Avoiding the late season scramble

UCI golden age

The UCI might declare the sport to be in a “golden age” but I see otherwise. Sponsors are staying away from the sport and teams are increasingly reliant on wealthy benefactors for funding. There’s nothing wrong with the sugar-daddy approach but it substitutes corporate sponsorship; many companies might find their audience demographic of cycling is ideal for them but right now they are watching instead of investing.

The shortage of sponsors means there’s still plenty of uncertainty for the 2012 season. Things might fall into place in time for the Tour Down Under but don’t forget a team costs millions to run. For me it seems quite off-putting that several squads don’t know for sure what they’ll be doing next year. If you want to spend millions on a team you need transparency and long term visibility.

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Óscar Sevilla’s trauma

Sevilla

At the start of his pro career many found Óscar Sevilla so fresh-faced they wondered if he was a junior. Now just days from his 35th birthday, his image is less angelic and it’s not just the passage of time. Yesterday he was given a six month ban by the Royal Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) for a doping offence.

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Shorts

A few small pieces from the weekend that are worth mentioning but to short to warrant a full piece.

Vinokourov

Does the angelic face on the right look familiar?

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Ag2r’s Iranian rescue plan

For a brief moment in the Worlds on Sunday Iranian rider Hossein Askari jumped away from the bunch. This might be the first time you’ve seen an Iranian cyclist competing at the top level. But the Iranians have a strong team and the Tabriz Petrochemical Cycling Team is second only to HTC-Highroad in the number of wins this year.

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The moment Cavendish won the Worlds

Project Rainbow Jersey

Mark Cavendish won the World Cycling Championships in Copenhagen by crossing the finish line first. But the route to victory was more than the 14 laps and 266km around the northern suburb of Rudersdal.

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The forecast for Sunday

Peter Sagan

It’s hard to get the weather forecast right sometimes so predicting the results a 266km race is a lot harder. Nevertheless, for the fun of it here are some thoughts for Sunday’s elite men’s road world championships, starting with some scenario analysis and then a run through of the favourites.

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On image rights

I’m more interested in the Worlds right now but with allegations in the Corriere della Sera involving the notion of undeclared revenues and money being transferred around Europe, here’s quick mention of the subject of image rights.

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The rainbow jersey

Rainbow

Famous as the symbol of the world champion, cycling’s rainbow jersey was first introduced in 1927 when the inaugural world championships were organised in Germany. The winner was Italian Alfredo Binda.

No rainbow
For a start the colours aren’t those of a rainbow. In nature the spectrum of light does not include black in the middle. Instead the colours come from the Olympic rings which are supposed to represent the five continents.

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Time trials on TV

time trial TV

Today sees the elite men’s time trial. A lone rider against the clock, surely you don’t get a purer athletic contest in cycling. But as impressive as the contest may be, often it makes for poor TV viewing. 95% of the time you are watching a rider pedalling like a metronome and little else. I find myself reduced to analysing different hand positions, observing if shoulders are rocking or looking at the line they take around a corner. It’s a bit like studying a painting, you have to search for the details.

TV matters. Big audiences are key to attracting sponsors and the opinions of TV producers sway the UCI. So making a time trial more appealing for TV audiences matters a great deal. Sporting purists might regret this but always remember that if you’re reading The Inner Ring, you are not an average viewer of the sport but someone who has gone out of their way to read a niche blog.

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That’s what he didn’t say

A number of microphones

Mark Cavendish has signed a deal for sports agents the Wasserman Group to represent him and to mark the moment there’s been a press release to announce the deal. Here’s an excerpt:

“I’m really excited to be joining Wasserman,” said the sprint cyclist who currently rides for HTC-Highroad. “Their client list is the best in the world and being part of a company who has a history of successfully managing top athletes can only be beneficial in what is a big few years for me. It’s extremely important to have the right management behind me now to allow me to focus all of my energies into riding my bike as fast as I can.“

Only he probably never said these words. Welcome to the phenomenon known as the “attributed quote”. It’s widespread. The use of the attributed quote is systemic, a worldwide phenomenon that goes well beyond sport and into news, politics and more.

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