Pro-cycling thread

And... Sutton's been suspended: http://www.cyclingweekly.co.uk/news/racing/shane-sutton-suspended-british-cycling-discrimination-row-deepens-222680?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Social

Sutton has always come across as fairly unpleasant, just based off interviews with and about him.

This. I can imagine everything being true which doesn't bode well for him in the court of public opinion.

The entire thing makes BC look a bit shit, to be honest. That crap - if it's true, and I have no reason to believe it isn't - should never be tolerated.

Coaches that riders dislike are more effective.

I guess there's got to be some kind of line though otherwise what's motivating and what's just abuse?

http://www.lfgss.com/comments/12949388/

scheritt-smile.jpg

I should sack him and hire David Cameron or Putin or someone..

Jeremy Hunt?

it's a tricky one. most rugby league forward coaches aren't as abrasive as Shane Sutton

Totally. I dread to think the sort of vitriol Alex Ferguson's spouted in the dressing room in his time, and I doubt he's exceptional in that sense. Then again, Brian Clough was a hard man but still demanded gentlemanly conduct from himself and his players (didn't swear, asked that referees were shown respect). The idea that being authoritative somehow goes hand in hand with being misogynist/racist/homophobic and generally unpleasant doesn't follow; being disliked doesn't necessarily mean you're disrespected.

Without Dave B to smooth things over and/or reign him in (if he did at all?) it was always going to end like this.

I don't think there's any problem with coaches not being people's bezzie mate. But you've got to be a dick to everyone rather than just on the basis of gender/ disability...

Good call.

You've been coached by Sutton and most RL coaches then?

misogynist/racist/homophobic

Not need to generalise. Don't assume Sutton is like all other Aussies ;)

Reading the MTBers and BMXers it seems like Brailsford had just as much hand in fucking over riders as Sutton, if not more so.

Maybe he is a dick to everyone but people like Wiggo aren't complaining because he responded to being treated (possibly) poorly?

Ha Ha - I didn't mean to imply that he's any of these things in particular, it was more list of the unpleasant qualities that prevail in the macho world of sport generally.

The more pertinent issue, though, is the discrimination against the self-funded riders who were perhaps better than those under the control of BC; the more sinister issue of megalomania and the desire for complete control, rather than the immaturity of these silly slurs.

Apparently not... this doesn't look much like Boswell..

This. You can be a hard task-master and a bit of a bastard to motivate and get the best out of elite athletes, but you can also do it without resorting to unprofessional language and selections based on other factors other than performance. Also the disproportion between the support and funding for men over women. That story from Cooke about the custom-fit bikes from Maclaren for all the men, even the reserves, for the 2012 road race and the women got nada is disgusting. By that time we had pissed off the entire peloton by winning the Worlds and the TdF, they were damned if they were going to help us win Olympic gold so everyone was riding against us so we won nothing, while it was the women that salvaged some pride with Armistead's silver.

I have no problem with coaches demanding the very best from their athletes, but they have to respect those athletes and not talk about them in such derogatory terms.

As I've read it: He's not being called out for simply being a dick. He's being called out for being a misogynist and disablist. On top of that, he's being called out for this particular shitty brand of dickishness preventing riders from progressing in the sport (denying track time or team places or equipment/money).

^^ snap

women that salvaged some pride with Armistead's silver.

Armistead is self-coached.

Yeah and was on her own bike riding for her country while all the men pootled about on those ridiculously ugly 'secret-squirrel' bikes that cost 20k plus and that you couldn't even buy if you wanted to.

Oh, now you're complaining about the cheat bikes...

Not complaining about the bikes, just who they were given to