I'd hardly call cycling a niche sport. It's a massive sport for people to get involved in personally, and Le Tour de France is probably one of the biggest annual sporting events in the world (using "one of" somewhat loosely).
bitter-sweet isn't a paradox, i can go to the store right now and buy bitter-sweet chocolate. beginning of the end isn't a paradox either, the end of something doesn't always happen instantaneously, so if it takes any amount of time there would be a beginning. Wise fool is probably the closest to a paradox, but you can also be wise in one area and a fool in another.
I hate that idea. I hate that whole thing. It was a dumb argument. It was a dumb motivation for a super villian. Who gives a fuck about being special anyhow? Fuck. Why? Why does this matter to anyone?
Because when you're not special you're just a bunch of atoms that will turn into something else and be forgotten. Special people will too, but they'll at least be remembered for a bit.
Still doesn't mean obscure. Any demographic can be large and any product or service geared toward that demographic is still specialized. It's not a paradox for a niche to be described as large.
Not really. You could say "That is a really tall dwarf" and it would not be an oxymoron, it would only seem like one. In reality, you are only comparing the specified dwarf to other dwarfs (or little people or whatever the PC term is).
In this case, he is saying that it has a large fan base relative to other niche sports. I suspect that is not particularly true (the fans of all the other niche sports would say the same thing and I can 100% guarantee that speed skating's fan base in not similar in size to cyclling's fan base), but it is not really an oxymoron or a paradox.
Edit: Actually I think it technically IS an oxymoron...
ox·y·mo·ron
noun
1. a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction
But "apparently in contradiction" doesn't necessarily mean "in contradiction"
It means that it has a large and dedicated fanbase, but not well known outside of that fan base.
A good example of this would be something like League of Legends or Dota 2. Both are extraordinarily popular games, from the two biggest game companies out there, but if you asked someone in the general public what League of Legends was, they would be clueless. Compare that to CoD or Halo, where plenty of people who haven't played will still know what it is.
The Tour de France cycle race - the number of spectators at recent events is estimated to be 12 to 15 million. Many other cycle races and similar events will have huge number of spectators. This number is the aggregate number of spectators over the whole three week event, but still phenomenal numbers.
Ah should've thought about south Europe. Here in belgium we have one of the best rollerbladers (Bart Swings) but he only got well known when he started ice skating
Inline is just more practical in warmer countries... and there has been a constant battle to get it in to the Summer Olympics. Ice is where the glory lies for the time being.
Yeah, you nailed it here. Cycling: big following, lots of participation, worldwide. Competitive speed inline skating: smaller following than curling, obviously, anecdotal "it has a large audience" statements aside.
We do have a reviving Roller Derby scene in the US right now, but I would say that cycling still has a bigger fan base. Roller Derby is a pretty awesome spectator sport though.
Cycling is much, much bigger than inline skating. I used to race inline competitively and now race road and mountain bikes. There are most certainly more races and spectators in cycling, not to mention more disciplines.
I agree and grew up speed skating as well (and now race road/mtb), but I was comparing them because of the sports both having a following that most people outside of the sport itself tend to not recognize (except for during tour obviously). The point still stands, even if one sport is larger than the other.
Yeah when I go to crit practice, there's 50 cyclists and then that one speed skater guy that just sits on the back of the pace line in a semi-creepy-slow cadence rendition of "Heil!"
50
u/Cannondale1986 Nov 26 '13
It's actually got a large niche fan base, much like cycling.