Lance and retirement

[megale3]

What is your take on this and what will happen to the momentum that we have seen in the US for the sport of velo.


http://www.thepaceline.com/images/paceline/galleries/Nike-com/nike14.jpg

[Patrick]

I think interest in cycling will fall off a little bit. OLN will stop covering cycling in a year or two, unless an American starts winning some of the classics or the tour. I can't believe so many people want to watch fishing, hunting and bull riding!

[megale3]

I hear that they are going to start a pro tour in California its going to be a multi stage event and start in No Cal and end in SO Cal any of my southern neighbors hear about that Yvonne??? Mat???, Debbie???,anyone? By the by thanks for posting Patrick I was alittle worried there that people a little too depressed about Lance retiring ;)
Meg

[Legspeed]

If anyone's depressed about cycling, it's more likely to be about TH's 2 year suspension than LA's retirement.

[megale3]

True true Leg,
do you think after that amount of time he will be too old to compete at the level he was at? Is this too harsh a penalty? I feel he is being made an example of. Lets face it Baseball fines and restrictions are nothing compared to years of dissasociation that they have implied. They are literally making a career go down the drain with the amount of time they are leveraging.
Meg

[raptor]

Those who bought a good bike because of Lance will probably keep riding it. Many of those who started watching bike racing because of Lance will continue.

I think (hope) OLN or someone will continue to give us reasonable coverage of bike racing, because there's enough of an audience to make it work on cable.

Participation/attention will gradually wane unless/until another American starts hitting it big. But there will always be "many" Americans riding seriously on our roads.

Lance himself will have much to do with how things shake out. He's just as much a demigod as always, and if he plays it right he can exert influence in just about anything. We can assume that some of that energy will go toward cycling (as he's stated).

And now that I've finally figured out how to make a decent video game out of road racing...

Lynn

[JFK]

And now that I've finally figured out how to make a decent video game out of road racing...

Lynn

Way cool! Is it in development, or is this musing for the future?

[megale3]

Really Lynn whats the scope on that??

[raptor]

It's not in development, just a dream of mine that's gradually coming together. And I happen to be in a position to possibly pull it off. I've thought of an awesome name if I/we can get Mr. Lance to sign on.

I've wanted to see or do a good cycling game for several years now, but the ideas have been slow in gelling. FYI, there is "Cycling Manager" published in Europe with a (big) free demo download available, but it really misses the mark IMO.

The game studio I work at in general doesn't "do" sports games, so it's a bit of a sales job to get it moving. There are also great creative concepts floating around there, which are being pitched to publishers. But, I have a few people jazzed about the concept.

We've really missed the boat on Lance's climb to godliness, but I dream of getting HIM jazzed about the idea and really throwing his name/rep behind it. (And I could also get him to autograph the cap he tossed to me way back in 1991. Or was it 1993?)

I bet you can imagine the sales that Lance Armstrong's face and name on a video game would bring: nothing is produced in this business without strong sales prospects.

Meg, I hesitate to reveal too much, but in short, you'll have to manage your gear, your cadence and your bike's lean as you ride a road race. You'll have aerobic and anaerobic capacity to play with, depending on your character's ability. Gotta have breaks in there too, I guess. The big thing is, no button-mashing just to pedal your bike - what rider thinks about that anyway? Even if bike racing looks boring to many American spectators, "my" game will show the player that even in boring races, it takes a lot of skill to race, and luck and/or preparation to win. The game would have to capture the thrill of picking your way through a massive throng on a slow climb, managing your speed and line on a descent, or throwing elbows in a bunch sprint.

Massive technical challenges: modeling 100+ miles of roadway, and rendering hundreds or thousands of humans. What video games have you ever seen that do either of those? (Cycling Manager has a paltry few dozens of fans, but their courses are pretty good.)

It's a huge step finding someone to pony up the development bucks, and that's after we take the time to flesh out the design of the thing. We'd be shooting for a release post-Christmas at the earliest. Next Spring looks doable. But, nothing could happen too, so don't save your pennies for it yet.

Lynn