How has the coronavirus affected your personal life?

[jjohnwm]

You bike riders are insane, putting yourself through that with no guarantee of victory, I’d sooner learn rocket science than put my body through that.

There's never a guarantee of victory in anything, including life. That's what makes it interesting. I think it was Colonel Jeff Cooper who said "Variety is not the spice of life; peril is!"

Having said that...I think biking, whether it's motorized or not, is like fishing, hunting, sex, exercise, reading, or a host of other pleasurable activities. It's great fun to do it yourself...but I have zero interest in watching someone else do it!

 

[skjl47]

I was there at the 2014 finish in Sheffield where he nearly killed Mark Cavendish at about 70kph

Hello; I was not at that finish sprint so all my views were from TV coverage. The various views were played over and over for a few days. Cavendish was right in there among the others as far as using his head and shoulders then and before. If I recall it was one of the poorly designed barriers than caught him out at that incident. I guess you are thinking of the elbow of Sagan flying out. Best I can recall his elbow did not hit Cavendish but went out to help Sagan keep his balance. The main point for me is the appeal which went in Sagan's favor after the fact. Too late to help Sagan as he had already gone home and missed the rest of the race. I imagine you get different TV coverage than I do, but it was discussed by many of the commentators. Several of whom stated they thought the disqualification from the race was not justified. After watching the views I had to agree with them.

If his bike was damaged in some way it's not really a big deal nowadays, the riders have several well tuned bikes each

Hello; Such was not the opinion of the team manager. Nor was it the opinion of some of the commentators who are former bike racers themselves. They all stated there can be and usually are some differences from a favored bike and a substitute. Subtle differences to be sure. I have seen several times during a race when a rider will grab a substitute bike for some reason (flat tires, shifter problems and such) because they need to hurry back to the peleton. But they get their favored bike back after it is repaired as soon as they can. Yes some times that favored bike cannot be repaired so they are stuck.
I ride for fitness and do not race. I have two bikes right now. One used Specalized which was cheap and a newer and more expensive Haro. I ride the used bike almost all the time as it just fits and works better for me. But even if my opinion is dismissed, the opinion of some of the professional riders ought to be considered.

It states within race rules that no extra drinks are to be taken, other than what you have on your bike, once you are within the 20km to go mark. I'm not overly familiar with the semantics of it all, i'd have to dig deeper in this one but the rules are the rules.

Hello; Yes the technical letter of the rule was broken. Julien Allaphilippe grabbed a water bottle from a relative I think. That he broke the rule is not what I am bothered about. It is how the punishment seemed tailored to hurt him specifically, just as with Sagan. Sagan was not supposed to use his head to move over a rider a fraction by the rules even if to avoid running into a barrier. I guess the race moderators would have preferred that Sagan crashed just as Cavendish did?

In both incidents no one was hurt. There was not a crash or any other bad outcome. Sure give out a punishment of some sort, but to tailor the punishments so specifically as to spoil the goals of both riders seems a bit too much. For example why take away the green jersey points Sagan has won earlier in the day many miles before in addition to the points of that particular sprint. My prediction is this ruling will be appealed and my bet is some of the punishment may be amended just as it was in the Cavendish crash.

.but I have zero interest in watching someone else do it!

Hello; Yeah I get this. There are many sports I do not care to watch. Not sure why I like watching the bicycle races.

 

[skjl47]

You bike riders are insane, putting yourself through that with no guarantee of victory, I’d sooner learn rocket science than put my body through that.

Hello; I am not going to argue for my sanity as I have been married twice and spent more than 30 years in public schools classrooms. I never was a bike racer tho if that helps any.
It has become my opinion these professional bike riders are among the fittest people on earth. They endure things hard to imagine. Several have crashed then gotten back on a bike and ridden miles with broken bones. Collar bones seem to get broken a lot. I guess maybe iron man races are as grueling but riding for three weeks the way of the tour may be a bit tougher.

 

[esoxlucius]

Hello; I am not going to argue for my sanity as I have been married twice and spent more than 30 years in public schools classrooms. I never was a bike racer tho if that helps any.
It has become my opinion these professional bike riders are among the fittest people on earth. They endure things hard to imagine. Several have crashed then gotten back on a bike and ridden miles with broken bones. Collar bones seem to get broken a lot. I guess maybe iron man races are as grueling but riding for three weeks the way of the tour may be a bit tougher.

I tend to agree with you there. Pro cyclists, imo, are the fittest guys on the planet. Doing what they do day in day out during a three week tour such as the tour de france, the italian giro, or the spanish vuelta is just staggering.

Unless you're a regular bike rider who pushes yourself on occasion, as I do, then you can't even begin to comprehend the stress and pain involved. Your lungs, heart, and legs are screaming for you to stop. Thing is, when my lungs, heart and legs tell me to stop, I jolly well do, lol. These pro guys just have to endure it for hours at a time, no wussing out for them.

I would also, as you mentioned, put the iron men triathletes up there too, along with ultra runners maybe. But for me pro cyclists top the tree.

 

[esoxlucius]

There's never a guarantee of victory in anything, including life. That's what makes it interesting. I think it was Colonel Jeff Cooper who said "Variety is not the spice of life; peril is!"

Having said that...I think biking, whether it's motorized or not, is like fishing, hunting, sex, exercise, reading, or a host of other pleasurable activities. It's great fun to do it yourself...but I have zero interest in watching someone else do it!

Lol, is that a Canuckistan thing.....having sex by yourself!!!

 

[jjohnwm]

Lol, is that a Canuckistan thing.....having sex by yourself!!!

Well, being a Canuskistani, I am required by law to say "Not that there's anything wrong with that..." and then to follow it up with an apology to somebody for something.

"Doing it yourself" is distinctly different than "doing it by yourself"....or "doing it to yourself"...

Jeez...you'd think that if anyone understood the nuances of English...that it would be the English!

 

[Ulu]

Lord, I wish people still spoke and wrote English.
Listen to all the mixed up people trying to explain simple things on Youtube....
(We're not in Kansas any more, Toto...)

 

[Hendre]

Lord, I wish people still spoke and wrote English.
Listen to all the mixed up people trying to explain simple things on Youtube....
(We're not in Kansas any more, Toto...)

What do you mean by this?

 

[Hendre]

2020 fails to disappoint - Cape town just had an offshore earthquake. About 1600km South and 10km deep. I just heard a rumble, some people had their houses shake - "I thought a million geese were running across my roof" - a friend. Interesting experience.

 

[Ulu]

What do you mean by this?

It’s hard for folks to understand how much the language has changed, I think.