Olympic cycling

Dave said:

One for sure will be the team pursuit as there are typically only 4 or 5 teams, They have
threatened it at the world level, The kilo will stay. Fans like it, it doesn't take long, and is
well represented. Women's 500TT maybe

If by only 4 or 5 teams you mean 4 or 5 teams that don't suck then you're right. Part of that has
been a result of the drive to reduce the number of athletes. To do the TP right you need 5 or 6 guys
and there is no way that can happen under the current athlete numbers without punting on everything
else. If you punt on the TP that frees up a lot of bodies to devote to other events. So that would
point to the TP getting whacked. That's why the TTT got whacked when they added mountain biking.

OTOH teams going under 4 minutes is more exciting than anything in the Kilo or 500. The trouble with
the Kilo is that it is difficult to see any difference between a great ride and a ride that sucks
without a stopwatch. When you put it on TV and show it to someone that is not an enthusiast, all
they see is a string of people riding the same two or four laps. And that's why they do them two up
now, to get them out of the way more quickly. I don't think they do that in the Olympics though. If
Kilos were great spectating they wouldn't do it anywhere.

But everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I like watching Kilos because they are one of the few
events where you can see lactic acid accumulation and people tend to really suffer noticably in the
last lap. So I watch Kilos because I like to watch people suffer. But I think most people find them
boring as hell.

But we found out in the "Hottest Babe Racer" thread that there are guys out there that really dig
chicks that look like young boys so maybe Rogge digs watching Kilos.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

Digs Kilos and chicks that look like chicks.

"Bob Schwartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

The trouble with the Kilo is that it is difficult to see any difference between a great ride and a
ride that sucks without a stopwatch. When you put it on TV and show it to someone that is not an
enthusiast, all they see is a string of people riding the same two or four laps.

One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Carl Sundquist said:

"Bob Schwartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

The trouble with the Kilo is that it is difficult to see any difference between a great ride and
a ride that sucks without a stopwatch. When you put it on TV and show it to someone that is not
an enthusiast, all they see is a string of people riding the same two or four laps.

Quoted message said:

One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Indeed one could. All three would be dead events were it not for the Olympics.

Bobsled and luge have an element of danger going for them which works in their favor. It's rare but
people do wipe out at high speed. Once I saw someone riding their first Kilo go over the bars after
trying to coast. but at high levels of competition there is no blood. That works against TV appeal
for the Kilo.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

"Bob Schwartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Carl Sundquist said:

"Bob Schwartz" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

The trouble with the Kilo is that it is difficult to see any difference between a great ride
and a ride that sucks without a stopwatch. When you put it on TV and show it to someone that is
not an enthusiast, all they see is a string of people riding the same two or four laps.

Quoted message said:

One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Indeed one could. All three would be dead events were it not for the Olympics.

I knew a girl who was very impressed that her boyfriend was "world class" in the luge.

I was less so - how many people in the world are practitioners of that sport?

Bob Schwartz said:

Quoted message said:

One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Indeed one could. All three would be dead events were it not for the Olympics.

There's a fairly healthy World Cup circuit for the sliding sports. They don't have near the fan
base, but all you need is a few facilities, a few serious competitors, and a few national organizing
bodies to keep it going.

Quoted message said:

Bobsled and luge have an element of danger going for them which works in their favor. It's rare
but people do wipe out at high speed. Once I saw someone riding their first Kilo go over the bars
after trying to coast. but at high levels of competition there is no blood. That works against TV
appeal for the Kilo.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

When you "touch" the wall going 80 mph, you DON'T "touch" the wall. Bobsled is one thing, but to get
the same feel as a luger, reach out your window on an Interstate or autobahn and "touch" the
guardrail.

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

Raptor said:

Bob Schwartz said:

Quoted message said:

One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Indeed one could. All three would be dead events were it not for the Olympics.

There's a fairly healthy World Cup circuit for the sliding sports. They don't have near the fan
base, but all you need is a few facilities, a few serious competitors, and a few national
organizing bodies to keep it going.

Quoted message said:

Bobsled and luge have an element of danger going for them which works in their favor. It's rare
but people do wipe out at high speed. Once I saw someone riding their first Kilo go over the
bars after trying to coast. but at high levels of competition there is no blood. That works
against TV appeal for the Kilo.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

When you "touch" the wall going 80 mph, you DON'T "touch" the wall. Bobsled is one thing, but to
get the same feel as a luger, reach out your window on an Interstate or autobahn and "touch" the
guardrail.

I can't say I'm enamored of any sport powered primarily by gasoline or gravity.

And while the kilo is fine and traditional, I just can't get into bike rides that are easy walking
distance ;-)

"Raptor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

There's a fairly healthy World Cup circuit for the sliding sports. They don't have near the fan
base, but all you need is a few facilities, a few serious competitors, and a few national
organizing bodies to keep it going.

Are you agreeing or disagreeing that bobsled/luge are similar to timed track events, because your
description could easily fit track racing.

Robert Chung said:

"warren" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Tiger looks alot more fit than any luger or dowhill skier.

How do you think he'd do in the Prologue compared to the Herminator?

I think he cuts the dogleg through the Parc du Champs de Mars and sinks it in four.

David Ryan said:

Raptor said:

When you "touch" the wall going 80 mph, you DON'T "touch" the wall. Bobsled is one thing, but to
get the same feel as a luger, reach out your window on an Interstate or autobahn and "touch" the
guardrail.

I can't say I'm enamored of any sport powered primarily by gasoline or gravity.

And while the kilo is fine and traditional, I just can't get into bike rides that are easy walking
distance ;-)

Any place is walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

Carl Sundquist said:

"Raptor" <[email hidden]> wrote in message

Quoted message said:

There's a fairly healthy World Cup circuit for the sliding sports. They don't have near the fan
base, but all you need is a few facilities, a few serious competitors, and a few national
organizing bodies to keep it going.

Are you agreeing or disagreeing that bobsled/luge are similar to timed track events, because your
description could easily fit track racing.

I don't know. I honestly don't know.

--
--
Lynn Wallace xmission.com~lawallOpen ↗ "I'm not proud. We really haven't done everything we
could to protect our customers. Our products just aren't engineered for security." --Microsoft VP in
charge of Windows OS Development, Brian Valentine.

Personally, I've got little interest in the kilo (and women's 500m). I know the riders train with
sick dedication, are really good and the event is super painful, but it just doesn't do much for me.
I hope the team pursuit is not one of the events they get rid of though. That's super racing with so
much different action going on.

JT

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Raptor said:

Bob Schwartz said:

Quoted message said:

One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Indeed one could. All three would be dead events were it not for the Olympics.

Quoted message said:

There's a fairly healthy World Cup circuit for the sliding sports. They don't have near the fan
base, but all you need is a few facilities, a few serious competitors, and a few national
organizing bodies to keep it going.

On reflection I think this makes my point in that without the Olympics there would be no facilities
for sliding sports. That is certainly the case in North America. I will bet that most if not all
bobsled/luge runs in use today were constructed for a past Olympic games.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

In article said:

Raptor said:

Bob Schwartz said:

>One could say the same thing for bobsled or luge.

Indeed one could. All three would be dead events were it not for the Olympics.

Quoted message said:

There's a fairly healthy World Cup circuit for the sliding sports. They don't have near the fan
base, but all you need is a few facilities, a few serious competitors, and a few national
organizing bodies to keep it going.

On reflection I think this makes my point in that without the Olympics there would be no
facilities for sliding sports. That is certainly the case in North America. I will bet that most
if not all bobsled/luge runs in use today were constructed for a past Olympic games.

The only two I know of are in near Salt Lake and Lake Placid.

-WG

warren said:

In article said:

On reflection I think this makes my point in that without the Olympics there would be no
facilities for sliding sports. That is certainly the case in North America. I will bet that most
if not all bobsled/luge runs in use today were constructed for a past Olympic games.

The only two I know of are in near Salt Lake and Lake Placid.

Calgary also has bobsled and luge runs, and Whistler will soon have them also.

Bob Schwartz said:

On reflection I think this makes my point in that without the Olympics there would be no
facilities for sliding sports. That is certainly the case in North America. I will bet that most
if not all bobsled/luge runs in use today were constructed for a past Olympic games.

To answer my own question, there are no bobsled tracks in existance outside of Germany that were not
constructed for an Olympic games. You can look this up at bobsleigh.combobsleigh.comOpen ↗

With respect to luge this is also the case with the exception that it is also possible to use a
'natural' track which is not possible with the heavier sleds. So there are the Olympic tracks, the
German tracks, and artificial tracks in Latvia, Sweden, and Austria that are not associated with
any Olympics. The Lake Placid track was replaced in 2000 so I guess that one is not an Olympic
track either.

There are a boatload of artificial luge tracks, most of them are in Italy and Austria. None are
outside Europe. fil-luge.orgfil-luge.orgOpen ↗

So I guess you could say that luge might exist as a fringe sport in Europe were it not for the
Olympics, but that bobsled would absolutely not.

Bob Schwartz [email hidden]

In article <[email hidden]>, Kyle Legate

Quoted message said:

warren said:

In article said:

On reflection I think this makes my point in that without the Olympics there would be no
facilities for sliding sports. That is certainly the case in North America. I will bet that
most if not all bobsled/luge runs in use today were constructed for a past Olympic games.

The only two I know of are in near Salt Lake and Lake Placid.

Calgary also has bobsled and luge runs, and Whistler will soon have them also.

Sorry, I didn't notice he said "North America".

-WG

Raptor <[email hidden]> wrote in message news

Quoted message said:

Any place is walking distance if you have the time. Steven Wright

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I'm an extra-medium.