Why is cycling held up to be the toughest sport of all?

MrCreosote

When it quite obviously isn't?

It seems to be this unspoken assumption that the best cyclist is not the fastest, or has the nicest looking bike and coordinated colour scheme, but is the "toughest". It goes right from the top- finishing the Tdf with broken collarbones, giving the jersey respect, suicidal solo attacks 150k from the finish- to the bottom, where a weekend warrior gets respect for slogging for 4 hours in the sleet, when he'd get more out of a half hour on a spin machine in the gym.

I'd suggest (after looking at the other thread) that it's the main reason women are kept out of the sport- sort of an unspoken machismo.

And it's totally false- loads of other sports are way tougher. Rowing, running even- both far harder at a recreational level.
Many other examples

colm_gti

Ah thank god its Friday....oh....wait...

smacl

MrCreosote wrote: »

Many other examples

At an amateur level, a sport is as tough as you make it. It's not the sport is tough so much as the person, and how hard they choose to train. I suspect desire and sheer bloody mindedness play a huge role.

I don't buy the man/woman thing either, I've known and been lucky enough to train with a number of gals that were real tough nuts by any standards.

cassette50

Cycle can be as tough or as simple as you want it to be (same as any other sport).

The main thing is to try and enjoy it.

smacl

cassette50 wrote: »

The main thing is to try and enjoy it.

While I cycle purely for the pleasure, I'd say those that compete sacrifice a fair bit of pleasure to achieve a small amount of success. Whatever you're into really.

MrCreosote

smacl wrote: »

At an amateur level, a sport is as tough as you make it. It's not the sport is tough so much as the person, and how hard they choose to train. I suspect desire and sheer bloody mindedness play a huge role.

I don't buy the man/woman thing either, I've known and been lucky enough to train with a number of gals that were real tough nuts by any standards.

The women that self-select in are the tough ones by definition.

I know that any sport is as tough as you make it, just that cycling seems to have this attitude that tough is best, and anything else is not worth bothering with

Morrisseeee

Because you ride in all weathers, you give your all, and then some feckless gobsheens ridicule you with ignorant rants/raves because they hate you grrrrrrr



/MrCreosote isn't a happy man today is he :pac:

MrCreosote

Morrisseeee wrote: »

Because you ride in all weathers, you give your all, and then some feckless gobsheens ridicule you with ignorant rants/raves because they hate you grrrrrrr



/MrCreosote isn't a happy man today is he :pac:

I like the hate- I love wear my pink trisuit and calf guards to p*ss people off!

Don't get the "our sport is toughest" thing tough. Not that this is unique to cycling, but it seems to be accepted more by the cycling media and most cyclists.

Beasty

OP this is the second thread that you've started today in a forum you've hardly been near for months on end, and both of them have more than a hint of trolling about them

Closed