I just have to shake my head at sports fans over this Discovery Channel mess. Cycling is one of the few sports that are really cracking down on drugs. We have all of these scandals because agressive testing and police work is taking place. For any sport to bring the level of action that sports fans demand they must dope.
Look at the big sports here in the States and I have a sneaky feeling about Football in Europe. We all know these guys juice. We all know it keeps these sports at a high level so the public will continue to pump money into them. They have crappy testing programs and the fans mumble but they still go the games and buy the goods because in the end we really don’t care about the drugs as long as we can pour or heart and soul into the teams and go “WOW!” at the performances the players give us. We sports fans are the guilty party when it comes to drugs.
Cycling is being torn to pieces because of it’s attempts to clean itself up. Everyone hopes that the high minded goal of cleaning up the sport will show the world that cycling is doing it’s best to be clean and after these dark times people will come back after they see what has been done. It’s not going to work. When riders wins are doubted because of rumors and when it takes nothing more then a story to take the glory away from a team it proves that us sports fans want the wool pulled over our eyes. We want to say “Well he was tested in the off season.” and live with that. We want what the drugs bring but we dare not see the truth.
Cycling is dead as a pro sport. The glory days are gone. No Virginia there is no Santa Claus. We are ripping apart a sport we love because it is the sacrafice we need to help us ignore what we are paying for in the sports we really love.
I think cycling is dead in the US for completely other reasons. Mainly, because it has NO presence here. The NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, NASCAR all have a presence in many different cities. People can indentify with the players and the teams. The biggest contests(world series, super bowl, stanley cup, etc) are held in the US during prime time. The news outlets cover them from beginning of the season till the end. How can people identify with people they see/hear about once a year(at most) for 2 weeks? Look at Lance, love or hate him, people knew/know who he is. Why? Not because he won the TdF but because he won it 7 straight years, which means people heard about him for 7 years(at least for 2 weeks each year). The mass of people need to develop a relationship with athletes. They can’t do that with only hearing about them for 2 weeks and then nothing.
If cycling really wants to capture the masses, they need to put the athletes in front of us every week, for an extended period of time. We have to learn who these people are. Learn their stories. See them race, frequently. Follow them as they move up/down the standings during the season, not just for 2 weeks.
Of course, to do that, means forgoing the TdF and other big international races. Until they do this, drugs or no drugs, cycling will not have a presence in the US, except during those rare occasions when a US rider is leading the TdF.
Don’t know what you mean. We can see cycling every week on TV where I live.
Oh sorry, if it’s not in the US it does not count ! All major sports world championships (or the pinnacle of the sport) should take place in the US to be relevant ?
"We can see cycling every week on TV where I live. " "Oh sorry, if it’s not in the US it does not count ! "
From what I have read things aren’t all peachy keen with cycling in Europe either. Procycling interviewed a rider, can’t recall his name, who said he couldn’t get cycling on television in Spain. German television pulled out of cycling. Rumbling and grumblings about cycling come out of Europe all the time.
I sounded US heavy because I am in the US but cycling life isn’t all rainbows and balloons in Europe either. The US will never have a strong love of cycling. It always made laugh when people would say “The sport will go on in America after Lance leaves!” Yeah, ok.
Cycling is alive and well in the US as a small niche sport. Look at the crowds at the Tours of California/Georgia and before that the GP San Fran as well as decent coverage on Vs of a fair number of no TdF races. Screw the masses, let them sit on the couch and watch NASCAR, it keeps their pick-ups off the roads when I’m trying to ride. I’m glad Lance is retired, I didn’t have to have a bunch of tedious discussions with clueless co-workers during the tour this year.
For any sport to bring the level of action that sports fans demand they must dope.
Sorry, I don’t buy this. Doping is caused by the athletes and teams wanting to get an advantage over their competitors.
Fans just look the other way, because they had rather not have to face the fact that their hero is cheating.
The fans just want the competition to be fair. I would be just as interested in cycling/MLB/NFL/NHL if there was zero doping. I care about competition and a good game. What turns me off is cheating.
I do agree with you though, that MLB, MBA, F1, Soccer, they are ALL looking at how the cycling story in playing out, and they would be stupid to get tough on doping, knowing that the effect would be the implosion of their sport. Sponsors bailing, fans getting pissed, champions called into question, records meaningless, sponsor $$ going elsewhere, TV not covering, sponsor $$ going elsewhere, $$$, $$$, $$$, $$$. Hell no, as a “business”, these other sports would be stupid to get tough on doping. They are definitely taking note of the cycling world as a case study.
I love how we (as a community) silmultaneously tear down the anti-doping institutions AND glorify cycling’s tough stance on drugs. Cycling has “rigid” testing because of its history of doping which is very very long. What comes first? Testing/doping, or doping/testing?? Baseball implemented steroid testing after the abuse became a black eye. Is this different from how EPO testing has evolved?? I don’t think so.
As far as I know there isn’t a test available yet for HGH. Please don’t tell me that cycling is sacrificing itself because of its testing policies. You have people that know the policies, people that signed an agreement forfeiting their salary, people that are in the paper as Tour favorites and STILL have the audacity to cheat!! What is actually going to stop them?? You are wrong to assume that athletes in other sports feel the same pressure to cheat and weigh the risk/rewards in the same way. Baseball has a new homerun king and the record could still be nullified, because baseball (to my knowledge) hasn’t imposed a statute of limitations that allows all these cheaters to say “Oh by the way, I’m sorry” 7 years later. Who the f*ck thought that was a good idea?
let’s face it, the only times the TdF made it to the 11:00 news on the networks was when somebody crashed or someone got busted. There’s very little interest from the average viewer, so what? you might say, well, the average viewer is the one advertisers are after. As far as cycling fans go, we might need to get used to the idea that dopers are still going to be around and for the next couple of years the sport will clean up, then, like after the Festina affair, it will get bad again.
I agree, cycling would not have the p.r. issues if it didn’t test. I think it would be better for cycling as a sport to NOT test. Cycling has ruined itself.
C’mon Tibbs! The NFL is super harsh on performance enhancing drugs. I just read in USA Today that another football player was busted for steroids. Poor fella has to give up all of 4 WEEKS.
I think that part of what makes doping in cycling so “spectacular” is the strictness of the penalties. Typically a 2 year ban, plus another 2 years on top of that where you can’t be on a Pro Tour team.
Those sports are not popular because the drug usage is ignored, they are popular because the average american can sit on a couch with a 24 pack of beer, order pizza and wings from the fast food joint, and every 10 minutes yell to his buddies “Duuuuude , did you see that ???”, now how exciting is watching a guy pedaling his way up a mountain for four hours ??
But those guys never watch cycling and yet it used to have corporations willing to advertise and sponsor. Now, with the fanatical drug testing, cycling has alienated those fans that actually watched cycling. I not saying that doping is good nor am I saying that the riders are not complicit in the downfall of cycling. However, it is clear that the various governing bodies, including WADA’s Mr. Pound, have destroyed the image of cycling. More sophisticated P.R. entities, like the NFL and the NBA, understand how to appear like they are battling doping without becoming so fanatical as to kill their sport through negative media coverage.
One of the reasons why sponsors are pulling out of cycling and ignore the juicing of the sports you mentioned is that regardless of the juicing in by people like Barry Bonds, Budweiser is going to be sold to a large part of 55,000 people at the ball park because they don’t have another choice.
Spectators in cycling except at the finishes are spread out over the course and either get things from vendors on the street or bring what ever it is they’re going to consume. Not as much money in it as there is in the captive audience of a stadium sport that lasts 3 hours instead of 3 weeks. For cycling sponsors, at least in the US, it would seem that the return on their investment is intangible, and if it’s making them look bad why would they stay if they’re not making enough money to make the marketing work for them.
