2015 'PRO' cycling discussion

[LeDuke]

Check out his instagram. He sort of stumbled and stayed on his feet but was pretty much knocked off his bike. House - always a classy bike rider and seems like a good guy.

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What's the deal with him? Seems like he's been one of the top riders in the UK for a long while now. Always knocking at the door of the ProTour. Too long in the tooth?

[DanW]

I'd be interested to know more about House and the likes of the Downings too. I guess it is a little unfair to thinking not making a ProTour Team is a failure (I realise Downing was on SKY for a while) as they have all won their fair share of decent races. Perhaps they just found a level where they are happy and the work/ life balance is best- no idea?!

[H0RSE]

^^ Ask him. I'm sure his contact is only a facebook away.



Look he's also in yellow, he won the tour. Yea..!



Sometimes there is such a thing as being too good at something.

[H0RSE]

Rumour has it that this guy has been privately stocking up on flaxen hair dyes. Doh.. pink hasn't been easily washing off either.

[stella-azzurra]

Here are my pics for top 3 TDF

Alberto Contador (Sp)
Vincenzo Nibali (I)
Chris Froome (GB)

The rest in this order but not necessarily 4,5,6,7

Nairo Quintana (Col)
Tejay van Garderen (USA)
Alejandro Valverde (SP)
Andrew Talansky (USA)

[petepeterson]

I was going to ask the same thing about House.

I don't love the tour but pretty exciting race with the list of favourites.

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[JamieL]

I think one of the problems with coming through from the UK scene is the lack of an obvious route. There are no domestic Pro-Conti teams and SKY just haven't been interested in developing home talent that much.

[H0RSE]

Come again.

[H0RSE]

Europe's where's it's at.

Forget your potholed Surrey roads, overcongested roads and bad supermarket foods.

[KWalker]

I think one of the problems with coming through from the UK scene is the lack of an obvious route. There are no domestic Pro-Conti teams and SKY just haven't been interested in developing home talent that much.

There also aren't a ton of long races or ways to prove you have enough talent that you're more valuable than the crop of young, nurtured talent that tends to ride for the bigger teams.

[tymon_tm]

I think one of the problems with coming through from the UK scene is the lack of an obvious route. There are no domestic Pro-Conti teams and SKY just haven't been interested in developing home talent that much.

that hasn't stopped eastern guys, like Sagan (Slovak road cycling... please), Kwiatkowski and Majka (Poland has one decent team - CCC - and they weren't on it), Kreuziger (like many eastern cyclists 'grew up' in Italian teams) or Taaramae..

[KB]

I think one of the problems with coming through from the UK scene is the lack of an obvious route. There are no domestic Pro-Conti teams and SKY just haven't been interested in developing home talent that much.

There also aren't a ton of long races or ways to prove you have enough talent that you're more valuable than the crop of young, nurtured talent that tends to ride for the bigger teams.

Agree and in most cases that tends to be the case: Simpson, Hoban, Yates S, Boardman, Wiggins, Cavendish et al all came from a track background. There's always been a good tradition of Pursuit riders. Dan Martin gave up on the UK scene to ride for Ireland, but was Brit junior road champ and was born and raised in Birmingham. Definitely more Brit than Froome is.

In fact there appears to be more sportives than road races in the UK.

[KH]

There are very few stage races, very few long races and very few hilly races now in the UK. Until ten or fifteen years ago there was a quality programme of 160km - 200km one day races on tough hilly courses...all gone. At the grass roots level the races have got shorter and the circuits flatter. The whole scene is geared towards sprinters and crit riders.

British Cycling have let this happen and done nothing. It takes a special kind of incompetence to fail to capitalise on the massive upsurge in popularity that cycling has undergone in the last few years in the UK...and they have that kind of incompetence! They even base their U23 development squad in Italy because there are not enough decent races in the UK.

It is endlessly frustrating. It also worth noting that sportive events are now incredibly popular and are often on savage courses. So you have novices/unfit riders riding over brutal terrain while the elite riders mostly do hour long crits around town centres or airfields. A friend of mine riding has just taken the decision to quit racing solely because there are no races for him. He is the most naturally talented rider I have ever ridden with or against (including Olympic Gold medalists and grand tour podium finishers) and is an incredible climber. One of the few domestic riders to stick with Sky in the Nat Champs last year when they attacked on the climb. He is fed up of driving for hours to race on boring flat circuits. I quit a few years ago for the same reason, not that I was of that calibre but as a climber there was nothing there for me.

As for Kristian House 'the dude' is a quality bike rider. I remember him seeing off arguably the strongest field ever assembled when he won the Nat Champs in 2009. Froome, Wiggins, Cav, Thomas, Kennaugh, Hunt, Hammond, Stannard etc etc etc were all present.

[KH]

Good post KB. Dan Martin was a superb climber as a junior and targeted hilly lower category races in order to learn how to win, which he often did. Would a junior rider of his type be able to do that now? Probably not, those races mostly do not exist or have been moved to flatter circuits.

[Samuel Sanchez Gonzalez]

The Nations Cup was created less than 10 years ago and has helped a lot of riders from smaller countries to get some exposure.

May be in his junior and U23 years, there was less organisation to travel and do the big races all the year. Also, it is so much professionnal than 15 years ago, all the juniors train with powermeters and focus on every little details already with quality trainers.

Sounds like the track riders got the "easier" pathway to pro cycling. Look at Adam Yates not getting a place at Leeds University/ British Cycling (only Simon did) and he had to come to France to fulfill his dream.