0810

I don't know if there are any rules or regulations but why don't I see any Asians in the Tour de France? Am I not looking hard enough?

I mean, countries like China have many people who bike, mostly cause not everyone can afford a car and its too populated to move around in a car cause of traffic. You'd think that kids would naturally have to urge to race each other on the street for entertainment since thats their way of transportation, to school and from, (Japan as well) Why wouldn't the child fun lead to anything more? Pro racing? China has sport systems, where the gov't recruits kids at a young age and take them away from their homes and parents to the big city to pursue sports. Kids are recruited based on height, family history, bone density and their natural build. They are recruited for sports such as such as basketball, gymnastics, track and field, olympic cycling, etc. Why don't they go independent and join cycling team? Most of them start at a young age, and do it everyday, just as we use cars to get around in America.

I know they have Asian Games and stuff but why not go higher? Why isn't cycling so popular in the Asian countries? Am I missing something here?

voltman

Disco has/had a Japanese rider in its ranks, but not on the Tour team.

Most of the Pro Tour teams are sponsored by European companies and are European based. Probably not much access to Asian scouting.

HolyInstantRice

You'll see them soon enough. Cycling, in non-European countries, is not always the biggest thing around. But it is growing, especially in the larger countries as it can be an expensive sport.

classic1

Djamoladin Adduj..Abdou.... That bloke from Uzbekistan was Asian.

magic8ball

1) big buy in for the cost of the gear
2) bone density does not make you a cyclist, if the kid does not want to ride for 8 hours a day, they probably won't go pro, even if you raise them to.
3) why the hell would you even raise pro-cyclists?
4) olympics are technically amateurs, I know olympic cyclists who were not picked up professionally, and certainly not by pro-tour teams.
5) there is a kid in the projects down the street from me who can ride a wheelie for a mile easily, he's not getting picked up by the pro-teams.
6) these kids like bikes, pro team?
7) how many black cyclists are in the peleton?
8) does it count if the rider looks asian but is really a native from canada?
*what if they are of asian ancestry but were raised in idaho?
9) big difference from riding a bike everyday and racing at any level
10) what are the stats showing that most of the populations of japan or china ride bikes? if you can't afford a car, you walk.
11) why don't I see more italians in martial arts tournaments, I mean, italians like to fight and everything, and their poor, so it's how they entertain themselves as kids.

giantcfr1

Unfortunately around here the majority of cyclists don't give a rats about the tour. There is a big interest in National and Local road races, but most interest is in Keirin because of the gambling. Most of the pro riders here are Keirin Track Riders, in fact one very famous one posts on BF often.

Side note: I don't have satellite so I had to go to a sports bar to watch the tour. The most viewers I saw during the whole 23 days was 4 people on one of the nights. Most of the time there was 1 (me).
Steve.

0810

1)?
2)i didnt say they used bone density for cyclist, just an ideal who to spend money on
3)why not? why raise gymnast or basketball players when asians are short?
4)exactly, why not go higher?
5)i didnt say a kid who get picked up, why not turn a hobby into a living. did you think barry bonds started playing until he was an adult? no.
6)wtf?
7)huh?
8)i guess, but id like to see other countries
9)exactly my point, why dont they turn an everyday thing into more? just like you start biking daily, get more into it, and enter amateur races
10)have you been to china or japan?
https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ppl2TZ8mHkk
https://youtube.com/watch?v=fuBh9HMFr...ghai%20traffic
11)why are you so bitter? im just trying to find something out.

giantcfr1

What the hell do you mean by this? Sh1t loads of people ride bikes if they can't afford a car here in Japan. In fact sh1t loads of people ride bikes here even though they own cars.

HolyInstantRice

@ giantcfr1:

Who would that famous Keirin racer be? The older guys at the LBS I volunteer in say I'd be awesome at the track, and I myself am having a love affair with track racing right now.

SaintAndrew

don't get me wrong i love asians some of my best friends are asians but an asian could never make it through the tour de france honestly.












lol kidding obviously but i think there are some asian international teams and races starting. there's not at TdF level yet, but maybe they will be in the near future.

0810

tokyo is the largest city in the world in terms of population, over 28 million people.

new york is about 3 times smaller than tokyo in area but has 8 million people. even if there were 3 newyorks put together, thats only 24 million.

johnny99

The Astana pro cycling team is primarily sponsored by a group of Asian companies and is led by the road racing champion of the Asian country where he was born and raised. While racing for other teams, this star racer placed 5th overall in the Tour de France in both 2004 and 2005. The team had high hopes for the 2006 Tour and their leader was considered to be one of the overall favorites. For very suspicious reasons, the team and their star rider were barred from the 2006 Tour de France at the very last minute. Was this part of an anti-Asian conspiracy**********

7rider

It's all about culture, money and role models. Why don't I see any blacks in sumo wrestling? Why don't I see any Asian Indians in the Winter Olympics? Blah, blah, blah. Troll.

rapidcarbon

because Asians can't afford EPO

smellygary

Part of it is that theres not a whole lot of corporate sponsonship for sports in China.....yet. And there's still a bit of a different mentality to the bicycle in China. Its for transprotation, not fun. If you try to explain about riding a bike for fun on a hot day, or rainy or what ever, it just won't sink in. "Why don't you just take the bus instead? The idea of bicycle racing is over the top for most.

And their love affair with Yao Ming and the NBA pretty much prevents anybody from caring about any other sport right now.

smellygary

Actually, there are blacks in sumo. And the story of the Jamaicans in bobsled. The #1 golfer in the world is half black, half Thai. A Korean American teenage girl playing in the PGA. Some Amish guy or Mennonite or whatever in the TdF. The wealthiest man in the world doesn't have a college degree. Chinese guys that bought a boat and are trying to qualify for the America's Cup. The Mongolian sumotori, is he ozeki or yokozuna? The Bugarian maegashira. Sonny Sixkiller. Jim Thorpe. Jesse Owens. Satchel Paige. The Wright Brothers. Abe Lincoln. The kid down the street.

ed073

Classic comedy!!!

giantcfr1

The guy is Tomity. Fantastic guy and very helpful. See: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=206781
Steve

kleng

They use opium with a ginseng masking agent instead.

55/Rad

I forwarded your question to the experts - Al Campanis and Jimmy the Greek. They should be reporting in very soon.

shakeNbake

I think it's about 10 years ago or so at the olympics that some of the Chinese swimmers tested positive. And their defense was that particular substance (I can't remember what) was found naturally in turtle blood, which they take regularly as supplement.

To get back to the topic, I grew up in Indonesia. I can say that cycling as a sport is pretty popular. In fact it's more popular than it is here in the states.

The local TV there cover TdF and Giro d'Italia. We have several "tours". And I used to live a few blocks away from a velodrome.

But lack of funding and corruption kinda kills the athlete development.

SaintAndrew

i was completely utterly ****ing around with that statement it was not meant to induce any responses, but you bring up a strang point that asians don't have the easy-living of europe or the US, but i would have to argue that it's completely irrelevent. cycling is a blue-collar sport and has been from the beginning and it's a well-known that almost all pro cyclists come from some challenging background. cipollini was sickly and was not expected to live as a child. indurain grew up on a basque country farm. armstrong from a housing project born to a 17 year old abused mother. and these are just a few of the very greatest cyclists from the recent past.

i just think bike racing as a sport is not developed in asia right now.

botto 

Skil-Shimano, Dutch registered continental team has a bunch of Japanese riders. No Tour for them, but they rode several minor Spring Classics.

PrfectHair4ever

fixedude

re: japanese, the ironic thing is that kids often do ~3hrs of club activities daily after school, yet cycling is rarely one of the available options, so fitting in the necessary time for effective training for an additional non-club pursuit is near-impossible, as well as it being near-impossible to secure permission to independently pursue an alternative sport (instead of club activities) outside of school.

keirin riders, as an exception (or not), attend special 'keirin school' where they are basically sequestered for school and riding.