You want sport AND personality?

6 comments
By Rob Spedding, Editor | Thursday, Nov 6, 2008 10.19am

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Wasn't the racing great this weekend? Yeah, yeah I know there was some good stuff on the track in Manchester but I'm talking about Interlagos. Edge of the seat stuff, a World Championship decided at the very last turn and a British winner...

I'll admit, I've been a Formula One fan since I was a boy. One of my earliest memories of telly sport is Nigel Mansell desperately trying to push a stricken JPS Lotus over the line at the 1984 US Grand Prix and I've watched with a weird patriotic fervour since. I've cheered on Johnny Dumfries – currently Marquis of Bute, the Earl of Windsor, Viscount Ayr, Lord Crichton of Sanquhar and Cumnock, Viscount Kingarth, Lord Montstuart Cumbrae and Inchmarnock, Baron Cardiff, and Viscount Mountjoy apparently – Martin Brundle and Damon Hill to name a few. (Never really warned to Herbert or Blundell for some reason.) Soooo, I was chuffed to see Lewis Hamilton win the F1 World Championship on Sunday.

Then, of course, I realised that this meant Stevenage's favourite son would be a dead cert for the BBC's Sports Personailty of the Year. The bookies certainly think so: William Hill currently has Lewis Hamilton as favourite at 8/15. In second place is Rebecca Adlington who claimed two golds in the pool at the Beijing Olympics. This means that in the betting hierachy of sporting achievement cycling currently lies behind driving and swimming...

This is causing some rather heated debate on the 'Radar forums at the moment with Lewis not flavour of the month for all of you. Yes he did have a very good car – but then Chris had a good bike and Rebecca, erm, a nice cossie and fast water...– but you can't deny he is pretty bloody good at what he does. Likewise, I don't think anyone could say that, like Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington, fourth favourite tennis star Andy Murray or any of our other gold medallists Hamilton hasn't worked hard, or made sacrifices,  to get to where he is.

That said, I won't be voting for Lewis. It's going to be Big Chris for me. To be honest, I might not even vote for Chris Hoy if I genuinely think my own Sports Personality of the Year can actually win. Nicole Cooke, despite her Olympic Road Race gold and World Championship crown is a 100/1 outsider – the same as Victoria Pendleton, but ahead of 150/1 shots Bradley Wiggins and Rebecca Romero. Mark Cavendish, incidentally doesn't make the list.  I'd vote for Nicole because, to my mind at least, she is due some well earned wider recognition. And if a Royal horse rider is good enough then...Oh, and Nicole winning would just about make up for the excruciating interview with Adrian Chiles during the 2006 SPotY show - "Do you ever fall off..."

Of course, there's no guarantee that Nicole will even make the shortlist of 10 come December 1. (There'll then be a public vote on December 14 during the live show.) I'm sure the brilliant  Hoy will and his three gold medals surely beat Adlington's two? And it'd be great to see a cyclist  - any cyclist - win this award. So far, Tom Simpson in 1965 is the only cyclist to have ever ridden away with the cup. What do you think? And, more to the point, do you do actually care?

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User Comments

There are 6 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 6 of 6 comments

  • I'm both an F1 and cycling fan, and have been joining in with the debate on the forums. I think the main thing is what a fantastic year it's been for a whole range of British sports. Pretty much every British sportsperson you've mentioned would be a worthy winner of BBC Sports Personality of the Year this year, including a whole bunch of cyclists.

    Some years it's a case of picking the least pathetic looser, this year we're struggling to pick the greatest winner!

  • You're right it is a nice position to be in. I wonder if SPotY is as important to the sports stars as we seem to think?

  • Think about Chris Hoy'a achievement: an Olympic champion, the IOC take away his event, so he goes and wins three other events, in dominating fashion.

    Lewis Hamilton's championship just doesn't compare.

    Would be good to see Nicole Cooke get the recognition she deserves, and got to feel for Pendleton only having one Olympic event to go for, but it would be a disgrace if Hoy doesn't get the vote. That said, it was a disgrace that Redgrave didn't get it until 2000.

  • Cyclists, we are like buses. You wait ages for one and then they all come along at once! Nicole Cook gets my vote. She has been plugging away at the sport for quite a few years and has one almost everything worth winning yet she is hardly recognised outside our sport. She is undeniably Britain's best cycling achiever in history.

    Chris Hoy also deserves the recognition for his achievements at the Olympics, Worlds etc. So it is difficult to call. Why not encourage the SPotY to recognise both equally? The important factor is that our cyclists deserve the accreditation they have earned.

    Hamilton has achieved great things but I think he can join the back of the queue for this award. He has a lot more ahead of him and there will be plenty of other opportunities. F1 has a high enough profile amongst the public and this is an opportunity for cycling to claim it's rightful place.

    In reality almost anyone can dream of being a top cyclist and be able to achieve the dream. Bikes are not multi million pound machines. We need to encourage our youth. F1 requires a great deal of skill and even more luck to get spotted as well as the prohibitive cost of the sport.

  • I'm doing a research paper on custom frame builders of Britain and I used an article entitle "British built" that basically listed several builders and then had interviews. From what I can see, it was on pages 96,98,100, 102, and 103 of an article in a Cycling Plus magazine. Unforunately I have no idea who volume or issue it was published in, or when it was published. If you could help my out with that information for my bibliography it would be great. Thank you!

  • By the way, my e-mail is tribiker@charter.net. Thanks again.

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