Listen now by clicking here:
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/spokesmen/The_Spokesmen_140.mp3]
Today’s Spokespeople:
Topics
Pro Cycling / Racing / Doping News
- 2016 Tour de France
- What was up with the sloooowww peloton on Stage 3?
- Peter Sagan’s Crusade
- Are stages too long?
- Froome fined for hitting spectator
- Froome Has Mad Skills (Don’t Try This at Home)
- Contador’s Departure from the race
- Limited relative coverage of the Giro Rosa
Industry News
Advocacy
- Columbus “Doo Dah Parade” joke – not funny
- Motorist Kills Matthew Von Ohlen in Brooklyn, New York
- Survey finds bicyclists and motorists ignore traffic laws at similar rates (rv)
- Most Common Bicycle Citation in San Diego
- First Fatality on a US Bike Share Bicycle
Tips / Hints / Best Practices
- David wants to hear from listeners: Which headphones do you like?
- Tim: Be Nice to Each Other!
- Neil: Mpow Bluetooth Headset and Do not be like Chris Froome!
- Anna: instagram.com/podiumgrilz
- Ayesha: Consider the possibility that there is something you don’t know
Spokespeople,
Let me refresh your collective memory w.r.t. Nairo’s attacking prowess. Quintana, as recently as the Dauphine, moved to attack to gain time despite the fact that he was in control of the lead. Interviews with him even revealed the fact that he enjoyed being able to cut loose…and much more recent and salient than some Giro far far away. And now that I am on It, I thought the penultimate stage of last year’s tour the Quintana I saw was seizing the moment. Sorry, I’m just so worked up when I can’t chime in on a discussion that is spiraling into the fact check nebulous.
I was the one lamenting the fact that Quintana has been glued to Froome’s wheel thus far in the 2016 tour, and I still feel justified in doing so. He clearly lost focus at the top of the climb on Stage 8, allowing Froome to take advantage and gain time, and he didn’t attack on Stage 9. I realize that there are still two weeks to go in the Tour, but so far while he looks strong, he doesn’t look aggressive enough to win the tour. I will happily eat my words in two weeks, but for now I stick by my opinions.
As for last year’s Tour, I don’t understand how you can say he was, “seizing the moment.” Yes, he gained time and took second in the stage, but in the end it was too little too late. That’s what I am concerned about for him this year.
I also use Bluetooth headset when riding with one bud in. I use the Plantronics Back Beat GO 2 and like them. The only downside is that the battery lasts only about 2 – 3 hours.
David. Andy Schleck’s most famous stage win was one of the best ever. Stage 18 – 2011 Tour De France. A VERY long-range attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fWJst6Oicw
Most of us here in Australia remember it for Cadel Evans counter to limit his losses.
As for Quintana, he is less than 30 seconds behind at the moment. I believe that Froome needs another minute to feel relatively safe come week 3.
Re the coverage of Womens Cycling.
I think that Tennis was the first sport to learn if you provide Blanket Wall to Wall coverage of your sport, you get more eyeballs, you get more people playing, you sell more product. Other sports are waking up and smelling the coffee in regards to this.
Cricket, in particular the 20 over variety has worked out if you have a game on every night that people will watch the sport. The administrators have worked out if they put on womens games on TV, then they have more content and they block out other sports from getting a run on one of the free to air TV channels.
Cycling has 4 major blind spots.
The first is the obvious gender division.
The second is one of timing. There are gaps in the cycling calendar where there isn’t really any content bar the talking about who is coming into form leading into the Tour/Giro, etc.
Thirdly there is the whole off-season thing. Surely there could be great racing in the Southern Hemisphere elevated during the Northern Winter.
Finally the final major blind spot is much more from a geographical focus. The “World” tour is far from a genuine world tour. It is really a European Tour, and even then it is really concentrated into a few countries.
If cycling brands were a bit smarter, they would be driving for Grand Tours to go through America, Asia/Oceania and Africa. You would have alternating Mens and Womens races so that there is more content to sell and more people to sell it too. Sure there is some fantastic history with cycling in Europe, but I think that this can be augmented to a great extent with content and racing from around the world.
Re: Shimano Buying Lazer
Neuro shifting is already a thing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWzdWMapJ-c
When I currently ride with headphones, I use the Jaybird X2’s. These aren’t too bad. If you don’t have them correctly seated, they have a tendency to pop out. The bass is not bad. Not to plug the Cycling360 podcast, but I would give AfterShokz’s Trekz Titanium headphones (http://aftershokz.com/collections/wireless/products/trekz-titanium?variant=7698984705) a try.
I use Yurbuds Liberty Wireless. I really like the ear inserts as they can be custom fit to your ear and are some of the most comfortable earbuds I have used that don’t fall out. Soudn quality is good and battery life is easily 4+ hours. http://www.yurbuds.com/en/wireless/51liberty-wireless.html#/color-black
Interesting… You are not the first to suggest the Trekz Titanium and the Jaybird X2 headphones. The Wire Cutter also recommends the X2 as their runner-up in the category of sports Bluetooth headphones, but their top pick is the JLab Epic2.
As I mentioned to a listener who emailed me about the Trekz, I tested and reviewed the Audio Bones bone conduction headphones on The FredCast back in 2010, and I recall that I was not impressed. It has been 6 years since that review, so perhaps things have changed, but some of the Amazon reviews scared me a bit. Specifically, users complained about connection issues (audio cutting in and out) when the phone was placed in a jersey pocket. I have this problem with my current headphones and it drives me crazy. That being said, I noticed that these are available on an Amazon Prime Day deal today!
Decisions, decisions, decisions…
The best ear buds are the ones that cyclists don’t wear in both ears while they’re riding!
Listened to the Spokesmen early yesterday morning.
Really excellent discussions.
But I wanted to comment lack of streams of women’s races and the comparison to tennis.
First of all there is “Title 9” in the USA which requires equal athletics for girls as boys in public schools. So we have had girls’ tennis teams for a long time. Schools love tennis teams. It’s cheap; kids provide everything but the tennis courts. And tennis is naturally competitive. Cycling alone is far more satisfying than playing tennis alone. 😀
Then there was Billie Jean King. Maybe you have to be of a “certain age” to understand just what she did when she proved that a woman tennis pro can beat a man who had been #1 in the world.
So tennis is easy. There’s even a cable channel for it so you can get all the tennis you like. But none of this happened overnight, either.
It seems to me that the major reason women’s cycling is not streamed or televised are the logistics of covering a bicycle race.
The logistics of televising tennis and cycling are far different. Tennis is held in a fixed venue where you can install cameras and associated cabling easily and get an easy feed to a satellite. Cycling is conducted over different roads and varying routes in difficult terrain. Video from a bike race requires an army of people. People on motorcycles (one in control and one with a camera). People in helicopters (which, incidentally, act as the relay points for the video from the motorcycles). Otherwise you’re left with piecing together video from spectators’ cell phones.
Getting almost full coverage of even the TdF is relatively recent and a big part of that is the sheer expense involved.
But maybe you can find a modern Billie Jean King of cycling and get Lance Armstrong to challenge her to a race. 🙂
Keep up the podcast. 🙂
Hello spokesmen and women,
I really enjoy these podcasts, long may they continue.
I have been following the remarks on moto safety and racers…. I am soooo looking forward to the next podcast with your comments on today’s TDF stage (mont Ventoux) what a nightmare!
Thankfully no serious injuries
When the crash first happened today, I tweeted outrage about the motos. After reviewing the constantly-repeating footage, it looks to me like the main culprit today was the misbehavior of the spectators and, as Bob Roll said, the “malfeasance” of the race organizers. Would the crash have been as bad without the motos? Surely not. So for sure their presence added to the carnage.
All that being said, you know we will discuss this next week on the show. Stay tuned!
I have long ridden with just one earbud, but I use the wired variety, so I’m little help. I also see that you’ve already checked the Wirecutter–as far as I’m concerned, you don’t need to do any further research.
On a completely separate note, when discussing the tragic and outrageous assault by vehicle in Brooklyn, you repeatedly referred to “the car” doing things. Even some of the press coverage was worded this way. The car had a driver. I know it’s just a language shortcut to say the car did this or that, but I also think it displaces blame from the real culprit, a human being with malicious intent. Let’s be clear about what’s going on.
Thanks for letting me vent.
I love jaybird freedom for riding. The ear pieces are comfy but secure. And warrant against sweat damage
Another vote for the mpow Bluetooth headset. For some reason I find it more comfortable worn upside down: it’s easy to pull the earpieces down below your ears when you’re on the road and pull them up again for the bike path.
Ride safe,
Mark
One thing that might help a lot re: the cost of coverage for women’s cycling (and men’s, as well – can you say ridiculously horrible US Cyclocross Championship broadcast?) is much more use of on-bike cameras for footage. I’m really frustrated that Le Tour generally only uses their GoPro footage for little montages, instead of during the race. Putting the viewer into the middle of the race is one way to really connect the audience with the experience of the racers, both women and men. Additionally – with significant developments in drone technology happening, production costs could go down a great deal for content producers who would leverage these developments.
In NYC (anecdotally, at least), there seems like there has been a significant rise in female ridership both in racing and in non-competetitve riding over the last five years or so. Hopefully we continue to see that part of the scene develop – I’d love to have more lady riding buddies on the road!
La Course will be broadcast on Universal Sports. I’m not sure if it will be live coverage, but it is scheduled for 2 hours. So, more than a highlight reel. I know it’s not a widely available network, but available to some. (It came up on my “Cycling” wish list on my TiVo, so I will definitely record and watch.)
I am tired of the statements about cyclists breaking the traffic laws and engaging in dangerous actions on the streets. Yes, there are cyclists who do these things, and I wish that they would not since it does make us easier to be criticized and ignored. BUT, what percentage of car drivers consistenly break the law and engage in dangerous acts. Here in California at least 80% of car divers consistently drive faster that the speed limit, including in front of schools. Car drivers are no better than cyclists, and vice versa. All drivers and cyclists are human and therefore both a prone to do illegal and dangerous things to the same extent.
So EVERY time cyclists are put down for their actions, I also want to hear drivers being put down also!
I think my cameras got the police to react to people following me too closely. Cars were using newly added curb-side bus lanes to pass congestion. Problem was where the bus lane ended, the bike lane went from the left side of the bike lane to the curb over about 6 feet. My rear-facing camera got a good shot of one driver approaching me too fast as I needed to shift right. I put it an twitter and tagged our police. THE NEXT DAY, idle buses were parked in the bus lanes.
I use Aftershokz Bluez 2 headset. Bone conduction so your ears aren’t covered. Sound isn’t audiophile, more FM radio. But you can totally hear the environment. Easy controls and the battery life is good.
I am willing to give up sound quality for hearing surroundings. I got them for walking. When the knees said no more I switched to biking.
http://aftershokz.com/
Cycle Speedway :https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/cyclespeedway
Carelton: Do you know about this? Looks like a lot of fun. It seems to be bigger than the UK but aside from the Park web page,it seems to be totally absent from the USA.