Will we. Kudus is showing good form early this season and he's only 23. Wouldn't be surprised to see him finish top-10 in a grand tour one of these days. Maybe even top-5 in a watered-down Giro or Vuelta.
Will we. Kudus is showing good form early this season and he's only 23. Wouldn't be surprised to see him finish top-10 in a grand tour one of these days. Maybe even top-5 in a watered-down Giro or Vuelta.
Afri-can't? wrote:
Will we. Kudus is showing good form early this season and he's only 23. Wouldn't be surprised to see him finish top-10 in a grand tour one of these days. Maybe even top-5 in a watered-down Giro or Vuelta.
Having been to watch the Tour de France a few times, I would have to say it is unlikely. The fans at the side of the raid are uniformly white. The target market for bikes and cycling apparel is afluent white men.
The Europeans hated Armstrong & co, and now Team Sky, enough because they are English speaking. How much worse would it have been if they were black.
I can't see that having a black champion brings any advantage to cycling. It isn't like other sports where winning is everything.
The Obvious Answer wrote:
Afri-can't? wrote:Will we. Kudus is showing good form early this season and he's only 23. Wouldn't be surprised to see him finish top-10 in a grand tour one of these days. Maybe even top-5 in a watered-down Giro or Vuelta.
Having been to watch the Tour de France a few times, I would have to say it is unlikely. The fans at the side of the raid are uniformly white. The target market for bikes and cycling apparel is afluent white men.
The Europeans hated Armstrong & co, and now Team Sky, enough because they are English speaking. How much worse would it have been if they were black.
I can't see that having a black champion brings any advantage to cycling. It isn't like other sports where winning is everything.
So what you're saying is that guys like Kudus, Grmay and Berhane won't finish high up in a grand tour because the fans don't want them to?
The reason why Armstrong and SKY are not too popular is the way they win, not just because they're winning. The French like panache, if a black rider rides in an exciting, attacking manner, they'll be well supported.
Well, we all know that to finish high up in a tour you need to be given support by your team. I think at a lot of teams it is unlikely a black rider will be in a position where they are given that support any time soon.
Yeah, agree the French dislike the dominating style of riding but I think it is partly because it is a non-French (or Spanish or Italian) team doing the dominating. They may well support a black rider who rides with panache, much like they love Thierry Henry in soccer. But they would have to be French first and black second, if that makes any sense.
I I think we will have a Kenyan or Ethiopian grand tour winner within the next 20 years. The same genetics that make them great at distance running apply to cycling and so the talent is out there. It is just a matter of getting that talent on a bike as a teenager. Right now they just don't have a role model in cycling and they have dozens of role models in running. But it will happen.
The running advantage of longer limbs per/torso and high set calves wont result in the same advantage on a bike
XY wrote:
The running advantage of longer limbs per/torso and high set calves wont result in the same advantage on a bike
Wrong. Having a smaller torso means less weight to carry up the climbs.
i chose D2 wrote:
XY wrote:The running advantage of longer limbs per/torso and high set calves wont result in the same advantage on a bike
Wrong. Having a smaller torso means less weight to carry up the climbs.
Wrong. To maximize power to weight, you have to be TALL, skinny, and have big quads. The Africans are not tall enough and don't have big enough quads to compete with Froome on drugs.
I agree. Although I think it's even more likely we'll see an Eritrean champion before Kenyan or Ethiopian. Not many westerners know it but cycling is kind of a big deal in Eritrea, and growing steadily. They have some huge athletic talent for such a small country. I'd say it's just a matter of time before someone makes it big on the international stage.
We'll definitely see a non-white African on the tour podium before we see one on the podium for swimming.
Wise One wrote:
i chose D2 wrote:Wrong. Having a smaller torso means less weight to carry up the climbs.
Wrong. To maximize power to weight, you have to be TALL, skinny, and have big quads. The Africans are not tall enough and don't have big enough quads to compete with Froome on drugs.
Longer legs = more power. Not more power than froome, but more power than the same person with shorter legs.
The Obvious Answer wrote:
Yeah, agree the French dislike the dominating style of riding but I think it is partly because it is a non-French (or Spanish or Italian) team doing the dominating. They may well support a black rider who rides with panache, much like they love Thierry Henry in soccer. But they would have to be French first and black second, if that makes any sense.
No. They like Contactor just fine. He attacks. Sky and USPS have/had major credibility problems with the tiny core audience for cycling. Like Bolt, sky attracts a British audience, and money, way beyond the tiny core audience. It's in the UCI's best interest they win that one, big cycling event in the summer.
The doping in the sport is still a huge problem. A clean rider really has no hope.