Not a fair comparison. They both struggle on the crossovers. JPM was fantastic in Champ/Indy Car, did well in F1, and was meh in NASCAR.
There are some people who could cross over if their talent was nurtured, Jeff Gordon is arguably the most talented US racer of the 1990s, he just was making way more money here.
It’s the same with motorcycle racing. They are European sports and, not surprising, the team managers / crews / sponsors tend to rally around their guys, and Americans typically have a hard time getting favorable treatment to match their talent… actually this sounds a lot like bicycle racing too
Anyway, back on topic, the ex TDF / Grand Tour riders are just legitimate professionals, where fast amateurs would be comparable to like a D1 college athlete. Every step up is a big jump. It’s like any sport.
that’s because they are medium fish in a small pond in north america, but when the full european scene gets opened up they are a medium fish in an ocean with much larger fish/whales.
i cant knock strickland for his career choices, he’s turned down pro team offers and has shown he can race at that level, but he has positioned himself to be the top of the game, but not the top of the big leagues.
Unless you make it a rule, it’s not going to happen.
At the end of the day, it’s racing, and the bigger and more professional it gets, the more it’s going to look like pro racing.
“Tradition”, “spirit of the competition”, is all just for talk, and means nothing, without being an enforceable rule.
I know Colin is painting a romantic picture of gravel racing, he can’t simultaneously pretend it’s grassroots while making a living off of it with big sponsors. It’s kind of a “I’m protecting my turf while hiding behind tradition / grassroots ethos” piece.
The gatekeeping by Colin here is ridiculous. When there is $$ involved, all bets are off. He’s basically saying, ‘Hey all are welcome, the more the merrier. But we - as in a few of us ‘pros’ have these rules we all sort of follow and listen, you better play ball or we are going to throw shade’
Didnt Peter S say in 2019 when he did the race it received in the top 5 of media clicks for trek racing. This was on the Bobby and jens podcast. With marketing like that 5 years from now we will see more pros come over to race it
It is the sure fire way right now to get recognized as an American. You want to go pro or get your name out there? Go do well in the larger gravel races.
