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Peloton Madness
| Mon Jul. 20, 2009 10:33 AM PDT
I kinda sorta tried to figure out what the whole Hincapie/Garmin/Columbia/etc. contretemps this weekend at the Tour de France was about, but I eventually gave up. Cycling is just such a stupid sport. explains it here in case you're interested.
Still a stupid sport, though. Especially the velodrome version.
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Comments
Submitted by Armando (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 10:49 AM PDT.
You must be a Twitter person. How else to explain this post?
It is rather amazing that you decide to write about the Hincapie story TODAY, the day after Contador blew up the field at Verbier.
Cycling has some stupid things about it, but this post is much stupider than anything related to cycling.
I don't care - watching the TdF in High Definition is worth it
Submitted by RobertSeattle on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:00 AM PDT.
Absolutely gorgeous scenery - could they get those skinny bike people out of the way?
Oh, c'mon!
Submitted by Michigoose on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:14 AM PDT.
it's no stupider than tennis. OK, the velodome version is boring as all get out, but road racing is fascinating.
If you can't figure that out
Submitted by dr2chase (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:16 AM PDT.
are you SURE you are qualified to blog on politics?
Velodrome cycling is gangs of fun. In sprint races, it's like real estate -- location, location, location.
sigelman's first commentor is right
Submitted by junebug on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:25 AM PDT.
If Columbia wanted to have Hincapie in yellow, they needed Cavendish to soft-pedal the finish that day. Instead, Columbia ramped up their lead out train so that Cavendish could scoop up green jersey points in the mass field sprint, which had the effect of towing the actual yellow jersey (Nocenti) across the line much sooner than he would have arrived otherwise. Anyway, it's more than a little silly to complain that another team didn't let you get your way. That's the whole point.
Road cycling is fine
Submitted by ArdRiNaTexas (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:35 AM PDT.
With all due respect, if you don't know anything about cycling, then it is not cycling that is "stupid."
How about a "sport" where a 59-year-old guy can show up and knock a little ball around a field over four days, at a leisurely pace, and nearly win a "major" tournament and $1.5 million. At least bicycle racers have to be athletes.
Agreed
Submitted by Chris (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:44 AM PDT.
I think if you re-read your own post Kevin, you will agree that it indeed is moronic and you should be embarrassed. I don't even care about cycling. But you deserve the reaction you are about to get!
Sillyness
Submitted by Alameda (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:44 AM PDT.
All sports look silly to someone who doesn't know much about it. Most Americans think cricket and soccer look silly, but they're played all over the world- more than baseball and football.
It's also silly to think that a sport in which multiple teams play simultaneously for multiple prizes won't have politics involved.
Wow.
Submitted by chiggins (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 11:51 AM PDT.
One of the reasons I read you, Kevin, is that you're typically a clear, reasonable, well-informed, and well-intentioned writer. So what happened today?
I mean, I'm pretty sure you're not dim enough to need this lecture, typically, but when you say things like that, you not only make yourself look narrow-minded and ignorant, you insult people that actually do care about it. If you're not into the subject, the classy thing to do would be to not write about it.
Dogpile!
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 12:07 PM PDT.
Seriously Kevin, as a man who enjoys tennis and golf, you have little room to talk about stupid sports.
Did somebody steal your bike seat or something?
Jeez, people, this is just
Submitted by Kevin Drum on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 12:08 PM PDT.
Jeez, people, this is just sports trash talk. Don't take it so seriously. I apologize.
Except for the velodrome remark, that is.
I'm with Chiggins
Submitted by Jeff S. on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 12:11 PM PDT.
I don't get golf as a participatory or spectator sport, but I wouldn't go so far as to say it's "stupid", although I do have some real problems with it from a land, water and chemical use stand-point. Saying its a "stupid sport" because I don't appreciate it or don't feel like spending the time to learn the finer points would be, well, stupid.
I ride a fair amount, and know enough that to race at the amateur level, much less at the pro level takes guts and skill and talent and just an unbelievable capacity for pain. So for me the TdF is fascinating.
Kevin doesn't agree. That's fine, I don't come here for the TdF coverage. I come here for Kevin's usually keen insights, whether I agree or not. From an insight standpoint, this post was a nothingburger.
Just to clarify
Submitted by trollhattan (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 12:32 PM PDT.
Competitive cycling is a sport; golf is a hobby.
That is all.
That track race where they try to ride as slow as possible
Submitted by kth on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 12:44 PM PDT.
to the point where balancing the bike becomes a challenge--then ride balls to the wall for the last lap (or less), is really stupid. But the one where they start on opposite sides of the track, makes a little more sense. And the individual and team time trials are cool, on the track as well as the road.
There's nothing stupid about team strategy, however; I remember when it was a big deal when Greg LeMond challenged the "lead" guy on his team to win the Tour (and succeeded). The fundamental problem of bicycling is that one can ride faster in the middle of a pack than in front of it (or alone), and from that fact all kinds of interesting implications follow.
Lemond
Submitted by Armando (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 1:37 PM PDT.
You got that backwards. Lemond was the "lead man" and Hinault challenged him. That was 1986. That one was really ugly as Hinault and his team director flat out lied to Lemond and had him ride arm in arm with Hinault up L'Alpe D'Huez (Lemond could have put minutes into Hinault) as a a gesture of unity only to have Hinault proclaim he would fight to the finish for the win.
Not dissimilar to the games Armstrong and Bruyneel played this year on Contador.
Well, only the velodrome version is man against the numbers... Riding in a mass means that social constructs will come in play.
I think it's kinda awesome to see what muscles can really do. I like cycling. If you can afford it, pick up one of the newer bikes... Disc brakes, light frame, and man, you can really move without the friction of yesteryear. It's beautiful.
When I was in High School, and they built the new school closer (it was twenty-nine miles away before), I rode whenever I could, five miles to school in the fog and mist and early morning sun...
nothing wrong with the old clunkers, either
Submitted by junebug on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 1:13 PM PDT.
Remember what the man says -- outside of a dog, a bicycle is man's best friend. (Inside of a dog, it's too dark to see.)
Golf in Space is pretty good
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 1:03 PM PDT.
Golf in Space is pretty good stuff.
baseball
Submitted by supersaurus (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 1:10 PM PDT.
a perfect game in baseball: two guys play catch while their friends watch.
Rush Limbaugh has got nothing on you!
Submitted by Auster (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 1:52 PM PDT.
Kevin - ever consider a job in talk radio? You seem to have uncovered a knack in yourself for causing excitement (both the good and bad kind) in your readers. So are you getting paid by the comment now? What's next? Why Michael Vick was a scapegoat, and should never have been sent to jail? Or maybe that Bernie Madoff victims deserved what they got? Oh man, I can't wait!!!
rising to the bait...
Submitted by Pokeybob (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 2:30 PM PDT.
A friend once speculated on what determines a sport...If there are judges [judging], involved, then no. Anything that is timed or measured, then yes. [All sports have refs].
My favorite bike doesn't have brakes or a derailleur. Funny how about 80 years ago, velodromes and six day races were huge spectator events.
I think that the made up media stuff is silly for sure. Any sport that doesn't involve a ball can't be all bad.
I was a faithful reader of
Submitted by Disappointed (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 2:46 PM PDT.
I was a faithful reader of this blog...I thought ignorance was confined to right wing blogs, I guess I was wrong
TDF
Submitted by Todd (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 3:04 PM PDT.
You know it's taken me ten years to finally understand the TDF. I never really watched it or actually knew about it until I moved here. Sunday was great and this week is going to be very exciting. But it is a sport that takes some time getting a handle on.
Cycling is stupid?
Submitted by Patrick O'Grady (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 4:03 PM PDT.
Kevin,
For that ill-timed jape I'm gonna have my giant cat Turkish (a.k.a. Turkenstein, The Turkinator, Big Pussy, et al.) pop by and turn your sandbox into a Superfund site. I raced bikes for 15 years and have covered the sport since 1989 for a variety of publications, online and off, and even when it enrages me it is a thing of beauty.
To be sure, plenty of its practitioners, managers, overseers and chroniclers wear some very small hats indeed. And yes, we're always having to explain the leg-shaving bit (I wear a Van Dyke and use as my excuse the Eddie Izzard gag about being a druid, an early transvestite who can't get his shaving together). And it's true, the most famous cyclist on this side of the pond calls himself "Lance Armstrong" (couldn't he have changed his name to something more believable, like Tom Swift?).
Jeebus. You're right. Cycling is stupid. Never mind.
If you correspond with Lee
Submitted by MNPundit (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 4:47 PM PDT.
If you correspond with Lee Siegelman, make sure you sign your posts as Sockpuppet01
You're thinking of Lee Siegel
Submitted by kth on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 8:24 PM PDT.
the guy whose sock-puppet was called sprezzatura, and who accused a Slate reviewer of being a pedophile even though Siegel himself once wrote a personal essay for TNR that alleged that Uma Thurman (whom he tutored) wanted to f**k him when she was 16.
This Lee Sigelman is not that Lee Siegel.
The correction is
Submitted by MNPundit (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 9:17 PM PDT.
The correction is appreciated.
A nice lesson in how to make
Submitted by Howard (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 6:29 PM PDT.
A nice lesson in how to make a new reader an old one.
The power output needed to
Submitted by Richard Cownie (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 7:03 PM PDT.
The power output needed to overcome wind resistance is proportional to the
cube of the airspeed. And the rules disallow most of the technological approaches
to reducing wind resistance: no recumbent bikes, no fairings. So physics dictates
that on flat ground, a group of cyclists can travel more efficiently and/or faster than a
single cyclist. On a steep climb, airspeed is lower and more of the power is devoted
to gaining height - which is presumably why the big gains and losses of time happen
on the climbs.
I don't understand much of the culture and politics arising from these basic constraints,
but there are plenty of other human endeavors which involve similarly intricate
patterns of long-term collaboration, short-term opportunistic collaboration, and
pursuit of individual goals - not least democratic politics. I suspect that a close study
of bicycle racing would yield some quite general insights.
If you have a man servant
Submitted by EPO (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 7:32 PM PDT.
If you have a man servant who's job description is fetch me water/food, block the wind and pull me up this mountain then you are not competing in a sport.
If your man servant is carrying your bag then it is not a sport.
If you compete in white trousers or floppy hats and/or take tea brakes then it is not a sport
If any type of vehicle or boat is involved then it is not a sport
Very amusing to read
Submitted by rilkefan on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 8:07 PM PDT.
the many humorless, thin-skinned, maybe defensive reactions above.
That was uncouth
Submitted by SRW1 (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 8:41 PM PDT.
Apology accepted, but you really stepped into it with this comment, Kevin.
There is definitely one aspect of competitive road cycling that is stupid, namely the fact that it is thoroughly polluted by doping. But that aspect of cycling becomes understandable, albeit not acceptable, once one gets a proper understanding of what it means to go 100 to 125 miles at an average speed of 25 mph and more (and in the case of the TdF, to do this almost every day for three weeks).
To get sort of an appreciation of the athletic performance involved in this, try half the distance at half the average speed (and no mountains along the route). Quite possible that you still won't like cycling after that, but you should at least be cured of your ignorance concerning the physical endurance involved in competitive road cycling. And once you have gained that bit of insight, you may also understand why your remark of cycling being stupid was rather uncouth to those among your readers who who actively pursue cycling as a sport, be that in a competitive manner or just for the fun of it.
PS: The half distance at half the speed thing is not recommended for people who are not in halfways decent shape.
An elegant sport that grows on you
Submitted by Ranger Jay (not verified) on Mon Jul. 20, 2009 8:46 PM PDT.
Once you understand the various intricacies of road cycling, a TDF like this year's is not to be missed. It has all the drama and athleticism that the sport (and it is a sport) has to offer. And for an old cyclist like me, to see Lance come back and compete at the level he is riding, is nothing short of thrilling -- and I am not that much of a Lance fan.
To really appreciate the sport, it helps to ride on a regular basis, which I have done for the past 25 years. My current bike costs more than my first car.
If you have a bike, take it out and ride until you reach 20 mph. Then, imagine doing that for 6 to 8 hours. Of course, the pros go even faster, but after a few minutes at 20, you'll get the idea...
Throw in team tactics, accidents, points, time bonuses (not in the TDF, though), feed zones, spectators, traffic circles, weather, rivalries, mountain climbs, fast descents, trash talking, sprints, and money -- well, you've got yourself a sport.
Kevin threw out some bait. Got some hits...
I just like watching the
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Jul. 21, 2009 6:42 AM PDT.
I just like watching the colorful peloton zooming through the beautiful French settings.
Makes you realize just how heroic the world’s rich are, sacrificing so much time and money flying to hellhole, dysfunctional Europe every few months to endure the privations, on our behalf.
Yep...Stupid
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue Jul. 21, 2009 8:42 AM PDT.
Yep. Doing the endurance equivalent of a marathon...19 out of 21 days. Climbing some of the highest mountains in the world...on a bike...in a race. Riding down those mountains at speeds of 50-60 MPH. Riding 2000 miles over those 21 days, averaging roughly 25 MPH...on a bike. Totally stupid.
Watching some geriatric geezer hit a little white ball around Scotland for hours on end. FANTASTAIC!
Watching 2 people hit a little yellow ball back and forth over a net for 5 hours. SUPER DUPER FANTASTIC!
You are right, Kevin, cycling sooo stupid.
stupid sport
Submitted by Smithers (not verified) on Tue Jul. 21, 2009 10:08 AM PDT.
Politics is a stupid sport. Yet you spend hours blogging about it.
Cycling is a beautiful sport if you take a few moments to understand it.
Maybe you should just stick to your stupid sport and we will stick to ours.
Of course our current
Submitted by louis vuitton replica (not verified) on Mon Aug. 3, 2009 6:25 PM PDT.
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tiffany and co
hroughout most of the Bush administration. So you'll need more examples.
