Of course not, that's subjective. It's like saying Cancellara's the best time trialist in the world, no evidence will ever be conclusive enough, so there's margin for opinion.

But let's leave that aside, and go with this, which I feel is more than enough:



British people keep insisting in this because they just don't get it. Are the world championships in curling or para-sailing more important than "The mini-Tour-de-France", aka a stage race that is every year fought tooth and nail to the last second by some of the best riders in the sport?

I'm guessing your answer is no. What does this have to do with it? Simple: In most of the world, para-sailing and curling are more well known and watched than track cycling.

The vast majority of people in european countries, if you tell them about track cycling, their first question will be "what is that?".

Quite simply, there are many people wanting to watch it in the UK and a couple of western european countries such as belgium and holland.....and that's it. Period.

I feel this alone is more than enough to conclude that their decision to show one over the other makes no sense

I wonder how they make such decisions when choosing between races. I guess looking at number of viewers would be the smartest, but I don't think they always do that..

So they decide to put on something that 3 million people want to see and leave out what 10 million want to see... If that's not being idiots...

The only things I can think of them looking at are viewer numbers and the price of the rights of it.....and I know they have a special agreement with the FCF (the french federation) where they get low prices for the rights to french races.....

so, given that the viewership would also be much higher...I don't get the decision at all...

Isso, just because you have no interest in Track cycling doesn't give you the right to speak for the rest of europe on this matter. And besides, britain wont do as well this year due to most of the big guns being out injured or focusing else where.

Its this over and over and over and over and over and over and over again....

I LIKE TRACK CYCLING YOU DIMWIT

No matter how many times you're told you just don't get it, do you?
When I say that in most of europe you tell people about track cycling their answer is going to be "what's that?", it's not a joke...it's reality.
It's like comparing Indoor women's 7-a-side football to 11-a-side men's football. It's completely different. There's nothing like the same level of interest in it.

Cyclo-cross and mountain-biking are far more popular overall. Hell, BMX is more popular. That's what you need to understand
That apart from a few select countries, track cycling is an obscure sport

The fact that you're trying to turn this into a "someone here hates britain" argument is made all the more obvious by your last sentence, which just came out of nowhere...

but the world champs in curling would take presidence over any other normal curling tournament. in any sport the world champs is the biggest prize you can win and so it is the most important event. therefore it will get TV coverage over other events on the same day. Look at the road champs, Britain doesn't have a chance of winning that (unless it's flat) but it still gets massive coverage over hear on eurosport because it's arguably the most inmprtant race of the year.

i think you could garantee that if the bosses at eurosprt turned round and said they were only going to show 5 events in the whole year. they would be the 3 grand tours and the road and track WC's.

If track really was unknown in countries other then Britain, Holland and Belgium then it wouldn't make much of a world champs. But italy, france, spain, usa, australia, japan plus others all have strong track teams so there must be some interest somewhere.

also i'm guessing there is more sponsorship posibilities at the WC then the CI which also plays a big role in the decision to show it.

i think i've gone a bit off topic. sorry my main point is the WC will take presidence over other events in any sport.

You are completely wrong with the "what is that?" front, its far from it. A lot of europe are into track. Belgium, netherlands, denmark from the 6 days. Switzerland from the same. France from the coutless outdoor velodromes. Majorca from the olympic velodrome there. Its far bigger than you are making it out to be. Plus more people are aware of it compared to CI, im not saying CI is unknown. I think its a great race but its not as big as the WC, thats why they put that on instead of the CI. Period.

Not even close. In fact, in countries such as belgium for instance, the major classics would be at the very top before anything else.



I know it's hard to understand that most of the world doesn't care for it....we have sports here that people find hard to understand most of the world doesn't care for either.

I keep having the experience of having to explain to shocked indian people that most of the world doesn't know what "Cricket" is, let alone watch it




But it's NOT the same sport, that's the whole thing! You can't possible compare viewership of road cycling with track cycling. It's pure and simply not comparable.

Yes, I know it's extremely difficult to accept when in england it's so much bigger. But do this as an experiment:

Google the name of a famous track cyclist and watch where the results are from and in what language they are. Anything other than english, dutch/flandrian and a small bit of french? Not really, eh?

Well google is bias towards the champions so the results are irrelavent. Still doesn't sway the idea the the Crit Int is bigger than World Track Championships therefore the WC should be on Eurosport over CI. This is what this debate is all about isn't it. Or did you forget?

i guess thats why most countries have there own eurosport i do understand what you mean. but the people who run the channel aren't stupid. they obviosly have a reason for showing the WC's. it was prob cheaper to just show the WC's over all the channels rather then pay for the rights of a second race at the same time. and overall in the whole of europe there is prob more of an interest in the track WC's then the CI.

plus it's something a bit different. we've had the Paris-Nice, TA and MSR in recent weeks. they prob just wanted to show something a bit different.

if your gonna interest the casual watcher then track is more likely to excite them then a road race. i think we can all agree on that. and that prob played another role in the decission.

No, it's not. That's what you and ringo tried to make it into

This was always about eurosport's decision being idiotic because they can get the rights for the CI cheap and it'll have far more viewers.

And the reality is - it won't!

yeah but doesn't google filter results from the country your in? if your using it in english then it will find english results?

if i was to type in the french presidents name then i'd get results in english from english speaking websites. not french ones.

i think thats how it works anyway.

Fine, keep saying the sky is green. It won't make it so.

I'm having flashbacks to the indians assuring me that cricket is the most watched sport worldwide. Way to be biased. Jesus.

to be fair there are alot of people in india, pakistan, sri lanka and bangladesh. i think they're all in the top 10 most populated countries in the world (or something like that) and cricket is like a religion to them so they could be right. I still think football would be number 1 but cricket would be up there.

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there you go

It's definitely one of the top , bot not THE top

i'd say number 2 easily. what other sport has such a fanatical following in such a large population? China aren't really fanatical about abything (except maybe badminton and ping-pong) and America are only fanatical about sports that only they play. If you add the pops of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh together you get more then china. I think cricket might be pushing for number 1 in all fairness now i really think about it. definately up there with football.

but anyway, we're getting a bit off topic here

I think the CI will be aired on Eurosport Player so they got the rights.