Seriously proud of our cyclists

[Deleted User]

Have to say after just watching the highlights of the track cycling, I am awed by our team of cyclists (road and track). As a purely leisure cyclist, I am dumbstruck by the power and commitment they maintain, year after year.

 I'm awed by the other sportsmen and women that have also done us proud, but as a team, the cyclists have just blown everyone else away. Can we take their mental attitude and training commitment and apply it to all other sports please? Maybe then our so called national sports may actually start winning something. Footballers and cricketers especially.

Well done.

 (Cue slating for picking out one team instead of all others - etc etc)

fat buddha

loz - look at the post by Matchstick Man halfway down this thread below and perhaps you can then appreciate that the superb results brought by the cyclists has come through an excellent development system that is now the envy of the world...........

http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=4&UTN=129067&last=1&V=6&SP=

if we did this in more sports what else could Team GB achieve??

M...eldy

thats was a very well informed post from Matchstick Man and I agreee the rest of the Team could learn a lot from the way the cycling team have progressed.

[Deleted User]

Yes, and far from slating Loz I agree that the cycling team should be singled out for praise and become the model for all our sports.

Iron Pingu

They're all fab

cougie

Somehow I think the admiration wont extend as far as motorists giving us an extra inch of room on the roads tho...

[Deleted User]

Hopefully this will be a platform for one of our cyclists to go on to win the Tour of France

Don Minquez

Maybe they would if you got an Olympic gold medal, you lazy poop.

[Deleted User]

Spot on LozF.

I just hope that the hype around the success of the whole of Team GB will start to silence critics of the London Olympics and start to get the whole contry behind it.

Farnie

too many 'jobs for the boys' in athletics. 

Too much bureauacracy and politics and spread between this and that body. 

Well done British Cycling!

[Deleted User]

Just read the post from Matchstick Man, and yes, you can see how the hard work and commitment is expected from the very beginning - and that's what I'm talking about. Some of our other sportsmen seem to think that talent and arrogance is enough - it isn't. You don't get anything without bloody hard work, sacrifices and total commitment. My hat is raised in a dandy, yet respectful salute.

Let's hope they cyclists get the recognition they deserve...and maybe we could see a bit of it on the telly please?

The Trickster

Face it, we're great at sports you can do sitting down - rowing, sailing, cycling.

If the track cycling team don't win team of the year at the BBC sports personality awards it will be a travesty after we dominated not only the Olympics but the World Champs as well.

Wilkie

Badly Drawn Bloke wrote (see)

Spot on LozF. I just hope that the hype around the success of the whole of Team GB will start to silence critics of the London Olympics and start to get the whole contry behind it.

I don't get the connection.

Why does our team winning a good set of medals make spending £9billion (and we know it will end up being more) better? 

I was opposed to hosting the Olympics, and still am.  Winning medals in China has been nice to see, but it hasn't changed my opinion that hosting it is a huge waste of money.

<dons tin hat and gets behind the filing cabinet>

[Deleted User]

I still maintain that Rebecca Adlington would not have won two golds if she'd sat down.

[Deleted User]

Wilkie..I agree with you...it seems to be that 2012 is just an excuse to spend +9Billion regenerating London. We already have stadia in other parts of the country that could have accommodated most of the events...all that was required was a far smaller outlay to refurbish these facilities. 

cougie

I dont think you can give the Olympics to a country tho can you ? Its basically one city - so thats where the bulk of the events have to be. I do think we should be realistic tho and not build say, an equestrian centre in Greenwich Park when we already have proper ones set up, and why build a new MTB course in a flat county when we have proper ones already tried and tested.

I wonder if we can make an offer for the Chinese swim centre tho - that is waaay cool.

[Deleted User]

The way I see it Wilkie is that if it gets people more interested in participating in sports and starts to reverse the obesity epidemic, then it's worth the out lay. It will generate a lot of business around it too.

I know that there is an argument that the money may be better channelled into education etc, but that alone doesn't work. A high profile event inspires for more people.

Autumn66 - a national bid would have been rejected out hand by the IOC. In fact, anything other than a capital city bid would have been rejected. But this has been debated to death.

Wilkie

How do you know that, BDB?

Sydney isn't the capital of Australia, Barcelona isn't the capital of Spain, LA isn't the capital of America.

Why were they acceptable if is has to be the capital?

And sorry if it's going over stuff that's been debated before, but I'd like to know.

[Deleted User]

From what I've read, not extensive, for 2012 the IOC said they would only consider a capital city (maybe just for European bids, not sure) - London, Paris, Moscow. I know New York was in there too but that was never seriously in the running.

I don't think a national olympics has ever been held.

Wilkie

It seems to be impossible to hold all the events in one city anyway - the sailing needs a large-ish bit of water, and I understand the MTB competition for 2012 will be held in the depths of Essex!

cougie

Yeah but the vast majority of the events have to be in the same area. It would be crap to distribute them willy-nilly across the nation.

BDB - you dried out yet ?

Wilkie - I guess having it be a capital city helps with the long drawn out process of choosing the lucky bid. Straight away you rule out lots of applications that otherwise you'd need time and resource to check out.

fat buddha

understand the MTB competition for 2012 will be held in the depths of Essex


probably not Wilks - IOC suggested the terrain wasn't suitable enough so they have to go look for somewhere else.....imho they need to go to the North or South Downs or out to the Chilterns to get a better MTB course

Wilkie

Manchester hosted a successful Commonwealth games a while back - surely they've still got most of the stuff left over??

cougie

Stadium is now a footy ground for manchester city - sensible really - cos is there demand for a full blown huuuuuuge athletics track year round ?

Velodrome is there and the swim centre - so yeah - Manchester is a great venue really, but London-centric government isnt gonna let the flat cap and whippet brigade take the limelight anyway.

And plus - the opening ceremony was crap. Becks and Coronation Street ??

[Deleted User]

I think that Manchester was considered but the IOC made it clear that unless it was London, a British bid would not be entertained. I wonder if Manchester had got it whether the rest of the country would say "well, as long as Manchester pays for it" and "why does Manchester need any regeneration?" - again, another debate that has been done to death.

Cougie - took me until late Sunday evening to get warm! I did 4 hours in the rain on the run course with someone too. Then went home - wasn't going to spend the night on the ground after all that. Did you make it back OK?

cougie

I was asleep by 8 ! Knackered. Then up at 7 the next day and by 8 we were away. Campsite was a quagmire by then.

Good work on the marshalling - thats a hell of a long day for you.

[Deleted User]

You were obviously setting a trend - it's very fashionable fur UK triathletes to be poorly this week. Hope you're recovering.

It was a great day. Got me thinking about doing a half next year.

Matchstick Man

Autumn66 wrote (see)

Hopefully this will be a platform for one of our cyclists to go on to win the Tour of France

The system is already in place and talent has been spotted. We have copied the Aussies' model of track cycling as we knew it would feed through into the road - you have to race 95%+ on the road to get the skills and fitness to perform on the track - and the talent will out eventually. Aussies who have come through the Golden Age of their system are people like Brad McGee, Stuart O'Grady, Henk Vogels, Graeme Brown, brett Lancaster, Robbie McEwen, Luke Roberts and we are starting to see that now with Mark Cavendish, Geraint Thomas, Ben Swift, Peter Kennaugh, Jonny Bellis,etc.
Now that we have proved our system works (and is working) Dave Brailsford unveiled his plans earlier this year to put forward a men's professional road team to compete at the highest level and work towards the Tour De France. This requires private funding and there is no guarantee it will work but they don't want to put our brightest charges into the pressure cooker environment that is the European scene. They want complete autonomy over them and they can then start to recruit the guys who haven't come through the system but who are still world class - David Millar, Daniel Martin, Dan Lloyd, Dan Fleeman, Roger Hammond, Jez Hunt,etc. This would allow them to have greater control over riders like Cavendish and Wiggins and Thomas,etc who have to ride for their sponsors first and National/Olympic duties take a back seat.

Cycling wise we're on the cusp of greatness.....

Matchstick Man

Seeing as how you lot are interested in the cycling -

British Cycling set a 10 year plan in place back in 2002 and aimed to be the number one ranked nation on the track in 2012 and ranked in the top 12 in road cycling. The guffaws and sniggers from us club cyclists could be heard from far and wide but now we're already there 4 years ahead of schedule.........
If you think Athletics can turn things around in less than 48 months then think again, British Cycling have already started their 2012 programmes 6 years ago and I've no doubt that their 2016 plans are already well set up.
With Jason Kenny taking a Gold and Silver at only 20 yrs old, Steven Burke taking bronze at Under 23 age and with Geraint Thomas and Ed Clancy both at 22 and 23 taking gold in the Team Pursuit then you can see who will be the nucleus of the next generation already. Add in Cavendish at 23 being the worlds best road sprinter with 4 stages of the Tour this year and things are only going to get better.
Like Paul Manning said about him and Bradley Wiggins in the Team Pursuit - they've been there trying for Gold since Sydney - things don't happen overnight: it's taken them over 8 years to won that particular Gold medal.

cougie

I think Peter Keen has left the Cycling behind now and is rolling his plan out to the other sports ?

Ta BDB - I can reccomend the Bala Middle distance event - thats a great one. Very piratey too.

[Deleted User]

Cheers Cougie - spoke to coach last night and he thinks that may be a bit too far for me (I've done it in the pool but not ow) as my swimming aint great. He did mention a Brighton Marina one though that sounds good. So still undecided.