last few metres, having ridden for many miles with 7 other people helping in some way...
Posted 12 years ago # -
I suppose you could argue that as a sport/game cycling has mass participation probably matching that of football when you look at children.
Now obviously the majority give it up at some point after or during childhood, but it's still a lot of people who *could* ride a bike.Most people don't "get" the finer points of the rules/tactics, I certainly don't! However we can see a Britain winning and when he says it's Britains team winning then that is pretty much accepted.
Were the outrageous football finance bubble to burst (oh pleeeeeaaaase, he says selfishly), and the main clubs/organisations to go bust and be closed down, then cycling could become the nations first sport, however I doubt that as too many people are making far too much money from the football gravy tra... erm business to allow that to happen.
Second most popular is possible, but unlikely due to the fickle nature of television imho.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Boardman explaining Cavendish/team tactics on R4 NOW!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Sat down to watch a recording of the race yesterday when I got back from me hols (the Likely Lads-esque avoiding of the result was somewhat easier than had it been football or rugby). Fantastic team performance, with everyone doing their bit.
I've always thought that as a sport cycling was always going to be of minority interest due to the length of the races, the unique culture of the sport (deals done on the road and between teams) and the tactical element that plays out over a long race (and is rarely evident from watching a highlights show which, given the time involved, is the way most people could watch it).
However, national success is a pretty good way of getting people interested, so you never know. And this has to be a great opportunity for everyone involved in promoting cycling in Britain to get out there an promote it.
Press coverage is a useful barometer and, on the basis of the unscientific study of one newspaper, there is some way to go given the one column report that the Scotsman gave the result yesterday. But mention on the Today programme and all that can only help. I read somewhere that Newsround led with the story as well - that's got to be good: get 'em when they're young.
Posted 12 years ago # -
True that golf probably has greater participation than, say tennis, which tends to be a summer pursuit. Rugby and cricket are part of the curriculum in most English schools, so unless some form of cycling as sport is introduced too, I can't see how it will compete.
If you are going to count leisure cycling, fitness cycling or even utility cycling as participation in the sport then that changes the game. On those measures then running would be in with a shout (joggers, running for the bus). Probably though the most popular 'sport' would be motorsport: after all maybe 70% own/have access to a car, which they 'race' regularly on those tracks we call roads...
Posted 12 years ago # -
Certainly I remember seeing a comment somewhere a year or two ago that the Superbike racing was attracting the largest crowds of any sporting event in the uk!
The problem with using media column inches as a guide to the popularity of sport is that journalists tend to cover what they *think* the majority are interested in and ignore everything else, or put a token effort in.
Football in the UK is a multi billion pound racket... erm... business. Hence blanket coverage to the exclusion of all else :-(Posted 12 years ago # -
"Rugby and cricket are part of the curriculum in most English schools"
Most 'Public' schools certainly, not sure about state schools - more likely football(?)
"so unless some form of cycling as sport is introduced too"
Indeed! Might have done 'sport' at school if cycling had been an option - rather than 'forgot PE kit', etc.
Posted 12 years ago # -
My state English grammar did mainly: hockey (girls, winter), football (boys, winter), netball (girls, summer), cricket (boys, summer, optional if you had zero ability or inclination), tennis (both, summer) and general athletic stuff (both, summer), eventually letting the boys who despised football do hockey for the last two years I was there. School-rugby was perceived as something only Scottish, Welsh or posh schools did. We were only really aware of golf as there was a course nearby, which rich people played on. There was no link made between cycling and sport whatsoever when I was at school. There was one afternoon when we did various out-of-school activities rather than sport where one of the options was a wee ride round the gentle hills to the north of school. Apart from that, nowt.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Most 'Public' schools certainly, not sure about state schools - more likely football(?)
I was taking football as a given. Things have probably changed, but I seem to recall that state secondary (grammar) schools (I attended one in England, then one in Scotland) offered the following sports about 25/30 years ago:
Boys: football, rugby, cricket, softball (played against girls), cross country running, tennis.
Girls: hockey, netball, rounders, softball (played against boys), cross country running, tennis.I'm sure a few more options existed like track athletics, stuff in the gym, etc. but those are the main ones I remember. I used to prefer cross country running, maybe a bit of cricket (the latter in England, don't remember it being offered in Scotland) or softball. Hated football (the team picking ritual is an exercise in humiliation), often ended up in goal. Tennis was fun but I was rubbish at it/too lazy to practice. As far as I could see rugby was just an excuse for big heavy blokes wearing aluminium studded boots to jump on top of smaller thinner ones and try and break bones... Also remember miserable 'training runs' round a field in the pouring rain and freezing cold.
What I can imagine is that there are probably more indoor sports offered these days: basketball, volleyball, etc. Less enthusiasm for forcing young folk out into the freezing fog, wind, and rain I expect.
Posted 12 years ago # -
At my Edinburgh state school I took 4 years of compulsory sitting on the bench with the other fat / unathletically inclined kids. There was the odd game of badminton and I wasn't bad in goal at hockey because I was quite large and immobile, but beyond that my oustanding memory is sitting on the bench.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"Apart from that, nowt."
Not this one then -
http://www.kesgrave.suffolk.sch.uk/album/10to11/activitiesweek11.html
"
CASE STUDY: CYCLING TO KESGRAVE SCHOOLType of scheme: facilitating and encouraging cycling to school by pupils and staff.
Who benefits? attending children, staff, parents, local community, drivers and through-traffic.
Noteworthy features:
• extraordinarily high number of pupils (60%) bike to school every day
• school environment that ensures that cycling to school is ‘normal’"
http://www.ciltuk.org.uk/download/Case_Study_Cycling_to_Kesgrave_School_Ipswich.pdf
Posted 12 years ago #
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