Cycling: The Dirtiest Sport Of Them All

[OrangeOne]

Originally Posted by West Coast Ace

We can agree to disagree...

Let's start here. At least in the US - you don't list your location - they say '7 time Tour Winner, Lance Armstrong.' They don't name his team as having won 7 times, then list him as the captain. So you may know it's a team - but a lot of people don't.

As I posted later, should we apologise and cater for every member of the public that wants the crib-note version of life? I don't think so. Of course Lance wins the tour - as I explained in a subsequent post - the truly amazing efforts are that of the individual, and the individual in crowned the winner. But team positions are also acknowledged (and can differ from the individual ratings unless I'm remembering incorrectly), and efforts of the team are acknowledged.

It'd somewhat surprise me that the teams of the riders are never mentioned in the US, as the major sponsor of Lance's team for much of his career was US Postal, a group who'd likely sponsor in return for the exposure they receive back home.

And I won't even bring up the fact that the last stage is mostly ceremonial - they ride into Paris drinking champagne.

Yes, it's actually a large problem for the tour. They drink so much that they have to fit training wheels on the bikes, and France often runs out of Champagne, what with 200 riders drinking Champagne instead of water for the day. Did you see the year that 7 of the riders actually had to stop and have a bit of a spew?

Or in actuality:

a. It's a PR shot, it's a sip of champagne, and it's only something the leader(s) of the winning team(s) do, after the result is beyond doubt. It's like the final 5 mins of a football / basketball / soccer game with one team leading by a simply impossible margin, you see a few things you wouldn't normally. It's one of the great things about the untimed nature of tennis, players are forced to compete until the final point.

b. It happens after 20 days of cycling THOUSANDS of miles.

c. Even though the race leader is usually known, the green jersey (a very prestigious award) - the sprint jersey - is often not decided until the finish line. Those guys aren't sipping anything on the final stage, it's the biggest moment of their year / career.

Bad analogy. A better one would be a broken string - and those points count. It's considered bad luck. Just like in racing - F1 doesn't slow down if someone has trouble getting their tire lugs fastened properly.

Actually, I thought about the broken string analogy. The problem is - under most circumstances (for a Pro, with unlimited access to restringing), a broken string is user-error. As is your tire-lug (wheel nut??) example. User error. Whereas a flat tire in cycling - in the circumstances we're discussing here - is almost universally simply bad luck. Hence my analogy.

I'm sorry you think we're disparaging your 'sport' - but it's very flawed. At least compared to tennis. Again, we can agree to disagree.

Why do you need to make it 'my sport'? I've cycled for about a decade, and played tennis for almost 3 times that length of time.

In my opinion, it's your opinions that are flawed, and some people are just not willing to understand the sport. Of course, we can agree to disagree.