Wow, talking about the Tour on ESPN's Dan Patrick show? At least that's a start! Maybe Dibbs can ask Lance about that little theory if they can ever get him on the show.

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FIST Certified Fitter
Salt Lake City, Utah

Barring technicalities like actually signing a pro contract and the elimination times every day, with enough training most anyone COULD ride in the TdF. They would just finish about 24-48 hours behind Lance Armstrong at the end.

Riding isn't particularly hard, it's the riding fast part that is tough.

You would think guys into football would understand the difference between a really good athlete and a professional. This kind of commentary happens every year during the tour.

He wasn't talking about riding it. He was talking about being able to compete with the average tour rider.

I heard some of it. He and his broadcast partner (not Dan Patrick today) also ranted on about how inconsequential the Tour is in their sports universe -- how, if the tour took place during football season, Lance would go unnoticed. It's too bad someone as ignorant of the sport -- of any sport outside of MLB, NBA, NFL, college hoops and football, and sometimes golf and tennis -- as Dibble has a forum as powerful as ESPN at his disposal.

Steve Nichols

I listed to it a little today, Dibble is a moron.

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Kestrel Syndicate
Macca Fan Club

The reason ESPN ignores the Tour and its talk show hosts make fun of it is because ESPN doesn't get any revenue from the Tour. If the Tour was carried on ESPN, it would get as much time as any team sport. Look at how much they talk about the NHL, and there are, maybe, a hundred people in the US who really follow it. Also, look at the attention they pay to the "sport" of poker. Maybe Dibble could set up a cycling competition between some of the poker "athletes" and some of the tour riders.

dibble is an idiot. but here is a nice little story:

a few years back some buddies and i were racing superweek, and we had one of the races in our hometown. a teevee crew came out to do a little story on the local boys mixing it up in the big bike race downtown, blah blah. the teevee guy askes my buddy - " so, do you want to someday make it to the tdf ?" my buddy, who was a star football/wrestling etc type athlete in high school did not miss a beat and laughed in the reporters face before replying " HA !! i would stand a far better chance of going down and walking on and playing starting lineman for the green bay packers this season than i EVER would of getting to the tdf ",.

so true, so true. and, a great television moment. :)

http://espnradio.espn.go.com/.../show?showId=1058217

Thought you all would like to see for yourselves the logic the meat head uses to say cycling isn't a sport. Dibbs must have take too many line drives to the mellon.

ESPN is just jealous because OLN won the US broadcast contract from the TDF organization. Be careful or they they'll get Dick Vitale doing play by play (or should I say pedal by pedal). Imagine calling Lance a PT'per or Thomas Voekler a diaper dandy. yikes. glad it's on OLN enev though they have a few dorks themselves.

Beyond the fact that its a fundamentally silly comment, I'm not sure what he's getting at. From what I've read, I take it that he thinks its not a sport because 7 yr olds can do it (ride a bike that is) and its done by relatively small people.

By that logic, world-class marathoners or triathletes, for that matter, aren't athletes, because most people can run, bike, or swim, although not terribly fast.

Obviously, Dibble considers baseball a sport. As somebody who used to play and watch quite a bit of baseball, that is entirely ludicrous. Baseball takes coordination, but not a hell of a lot of conditioning. The notion of baseball players even working out is a relatively new phenomenon. For Chrissakes, Dibble was a pitcher - the least active guy on the field - the guy who works once every 5 games, and moves a total of about 10 feet through the entire game. And that's assuming he plays 7 innings. I mean, Jesus, Gaylord fucking Perry was a pitcher, and I don't think even he would confuse himself with an athlete. Fat guys who have the genetic ability to throw a ball 90+ mph are not now nor ever will be athletes.

Dibble is confusing activity with achievement, but perhaps we're asking a lot from an athlete.

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"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" - Benjamin Franklin
"Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here." - Alvy Singer, "Annie Hall"

 i would stand a far better chance of going down and walking on and playing starting lineman for the green bay packers this season than i EVER would of getting to the tdf ",.


Isn't that how they get most of their linemen?

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but I can deal with the angels, cause it ain’t me they’re here to claim. it’s a good night for blowing ‘em off til some other day

Yes I heard him mention that today and I just shook my head. They consistenly make fun of how stupid he is on the show so I wouldn't take it to seriously. He is an idiot for saying it regardless.



Max Kellerman mentioned something like bikes are something sophomores in college ride, that's not a sport. I hold him in a different regard than I do "Rondell" Dibble, therefore I was quite disappointed in his comment.

It's a stick and ball society we live in unfortunately.

Moore and Dibble asked this rhetorical question - "If you never knew who won the Tour de France, would you feel like you missed something?"


My question is : "If you never heard those morons Rob Dibble and Chris Moore on ESPN Radio, would you feel like you missed something?"

Other quotes :"It's not that tough of a sport. The bike does most of the work."

By their logic, the World Cup is entirely irrelevant, despite the fact that almost all of the rest of the world tunes in religiously, except for us. I guess it would irritate him that most people in the world consider Zinedine Zidane a better athlete than him, and he's a frog, for God's sakes.

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"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" - Benjamin Franklin
"Don't you see the rest of the country looks upon New York like we're left-wing, communist, Jewish, homosexual pornographers? I think of us that way sometimes and I live here." - Alvy Singer, "Annie Hall"

Moore and Dibble asked this rhetorical question - "If you never knew who won the Tour de France, would you feel like you missed something?"

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Ten years ago I followed baseball religiously, had A's season tickets etc. etc. As recently as last year, I would at least check the standings a couple times a week and watch a game or two a week on tv. I got pissed this spring that MLB doesn't seem to care about baseball's drug problem and swore not to go to a baseball game, watch baseball on tv, look at the standings or otherwise give a damn about baseball until MLB starts trying to clean it up. I have and I am surprised at how little I feel like I'm missing.

PS - yes, I see the irony in watching cycling instead of baseball because I'm concerned about baseball's drug problem.

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Anyone who tells you they're as fast now as they were when they were 18...
sure wasn't very fast when they were 18.

LOL Rich, but at least in cycling, the governing body pretends to give a hoot about it's drug problem... Baseball doesn't even try. Your reason for not watching is my reason for not watching, and I'm sure we're not alone.

As far as I know there is no cyclist union or guaranteed contracts. You don't perform and you're out. Yay for cycling!

At least they cover the tdf in the news segment. It is sad they can only understand 3 pro sports. Oh and golf.
Thom aka Dirt

If I didn't know who won the World Series, I really wouldn't feel as though I missed anything. I'm not a baseball fan. I enjoyed playing it when I was a kid, and I enjoy going to the occasional game... but I can count on one hand the number of games I've actually been to in the last 10 years.

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Steve Perkins

"If I didn't know who won the World Series, I really wouldn't feel as though I missed anything... but I can count on one hand the number of games I've actually been to in the last 10 years."

I've been to two in the past 22. White Sox v. Orioles ALCS at Comiskey (game three, I think) and a Giants game with my ex-wife's work people...

To be honest I couldn't tell you who won the World Series in the past ten years, although I know the Yankees won it once or twice. Last WS I remember was Giants - A's, and I don't remember who won! I do remember there was a bit of a shake-up in that series, however!!

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Cousin Elwood - Team Over-the-hill Racing
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