A/ Why are the 1950s a golden age of road cycling?
- Legendary teams : Bianchi, Mercier, Peugeot, Alcyon (a team that was so strong back in the 20s that the Tour de France organizers decided to implement national teams instead of brands!), Faema and many others…
- Legendary champions: Fausto Coppi, Louison Bobet, Ferdi Kübler, Hugo Koblet, Rik Van Steenbergen, André Darrigade, Federio Bahamontes, Charly Gaul, Jean Robic, Gastone Nencini, Jacques Anquetil, Fiorenzo Magni, etc…
- Legendary personalities: more than good riders with exceptional results, many of the riders of the 50s were and are still well known for their personality. For instance, we still remember some national rivalries like Fausto Coppi (“new generation”, dietetics, scientific training) vs Gino Bartali (old, conservative and traditional Italy from the 30s and 40s), Louison Bobet (modern France of the “Glorious Thirty”, dietetics, health weaknesses) vs Jean Robic (conservative France, very hard and conservative training, extremely tough), or Hugo Koblet (kind of a play-boy and sex-symbol, very elegant and sophisticated) vs Ferdi Kübler (tough, not that seductive, and sceaming out of pain while riding his bike).
- Legendary race scenarios, driven by these exceptional riders. Tour de France leaders could launch major attacks a hundred kilometers before the finish line in the mountain stages, or they could also attack on the flat stages where no sprinter team was able to “lock” the race.
B/ How to reproduce the crazy race situations of the 1950s?
- Very strict and tough rating of the rider. Strict ratings helps to differentiate the big leaders with their gregarious, so that the big battles can start far enough from the finish lines.
- 6 riders per team only. It avoids that big teams “lock” the race and allows more successful breakaways.
- Low sprint stats. In the 1950s there was no such specialized sprinters as there are nowadays. Even though there were some sprinters, they were often quite good at hill-climbing and were not as dominative in the flat stages as they are today.
C/ How to rate the 1950s riders?
- Systematical, and very methodical research within a 50-races pool of results. For instance, the results of all the ITT of the Tour de France and of the Chrono des Nations from 1947 to were used systematically to rate the ITT stat of the riders in the Database.
- Systematical cross-checking of the data available on the riders, by “Name+Surname” Google research.
- Books, internet biographies and results were used to estimate the missing marks.
D/ Which period of time is covered by the DB?
- Focus on 1950-1959…
- … but including 1947-1950 in a smaller extent
For instance, riders who were excellent only before 1950 can be in the DB, but their stats are just “okay” and not “excellent”.
E/ Why is this pack a “best of” ?
- The best/most famous riders were selected, as well as the
- The best/most famous teams
Only 120 riders are in the DB, which reveals how selective was the riders choice!
F/ Why is it just a “v1” ?
- At PCM Village, we wanted first to focus on the most important: the best riders. Races, equipment, banners, etc… are not the core of the game and could slow down the project.
- However are currently studying the possibility to add further things to the pack, such as 1950s races
- For the moment, a 1950s-style Tour de France is available, but it is also a v1
Edited by Jesus_of_Nazareth on 08-03-2016 14:03
If you ave any questions, I am available on pcmvillage.net
As you might have noticed, I don't come here so often... In case I do not reply to your messages, do not hesitate to ask your questions on theofficial topic of our PCM Village Database. (I understand English )
I will try my best to come on the PCM Daily topic as often as possible
Please tell me what you think of the DB, if you enjoy it, what you would like to change, etc... ! Your opinion and suggestions really matters a lot to me !
Thank you !
Jesus
If you ave any questions, I am available on pcmvillage.net
Thank you so much for your reply! I am curious to know your feedback on the project.
Our pack is very bsic and simple, please be a little bit indulgent (:lol but as you can notice, not so many people are interested in the 1950s so we have rellay considered spending a lot on time on this pack
If you ave any questions, I am available on pcmvillage.net
Would some of us be interesting in developing a dB of a chosen year, instead of a decade or all-time? I think we may recreate a season and do some funny things with it
)
