Things have changed some in cycling over the past decade or so – well, I guess it’s not just cycling; it’s life in general.
We’ve moved on to a more manicured and instant phase of life, and sadly (at times) there’s no halting progress – all be it seemingly retroactive.
It wasn’t until 1989 that the Berlin Wall was torn down by oppressed Germans desperately seeking change, change they felt sure would be for the better.
Communism, as ideal as it my have seemed on paper simply wasn’t working, although there are a fair few former Eastern Block residents who still long for the equality and green grass of the system they once damned.
One thing the communist system did well was to produce a steady flow of amazing athletes, all be it that they were often bread and buttered to the eyeballs with every conceivable for of PED available at the time.
Now, 20 odd years later, Western nations are stepping eerily back to those all grey former Eastern Block methods and introducing selective sports systems and producing modern day sporting lab rats.
The AIS and British Cycling set-ups are amazingly similar to those of the former Soviet and Eastern Block states, and are producing similar kinds athletes and attaining amazing and uniform results, all be it by much cleaner athletes. Kids are often tempted from the classrooms and then tested and measured – and then informed if they could or could not make good cyclists.
I mean, I’m not so sure I’d like my kids being analysed like that, and probably having their dreams crushed by some system coach with a lap top – imagine how damaging that could be for those kids, and for the sport. Without the masses there simply is no infrastructure. Plus, as far as I’m aware there is no computerised system to test for balls, guts, work ethic, and sheer determination.
A good dose of this can easily match so-called “sub-par” sporting potential.
There is absolutely no quibbling that these latter-day elite sporting systems achieve results, but surely the sport isn’t simply about results? I may sound like a grumpy old man, and to an extent that’d be accurate. But the fact is that much of our sport has become bland, as bland as many of its new age ‘lab rats’.
Go back a couple of decades and there were very few English-speaking riders in the pro pelotons of Europe. For every one that made it to that level there was a score who had fallen by the wayside trying.
It took balls to leave home with no money, no knowledge of the language or culture, no support, to be the eternal underdog , treated as second rate, to put you neck on the line in an all or nothing blood and guts effort to cut it against the soft homeboys, the Jonny Foreigners.
The guys who made it through that tough self-schooling system had a rough ride – I know, I’ve been there.
Every one of them was a character, a hard case, an individual – and they all turned into top line bike racers, and most of them are sadly lost to the ‘intimidated’ power systems of our governing cycling bodies, after all they may harm the Old Boys’ structure that tried to floor many them in the first place.
The irony is that most of these guys would never have cut it with today’s fully supported hand-held elite systems. Can you imagine Phil Anderson, Robert Millar and Sean Kelly and Co as systemised and optimised athletes like today’s graduates?
No way.
Their faces just would not fit. They were a different breed. These days your face and mentality (and your stats) either fit with the system or not – if not, the chances of getting through are as slim as they were 20 years ago.
There are of course a handful of athletes whose faces didn’t fit yet still managed to break through – guys like Ritchie Porte.
Many of the modern day ‘freaks’ of the system were dragged into the sport – they didn’t find their own way through passion.
Many have never even heard of the races they’re riding, let alone their great history. I regularly get to interview riders from both sides of the systematic fence; the old independents, and the lab rats.
Most of the new age guys are as bland as flat Coke, I could almost script their interviews, they really are that boring – and it shows in the analytical and railed way in which they race.
Most of these guys would not have even cut the boat ride to Europe let alone the lonely nights in a caravan eating just pasta; the character building stuff.
It’s hard to argue with progress, and results, as it waits for no man, right or wrong – but this calculated ‘win at all costs’ approach has made for some very dull bike racing in the past few years, salvaged only by the rogues of the peloton, the great and colorful characters who still manage to thrive with their balls on the line.
Here’s to individualism.
British born and Asian based cycling writer and photographer Steve Thomas has, and does work for many leading cycling, lifestyle and travel publications around the world – and has done so for 20 years. Before this, and during the days of real film and thick paper he also raced internationally all over the world – on and off road, and carved out a career taking on extreme two wheeled events and feats, setting and breaking records the world over.
Fancy a wager on your favourite sport? Head on over to PlayUp for great odds and friendly customer service and pick a winner. Chances are you’re about to lose. Set a deposit limit.
Australia's Jai Hindley has said he is "lost for words" after a shock stage victory at the Tour de France earned him the leader's…
Australia's Jai Hindley has said he is "lost for words" after a shock stage victory at the Tour de France earned him the leader's…
Tadej Pogacar has won a drama-packed Tour of Flanders, winning in a breakaway with Matieu van der Poel second, Mads Pedersen third and Wout…
Women are not allowed to compete in the Tour de France. However you choose to re-read that sentence, the fact remains: the most famous…
The jam-packed month-by-month quiz full of 2022 sports trivia!
Australian Grace Brown has won silver in the women's time trial, the first event at the world road cycling championships.
