IainB

Apparently not though... I've had an opportunity to look at the final race again and can see that Woffy didn't look back for his partner once until the 4th bend of the 4th lap. We'll probably never know the reason why he did this as anybody that legitimately asks the question is tagged as a "keyboard warrior". Someone did ask Tai the question on Twitter, admittedly not in the best way and got shot down by everybody that worships the water Tai walks on

Agree with all of that, was it a big crowd though? I'm not a regular at Peterborough (but am becoming one again) but compared to years gone by I thought it was a poor crowd, especially for a sunny Sunday afternoon against a pretty good team. Half of the grandstand was closed though so most of the crowd was packed into one area. As I like to stand to watch my Speedway I was forced to go to the back straight or get covered in dust, Neil Watson if you read this can you do something about the volume of the tannoy on the back straight, my ears were almost bleeding after 15 heats of distorted music , I noticed the music was turned down when a rider was down injured and then cranked back up to 11 as soon as he was up... maybe 8 would do the trick!

I don't think it's about who is right and who is wrong... What a lot of people are trying to understand is why somebody with such experience of the sport and has written about it for many years can't really explain why he thinks Tai shouldn't have held Emil up to help Robert get by to win a world title other than it was unlikely that Robert would have got by... The thing is that's why we all like sport because sometimes the unlikely happens

Nice explanation... I still can't understand why you, or anybody else for that matter, thinks it was the right thing to do. And personally I think Tai was going for the win well before the last lap

You have effectively said they shouldn't have tried to win the final once the riding order was established

It sounds like you've given up on life Philip. If you're not going to try and win, why enter the competition?

He'd been doing it all competition until the final!

tbf it doesn't take a tin-pot competition like SoN/SWC to wipe Speedway out in the UK... wasn't there a thread somewhere commenting on there recently being no Speedway anywhere in the UK on a recent Saturday night Yes but it probably would have been a tin-pot Cov vs League Select

It was held in a field in Germany

That's the track... they should try holding it at Leicester

was interesting to hear the 2 young riders interviewed that they like to hit the fast food joints after a meeting... I hope the GB speedway people don't see this!

It was great for us Brits, we had Woffy, we were in front, we were doing all the team riding... it'd be interesting to know, as a world event, what the fans of the Poles, Swedes, Danes etc thought of it... they may have thought of the whole event as most of us thought about the opening qualifier

ah yes, so you did... I wonder who we could persuade to hold the qualifiers?

even for the 2 qualifiers? I'm not so sure

call it what you will... I thought it was still good to see in a team event

Also... it can only do good for Lambert & Cook to have worked at such close quarters to Woffinden to see how he operates. Just his massive confidence (bordering on arrogance) is to be applauded, you could see in an interview before the meeting Tai was saying we're here to win, where as Robert was playing it down a bit

ah... who did KM Video cover? the name rings a bell I think I was thinking of B&J Video

Didn't F1 toy with the idea of double points in the final race because Red Bull kept winning? All those sports you mention are not really local team sports though are they? Speedway is a little different as they have separate team and individual competitions at national and international level. There's only really top league football that has the financial clout to call the tune to TV companies

KM Video? Wasn't that the company that used to cover Stoke? With the guy with the beard who's only "question" to riders was "you normally go well round here don't you?"

Now that it's all over, I can take a balanced look at what happened over the last week. RO1 Germany: Total Rubbish. RO2 BV: Rubbish, had some interest for me as GB were in it, but GB qualification was never really in doubt. Finals: Great Speedway, makes you wonder why we had to sit through the rubbish of the first 2 days, which I thought weren't really worthy of being televised. Format: It's the TV world we live in these days, just about every televised sport, with the exception of PL Football, has buckled to TV demands for play offs/winner take all finals. Right or wrong at least you know the rules of the competition before you enter. I did enjoy the finals, maybe they should look at early season qualifiers and a 3 or 4 day knockout final? What I also found strange was looking at the scores, more or less every team seemed to be massively imbalanced with one rider scoring a massive haul of points and his partner barely scoring any, maybe this is to do with the U21 reserve, which I do think needs looking at. GB: Tai was pure world class, his scoring obviously speaks for itself, his team riding a joy to watch, he was generally the only rider on display that was busting a gut to help his team partner... which makes his actions in the final all the more puzzling! There was a World Championship at stake after all. It's a shame that the pit reporter wasn't able to ask some more searching questions during the interviews/press conferences afterwards as it was the one questions all of the fans were asking, why did you not even try to slow Emil down? Robert Lambert looked under powered but did a great job supporting Tai and hopefully will only get better. Craig Cook, last year you would have picked him, on his form so far this year you probably wouldn't have, it's a shame Steve Worrall got injured so early as he would have possibly offered an alternative. Others: Poland: Dudek is not the rider he was last year and their pairing did surprise me, personally I would have gone Zmarzlik and Piotr Pawlicki. Sweden: Could easily have won it if Lindback was in the right mood. Aus: Why no Holder? Was this due to unavailability in UK due to Visa? Pearson & Tatum: Brilliant! Russia: Well Done!

Well done for correcting yourself... just like Pearson did

? You need replacing!

I don't think anybody is saying that fitness is the magic bullet, but surely you can't deny that it is a factor and once you add all of the factors together that's what makes a world championship contender. Without wishing to single anybody out there was a rather good rider riding for a Manchester club a few years back who had all the natural ability in the world, made it to the GP series and was mediocre at best (at that level). I also remember seeing Nicki Pedersen in the Coventry pits a few years back, I think when he was riding for Eastbourne, he was unrecognisable from the person from the year before and I thought at that moment he's going to be World Champ this year... He won it. Of course at that time he was one of very few riders that were taking their fitness that seriously, most of them do these days and if you don't take that approach you're very unlikely to achieve a championship. Surely Doyle is completely the right example to use, he was nothing more than a second string until he got serious about things he's not off the same gate throughout the meeting though is he? there are so many variables at play, but if you put Woffinden vs Fatty bum bum burger boy (whoever he is?) off the same gate in the same conditions, 9 times out of 10 Woffy is going to beat him... it's all about giving yourself the best chance. If somebody is riding a PJR lay down GM why would you challenge them on a out of the box upright Weslake?

Healthy body... Healthy mind?

They seem to be basing their approach on the Team Sky (cycling) approach of marginal gains. If you want to succeed at world level these days it's what you have to do, gone are the days of rolling up to a match with a bike on the back of your car, hitting the bar afterwards and shooting through maccies on the way home, if you want to succeed at world level that is. If the Poles are doing it and you want to beat them, that has to be your baseline, then do a bit extra and then the rest is down to the rider