world championship

[lukesdad]

Every rider would like to win the Worlds. They re are held in very high regard among the pro riders. Not every rider gets a chance to have a crack at a grand tour. The worlds are different to a certain degree, Its actually a much more even playing field for most riders. Oppurtunism plays a greater part. Take Evans win 2 years ago.

Its a great spectacle, and very exciting, as the tactics of the nations are not allways obvious.

 

[oldroadman]

OK, Gavroche. Try telling Cadel Evens that the world jersey is meaningless. Which he won before the TdF. The rainbow jersey is something the majority of pro riders acn think about as a possibility. You do get surprise winners. In any big stage race there are only about 10-20 possible contenders.
It's completely different from the rankings, it's a one day race, it's 250-280km, and it produces a rider on the day who is a champion, clearly recognised.
You may as well say winning the world cup at footy is not as good as wnning a league based competition.
Compare apples with apples - which is what you are not doing.

 

[Will1985]

You cannot satisfy everybody to make a race series/championship as riders have very different strengths. The Worlds courses are always incredibly long and demanding. Of late the courses seem to favour classics riders rather than out and out sprinters, then of course there are occasionally courses like Mendrisio or Copenhagen where a different type of rider is likely to win. Over the course of a career, all types of cyclists should be in with a chance of victory, although many I imagine would be glad just to finish.

Even though it is a one day race, riders are accruing points throughout the year at events which determines how many riders each country can send. Ideally you need as many riders as possible to help in much the same way as pro team races do.

Seeing as the Olympic road race follows the same format, would you say that the winner of that is undeserving too?

 

[cisamcgu]

Time trials used to be called "The Race of Truth" (and indeed may still be so called) - They are the purest form of road racing, allowing no real tactics, no team support, nothing but lungs and legs....

however....


I would never say that the winner of the World TT is a better champion than the World RR, bike racing is a mix of many skills and each type of race has its own requirements; but for me, the World RR is the best test we have to tell who is the best/luckiest/fastest/cleverest rider on the day


Andrew

 

[Chris.IOW]

in that case, to me, this is meaningless.

Do you hold the same opinion of the Olympic road race champion?

Do you hold the same opinion of all the National Road Race Championship races.

A lot of things are decided over a one race event. This does not diminish the title they hold, it simply proves that on the day, they were the strongest.

As for comparisons between world champions I see that as meaningless, as above, on the day each of them was the stongest rider and therefore was crowned the champion.