There’s an easy way to make a million people agree with you—present an argument that’s both simple and entirely compatible with their existing values. An example: A man is suspected of burglary. He has left fingerprints near, but not at, a number of crime scenes, 11 friends are willing to testify against him, but the…
Tag: Analysis
The New Reality
For better or worse, the racing in this year’s Tour de France did not offer a great deal of excitement. There were some interesting sprints, the positive (mad watts) and negative (position, timing) confirmations of Peter Sagan’s abilities, the emergence of Tejay VanGarderen as a guy who can hold a GC place for three weeks,…
Every Bonus Second Counts
We’re nearly a week into the Tour de France, and yet the race’s most obvious prize remains awarded based on a handful of seconds’ from the event’s first seven minutes. Is this any way to encourage quality racing on the sport’s biggest stage? I understand the arguments against bonus seconds—the best example is probably Levi…
The Amgen Tour of Confused Californian Branding
The Tour of California has an image problem. Mercifully, it’s nothing to with jersey zips—it’s more that the race’s marketing material is absolutely incomprehensible. Let’s overlook the fact that “Eight Days of Epic” uses the most cored marketing term in recent memory (it’s been a joke on Archer for crying out loud)—the Tour of California…
Giro d'Italia 2012, Stages 1-3 – How The Race Was Won
It’s nice to have a rest day so early in this years’ Giro d’Italia, because it makes for less footage and fewer competing stories for the grueling stage race HTRWW. The tenuous creative thread running this latest piece is all over the place—linguistic, geographic, and historical anachronisms abound—but I’m too exhausted to care. [right-click for…
The Vanishing GC Sprinter
Brad Wiggins’ performance earlier this week in the first stage of the Tour of Romandie was a rare treat for the modern cycling fan: a real Grand Tour contender duking it and taking the win in a bunch sprint. It wasn’t in a Grand Tour, of course, and it took a couple pretty serious climbs…
Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2012 – How The Race Was Won
A little later than I like to be on these sorts of things, but what can I say–with a new corporate sponsor on board, there’s bound to be a little meddling in editorial. Also, some of you might also have noticed that I was moving around a little bit during the event itself. [right-click for…
Amstel Gold 2012 – How The Race Was Won
Another new course this spring, though certainly nothing on par with Flanders’ change-up. Despite the re-worked parcours, this one unfolded sleepily, feeling at points like a Tour de France sprint stage. But comic relief at the back, some lively riding as the break wore down and an attack from a very surprising source set the…
2012 Paris-Roubaix – How The Race Was Won
Tom Boonen powers away to win number four in an historic display of strength and commitment. The only thing to feel bad about was that we didn’t get to see Fabian Cancellara shoot it out with him. Of course, had Cance been at the start line, Omega Pharma would have doubtlessly played their cards a…
Tour of Flanders 2012 — How The Race Was Won
An ambiguously-branded video recap and commentary for the 2012 Tour of Flanders. Some backstory might be helpful. [right-click for iTunes-compatible download] You might get another one of these this year. You also might not. The way I made this was by not sleeping last night and that’s not really sustainable. Or pleasant. Consider it a…