Getting down to it, I will briefly explain the rankings of Grand Sumo in Japan. Photo byJorge Luis Alvarez Pupo/Getty Images OK, Fine. Given how fitness works, it’s not a terrible way of doing business, but maybe this thought experiment of trying to impose a longer-term, meritocratic system on cycling will be enlightening in some way. From this and so much of Japanese culture, which is big on traditional ways in general and valuing age and experience in particular - see anyone with “sensei” attached to their name - it stands to reason that the modern sport of sumo would rank its athletes by something beyond last month’s results.Ĭycling, however, uses a pretty strict, what have you done for me this year? system of ranking. The origins of sumo are as old as Japan itself, and documents from as far back as 712 CE described celestial Japanese lore as allowing control over the islands to be decided in a sumo match between two gods, Takemikazuchi and Takeminakata, won by the former with an arm-crushing technique which gave him (?) control over the province of Izumo. The quick answer is because sumo uses a ranking system that is a mix of recency and lifetime achievement to sell the product. I just want to borrow their ranking system. But my point isn’t to sell you on watching sumo. And yes! Sumo is an incredibly cool sport once you get to know it and get over the shocking body type stuff, to the point where it becomes yet another fascinating part of the strategy. Technically the Japanese word “Sumo” includes the wrestling part. Photo by STR/JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images Wait, Sumo Wrestling? I want to see if I can capture the hierarchy of cycling by using the Sumo ranking system, a/k/a the banzuke. But to kick things off, I want to take a completely different view, which I hope will make sense by the end. but I’ll probably fall back into a few of those traps this winter. This offseason the usual cycling media suspects will think of clever ways to assess the offseason and the team, a number of which we were doing ten years ago and don’t feel like doing anymore.
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