If women's cycling was televised, would you watch it?

Beasty

I think there's a general point that at the highest levels some women's sports are simply not as competitive as mens. There tends to be a small number of committed women athletes who can often domininate sports for many years, making them a bit more predictable, and less watchable (I appreciate there will be exceptions to this). When that is combined with a historic bias towards mens sports on TV, it becomes very difficult for many women's sports to get extensive TV coverage, and that will take time to change.

In terms of cycling on TV, tbh, beyond the Olympic track cycling, until few years ago I would not go out of my way to tune in to either mens or womens cycling events

A couple of things changed that - I got more into cycling myself, and Team GB produced a string of top class cyclists that started performing very well on the world stage. Seeing them win Olympic medals and Grand Tour stages attracted me to watch more cycling on TV, but my perspnal viewing habits are still very much geared towards GB and Irish cyclists

Ireland has a recent history of top class male road cyclists, and I think that has resulted in an increased popularity of male road racing over here. I think if Ireland were to produce a top (world class) female road cyclist, interest would pick up, but there probably needs to be a wider uptake of cycling amongst women (and in particular at the pro level) before there will be a move towards similar levels of coverage (and viewers) as men's racing currently gets

DirkVoodoo

Why can't I ogle the women?

My family all watch rugby, my brothers love the game and while my sister also like the sport for its athletic merits, she goes on and on and about who is better looking, who is hot, blah blah.

Why is it suddenly sexist if you choose to watch a sport because you find the competitors physically attractive? Does it set women's rights back if I press my face closer to the screen. Does it deny millions the right to vote if I shout "go baby" at my tv?

No. Why get up on the soapbox and cry about the offence caused to all the women who have ever lived because of a few comments on one of many, many internet forums.

Downtrodden throughout history? Christ, it's just women in lycra racing bikes. Perhaps they should all burn their sports bras after the race?

cdaly_

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Why get up on the soapbox and cry about the offence caused to all the women who have ever lived because of a few comments on one of many, many internet forums.

Because it's not just "a few comments on one of many, many internet forums". It's

another few comments on another one of so many, many internet forums where it occurs all the time...

Christ, it's just women in lycra racing bikes.

Exactly. So why are you trying to take their lycra off them and have them racing in (or not in) their knickers?



Grow up boys...

Lumen

cdaly_ wrote: »

It's another few comments on another one of so many, many internet forums where it occurs all the time...

But sir, there are no women on the internet.

jameverywhere

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

Why can't I ogle the women?

Sure you can, just don't make silly comments to the effect that that's all their good for (i.e. the whole sports part is pointless and all you want is cycling themed soft-core)

I mean, as long as you realise that ogling women, in general, is kinda rude.


Also, after having it drilled into my head that women have to be ladylike and subservient to men to be worth anything (yay fundamentalists), I'm gonna fight back against that. One tiny comment plus one tiny comment plus another etc equals a ****-ton of stupid comments that pile up on women who happen to use the internet and keep informed etcetc.

You make a comment, I call you out on it, and that's how it goes. whee.

btw, I'm not like rampaging in a fury or anything. I just find stupid comments to the effect of, "the only point of watching women do anything is if they look good" to be tired and annoying.

DirkVoodoo

cdaly_ wrote: »

Exactly. So why are you trying to take their lycra off them and have them racing in (or not in) their knickers?

In my head? But sure I do that all the time.

When did I say I wanted them racing in knickers? They wear the same kit as the men, they race under the same regulations. Is the fact that I'm also admiring their physical appearances as well as their athletic prowess really a sign that I need to grow up? Why? When did admiring the female form become something dirty?

I would have thought objectification occurs for both genders, like I said about rugby, I'm sure plenty of women who watch the sport are also watching the players from a physical attraction perspective. Or are all Rob Kearney's female fans just a coincidence?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055192287&page=300

DirkVoodoo

jameverywhere wrote: »

Sure you can, just don't make silly comments to the effect that that's all their good for (i.e. the whole sports part is pointless and all you want is cycling themed soft-core)

I happen to have both watched plenty of women race and raced alongside them, so I'm not sure what you mean. When did I actually say that's ALL they are good for?

And again, I want to see good looking women racing bikes. Where does the "soft core" come into it? Are they going to start making out going through a feed zone? I think you're deliberately distorting what I'm saying.

jameverywhere

Not accusing you of anything, just giving advice in the second person.

We were complaining about the bikini jokes so.

Please keep your mental undressing fantasies to yourself eh?

fat bloke

Lumen wrote: »

I genuinely believe, regardless of gender, that swimwear makes any activity better.

The day I rock up to Black Bull to a hoard of Raleigh Banana-hammocks is the day it's officially over for me.:pac:

briantannam

Absolutely....all those lovely thighbones.

cdaly_

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

When did I say I wanted them racing in knickers?

You didn't. But:

el tel wrote: »

If they made it a bit more like beach volley ball, yes.

He did,

ashleey wrote: »

http://www.tunc.biz/205_victoria_pendleton.JPG

He did.

seamus wrote: »

I was going to make a comment about "only if they wear bikinis" or something along those lines, but then daragh started talking about his kids and sucked all the fun out of it...

He did.

Lusk Doyle wrote: »

I fail to see the problem here. Probably because I am distracted by the beach volleyball match I'm watching now...:pac:

He did.

Shadow78 wrote: »

Depending on the camera angles I could imagine it would be watchable

And he possibly did.

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

When did I say I wanted them racing in knickers?

You just said it's just a bit of fun and to get over it girls but the girls (who are really women) have to 'get over it' pretty much continuously.

DirkVoodoo wrote: »

I would have thought objectification occurs for both genders

In a ratio of about 1:100.

DirkVoodoo

cdaly_ wrote: »

You just said it's just a bit of fun and to get over it girls but the girls (who are really women) have to 'get over it' pretty much continuously.
.

Seriously, I'm being pedantic I know, but turn off your reality distortion field for a second and please stop misquoting me. I think I only ever said women, not girls, but I wouldn't consider girls to be a particularly derogatory term, unless it's used in the context of belittling someone or a group, e.g.

grow up boys.

I didn't say it's a bit of fun, I said I (me, myself and I alone) find it a bit of fun but I find this reaction to be a little over the top.

Yeah, last time I watched one of those Sandyford crit league races it was just a bunch of guys heckling the women for 15 laps, not a word of encouragement. I'm not saying that they have as easy a time as men in the sport (larger fields in open races, etc.) but there isn't some misogynistic conspiracy against women in sport either.

Captain Havoc

This thread has sfa to do with watching women racing and has turned into something that would be best discussed in after hours. Start discussing whether or not you'd watch women's racing on tv or I will close this thread. Don't even think of responding to this warning upon high horse.

el tel

On TV I have watched womens athletics, womens gymnastics, women's swimming, women's mma and women's triathlon.

I very rarely watch women's road racing, golf, curling, football.

Why not?

They are hardly ever on
I'm not really interested in these sports
They don't do these sports in skimpy clothing.

Chips Lovell

el tel wrote: »

They don't do these sports in skimpy clothing.

Oh for crying out loud. Did you not read the mod warning above? Carded

ashleey

On a serious note.

Yes I would watch women's cycling.

I have 3 daughters and if they get to be brilliant at something I would support them and also dissuade them from fhm cover shoots.

oflahero

I've heard nothing but good things about the Ras na mBan recently, and would certainly be interested in at least the sort of end-of-day TV highlights that the men's Ras gets.

(Skimpy clothing you say? - yes, but not on the participants: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=74515983&postcount=38 )

silvo

Women's DH and BMX is amazing to watch. The battle between Anne Caroline Chausson and Shazne Reade in this one is savage. Watch to the end!:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObWAj2zq2gk

All the downhill races are on Extreme / Freecaster and show the womens before the mens races: http://extreme.com/mountainbike/1016145/top-10-womens-race-uci-world-cup-2011-dhi-2-fort-william-gbr Well worth the watch.

Caroline_ie

I watch both men and women bike racing and I find them both great to watch (any discipline too). I even sometimes prefer to watch women domestic races here in Ireland. You get to do a lot of watching when you DNF :P

I am a great fan of bike racing, regardless of the gender, maybe because I am a cyclist who tries to race.

Somehow I can understand why women bike racing it doesn't appeal to everyone.
I used to watch Hurling, but hated even the All Ireland Camogie finals I saw a few years ago. I preferred the speed of the men's game.

As for identifying myself, I have no problem thinking I am Fabian Cancelarra when I want to...

I reckon the Ras na mBan will get more coverage this year. I attempt to be there as a spectator too.

650Ginge

No I would not watch it. I totally disagree with Womens sport there should be just sport and whoever is good enough will make it on to TV.

Caroline_ie

650Ginge wrote: »

No I would not watch it. I totally disagree with Womens sport there should be just sport and whoever is good enough will make it on to TV.

'Good enough' according to what? No point in saying that unless you can elaborate a little.

07Lapierre

If its shown on Eurosport, I'd never see it! there schedule/Timetable is always wrong! :rolleyes:

Mycroft H

No problem to them being on the telly, I'd wish there was more of it.

Slightly similar and related question though.


Would you be opposed to bi-gender races? (I.e letting men and women compete Paris-Roubaix for example?)

Raam

BX 19 wrote: »

No problem to them being on the telly, I'd wish there was more of it.

Slightly similar and related question though.


Would you be opposed to bi-gender races? (I.e letting men and women compete Paris-Roubaix for example?)

The women would be destroyed and would be out the back. If it was on the telly you wouldn't get to see them. If you look at this years CX worlds, the junior men rode a faster race than the elite women. As an aside, Marianne Vos dominated that race, as she does most, and no one could get near her.

650Ginge

Caroline_ie wrote: »

650Ginge wrote: »

No I would not watch it. I totally disagree with Womens sport there should be just sport and whoever is good enough will make it on to TV.

'Good enough' according to what? No point in saying that unless you can elaborate a little.

It is simple enough, there is no rule to stop a women playing in the english premier league for example. If they were a good enough player they would signed up and playing.

There are rules to stop men playing in the women's English premier league.

So were is the equality. Let there be sport and the best get chosen regardless of their gender.

del88

Sounds like "foxy boxing" might have competition....(google it)

Beasty

This thread is absolutely nothing to do with boxing of any form

Despite a previous warning, it continues to stray way off topic, and if this continues, as already pointed out, the thread will be closed

elduggo

Yes, I absolutely would watch it. Womens racing tends to be over a shorter distance and thus tends to be unrelentingly aggressive. One notable exception to this was the Worlds RR this past year which was awful. No one attacked, but I could kind of understand why - it was a terrible course and didn't make for attacking cycling whatsoever.

I would consider cycling still to be somewhat of a niche sport here and in the UK, despite growing popularity. But, given this, I'm amazed at how many female cyclists people (non-cycling fans) have heard of. I think a lot of people would say they've heard of the likes of Cooke, Armitage, Pooley (even non-Brits like Vos and Longo), yet wouldn't be able to tell you the name of a single female soccer player (very much a non-niche sport).

But, I can understand why it doesn't get shown. Its all about selling advertising, and advertising only sells when viewing figures make it seem worthwhile. I would say this is a challenge even with men's cycling (tour de france excepted).

Chips Lovell

650Ginge wrote: »

It is simple enough, there is no rule to stop a women playing in the english premier league for example. If they were a good enough player they would signed up and playing.

There are rules to stop men playing in the women's English premier league.

So were is the equality. Let there be sport and the best get chosen regardless of their gender.

Quit trolling. Last warning.

seamus

Tbh, I do think a lot of the problem is that these things just aren't pushed by the promoters and media to the same degree that men's competitions are.

Back in the day, we'd often watch the MTB and X-games on eurosport & MTV (or at least just have it on in the background), and there was never any difference between the men and the women. You wouldn't stop watching just because there was a woman riding.

If I watched sport now, it would probably be the same - if the women's coverage was mixed with the men's, I wouldn't selectively watch, and in time this would give equal recognition to the women in everyday parlance.

There's probably something of a chicken-and-egg thing going on. Promoters, sponsors and broadcasters will tell you that there's no interest. But if they ploughed the same resources into promoting women's games as they do into men's then the interest would be created. Arthur's Day is a perfect example of how you create an "event" out of practically nothing.

If the Irish women's soccer team was in the women's championship for 2012 and RTE put as much effort into promoting that and getting people into the pubs, I'd say it could easily be huge.

One reasonable argument is that at the top level of a lot of sports, men take all the podium places - fastest time, longest drive, best TT, etc. So naturally if you want to watch top-level competition then you will be watching men exclusively. And this may have a trickle-down effect because people feel that no matter how much your little girl trains to be a 100m sprinter, she will never be the best in the world. So people put more stock in men's events.

But for team events, this kind of thing doesn't really exist. And particularly for tactical team sports (I would consider soccer to be one), then someone's ultimate speed and strength is less important than their skill.

Pherekydes

Coming from an athletics background, I have no problem watching women in the sports I watch, namely Athletics, cycling (road or track or whatever's on), swimming, weightlifting, karate, Judo, camogie and so on. In these sports, the female participants wear (in general) equipment and clothing that is broadly similar to the males. Why the apparent want to change it, to unnecessarily sexualise it, as they have done with the Lingerie Bowl, or beach volleyball, both of which I'd not be bothered watching?

I don't watch other female sports, such as golf, as I've no interest in these sports to begin with.

Joxer_S

seamus wrote: »

Back in the day, we'd often watch the MTB and X-games on eurosport & MTV (or at least just have it on in the background), and there was never any difference between the men and the women. You wouldn't stop watching just because there was a woman riding.

If I watched sport now, it would probably be the same - if the women's coverage was mixed with the men's, I wouldn't selectively watch, and in time this would give equal recognition to the women in everyday parlance.

This is a good point, and I think the Olympics are the best example of it. It's the one sporting event where the coverage of men's and women's events is pretty much equal, as a result I find that I am just as inclined to watch the women in whatever sport that happens to be on.

I know the Olympics is a special case in terms of the sheer amount of coverage it receives, but I think the fundamental difference between that and say the World Cup is that it doesn't relegate the Women to a second tier competition which doesn't benefit from the funding and hype of the main event.

doozerie

I'd watch women's cycling, and have done on the rare occasion where I've encountered it on TV, but I couldn't say that I'd make time to watch it the same way that I make time to watch men's cycling. Perhaps the main reason for this is that I wouldn't know about many of the female riders and therefore I wouldn't find the developments of a race quite as interesting as with the men's version where I've become familiar with the names and styles of riders and therefore have the added interest of watching for certain riders to attack on particular types of road, for example.

Of course, this lack of familiarity on my part is entirely because I haven't seen enough coverage of women's cycling, either in written media or on TV, to learn who is who. So I agree with the view expressed earlier that more coverage of women's cycling generally, both on TV and in other forms of media, would generate more interest and would ultimately benefit the sport. Similarly, I tend not to make time to watch UK men's elite cycling events, even when I stumbled across them occasionally on Eurosport, for the same reason that I'm looking at a lot of unfamiliar faces/names and that is a slight deterrent. It shouldn't be a deterrent of course, because not recognising the competitors is no predictor of the likely quality of the racing and I've watched some great racing amongst people I've never heard of, but I find it takes a bit of a mental effort to make the decision to watch such races (how lazy am I!).

More generally, I'd watch the women's version of any sports which even vaguely interest me, which is a lot of sports. In some cases the women's version can be far more interesting, and far more impressive - for example, I find women's gymnastics much more entertaining than men's gymnastics. And in the case of something like soccer, a sport I can't bring myself to like, I'd not watch the men's version but I might actually watch the women's version since its relative lack of popularity and smaller audience might make for less of the drama and histrionics that I associate with the men's version - despite the efforts of a largely male audience to emphasise the "glamorous" side of female athletes, I get the impression that many female professional athletes are better examples of professional athlete than their male counterparts and that can make their sport more entertaining to watch than the men's version.

ednwireland

ronde van drenthe and trofeo alfredo binda 15:00- 15:30 on eurosport today

Raam

http://tv.eurosport.co.uk/tvschedule.shtml

ES2 1830 Today:
Cycling: Women's World Cup - Ronde van Drenthe and Trofeo Alfredo Binda (30min)

ES1 2030 today:
Cycling: Women's World Cup - Ronde van Drenthe and Trofeo Alfredo Binda (30min)

Watch it or else.

studiorat

I would for sure. Then again I'd probably watch cycling to work if it was televised.

BTW does "Assos bird" race

fran17

only if they wore skirts and low cut tops

Chips Lovell

fran17 wrote: »

only if they wore skirts and low cut tops

Carded

Any more stuff like this and we'll start banning. There's only so many times we're going to warn people.

Thanks

Harrybelafonte

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkIxzRbBzc0

coverage of women's RvV & Flèche Wallonne with English commentary

morana

Nothing wrong with that!

When one of our young ones are beating the best you wont be able to get enough of Womens racing....