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- The way you describe it, you may as well say watching politics or war is just another form of entertainment and for others, vile illegal things are also entertainment. You may use cycling or another sport as entertainment (and I admit I watch some sports because of entertainment value - where I don’t give a hoot about results or protagonists) but an athlete’s goal is performance or competition not entertainment, that’s an afterthought or optional extra.
When you watch your kids or a friend doing their sport (not always because you enjoy or like the sport, it is not always for entertainment but for example for them, to see how they do, to support or to encourage them or in the hope of some result. Hope of a result might be entertaining in some way for some like gamblers or predictors but isn’t that using sport for something it is not designed for and aren’t athlete objections. Film, music arts, etc. are different, the protagonists in principle know they are working to get your attention but not by being competitive or winning prizes. If you consider it is cyclists roke to entertain, boy are they bad at it. Instead of trying to win or keep up with others, they could be concentrating on getting up to a million different antics that are more enjoyable to watch, from pulling faces, stunts, acting a scene, singing, reading out poetry, telling jokes, etc. but that distracts from their real goal and job. People have always watched cycling and sport for reasons other than entertainment, maybe even just out of interest or for distraction, maybe today there is a pressure for it to become entertaining because it has to compete with far more choice but that is certainly not the reason millions of armateurs train and compete to see if they can get good enough to make their living. None of them thinks, I want to do this to entertain others, even if that’s a byproduct.
- Appeasing terrorists is always a great idea. Once they get some concessions, they usually are content and become very peaceful and productive.
- LOL...let's see if Ayuso can even finish!
- Yet Jonas has zero success to show for one day races so Morkov is blowing smoke!
- The legs will do the talking Sunday. The Belgians can revel in their TT success but it's a new day come Sunday and the slate starts clean!
- Adams was put in a lose lose situation.
Whether he decides to comply to the demand or not, violence has won.
- Most of Pogacar's competition comes from his own team. Del Toro and Vine are serious wildcards and I'll be curious about which versions of Pidcock, Evenepoel, and especially Ayuso show up.
- it is entertainment, and always has been. Paris Roubaix, one of the oldest races out there, was set up to draw attention to the velodrome in Roubaix so people could come and be entertained at a track race.
The TdF was created to help a newspaper's circulation and was an instant hit and became an icon in France, entertaining everyone.
I watched the XCO mountain bike World Cup race in Switzerland yesterday, all they talked about was how entertaining the races are.
They are entertainers.
In every sport, they are entertainers. We enter arenas and are entertained in futbol, football, basketball and on the side of roads for cycling.
this is a public forum so I am publicly stating I don't appreciate one rider's style, I like another's.
you can have your opinion, I can have mine.
but, this is entertainment.
Sagan knew it, and many of us loved watching him. As did Cipollini. And Quinn Simmons gets it too - if they don't entertain, they don't get on TV and we don't show up to races. If we don't watch it on TV or show up to races, there is no reason to provide sponsorship. With no sponsors, Tadej will be in my group ride on a Saturday sprinting to stop lights.
And it isn't just cycling, the GOAT of all sports, Michael Jordan said "If people are going to spend their hard earned money to come see me play, I have an obligation to fulfill, to give them their money worth." He got it.
- Once again, CUTD running the comments of a bunch of pundits who've never even come close to doing what the riders they criticize have done. Why anyone listens to their opinion is beyond me.
- Certain sports are designed for a form of entertainment, others less and I’d say it is up to athletes if they want or can add entertainment as an angle when they can ir feel like it but that is certainly not their prime goal or priority, they are there to perform, win and do their best, which for many means having to focus narrowly on what they’re doing and not thinking about how to be cool, great if you have that naturally but sad if you need to criticise someone who does their job pretty well because you don’t find them entertaining. I doubt you’ll find any rider or athlete contract that includes clauses on entertaining or creating spectacles except maybe in commercial wrestling (which, to perfectly prove the point is as different from the sporting version rarely visible outside the Olympics as McDonalds id from Michelin rated restaurants. Your choice but why do you waste do much time on criticism of someone not entertaining when you could concentrate on those who entertain you? Perhaps because deep down you do realise cycling wasn’t supposed to be about entertainment and that it’s unlikely to become it before things like Enhanced games and Rollerball become mainstream and interest in classic sport wanes.
MarkFour23-09-2025