TdF clashes with the WC: an open letter to the windball followers

Cycling might be harder but who would win in a fight?

I think most pro roadies endure more physical pain than any footballer.

I like both and play both, but know that cycling is harder.

Surely this all depends on how seriously hard you push your self at each sport.

You'll find you up-doubtably take one easier than the other. I tend to find a MTB race the pain can be more continuous. But in football the sprinting is pretty knackering but you tend not to notice it as your directly competing against someone else.

Also I get ALOT more injuries playing football from being fouling/me fouling or from over streching. I basically get no injuries cycling.

I personally would say it takes alot longer to recover from a full 11 a side football match (1:30 hours) than a gorrick MTB race (also 1:30) and generally Im alot more stiff the next day. And hence I would say football is harder.

In fact Im rarely stiff after a race at all and I could probably do it again (abit slower) within a couple of hours definitely by the next day.

I can just about get away playing 5 a side 3 days in a row but anymore is too much. Theres no way I could play two 11-a-side matches (properly) two days in a row.

Actually I think the reason for this is Im quite happy being over token racing as I've still got my bike and I can still enjoy myself and Im racing against myself which actually demotivates me to an extent.

Where as in football you cant just lose the ball you need to fight tooth and nail to keep it the direct competition forces to me to try harder hence Im more tired afterwards.

This is the difference between footballers & hockey players….

The determination & ambition by NHL players to win this is astonishing, ask any kid who plays hockey (in hockey playing countries of course} what their ambition is & they'll say "to win the Stanley Cup", not "play for Chicago/Vancouver/USA/Canada etc. I've seen players take a pay cut to play for a team with a bigger chance of winning the cup (I know, theyr'e already on daft money) I've also seen players go through pain you wouldn't expect, like Eric Lindros who played on with a punctured lung & a broken rib till he just about collapsed, or Peter Forsberg who tried to play on with a rupture spleen. Once these guys get into the Stanley Cup finals It's the only thing they care about in the whole wide world!
I reckon It's akin to winning the Tour.

Talkemada my old chum i think you confusing sport with violence? 😉

and a bloodied face in a "non contact" game where a broken toe is months off, is nothing compared to completing the remaining 70km or a tour stage with broken collarbone, and then coming 19th overall in the GC

you are indeed correct, i probably wouldnt survive a football game with you, 90 minutes of something that boring would be agony.
How come, after 90 minutes of exercise, they feel the need for 2 rest days? very odd/wet

what i don't get is why people can just not like something. As opposed to feeling the need to rip on it

i considered that option, but if we all did that, what would we talk/argue about?!

Cycle road racing is boring apart from the last 2 minutes

OHHH!!! so this is what its like for you when someone asks what the offside rule is!

anyhoo
ianmunro is winning on the letter front, but i feel it lacks a little something (though i do like its simplicity)

I think football's tougher, in the fact that there are loads of sudden, oft-unexpected impacts that jar the body, whereas cycling is much more steady and impact free. Top level footballers are every bit as fit as pro cyclists, but posses different sorts of fitness. Horses for courses. A football season is longer than a racing season, and they play an average of a game a week in that time, versus a race every few weeks. I suppose the big tours are incredibly tough, and possibly a greater physical feat than a run of games. I wouldn't think there's much in it though.

crikey, that was calm and collected!

Talkemada, The pro road season is from feb to october and they can race well over 100 days a year, for much more than 90 minutes and very rarely steadily! Also, when they crash, they hit tarmac, not grass and often continue.
Not saying pro football is easy, they are clearly very fit athletes, however I doubt their power to weight or VO2 max is anything on a professional roadie/XCer.

Olly; seems you really have very little knowledge of how demanding a sport football actually is. Your comments are pretty ignorant tbh. Like I said; come down for a game. Trust me, if you're not conditioned for it, 10 minutes in you'll be throwing up. And you wouldn't be able to move much the next day. Nothing to do with 'violence'.

As for 'boring': it's not for you, fair enough. But boring it's not, compared to road-racing. Several hours of a bunch of cyclists riding along in a group is interminably boring. And as a live sport it's crap; whoosh, and they're gone. A TT can be fun, but more for the atmosphere.

How come, after 90 minutes of exercise, they feel the need for 2 rest days? very odd/wet

You really are clueless. If you put your body through that much exertion, every day, you'd soon end up with multiple injuries, and possibly permanent physical damage. One bad injury can end a career. One of the blokes I play with had his leg broken (by Steve Staunton) when he was just 19, playing for Chelsea. Ended his career. He's still the best player we've got!

Maybe choose a subject you know something about before slagging it off, eh? 😉

When you play football you get frequent rests when the ball goes out of play or when you're just jogging for position. In MTB racing there is NO REST AT ALL for 90 mins. It's agony, if you are doing it properly.

Different kinds of fitness, but I think cyclists and some athletes are fitter than footballers. How much fitness training do they do a week? Of course, they have to spend some of that time skills training too which runners/cyclists don't have to do.

I can play football for 90 minutes, sure the pros are fitter but I can see how that works out. The things that some cyclists do though are utterly beyond comprehension, and this coming from a cyclist!

im not denying its demanding at all!, and the violence comment was aimed at the bloodied forehead in your stunning ouverture.

i think it is you who has missed the point! the OP was looking for some witty cyclist based input to a light hearted bit of office banter, but you seem to have taken it to heart!
I'm AWFULLY sorry if I have upset/riled you!
at least it seems to have provided a little amusement for the forum dwellers with their heads still screwed on.

I would still stand by the sport not being boring, once you understand the finer points of the tactics, and the multiple, ongoing races and competitions within the main event.

as for coming down for a match, thank you for the kind offer, but as you have duly noted, its not really my cup of tea, and the probability of it being coming down for a game is slim, its MUCH more likely to be up, as I am a present on the south coast (much to my dismay).

Re the banter, that letter thing was around last world cup too.

I'm AWFULLY sorry if I have upset/riled you!

Ha ha! Quite the opposite! 😀

Olly; I have a reasonable understanding of cycle racing, indeed I've even 'raced' myself; against your pitiful knowledge of football.

I'd guess that top footballers are on apart fitness wise with top cycle racers. As I said, it's different types of fitness. Pro footballers will train for several hours a day, with maybe a day off after a game, but even then they'll be doing 'light' training (still probably more intense than most of us do).

If road racing was that exciting, it would be far more popular as a TV sport. The main reason it's actually on TV is because it's a great vehicle for advertising, let's be honest.

I can stand and watch a Sunday League game, and find it as engrossing as a top flight game on TV. I wouldn't bother with a local club race/event.

you do know what they say about assumptions don't you?

Ok, go and find me all the stats about cycle racing and football, so that you can prove road racing is a tougher sport.

Off you go.

(That should keep him busy for a while)

mogrips, 20% of the time in an XC MTB race power output is negligible – it's not full on effort

problem with these arguments is that 'fitness' is a misleading term – there are many components of human capacity which make up the ability of an athlete to match the demands of their sport. at the highest level in every sport, you will find genetic freaks operating at maximal capacity in those components. they're all 'hard' events, just different durations etc. is goalkeeper a demanding position? 98% of a game no, then for 2% its beyond the capability of the vast majority of the human population. is that hard? i'd say yeah.

Talkemada.

I'm not debating whether its hard or not, or whos fittest!!
You started that discussion.

i SAID that footballers were overpaid fairy boys. which is nothing to do with whether they are fit or not!
im sure many cyclists are pretty wet too!

chill the funk out!

im bored of trying to argue with a wall.
I'll stick with my original banter for the coffee room, it does the job
sure i'll see you in another thread sometime very soon 🙂

watching footballers or roadies?

isn't that like being asked if you'd prefer gonorrhea or syphilis

20% of the time in an XC MTB race power output is negligible

What, you don't pedal on downhills in XC races? 🙂

Btw I know fitness is different for all sports, I am just being argumentative for the hell of it.

One could say time spent training is a measure of goodness for a sport, no? Or tears cried?

Don't be dissing the beckham!! It's a fine sarong!

sarong

I think you will find that is spelt "So Wrong" 🙂
to miss quote Ali G.