The Fanatic

"To be a cyclist you must have pride and respect for your team no matter what.  One has loyalty and admiration for the team and its members in general.  One has support for the team and its achievements as well as for the individual team members themselves. You love the team unconditionally and want the best for your team members always.  You stick with the team in good times and bad.  One can almost compare it to a marriage and the vows one takes. The saying that "I bleed blue" is definitely true in my case, because I always want them to do the very best that they possibly can. So when they hurt, I hurt and vise versa.  I love being a representative and graduate of Raceplan and the traditions that go along with it."

WOW!  I was flipping through some light reading on Sports Marketing and the Psychology of Marketing Communication and came across a chapter on the sports fanatic with the above highly modified quote from a UK Wildcats fan.  The book defines a fanatic as a person possessed by an excessive zeal for and uncritical attachment to a cause or position.

 

My first thought was how this football fanatics statement compares to an average fan of the Discovery or CSC cycling team?  Well, I think it's safe to say that when we see someone in full Discovery get up and they're NOT on the Discovery team, we usually think of them as a poser and immediately discount them.  And, this is perhaps, where one of the biggest breakdowns in comparison between cycling and other mainstream sports lies: in mainstream sports it's generally accepted, nay, the absolute norm, to done your team's colors from head to toe.  But in cycling, almost the reverse is true unless you ride for a club team, but even then you're looked at funny.

 

My other thought was on what would happen if everyone on a cycling team really bought into the fanatic's statements: it's all about the team, I want what's best for the team no matter what, it's like marriage, etc.?  WOW again.  Does this type of selfless loyalty really exist in a sport where you are trained to suck energy from those around you and try and go around them for the win at the end?  This would certainly be par with the state of marriages in today's world!  But, can that type of "fanaticism" really exist in cycling?  We certainly see and hear team mates putting all the effort to protect a key rider during major tours and this could be a short-term example of this type of loyalty. But we also hear about individual riders leaving teams for higher salaries and at times with gripes against their former team, usually against management.

 

So, what's the point here?  The point, I think, is perhaps to revisit what it means for us to be on a cycling team.  That perhaps teams should adopt a code of conduct that members are encouraged to follow.  That dosed spirit and fanaticism can be good things in cycling...especially if you view everyone on bike as your teammate.  You might think this to be true the next time you're saved by a fellow cyclist when you're stuck with a flat out in the middle of no-where with no tube and a broken pump.