Is the world road champion,really the world champion?

cycletheroad

Very interesting reading......from the worldwidecycles blog.

"Seventy five-year old Tom ‘Chops’ Kiely was in the shop recently and as a lifelong cycling fan made a point to Ray that the World Champion cyclist isn’t really the World Champion . He said that a one day race isn’t any sort of way to decide who should wear the World Champions’ rainbow stripes for the following year .
Chops makes a very valid point . The Formula one World Champion is decided over a season long series of races as is the World Rally Championship and a number of other sporting titles .
A puncture , a crash , a bout of illness or any myriad of other misfortunes can happen to deny the best rider of any particular season the chance to wear the Rainbow Jersey when a one day race decides who gets crowned World Champion .
Sean Kelly never got to wear the rainbow jersey , but was the World Number 1 cyclist for 5 years in a row .
The following is a list of the riders who were crowned World Champion during that 5 year period ;
1984 – Claude Criquielion
1985 – Joop Zoetemelk
1986 – Moreno Argentin
1987 – Stephen Roche
1988 – Maurizio Fondriest
Whilst these were contemporaries of Kelly’s , none apart from Roche in ’87 could possibly have come within an asses roar of Kelly for consistency of victories in the Worlds top races throughout each season .
Is the current format a real World Championship or is it another Classic race at the end of the season ?"
Barry
www.worldwidecycles.com

Beasty

I can confirm Cav really is World Champion, and no amount of debate can take that away from him ...

kincsem

How did he get the nickname "Chops"?

Lumen

The format of the World Champs is hardly a state secret, everyone knows what it means.

There's always this..

http://www.cqranking.com/men/asp/gen/rider.asp?riderid=3448

spokeydokey

Can chops also come up with a creative way of awarding kelly a tour of flanders victory?

Beasty

I would guess most sports determine their world champions in single events - in some you may only get a chance every 4 years

I think, certainly from a spectator's perspective, this is a better way to determine the Champion, when it all unfurls before you in a one-off race.

One of the risks of making it a League table is you could get a champion who has never won a race. It could also detract from existing classics, with riders going for "safe" points rather than all-out wins. It would also almost certainly restrict championships to trade teams (or else it would not attract the best riders in the World), with team tactics possibly resulting in riders deliberately being "obstructed" if they are a threat in the league table

Russman

He might have a point re whether the world champ should be decided that way, but its no different to other sports such as athletics, or indeed, any Olympic sport.
The Olympic/World champion gets the honour of being remembered, rightly or wrongly, as such. Plenty of world class, consistent performers never get to win that elusive "gold".
Thats just the way it is in sport IMO, rankings are a different thing altogether - I don't think anyone would have disputed that Kelly was the best cyclist in the world for those years.

Captain Havoc

The riders still have to qualify for the worlds, it's not like I can just show up and hope for the best.

Chips Lovell

I liked the old World Cup competition.

Beasty

Vladimir Kurtains wrote: »

I liked the old World Cup competition.

Yeah - particularly the 1966 one...:)

Captain Havoc

Beasty wrote: »

Yeah - particularly the 1966 one...:)

BANNED before you start telling us your war stories.

Slideshowbob

If one studies the history of cycle racing over the past 50 years one will appreciate the world championship event

Lumen

Slideshowbob wrote: »

If one studies the history of cycle racing over the past 50 years one will appreciate the world championship event

Can you summarise please?

Slideshowbob

Well you'd have to study it - hard to summarise

sy

cycletheroad wrote: »

Very interesting reading......from the worldwidecycles blog.

...
The following is a list of the riders who were crowned World Champion during that 5 year period ;
1984 – Claude Criquielion
1985 – Joop Zoetemelk
1986 – Moreno Argentin
1987 – Stephen Roche
1988 – Maurizio Fondriest
Whilst these were contemporaries of Kelly’s , none apart from Roche in ’87 could possibly have come within an asses roar of Kelly for consistency of victories in the Worlds top races throughout each season .

Hmmm. Moreno Argentin was a great cyclist. Yes not as good as Kelly but you can't make sweeping statements like that above when considering Argentin won Liège–Bastogne–Liège in 1985, 1986,1987 and 1991. Fleche Wallone in 1990 1991 and 1994 Lombardy in 1987, Tour of Flanders in 1990 and World Champion in 1986 apart from many stages in the Giro and the Tour.

He was THE marked man in 1987 Worlds, the year Roche won, and Kelly has to be thanked for nullifying him that day. Look at the video footage of that race and see how strongly he finished behind Roche. Argentin was a classy rider.

As for Joop Zoetemelk .... do the research

In saying all of that it is sad to think the great man never donned the famed jersey.

Slideshowbob

The worlds is the most beautiful one day pro race on the calendar each year.

If there's one pro one day race I go out of my way to see on tv live, that's it

davidmccann

i think the one day format for the World Championships embraces everything that makes cycling so special.

A year long competition, which i agree is a worthy title, does not conjer up the magic of a World title being decided in one day. Mechanicals, limitations of form, team issues (as its non trade based) plucky breakaway riders, different courses each year and ultimately the fact that to win you have to be 1st across the line, not build up points from loads of top tens or fives, are what makes it the race that it is, and gives a worthy champion, whether they be superstar or life long domestique who finally gets his day in the sun.

I think its comparable to the fact that most people who get into cycling at a young age see the Tour, but ask them 10 years later what their favourite race is, i think it will come from races like Milan san Remo, Paris-Roubaix, Flanders, Amstel gold, Liege Bastonne Liege and the Worlds. Races that reward the bravest and strongest and most tactically astute over huge distances in a single day. (and don't get me wrong, i love the Grand Tours, but they're a different animal)

Also i think new life has been breathed into the jersey following Cadel and Thor's excellent representation of it in the following seasons after their victories. I hope Cav can do likewise.

anyways, my 2 cents

slow

Chops was s butcher by trade. Hence the nickname.

Slideshowbob

I think the Tour de France should be a 1 day race

Cherbourg to Marseille in 1 day!!