Fanarchy Boneheads....

[William]

So I was finishing up some espresso when the Tour coverage ended today and watched a little of the Fanarchy show that came on where wannabe sports experts spout their advice about different sports on their web cams. A question about the Tour came up and the moderator seemed to get it saying something along the lines of, "a grueling race over three weeks long that covers over 2,000 miles and climbs more than 20 mountain passes...a race so mean that it could only have been thought up by the French." All but one of the participants thought it was a wussy event and equated it to just riding a bike, not a sport. "Yeah, it might be tough climbing up the mountain, but you get to coast down the other side..c'mon, it's not a sport, it's riding a bicycle. What's the worst that can happen...skin your knee?"

The crazy thing is, I think it's a widespread thought that goes beyond these boneheads. I think it's part of the reason cyclists tend to get so little respect from motorists. "You're slowing me down, you look gay, and you're just riding a bike!! Get off the road and do a real sport!!!"

I'm going to go ride my bike. :butt:



William

[WadePatton]

another good reason to never watch genpub programming.

technology and dumbth both increasing exponentially.

i get a bit of "no ****, really?!" when i mention the four or five riders killed by cars around here in the last few years--as i circulate "three-feet law" posters to local places of business.

they also don't unnerstand how their little precious ankle-biter can cause femur, pelvis, and wrist fractures and well as damage thousands of dollars worth of goods. until i enlighten them.

but i don't use "some guy, some where"--i tell them the names of the folks and the injuries sustained.

people are bone stupid.

bike racing is tough--we know that. 3 weeks of it is insanity--kinda like 'cross. ;)

[rwsaunders]

One of our regular routes starts at a local park, which is frequented by numerous runners and walkers. As we headed out a few months ago on the ride, approaching a pack of runners (in the bike lane), one cried out..."watch out, here come the rich guys on the bikes." Yeah, a lot of people think of cyclists as eccentric and elitist....who cares.

[cmg]

"Get off the road and do a real sport!!!" so whats the real sport "Tap out" or bull riding, where the goal is to see how much head shaking you can take?

[BumbleBeeDave]

"Get off the road and do a real sport!!!" so whats the real sport "Tap out" or bull riding, where the goal is to see how much head shaking you can take?

. . . all-star bass fishing. :rolleyes:

BBD

[Dekonick]

Lets face it - every sport has some aspect of skill needed. If it didn't it wouldn't be a sport. The deal with cycling is that, for the general public, they do not understand how much skill, strength, and just plain guts it takes to ride - even at our amateur level. Funno how no one ever makes fun of swimmers for wearing skin tight suits - guess it is just our lot in life.

As far as tap-out... MMA is a real sport. It takes years of training to be able to fight at their level. They train hard and put their hearts into what they do. If you notice, after just about any bout - the fighters almost always display immense respect for each other. No different than cycling - it is a test of skills, determination, and character. Cycling is often more bloody...and the injuries more serious. Dunno - I just think MMA gets a bad rap here.

Nuf said -

Wishing I could do either right now...

Heck - I wish I could ride a trainer. :crap:

[Dekonick]

I love watching The Spanish Fly - say what you want... fishing can be sport.

[maunahaole]

Lay off of watching fanarchy. It is the unholy marriage of sports talk radio and web cams without the benefit of a dump button for the stupidest of the stupid. The only benefit to being able to see these morons is to realize that most of them probably couldn't do any sport at any level without running the risk of a blown achilles tendon or an infarction. They are the ultimate haters, those who can't taking a piece out of those who do.

[cody.wms]

the promo has one of the "participants" claim that he is about to eat his (live) cat on screen.


I think that explains the show well. It's the buddy version of all that bad programming on ESPN 2, which is saying something...

[William]

Lets face it - every sport has some aspect of skill needed. If it didn't it wouldn't be a sport. The deal with cycling is that, for the general public, they do not understand how much skill, strength, and just plain guts it takes to ride - even at our amateur level. Funno how no one ever makes fun of swimmers for wearing skin tight suits - guess it is just our lot in life.

As far as tap-out... MMA is a real sport. It takes years of training to be able to fight at their level. They train hard and put their hearts into what they do. If you notice, after just about any bout - the fighters almost always display immense respect for each other. No different than cycling - it is a test of skills, determination, and character. Cycling is often more bloody...and the injuries more serious. Dunno - I just think MMA gets a bad rap here.

Nuf said -

Wishing I could do either right now...

Heck - I wish I could ride a trainer. :crap:


Amen brother!!

Abso-freakin-lutely, the intensity of training that these guys go through is incredible. Like climbing a mountain pass on a bike: sure it takes conditioning and skill, but it also takes heart and determination to keep going through the pain, push beyond the boundaries and never quit. Also, just as most people don’t understand the underlying game of chess that goes on in a cycling race, an MMA bout is exactly the same. It’s a technical match to find and exploit a weakness, feint, draw & counter, and re-direct attention to create opportunities. To have the technical expertise to counter locks, chokes , and throws. Like cycling, it gets little respect from those outside it’s circle. You know the old saying about glass houses right? :)

The only reason I watched any of that show was a mention of the Tour in the opening promo. I had never heard of the show before this week. Another question that came up was the upcoming Brock Lesner – Frank Mir re-match. Just like they did with their responses about the Tour, the participants showed they don’t know squat about MMA either. Sure, Brock is a monster and Mir has a tough match ahead of him. Mir won the first fight by exploiting a mistake by Lesner and caught him in a knee bar. Some of these boneheads were dissing this saying stuff like “he only won because of that stupid wussy lock stuff”. Duh, he won because he had the technical knowhow to exploit an opening as soon as it happened and put the big guy in a knee bar with enough control to get the big guy to tap…instead of taking it all the way snapping his knee and turning him into a cripple. Locks and chokes are valid techniques which most of the time their true nature is not shown because the guy taps…and the winner has the expertise and control to apply just enough to get the submission without taking it all the way to break things.

You can bet your bottom dollar I won’t be watching that farce again.

Lay off of watching fanarchy. It is the unholy marriage of sports talk radio and web cams without the benefit of a dump button for the stupidest of the stupid. The only benefit to being able to see these morons is to realize that most of them probably couldn't do any sport at any level without running the risk of a blown achilles tendon or an infarction. They are the ultimate haters, those who can't taking a piece out of those who do.


BINGO!!!! :beer:





William

[sg8357]

Al Jazzera shows Fanarchy to encourage resistance to 'Western Culture'.
Works for me, I think most of those on Fanarchy could be usefully employed
clearing mines in Afghanistan.

[mister]

my neighbor (A) whom i ride with sometimes and who is a pretty good rider, was telling me about another guy (B) here that he rode with the other weekend.
A said they were riding got a little warmed up and all that and B says "hey just so you know, i need to put out a continuous 230watts for 30 minutes. I'm about to start so just hang back there and draft off me."
A was telling me how much it sucked and how he held on for about 20-25 minutes before he fell off B's wheel.
after they were done B says hey, what are you doing to tomorrow? A says well i help this ride out of this shop we might go as far as 70 miles.
B says oh well I have to put in 5 hours of hills tomorrow, you can come if you want.
A, no i think i'll just ride with the slow guys from the shop.

B is just a young cat1 guy.
if people really knew.