Pro-cycling thread

I think Sharapova and Serena Williams are/were on equitable cash, but they were outliers.

I don't know about earnings from advertising, perhaps there are vast differences there.

My hope is that Vos v Armitstead becomes a properly compelling racing rivalry once Vos is back on top form. They both already have a reasonable public perception and it could be just what the sport needs.

Oh, I know. I just never considered that the equivalent of the men's TdF, not even when it had double-digit numbers of stages.

I'd hope that, too, but I fear when Vos is back on top form she'll rather outdo Lizzie Armitstead. I hope I'm wrong.

Eh I dunno Lizzie is looking about as formidable recently as Vos was.

Have they raced each yet this season yet? I don't think they have. The Olympic RR could be the first time they meet sine Vos' injury lay off.

Just seen the news @andyp best friend Pete.K. is making a tit of himself.

Nice one lad.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/28/peter-kennaugh-emma-pooley-sexism-claims-cycling-british?CMP=share_btn_tw

Fleche Wallone. Vos came 9th and Armitstead 28th. However, I think that any speculation of a season long battle between these two needs to be tempered with the thought that there are some other riders who easily threaten to upset the running orders. Ferrand-Prevot, Bronzini, Johansson to name a few.

Aye, he's a fucking nugget and an utter weasel to boot now that he's deleted his tweet.

Has Kennaugh deleted his entire twitter account now? I thought I was a follower and I certainly looked at his account this morning but now it doesn't show up (unless I'm spelling him wrong or something?).

Yup.

https://twitter.com/Petekennaugh

WAFC

At least this is opening up a healthy debate. Do female tennis players want to play 3 set matches? Nicole Cooke was clear in her frustration at shorter track and road events for the women, it's all very 1930s isn't it? Protecting the frail female body from the rigours of endurance sport.

I don't think it's this any more. I think it's got more to do with the attitude that women's sport brings in less of an audience/advertising/sponsorship etc then men's sport, so gets less screen time and thus shorter/less events.

Don't drag me into this.

I still don't understand why Sky didn't invest in a women's team at the same time as the men's team. It would've bought them a lot of good will for not a lot of outlay. But then Sky's whole sponsorship of a pro team is a hard one to figure out, I still don't know why they do it other than it being James Murdoch's pet plaything.

Because womenz on bikes is silly, they belong in the kitchen and making babies, obvs.

Has Murdoch ever been to a race? He's not exactly Tinkoff when it comes to showing a love for the sport..

The one thing I really don't understand is why in disciplines like BMX, MTB and the women's World Champs we haven't been sending the full quota of riders we could? Aren't we sending 2 rather than 5 BMX riders to the World Championship race, and in doing so leaving our top rider at home? It just doesn't compute, is it financial?

Peter kennaugh ‏@Petekennaugh 8m minutes ago
I've re-read the tweet i deleted and realise i came across like a total idiot im sorry to anyone i may have offended in how they were worded

Back with an apology...

Dreamy Pete's Twitter is back up and he's apologised.

You have to love Twitter: he says something stupid and Twitter responds with its usual righteous indignation by calling him names, rapidly sinking well below the level to what they are responding to. Good love the human animal and the anonymity of the internet.

Yeah, that's what I don't understand - can't be purely financial as people haven't been allowed to go who are self-funded.

Is there a correlation between the people left behind and people who train privately? I.e. is BC worried about people not going through whatever BC program there is beating those on the program? Can it be that petty?

Zakarin demoted to second. In your face Pierre and Justin Trudeau!

He posted another one just after that (with even fewer capital letters) and deleted it almost immediately. It disappeared before my eyes..

It was a "what i was trying to say was..." tweet that he obviously decided against as soon as he sent it..

It can't be because some of the riders that aren't being sent are self-funding and they're still not allowed to go - see the petition I posted in the BMX Racing thread.

http://www.lfgss.com/comments/12919786/

I agree on the number of sets (aren't there some competitions in which men only play two sets for the win, too?)

It's only the 4 'Grand Slam' tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open) that the men play best of 5. All of the other tournaments they play best of 3.

The major disparity is not in the tournaments that have men's and women's tennis going on (e.g. the Grand Slams and other major tournaments). It's that the men get paid much more for playing in a single-sex tournament than women do for playing in a tournament of the same size.

Djokovic has been vocal recently (last month some time) about how male players should get paid more regardless: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-35859791

Then it seems to be a destructive and even vindictive policy and I hope this sort of decision making is addressed in whatever enquiry follows the Sutton debacle.

FYI there's an article in the Guardian on Tre Whyte:

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/2016/apr/28/british-cyclists-terrified-shane-sutton-bmx-tre-whyte

Basically BC only seems to give a shit about the Track and men's road riding.

Also following your link I briefly thought Tre Whyte was your son.

It looks like a vindictive and self-destructive policy that protects certain riders and disciplines and leaves the rest out in the cold. We've heard similar in the past too