World Champs - Bayley v Bos

[Billsworld]

There is talk of that, but I think it will change. They will realize it is a dumb idea to get rid of it just like they will realize they are wrong to get rid of womens softball like they are planning to now.

I think its a done deal. I also think its a great event, and cant see why it would be eliminated. The womens 500 went with it. Needed to make room for skateboarding or lawn darts

 

[temper27]

I think its a done deal. I also think its a great event, and cant see why it would be eliminated. The womens 500 went with it. Needed to make room for skateboarding or lawn darts

Well I still hold out hope they change their minds, I just cant imagine an Olympics without those events, especialy since there are some international riders who really specialized almost only on the time trial. Of course most who do the time trial do the match sprints, the team pursuit, and the men events like the kieren as well; but there are still a group that mostly only did the time trial and now they are shut out. Well I am probably wishful thinking anyway, but I will be a bit annoyed watching the next Olympics without the 500 and 1000 time trial races there, that is for sure.

The Olympics has too many crazy sports anyway. Tennis(sorry they have 16 grand slams, they dont need or really want an Olympics, top players who come tank anyway), Pentathalon(does anybody actually even watch this), water sailing. To cut off worthy events from principle Olympic sports like cycling to clear room for these nutty Olympic sports is infuriating.

 

[WarrenG]

The IOC told the UCI that if they wanted to include BMX in the 2008 Olympics they must choose two events to eliminate and the UCI decided to eliminate the kilo and 500. The kilo guys can still do team sprint and some do the keirin. I'm not sure if women's team sprint will be included-it's two riders for a total of 500m.

 

[Billsworld]

The IOC told the UCI that if they wanted to include BMX in the 2008 Olympics they must choose two events to eliminate and the UCI decided to eliminate the kilo and 500. The kilo guys can still do team sprint and some do the keirin. I'm not sure if women's team sprint will be included-it's two riders for a total of 500m.

BMX is ok, but its already got a world stage;the X Games. Seems that eliminating an event from a sport that has a history as old as the modern Olympics is silly. Another sport with kids being JUDGED on a half tube...... Wahoo!. I would rather watch you and Larry race big wheels in the Wall Mart parking lot.

 

[WarrenG]

BMX is ok, but its already got a world stage;the X Games. Seems that eliminating an event from a sport that has a history as old as the modern Olympics is silly. Another sport with kids being JUDGED on a half tube...... Wahoo!. I would rather watch you and Larry race big wheels in the Wall Mart parking lot.

I think the BMX we're talking about for the Olympics is the racing over a few hundred meters, not the double flip front twisting fakey do-wop off a handrail to a front wheelstand type stuff.

I'm gonna need longer cranks than the 120's that came on my big wheel. I hear 170's are the way to go.

 

[Billsworld]

I think the BMX we're talking about for the Olympics is the racing over a few hundred meters, not the double flip front twisting fakey do-wop off a handrail to a front wheelstand type stuff.

I'm gonna need longer cranks than the 120's that came on my big wheel. I hear 170's are the way to go.

LOL....I was recently talked off the edge of the building and I am in transition therepy

 

[WarrenG]

LOL....I was recently talked off the edge of the building and I am in transition therepy

Transistion from sane person to sprinter? That could take awhile and it's not always a good thing...

 

[Billsworld]

Transistion from sane person to sprinter? That could take awhile and it's not always a good thing...

The power is starting to come back. Still off about 5%

 

[WarrenG]

The power is starting to come back. Still off about 5%

5%? That can be there, or not on any given day. After not training so much because of the weather you just need a little neuromuscular coordination tune-up to get it all back. No worries.

Training scenarios aren't really ideal for producing your best numbers so just keep doing the training you know is right and when you do a taper the numbers will be their best.

IOW, if you rest up enough to do great sprint numbers on a training day you have probably rested more than you should have for the more important objective of optimizing your performance on race day. Hey, it would be fun to see some really high sprint numbers but when you're doing 6-10 sprints within 25-50 minutes (for the optimal training) you're going to see small improvements some weeks, but you're not going to see the best wattage peaks and speed maximums... until it really counts.

No medals are awarded for performances during training.

 

[temper27]

The IOC told the UCI that if they wanted to include BMX in the 2008 Olympics they must choose two events to eliminate and the UCI decided to eliminate the kilo and 500. The kilo guys can still do team sprint and some do the keirin. I'm not sure if women's team sprint will be included-it's two riders for a total of 500m.

Thanks for the info, but I dont think BMX should belong in the Olympics anyway either. It just isnt an Olympic-type event, or it shouldnt be. The two time trial races in the veledrome are far more valuable Olympic events then BMX biking will be.

 

[Jack-o]

I don't think it's truth to say you care more about the Commonwealth Games win than a World Championship win. The level of competition at the Worlds is higher.

Hi Warren,

I think I know the answer to this one. (although it's only my opinion)

I don't know about other countries, but here in Australia we have the following situation.

1. Elite Aussie trackies are after any sponsorship dollars they can possibly get so they can continue to live as full-time athletes.

2. Sponsors are only interested in supporting athletes with a high profile in mainstream media.

3. Mainstream media reports on the following sports, AFL football, Rugby, cricket, swimming, golf, and.....Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Track cycling gets totally ignored by the mainstream media except for 4-5 days every 2 years. Athletes looking to maximise their exposure to the general public through the mainstream media have only a small window of opportunity to do so.

The World Sprint championships may be of a higher calibre than the Comm Games, but it is far more important to Ryan Bayley (and the rest of the team) than the World Championships from a financial point of view.

Despite the fact that Australians won a couple of gold medals at the recent world championships, the mainstream media totally ignored the event. Ryan's choice was to focus on the Comm Games for this reason.

Jack-o

 

[WarrenG]

Hi Warren,

I think I know the answer to this one. (although it's only my opinion)

I don't know about other countries, but here in Australia we have the following situation.

1. Elite Aussie trackies are after any sponsorship dollars they can possibly get so they can continue to live as full-time athletes.

2. Sponsors are only interested in supporting athletes with a high profile in mainstream media.

3. Mainstream media reports on the following sports, AFL football, Rugby, cricket, swimming, golf, and.....Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

Track cycling gets totally ignored by the mainstream media except for 4-5 days every 2 years. Athletes looking to maximise their exposure to the general public through the mainstream media have only a small window of opportunity to do so.

The World Sprint championships may be of a higher calibre than the Comm Games, but it is far more important to Ryan Bayley (and the rest of the team) than the World Championships from a financial point of view.

Despite the fact that Australians won a couple of gold medals at the recent world championships, the mainstream media totally ignored the event. Ryan's choice was to focus on the Comm Games for this reason.

Jack-o

All of that is possible, but for the fast guys they will make most of their money at invitational meets like the Revolution series in UK and/or in keirin races, and I expect their income will be higher as World Champion than Commonwealth Games champion, yes?

 

[Jack-o]

All of that is possible, but for the fast guys they will make most of their money at invitational meets like the Revolution series in UK and/or in keirin races, and I expect their income will be higher as World Champion than Commonwealth Games champion, yes?

You're probably right.

Cheers.

 

[VeloFlash]

All of that is possible, but for the fast guys they will make most of their money at invitational meets like the Revolution series in UK and/or in keirin races, and I expect their income will be higher as World Champion than Commonwealth Games champion, yes?

But sponsorship money will always surpass starting money and prizes at events for an Australian rider with CG and Olympic success credentials.

The Oz public cannot identify to a world champion but can to CG and Olympics champion. It is media driven and the sponsorship bucks follow media recognition.

 

[WarrenG]

But sponsorship money will always surpass starting money and prizes at events for an Australian rider with CG and Olympic success credentials.

The Oz public cannot identify to a world champion but can to CG and Olympics champion. It is media driven and the sponsorship bucks follow media recognition.

I doubt that is the case in track cycling. Swimming, sure, but not track cycling. How much do riders make at events like Revolution and in Japan for their keirin racing?

How much money is Bayley getting in sponsorships? $100K/year? $50K/year? less? He can double that in a couple of months in Japan, and I doubt the Japanese people with money care much about the CG. They want to see rainbow stripes. Look at the history of the cash received by the guys who have raced there with rainbow stripes.

 

[VeloFlash]

I doubt that is the case in track cycling. Swimming, sure, but not track cycling. How much do riders make at events like Revolution and in Japan for their keirin racing?

How much money is Bayley getting in sponsorships? $100K/year? $50K/year? less? He can double that in a couple of months in Japan, and I doubt the Japanese people with money care much about the CG. They want to see rainbow stripes. Look at the history of the cash received by the guys who have raced there with rainbow stripes.

Riders like Kelly, Dajka and Niewand have briefly appeared on the lucrative Japanese keirin circuit in between preparing for CG and Olympics. If the rewards, both financial and intrinsic, were superior to preparation and competing in Oz publicly recognisable international competition then they would have emphasised preparation on World Champs to reap greater rewards from a longer Japanese keirin season.

Actually, during the Mark French affair prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics Shane Kelly claimed he had lost a valuable sponsorship agreement worth in the hundreds of thousands by being wrongfully implicated. The potential is there to earn more from sponsorship on CG and Olympic success than contesting the kierin circuit. If contested it would be brief, as has occurred, and supplement sponsorship and scholarship income.

 

[Jack-o]

Actually, during the Mark French affair prior to the 2004 Athens Olympics Shane Kelly claimed he had lost a valuable sponsorship agreement worth in the hundreds of thousands by being wrongfully implicated. The potential is there to earn more from sponsorship on CG and Olympic success than contesting the kierin circuit. If contested it would be brief, as has occurred, and supplement sponsorship and scholarship income.

That's right, Kelly lost a three year-$300,000 deal....... He no Likey Mr. French after that.

I can't imagine that a rider like Kelly would earn more than $100,000 a year racing kierins and collecting appearance money, so the sponsorship is very important, which goes back to my reasoning for saying the Comm Games has a higher priority for Aussie (and probably pommie) trackies than the worlds.

They probably would prefer to be World Champions, but they also need to think about their future perhaps ???

Jack-o

 

[WarrenG]

I can't imagine that a rider like Kelly would earn more than $100,000 a year racing kierins and collecting appearance money, ...

Some do, and have. I watched a Japanese Kierin race online recently where the winner collected near 600,000 USD for one race! Half the field went down in 2 or 3 mishaps. The other half was probably sharing in the winnings.

 

[Ricardo29]

havent read this thread for a while, but u guys are spot on.

to an aussie, the CG is bigger than the worlds 'somewhere in europe in the wrong season that does not even get a mention here'. the media just thrash the CG, hardly a mention of worlds, so makes sense.
bayley was also defending CG champ, hence he badly wanted to defend.
he wasnt at worlds last year, and has often been out of form at them/tuning up etc, so they havent always been at the top of his list. is very hard to peak, party for a week, then back up 3 weeks later for the worlds. not denying that worlds are higher on the list, just not on his (this time around is all).

aussies will know hayley lewis...lisa currey kenney.....nothing much at all on a world stage, but MASSIVE due to comm games success. many many examples of this, across all sports.

 

[matbooth]

Some do, and have. I watched a Japanese Kierin race online recently where the winner collected near 600,000 USD for one race! Half the field went down in 2 or 3 mishaps. The other half was probably sharing in the winnings.

Both Theo and Ryan are out in Japan at the moment earning pretty big money on the International keirin circuit. Both had their first races today (Wed 26th June), Bayley in Sasebo and Bos in Matsuyama. Ryan was rather more successful in his opening account.

I have links to videos of the races in the news section of my website; www.trackcycling.info (if you're reading this message some days after the event then these will have been shifted into the news archive section). The heats involving Escuredo and Ng are both well worth a watch.

Mat Booth (www.trackcycling.info)