Professional Cycling - Enough NASCAR comparisons already

Been reading a lot of posts in these threads trying to compare NASCAR to the TdF. Just won't work. We aren't talking about cars here. We're talking about men...on bikes. So remember, those of you who don't ride, have never raced, or have a "3" or "8" on your rear windshield:

You will not see Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich "trade paint."
You will not see pit stops, but you might catch a glimpse of a "nature break."
You will not hear Phil Liggett refer to Alexander Vinokourov as the "number 19 bike."
You will not debate Ford and Chevy. You will debate Campagnolo and Shimano instead.
You will see right turns.
You will not see restrictor plates, because they aren't made of carbon fiber.

Hope this helps.

If Lance rode Nascar, he'd be the best ever at that too.

If Lance rode Nascar, he'd be the best ever at that too.

Except he would only race and win Daytona each year.

Yeah right. He'd win every race. He won three stages of the Tour de Georgia last year too, don't you ****ing forget that.

Been reading a lot of posts in these threads trying to compare NASCAR to the TdF. Just won't work. We aren't talking about cars here. We're talking about men...on bikes. So remember, those of you who don't ride, have never raced, or have a "3" or "8" on your rear windshield:

You will not see Lance Armstrong and Jan Ullrich "trade paint."
You will not see pit stops, but you might catch a glimpse of a "nature break."
You will not hear Phil Liggett refer to Alexander Vinokourov as the "number 19 bike."
You will not debate Ford and Chevy. You will debate Campagnolo and Shimano instead.
You will see right turns.
You will not see restrictor plates, because they aren't made of carbon fiber.

Hope this helps.


Darn right, these bikers are using real internal combustion, not wasting the raw materials (oil) that make the plastic products I like (i.e. a lot of my biking equipment). Darn cagers trying to compare bikes to cars. When will they get it?! Bikes are infinitely superior to cars!

Yeah right. He'd win every race. He won three stages of the Tour de Georgia last year too, don't you ****ing forget that.



HAHAHAAAHAHAHAA!

Ok, so he would win Daytona and a couple of Busch Races....

I guess it would suck to turn the largest fan base in the country on to watching cycling races, wouldn't it? I mean come on...massive sponsorships, coverage of every race, live, from start to finish. Yeah, that would suck. Must drive the Nascar fans away.

I guess it would suck to turn the largest fan base in the country on to watching cycling races, wouldn't it? I mean come on...massive sponsorships, coverage of every race, live, from start to finish. Yeah, that would suck. Must drive the Nascar fans away.

You must not remember the Tony Stewart - Lance Armstrong commercials from two years ago ending in Tony shaving his legs after Lance's technical explanation of the benefits of shaving the legs.

Here is the ultimate TDF/NASCAR comparison:

Imagine if you were a diehard NASCAR fan and 3 of the top drivers in the standing were from France. Pepe Labonte, Gregoire Biffle, and Jacque Earnhardt Jr. That would suck, now you know the hell the FRENCH deal with every July. Vive le USA, Boogity Boogity Boogity boys-Let's go raccin'

Here is the ultimate TDF/NASCAR comparison:

Imagine if you were a diehard NASCAR fan and 3 of the top drivers in the standing were from France. Pepe Labonte, Gregoire Biffle, and Jacque Earnhardt Jr. That would suck, now you know the hell the FRENCH deal with every July. Vive le USA, Boogity Boogity Boogity boys-Let's go raccin'

Ahh, not really. NASCAR's top division has forever been related with USA riders, with hardly anyone else. While the Tour de France, at least for the last 50 years, has been incredibly diverse in nationalities. If Europeans had been winning in the Cup series for the last 50 years, I'm sure attitudes would be different.

Don't NASCAR drivers just drive around and around and around the same track without ever going anywhere?

Doesn't it cost money for the fans to watch a NASCAR race (in person) ?

I guess it would suck to turn the largest fan base in the country on to watching cycling races, wouldn't it? I mean come on...massive sponsorships, coverage of every race, live, from start to finish. Yeah, that would suck. Must drive the Nascar fans away.

Yeah .. 80% of them, rednecks who would call you a homo...


*edit-- Spur of the moment statement... My bad...

Yeah .. 80% of them, rednecks who would call you a homo...Well as long as you can keep an open mind about it.
:rolleyes:

Yeah .. 80% of them, rednecks who would call you a homo...

wow! So I am no racecar fan (in fact I really don't like it at all), but dude! calling THEM rednecks is just as bad as THEM calling you a h-mo.

wow! So I am no racecar fan (in fact I really don't like it at all), but dude! calling THEM rednecks is just as bad as THEM calling you a h-mo.
Guess I got a bit overboard with my hatred of cagers and big automobiles with nascar stickers... I just see a convoluted link there.. My bad for sterotyping NASCAR fans...

Ya know, I'm sure this has happened to more than one or two here, I love when some dude in a dodge with a "hemi" comes up by ya and revs up the engine and accelarates off like he's going to beat you in a race. With the good ol #3 in the back window.
Nascar has no business being comapared with cycling.

Yeah .. 80% of them, rednecks who would call you a homo...


*edit-- Spur of the moment statement... My bad...


If they were interested in cycling races, they wouldn't likely be calling cyclists "homo" would they? My point, for those that missed it, is that dismissing out of hand any group of potential cycling fans, but especially a potential group that is so large, is silly. Those are the people that have driven Nascar to be the huge enterprise it is today, and it's been going on a lot shorter period of time than bike racing. The fact that it's not nearly as international and yet the names of the racers are so widely recognized is a testament to it's popularity. They aren't just recognized in Alabama either, they are racing in Japan and Mexico, and spin off series that are based on the Nascar model are cropping up all over the world, where they enjoy a tremendous following.

Anybody know where I can get a Bobby Julich decal? How about a hat, or a T-shirt, so that I can wear it at the mall? Die cast miniature of Lance's bike for my collection? Maybe an action figure of Jan Ulrich? Surely there's a store at the mall where I can buy these things, right? All of these things have been done by Nascar, driven by fans that want to buy these things, and it's taken them all of what, 55 years? for it to rise to the level that it is? They are doing something right. I'd love to see cycling be as popular, but it never will be as long as cyclists refer to the vast majority of the US population as "cagers" and talk about the largest fan base in the country as "rednecks".

wow! So I am no racecar fan (in fact I really don't like it at all), but dude! calling THEM rednecks is just as bad as THEM calling you a h-mo.

Attend a NASCAR race and then report back what they should be called.

Regardless...Generalizing a bashing groups people is just bad form.

Attend a NASCAR race and then report back what they should be called. I think they are called humans, just like every other person on this planet. I have been cycling for 25 years, watch the Tour de France, but do not follow competitive cycling other than that, but I love auto racing, any form of it, F1, IRL, NASCAR. I also sail and love that too, but only watch the America's Cup and do not follow competitive sailing. Labeling people by what their interests are is very myopic, in my opinion.

Dude, if ya want cycling to get as popular as Nascar then they better have Lance start wearing Budweiser beer and a viagra logo on his jersey.
I understand what you are saying. I grew up in a race town and my dad is like the biggest race fan ever. Nascar is really popular, BUT, so is golf. Biggest reason? Networks show coverage every weekend. It goes on all over the country all spring and summer and fall and the networks show it every weekend. It's advertised to the hilt and the networks show it every weekend. What does cycling get? A couple of weeks coverage once a year on a station that like 60% of the U.S. gets.
It's easier to get in the zone for golf and nascar too. I'm making a 9" putt for a double bogy on the 8th, I can still pretend I'm Tiger Woods sinking a 90' putt for a double eagle to win the masters on the 18th. Or you could blow by some cyclist in a hemi charged dodge and pretend to be little "E" passing Stewart at the line for the win in Daytona.
But to play the mental game that you are Lemond, or Lance, or Ullrich etc... ya got be off your ass doing something phsyical.
There is an upside too, 15 years ago it was mostly the private schools that had soccer. :)

I think that both sides are looking at this issue in the wrong way. The Tour de France is bike racing, Nascar is autoracing. There are similarities but they are not the same, they are also similiar to running and all race type events. Instead of one side saying there is no comparison, the other they want it to be exactly the same, realize that there are similarities. Maybe the Nascar fans should ask questions for that which they do not understand and racing fans can try to explain. I mean there is a ton of ignorance about bike racing, and that is ok. This is a great place to learn. It is ok to be ignorant just not to stay that way. Also do not insist on your opinion being right and that the people with experience are wrong cause you think it should be like Nascar only on a bike.

I grew up in a race town and my dad is like the biggest race fan ever. Nascar is really popular, BUT, so is golf. Biggest reason? Networks show coverage every weekend. It goes on all over the country all spring and summer and fall and the networks show it every weekend. It's advertised to the hilt and the networks show it every weekend.

You have your marketing a little upside down. They were racing Nascar every weekend..more than just the weekends, they used to run over 100 races a year on the "Grand National" series back when it was the top series. They raced in little towns all over the place. The television coverage comes after popularity leads to sponsorship. Money flowing in from big companies = television coverage for the fans. Obviously that has to be fan popularity, not participant popularity, or there would be more soccer on TV. It's growing though. As you point out, something that fans can participate in can make them more enthusiastic about the professionals, which explains the NBA's huge popularity.

Now me, I know I can't drive a car like Tony Stewart, although I can probably climb a fence better than he can. I also know that Tony can't ride a bike like I can, and that as well as not being able to drive a car that fast, that close to other cars, for that long, neither do I believe I could complete a Tour, much less be competitive.

As the OP pointed out though, direct comparisons of the sport MOSTLY don't work. Although, watching the peleton, you realize that there's a great degree of concentration required, and that if one person goobers it up just a tiny bit, or gets a flat, or slides, he's likely to take a lot of the field with him. Sounds an awful lot like Talledega to me. And some of the fans "at the track" are just as rabid. Just because it doesn't say "Budweiser" on the shirt doesn't mean they aren't "rednecks" if that's what you want to call people that jump up and down, screaming after their hero, and sometimes throwing hot dog wrappers on the "track" hoping that it will block the "radiator" of their villain.

Don't NASCAR drivers just drive around and around and around the same track without ever going anywhere?

cough..cough..CRITERIUM..cough

What is this NASHCAR thing?

I don't understand NASCAR today. I was a fan when I was a kid (from '69 to '77 or so) and the cars were the stars. The Dodge 426 Hemi Daytona (w/"towelrack" spoiler), 427 Fords and Mercurys etc. I didn't care who drove them.
Now it's all hero worship. I don't care about Jeff Gordon's love life. The cars are, or look all the same (Monte Carlo, ** hum boring!), It was always "country" but I never knew that when I was a kid (I don't think they admitted that back in the '60s) and sponsorship was almost non-existent in the old days (except STP, Purolater etc.)
I lost interest years ago. Comparing NASCAR to bicycle racing is just apples to oranges.

cough..cough..CRITERIUM..cough
Hell, we even race crits on NASCAR tracks.

what if you like NASCAR and professional cycling?

what if you like NASCAR and professional cycling?
Impossible. That's like Jeff Gordon trying to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." We're going to have to ask you to turn in your bikeforums decoder ring and sign this non-discoslure agreement. I'm sorry. ;)

Impossible. That's like Jeff Gordon trying to sing "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." We're going to have to ask you to turn in your bikeforums decoder ring and sign this non-discoslure agreement. I'm sorry. ;)


thought so. lol...

A bit of an O/T aside....

Serious question.....for Americans, can you be a NASCAR fan AND an IRL/CART fan??? Or are the stereotypes true...NASCAR is just pitched at married cousins in Southern States and Indycar seems bent on self destruction?

Thoughts?