Support road.cc

Like this site? Help us to make it better.

news

Your vote needed (again): TalkSport asks, 'Is cycling a sport?'

Meanwhile, Giles Coren stirs up minor Twitterstorm with 'never heard of him' Cav tweet...

While many in the cycling world and beyond have applauded Mark Cavendish for his winning BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2011 yesterday evening, the world champion winning as many votes as the other nine sportsmen on the short list put together, he - and cycling - appear to have some way to go before enjoying the embrace of the full British public. 

A poll currently running on the TalkSport website asks whether former Ipswich Town and Scotland footballer Alan Brazil, who now presents the radio station’s breakfast show, is “correct in believing that cycling is not a sport?”

The poll currently shows that three in four of those voting disagree with Brazil, who also played for clubs including Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and, er, Wollongong City during his career.

Meanwhile, Giles Coren (who he? – ed) tweeted shortly after Cavendish had been revealed as the winner: “I have literally never heard of Mark Cavendish.”

There’s nothing particularly wrong with that – many pointed out that it’s unlikely that Cavendish would have heard of the food critic, TV presenter and novelist either, and to be fair, saying you haven’t heard of someone isn’t necessarily a judgment on them or what they happen to do for a living.

He did, however, manage to push some buttons in his subsequent tweets. One of the more publishable one to the cycling fans taken him to task was, “Woooooooooo. This is hilarious. I haven't seen so many cyclists in such a piss outside of one of those stop the traffic demos.”

Mind you, even we managed a chuckle when after saying, “it seems he won the tour de France. Who knew?” his next tweet exclaimed, “What? He didn't even win it? Then how the f*** on earth could anyone be expected to know who he is? I mean, I didn't win it either.”

We’re picturing rueful nods of agreement from any among you who’ve tried to explain to non-cyclists how the jerseys at the Tour work, only to be met by a blank look of non-comprehension.

Coren himself is no stranger to the bike, however. In a restaurant review published in The Times earlier this year, he describes how he undertook “six years of cycling during my embarrassing ‘green’ period.”

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

Add new comment

37 comments

Avatar
yenrod | 12 years ago
0 likes

People play football - you dont play @ cycling beleive me...everyone who's got any degree of inteligence upon learning of my interest in cycling look at myself in admirance.

Obviously Mr Brazil is purely 'playing' the obvious card here here..its quite self evident that Mark Cavendish is unheard of YET to win what he has is exemplified talent!

I wont have heard of the many talented sports stars that are to be in the Olympics this year but it doesnt mean I'll look down on them in a derogatory & self demeaning manner...

Football fans HATE anything getting the better of their beloved sport...

I spent some time in Italy, a while back & an Italian told me that football is looked on as a working class sport then Cycling is a sport that you've got to have talent for...

Avatar
BigDummy | 12 years ago
0 likes

I know who Giles Coren is actually.

He is a restaurant critic, and possibly a berk.

His finest work was a widely-circulated email to his sub-editor, tearing them a new arsehole for altering his copy so that his review of a restaurant ended on an unstressed syllable and lacked a couple of gay jokes.

I am not going to let him pollute my mind with irritation at him, and I suggest you all do likewise.

 16

Avatar
farrell | 12 years ago
0 likes

Alan Brazil is a whopper. Most of talkshite's listenership appear to be whoppers so I don't really care what some petty poll has to say, I'm more knowledgeable in terms of cycling than their average listener, I'm also more knowledgeable on the subject of football as I can watch the game and form my own opinion as opposed to just repeating verbatim what the latest red top drivel is.

As somebody pointed out earlier, football was dragged into the mainstream and just look at what a horror show that has become.

Also, can I point out that Dr Fuentes is now working for several top football teams, clean as a whistle that sport...

Avatar
Stumps | 12 years ago
0 likes

The oldest definition of sport in English (1300) is of anything humans find amusing or entertaining.

So going back to 1300ad you still could go and watch someone being hung drawn and quartered.....and call it a sport.  19

Avatar
The _Kaner | 12 years ago
0 likes

Football = game...as in the immortal words of Greavesy...'It's a funny old game'...
Just as curling is a game, or bowls....
Cycling...well it's a way of life...My bike says 'sportive' on the top tube not 'gameive'  4  26

Avatar
notfastenough | 12 years ago
0 likes

Cheapening bovine gaze... Awesome bit of writing!  4

Avatar
CraigTheBiker | 12 years ago
0 likes

It always amazes me how such non issues always provoke so much reaction and debate. And yet, here I am rising to the bait!

If you check the definition of 'sport' on any of the online dictionary sites, it is blatantly obvious that cycling would be classified as a sport.

Methinks Mr Brazil, and his Talksport employers, know exactly what will happen as a result of saying something so controversial: lots of free publicity, an increase in website traffic and a lot more listeners!

Avatar
TiNuts replied to CraigTheBiker | 12 years ago
0 likes

@ CraigTheBiker. So true. I'd never heard of Mr Brazil and, judging by his blathering, I doubt whether he has the sort of knowledge about sport that would have made him a must-have on "A Question of Sport". Football being so far off my personal radar of interest I won't be beating a path to his website either......  4

Avatar
JAndrewHill replied to CraigTheBiker | 12 years ago
0 likes
CraigTheBiker wrote:

Methinks Mr Brazil, and his Talksport employers, know exactly what will happen as a result of saying something so controversial: lots of free publicity, an increase in website traffic and a lot more listeners!

I'm not so sure that AB is that clever. . . . but ask him about skiing which his family participate in and that's bound to be a sport. . . . whereas i think is just a dangerous means of transport.

. . . and AB said that cycling was not easy for people to do cos there were so few places in the uk to do it (I think he was thinking about velodromes). But up north in Manchester the coucil have built things called roads and I find they are quite good for racing along...

Avatar
otleyrich | 12 years ago
0 likes

You 'play' games; football, rugby, tiddlywinks. You 'do' sports; cycling, running etc ;->

Avatar
downfader replied to otleyrich | 12 years ago
0 likes
otleyrich wrote:

You 'play' games; football, rugby, tiddlywinks. You 'do' sports; cycling, running etc ;->

I'm not so sure. Sportsmanship comes from a sense of fairplay and I see that in many competitive games and activities. To me there are physical sports and non-physical.

Avatar
pmr | 12 years ago
0 likes

At the end of the day we (cyclists/fans) need to rise above the anti-cycling brigade. None of them can stop the increasing popularity of our sport/means of transport.
I think its some kind of self defense they put up to cover up their own in securities. Its the same people that shout names out of their car windows and make fun when I'm out running or cycling, its just easier for them to make fun than admit to themselves that they'd love to be able to do what we do, just they haven't got it in them.

Avatar
mrkeith119 | 12 years ago
0 likes

Surely it's not as black and white as is cycling a sport or not, If your racing or training it's a sport, but if your commuting or going somewhere it's travelling, and if your just going for a ride then it's a hobby.

Avatar
Super Domestique replied to mrkeith119 | 12 years ago
0 likes
mrkeith119 wrote:

Surely it's not as black and white as is cycling a sport or not, If your racing or training it's a sport, but if your commuting or going somewhere it's travelling, and if your just going for a ride then it's a hobby.

True. But then most sports fans would accept motorsport yet you can also drive to the supermarket.

Avatar
PeteH | 12 years ago
0 likes

I'm all for definitive definitions, they're by far the best kind.

My mum still has all my subbuteo stuff - plus a few hundred Everton programs dating from the late seventies - in the loft. I hope. One day I'll flog it all, get very rich, and contribute rubbish to this site from my yacht in Brixham.

Avatar
bikecellar | 12 years ago
0 likes

My younger brother was a Subbuteo fanatic, with all the teams playing in a league and cup competitions, he had loads of stats, a sort of early pre computor fantasy football, John Motson of Subbuteo. He never played for real but coached and assisted with youth teams.

Avatar
Raleigh | 12 years ago
0 likes

The definitive definition of distinction between sport and game, is that you can smoke a cigarette in one, but not the other...  15

Avatar
timbola | 12 years ago
0 likes

Subbuteo ... now there's football, rugby, cricket - perhaps there should be a Road.cc competition to devise a Subbuteo Track Cycling game  4 ! Sorry, do I mean sport ?  39
Where does cycle polo come into the equation ?
Merry Christmas(time) and a Happy New Year to everyone, by the way !

Avatar
Super Domestique | 12 years ago
0 likes

Lol @ Pete. I had the team but in striker. Remember the press the top of the head to make them kick?

Anyway, I am always slightly uncomfortable calling anything a sport that can be done while in the pub!

Avatar
PeteH | 12 years ago
0 likes

Hatter when I said mainstream I was thinking particularly of places like Belgium or Holland, where cycling is more in the ether, if you like, not so much with other sports such as football.

Avatar
mrpt5 | 12 years ago
0 likes

The definition of a sport is that if you have to change your shoes to do it - its a sport. It works for most.
This is a fair enough - it differentiates between 'ordinary' cyclists and competative ones?

Avatar
PeteH | 12 years ago
0 likes

Russell Osman? Great team, great manager.
Ipswich (when they played in those white pinstripes) was my favourite Subbuteo team, like, ever!
Sorry am I off topic?

Avatar
cat1commuter | 12 years ago
0 likes

Football is a game, not a sport. You play a game. You play football, tennis, golf etc... You don't play cycling. Cycling is a sport.

Avatar
paulfg42 | 12 years ago
0 likes

Might have been a decent player (terrible haircut) but he's as thick as pigsh*t. Why anyone would listen to Talksport might be a better question to ask.

Avatar
dave atkinson | 12 years ago
0 likes

i fondly remember watching alan brazil from atop my milk crate in the churchman's stand at portman road. i always fell off it when we scored. didn't he get five in a match once? great player.

Avatar
TheHatter | 12 years ago
0 likes

Am I the only one that doesnt want cycling to be mainstream?
Football's mainstream and look at the state of that.

Avatar
WolfieSmith replied to TheHatter | 12 years ago
0 likes
TheHatter wrote:

Am I the only one that doesnt want cycling to be mainstream?
Football's mainstream and look at the state of that.

It's tricky. I'd like the sport to be appreciated by all the British public - to the extent that they all give me space and referential respect when I'm out on the bike.

What I don't want is for a large proportion of the British public to suddenly becoming overnight experts on pro cycling and sully the whole elegant niche glory of the sport for us effete connoisseurs with their cheapening bovine gaze.

 4

Avatar
TheHatter replied to WolfieSmith | 12 years ago
0 likes
MercuryOne][quote=TheHatter wrote:

Am I the only one that doesnt want cycling to be mainstream?
Football's mainstream and look at the state of that.

Quote:

It's tricky. I'd like the sport to be appreciated by all the British public - to the extent that they all give me space and referential respect when I'm out on the bike.

That would be nice but unless they actually think you're Cav (or as they'd put it "that bloke in the head & shoulders ad") then I'd be surprised if it would make the blindest bit of difference. Car culture won't be changed in this country at least even if a Brit won all the grand tours and every classic.

Quote:

What I don't want is for a large proportion of the British public to suddenly becoming overnight experts on pro cycling and sully the whole elegant niche glory of the sport for us effete connoisseurs with their cheapening bovine gaze.

 4

Beautifully put!  4

Avatar
PeteH | 12 years ago
0 likes

+1 Simon, love it

Avatar
Simon_MacMichael | 12 years ago
0 likes

I love the story of the rather posh prospective student at an Oxford college who was asked whether he took part in any "sport".

He enthusiastically outlined his lifelong love of hunting, shooting and fishing.

One of the academics interviewing him said they were thinking rather of pursuits such as rugby or cricket.

"Oh," he replied. "You mean games?"

Pages

Latest Comments