While it took seven Belgians to dominate the Men’s Cyclocross World Championship race on Sunday, it only took a single Dutchwoman to dominate the women’s race. That’s seven times more dominanter, if my math is correct – which it always is.
Cyclocross fascinates me, mostly because it is completely insane. But I admit: I like the idea of combining Cycling and miniature golf. Put some canti’s on your road bike, take to the mud and woods, add some water hazards, sand traps, man-made climbs and jumps, and now you’ve got a sport for people who hate the way their faces look.
Marianne Vos took her fifth World ‘Cross Championship (a record) to further crowd here palmares with rainbow bands. She’s been World Champion in every discipline involving drop bars, many of them multiple times. She’s also won La Fleche Wallone more times than I can count (I can only count to three), National road and time trial championships, and the Giro d’Italia Femminile. She was even World Champion in Mountain Biking as a Junior. One could easily argue that “V”os is the best active cyclist in the world, bar none.
To that point, we don’t pay close enough attention to Women’s cycling. I’m as guilty as anyone; if I was going to pick the winner of a Women’s race, I’d likely pick Vos or Cooke (if she’s not broken, which she often is) or Teutenberg if the race is likely to end in a sprint, which I wouldn’t be able to tell you without first doing some research. And that pretty much exhausts my knowledge in terms of naming riders, which is disgraceful. After all, if one is to understand the great mystery, one should study all its aspects. (Yes, I just quoted Darth Sidious.)
With the ‘Cross season coming to a close, we’re ramping up to start the 2012 Velominati Super Prestige and with it, we are dragging ourselves into paying attention to Women’s Cycling: the 2012 competition will include women’s races with the points amassed counting towards the overall title.
We are also making some coding changes to the backend system in order to fix some problems which means we’re probably only introducing new problems without necessarily fixing the things that needed fixing in the first place.
We’re also adding more races like the Strada Bianca, changing the scoring model, and eliminating certain things such as free DNF swaps. Stand by for further updates and keep a weather eye on the VSP Page for the updated schedule and rules.
I know as well as any of you that I've been checked out lately, kind…
Peter Sagan has undergone quite the transformation over the years; starting as a brash and…
The Women's road race has to be my favorite one-day road race after Paris-Roubaix and…
Holy fuckballs. I've never been this late ever on a VSP. I mean, I've missed…
This week we are currently in is the most boring week of the year. After…
I have memories of my life before Cycling, but as the years wear slowly on…
View Comments
Don't harsh my buzz.
@Oli
I second that.
Women pro beach volley is something quite depressing from every point of view (pun intended).
@eightzero
That's cool! Don't think I have read that phrase here before. Excellent work!
@Oli
Exactly. I played tennis as a kid and now if I had daughters I'd have serious problems about them looking at tennis as a career. More headlines from the Aussie open about Sharapova shrieking than about who won.
Are we gonna do this, now? A big part of any sport is sex appeal. The Greek Olympics were held in the nude for a reason; athletes are super hot. If you think that your wives won't be tuning in to the Superbowl and daydreaming about being Tom Brady's little Bundchen, or staring into Wes Welker's baby blues, you're mistaken. It's difficult for any of us to deal with our hypothetical daughters being viewed as sex symbols, but judging from the calendar spreads that these aforementioned cyclists have shot, they don't seem to have a problem with it.
How did I miss Liz Hatch in Maxim...?
@frahnk, I have to say @anjin-san's point is a load of bollox, and purely based on a commercial viewpoint, which like you say is rooted in the 80's. However if you love watching sport like I do you'd watch anything that you'd find innerestin regardless of gender. Lindsay Vonn fizzing downhill, Anna Meares v Marianne Vos cranking on the track is just as riveting as Bauge v Bos, besides when they crash it's just as spectacular as the men's.
@Oli, @Pedale.Forchetta
This. Though @Calmante has a point about sex appeal, somewhere in the murky madness there's a line between attraction and a greased-up girl posting in Maxim (I'm look at you, Liz Hatch) for the simple reason she's showing skin. Sonya, obviously, is cute as a button and is a badass. That's cool as hell. Have fun, but remember there's a line, so lets agree to shoot for being respectful, even after that third (or fourth or fifth) IPA.
Unless, of course, you'd like @jen and others to start pounding beers and and filling every other thread with shots of dude's asses from the Roubaix showers.
@zalamanda
A-Merckx, my man!
How is @Anjin-san wrong? And I resent comparing him to a ball-sack. He looks nothing like a ball-sack. When the interest exists, the money will follow! How is that controversial? We can moan as much as we want about unfairness, but regardless of how anyone feels about how exciting women's cycling is, there is no money because there just isn't enough interest. If there was, the money would be there.
I seriously don't know what some of you want. Burka-wearing women cyclists that earn just as much as men, but with a quarter of the audience?
@Calmante
Tennis is actually almost the best of both worlds for women's pro sports: They are AWESOME athletes, just amazing and they make a ton of money and it is a really popular sport but who can argue that it's popularity and lucritiveness (?is this a word?) is based on the sex appeal?
So I agree with Calmante on his point but also agree with Fronk that we need to at least try to not just focus on their lycra clad bodies but also on their performance.
Actually, I am not really sure where the conflict is here? Or even what the hell point I am trying to make?