I’m not sure how niche within a niche drama equates to bringing positive attention to cycling. Armstrong’s shadow casts a pall over American cycling internationally. Crit bros shoving each other, verbally abusing each other and wearing jerseys nobody really cares about isn’t going to rehabilitate that image. I’m pro-Legion and their success in bringing representation to a sport on a domestic level, but drama for drama’s sake is an episode of Jerry Springer at 45 km/hr and I’m not in to it.
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Pro racing / sports, in any discipline, is entertainment first. This is what allows it to be “pro”. If the drama creates more entertainment, then people watch, and with that, comes sponsorship and other advertisers, which allow athletes to make money as opposed to having to have day jobs.
Pro cycling here is almost anything but. Very few are getting paid a living wage to do this.
Pro sports it’s about the “show” and the circus around it.
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I can’t agree with this. I don’t watch basketball because I’m hoping Ron Artest comes back and attacks a fan. I watch because I admire the discipline and athleticism of the players. Kevin Durant using burner phones to defend himself I don’t care for. Kevin Durant locking in and scoring 49 pts in game 7 of a series is pure magic. If more people liked drama in cycling, Gianni Moscon would be everyone’s favorite cyclist.
Édit: there are American pro cyclists on the world tour level making decent money, just like there are basketball players in the G-League working part time as coaches or in IT. The reality is, if they start going off and creating drama for viewership, their chances of graduating to the NBA are greatly diminished as they are now viewed as a liability and not an asset.
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Especially as its a climbing race this time. Britain is sending Thomas, Geogeganhart, and the yates brothers! I assume the other nations are also bringing their climbers. Justin would be spat out the back on the first climb.
Unless there is a track discipline he could race, but no idea if he has any background there.
From my perspective, pro athletes of every variety are working for a living. It’s a job. Job requirements are often different depending on the job. Most folks are just trying to figure out how to make enough money at their job.
I may or may not agree with it, but we are in a capitalistic (ish) attention economy. If you don’t like the drama you get to “vote” by not watching, or not going on forums and talking about it thereby adding attention and market value to the provider of the drama.
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The American crits make great entertainment. I’ve got no affiliation towards any rider or team. I just want to see a hard, fast race. Couldn’t care who says what off their bike. Do your taking on the track.
End of the day, if you don’t engage, it will soon go away. It’s like shouting at the wind.
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Most athletes have realized money isn’t in the salary, it’s in endorsements.
In motorsports, except for the absolutely highest levels, kind of, it’s all about what money are you bringing to the table. Even most F1 drivers have to bring something to the table money wise, it’s been this way for 30-40 years. Motorcycle racing is the same way… if you want a seat, you better bring some sponsorship.
How do you do that? Engage, and create attention on social media. Or have a sugar daddy / momma fronting the bill.
As for the drama in pro sports, that’s all it is. ESPN, sports talk radio, Sports Illustrated, all of it… the NFL has 17 regular season games, per team, and somehow people have enough to talk about to employ legions of media to talk about those games for the entire year.
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Cory Williams bumped Eric Young, then Eric cursed out Corey, Corey grabbed Eric… and we’re still talking about it a week later.
It’s no different than NFL or MLB players getting in a tussle, seeing it replayed ad nauseum everywhere, and listening to former players and never players argue about it for weeks.
Or Corey and the Aevolo rider touching, supposably puncturing the Aevolo rider’s tire, and them crashing in the second to last corner at Nats. And the endless talk about it after…
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Very few berry sanders in the world at the top of the respective sport they play.
Just look at josh Collins last night. That’s how
Most pros are.
Sure they chirp. But that’s not why they get endorsements or quarter billion dollar contracts. Their play, however, is.
I wasn’t saying that cycling in America isn’t niche, I was saying domestic pros and world tour pros are closer to G-League and the NBA than they are to each other. As far as the All-Star game, I can’t deny that it is solely for entertainment. But, to say it’s not merit based is also « ignoring reality ». Snubs happen, but you’re generally looking at competition between the best and biggest names in basketball (even if it’s all just for shits and giggles). Just because people get snubbed doesn’t take away from the greatness of those who go.
Édit: in the end, my point is simply drama doesn’t equal top tier sport. While I appreciate Legion, the Williams bros and evrything they bring to domestic American cycling, I personally don’t care for « critbeef » or changing your nationality on your race license to get a swag jersey. Thé Williams bro’s and Legion’s results have always spoken for themselves, no need to go full WWE Smackdown for followers.
I’ll start with I support legion and what they are doing for the sport…
BUT
they need to tone down the chirping and noise. they are making their own bad weather the last few weeks with all this and it is getting annoying to listen to.
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Agreed.
I’m finding myself rooting for the rest of the team, especially if they’re going to use their reach / social media to race shame others for stuff they started / do, and don’t have the reach to correct the narrative. I hope they don’t drive the rest of the team crazy with this stuff and implode what I think is a really good thing.
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Agreed.
I was happy to see the coverage of Sam Boardman in the road race.
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I’m British, we don’t split them up here and I don’t know of any European countries who do either - crits are just a type of road race.
There is actually the British National Circuit Race Championships, which is basically the Crit Championship. The winners can then wear their jerseys in crit races that are part of the National Circuit Series (and maybe some other races).
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Yep I remember Bibby rocking his white skinsuit for ‘circuit race’ champs.
And going back to this post below, so do Australia and New Zealand. Australia even have theirs on the same week as the pro’s so WT teams are usually littered in the front.
Caleb was a usual winner when racing for Greenedge.
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I read a comment somewhere else (Cyclingtips?) that it’s only really Au and NZ who bother to lodge the relevant paperwork with the UCI.
I’m from Aus. Winning the national crit is nice and all, but if you want to wear the national crit champs jersey, you can only wear it during crit races. There are separate RR and TT jerseys which are the main championships. Hell, there was even a fixed gear crit championship this year that won the right to wear national colours in fixed gear crits…
The RR and the TT are really the only jerseys that people care about. Do people care about the national crit champ jersey in the states? Seems crazy to me that there is a Pro & Amateur championship at a national level as well?
As i’m not from the states, what I don’t understand is Legion’s UCI status? I believe they are a pro continental team? How are their results in those races?
In our region, I don’t think crits aren’t even included in pro-conti level racing (it’s mostly (all?) road races). There certainly isn’t any international level crit-only racing, so there’s really no point in being a pro-conti team if you aren’t delivering results in road races. Seems to me that Legion is a good marketing platform for companies, but that the team is too crit focused to be racing at an international level in road races?
For Aussie pro-conti teams, crits are just a side hustle for fun, fitness and some accessible race pace and tactics work when they’re not targeting big road races.
N.B. We have had a national crit series run for a few years, but it’s not as extensive as the national crit scene in the US.
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We literally have no road races in my state.
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They are UCI continental, one step down from Pro Continental. Same level as the Aus teams you are referring to though, so only a confusion of name.
I think they needed to step up to conti to be given a start at pro Nationals. They haven’t done any other uci races that I can see, but they have a line up that would do quite well. They need to be conti to race any x.1’s and it gives them a better chance at getting starts in the x.2’s. So to get a start in Tour of Utah or Maryland’s they need to be conti or above. Eder Frayre wouldve top 5 in Utah had it still been going ahead. And wouldve won tour de Beuce. Ovett also has good numbers, but doesn’t get the race results his power and strava times should suggest. I highly doubt either of these two were signed for crits, so there was definitely an expansion intended.
Same as other countries and all other disciplines though. Means you get a national champs kit when you race crits, so for someone doing a decent amount of crits it is quite worth while or even a few really.
Caleb used to use the crit nationals as a form tester, and would mean he got to show off the bands in the crit at TDU (amongst the other countries RR champions).
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