La paura. It means fear in Italian and I’m detecting a few riders expressing the feeling right now. Normally riders sound confident, at least in public, with statements like “I’m ready” or the Italian line about being “calm” or “serene”. Only with the Giro ways things are sounding different.
Visit a stockmarket and you’ll soon learn the value of a company tends to be based on expectations of its future performance. The on-screen prices flash and change as tiny pieces of information, as well as big news, have their effect on the valuation of a stock.
A stockmarket isn’t the only place where assets are traded. In the world of pro cycling a team owner will regard riders as assets. Some teams do this openly, for others managers it’s more of a subconscious calculation.
Either way, teams need to put a value on a rider in order to decide whether to hire him. There are various factors at play. Obviously a star rider has a high price but this is based on expectations about his ability to win future races more than his stock of past wins. In addition, can the rider contribute to the team, whether in riding or via other means, from leadership to a sense of humour? Will the rider bring additional sponsors? Will the the rider keep away from scandal?
Past performance is a guide to the future
So far all these questions involve the future tense, they are about what the rider might offer once they’ve been signed. It’s like stockmarket assessing the outlook for, say, Nestlé or General Motors. It’s not so much what has happened in the past but how things will turn out in the future, what will happen to sales and profits. But there’s a new factor at play in cycling that is not about the future but the past: ranking points.
I don’t do too much tech on here but it seems to go down well, my piece on the possibility of an electric SRAM group in particular proved popular. Today I’m interested by the variety of bottom bracket standards on the market because it’s something that seems fairly unique amongst consumer goods.
It’s common for industries to have various “standards” when it comes to technology, for example a Android smart phones or maybe those with Windows; a Blu-Ray disc or HD DVD. In times past VHS famously saw off Betamax and there are many more examples. But I don’t remember other industries offering so many options and above all, so many parts that won’t work together. Yet this is what the bike trade is doing with a variety of proprietary bottom bracket designs.
The weekend’s racing threw up some interesting things. The Giro looms big but don’t let the anticipation overshadow some interesting stories from neo-pros succeeding to old dogs having their day over the weekend.
First to Frankfurt, the Germany city that styles itself as Mainhattan, where a sleepy town meets global finance and skyscrapers. The traditional 1 May Grand Prix, these days known as the Tour of the Financial Square Eschborn – Frankfurt, a bit of a mouthful. I preferred the older name, the Henninger Turm, named after the local brewery’s visible grain silo. The race heads to the Taunus hills but it can come down to a sprint finish. As we saw yesterday several big names get ejected by the climbs, in particular in Mammolshain and it came down to a bunch sprint but not after several names got left behind.
This might be a bit mean but it was lucky John Degenkolb won. Why? Well go through the other 68 riders in the group and you’ve probably not heard of many of them. Even the top-10 isn’t quite star-studded.