who cares?

6288

drugs, politics, cancer charities ... I DON'T CARE!

I just want entertainment on my TV when I watch cycling ...

The playing field is pretty much level for everyone in the peleton ... moral fibre, talent and hard work will make the difference. Mercx, Hinault, Lemond, Indurain, Armstrong, Contador all won in their own era's where certain standards were acceptable/available and the racing was competitive ... so if there were cheats, what does that say about the winners?

Professional cycling is fun because you get great competition and/or great individual performances (admit it, Ricco's tour exploits were fun before the shit hit the fan) ... i take it for what its worth and enjoy it.

Kléber

I suggest you switch to WWF wrestling or Nascar.

iainf72

Take it for what it's worth?

Well, it's worth nothing when it's completely unbelievable so where does that leave us?

I wonder if Bob Mould (showing my age and indie cred here) or Gorilla Monsoon are available to write scripts for cycling?

aurelio_-_banned

6288 wrote:

The playing field is pretty much level for everyone in the peloton ... moral fibre, talent and hard work will make the difference.

Will the delusion never end? :roll:

Generally speaking, modern day doping gives the doper a huge advantage over the clean rider, no matter how dedicated that clean rider is and regardless of how much hard work they put it. That said, doping benefits different riders to different degrees. Consequently, you simply can`t be sure that the finishing order does anything other than highlight which riders have a physiology which adapts the best to state of the art doping methods or were prepared to push the doping envelope further than the rest.

Also not every rider is doped, and no rider should feel that they need to dope themselves to the gills, potentially putting their health at risk, in order to be competitive.

Eurostar

The people who argue that doping is OK because "everybody does it" ignore the fact that there are a few who don't. How can they be so blind?

By extension they're also saying that the clean riders should either start cheating or or accept that they will be beaten by cheats or get out of the sport.

Let's say that Wiggins is clean, which I suspect he is. It infuriates me that we'll never know how well he could do in the Tour if there was no cheating. He must have extraordinary strength of character to stick to his guns knowing that he's going to be beaten by cheats on every stage.

DavMartinR

I just want entertainment on my TV when I watch cycling ...

But if cycling doesn't sort it self out it won't be on tv??

Bronzie

Oh goody................let's go back to the good old days of the early nineties when riders were dropping dead because they'd turned their blood to syrup - proper entertainment!

FJS

Purely in terms of spectator spectacle, the OP has a point. By far the most memorable and exciting bit of racing to watch the last decade or so was the battle of Contador vs Rasmussen on the Peyresourde in the TdF of 2007. One rider connected to Operacion Puerto, the other 'training in Mexico'. Both very probably heavily doped up, but still the most spectacular bit of racing.

But the of course in the end sport has to be credible to remain sport, and in the long-term cannot just be about spectacle and entertainment... so please, no.

Kléber

It would be even more exciting if we have the riders flasks of oil, hidden fishing wire and machine guns. Think Wacky Races meets The Running Man. Entertaining!

But madness and a depraved exercise, where rider's health and sporting contests come second to satisfying the impatience of armchair TV viewers. Just look at the way American Football, and to a lesser extent rugby, is going. The unchecked use of human growth hormone is ruining these sports, building truck sized players who crash into eachother causing physical harm. You see wonderful Chabal-style tackles, the commentators wow but no one is asking about the health and sanity of the players, so long as the crowds love it.

Indeed, why don't we just have a literal version of Devil Take the Hindmost, where the first rider to get dropped each day in a 200 stage Tour of Europe is executed live on TV, viewers could text in their choice of electric chair, guillotine and ironically, lethal injection.

Patrick1.0

That sounds brilliant, Kleber. Or how about a system where there are multiple executions on the day. First rider to crash gets his head chopped off. First rider to go off the back has a lethal injection, the breakaway that is caught is killed by firing squad, anybody who drafts behind the cars to avoid being dropped after a puncture or any other problem has to weave in and out of bullets from all the different team cars in order to get back up to the pack. The possibilities are endless.

dennisn

6288 wrote:

drugs, politics, cancer charities ... I DON'T CARE!

I just want entertainment on my TV when I watch cycling ...

The playing field is pretty much level for everyone in the peloton ... moral fibre, talent and hard work will make the difference. Mercx, Hinault, Lemond, Indurain, Armstrong, Contador all won in their own era's where certain standards were acceptable/available and the racing was competitive ... so if there were cheats, what does that say about the winners?

Professional cycling is fun because you get great competition and/or great individual performances (admit it, Ricco's tour exploits were fun before the shoot hit the fan) ... i take it for what its worth and enjoy it.

I'm with you all the way. And I'm not kidding. The only thing I would change is your
title - from "who cares" to "why care". "Take it for what it's worth" - very well put.

Dennis Noward

eh

As far as I'm concerned WWF (or whatever it is now) is probably the only "honest" sport out there. All the others cycling included present themselves as real but are completely dodgy think drugs, match fixing etc, etc. If all you want is entertainment then thats what professional sport delivers, but if you want real performance you'd be better off watching at the local park.

Although maybe womens pro cycling is tainted to the same degree, but even then it is hard to know.

DavMartinR

Patrick1.0 wrote:

That sounds brilliant, Kleber. Or how about a system where there are multiple executions on the day. First rider to crash gets his head chopped off. First rider to go off the back has a lethal injection, the breakaway that is caught is killed by firing squad, anybody who drafts behind the cars to avoid being dropped after a puncture or any other problem has to weave in and out of bullets from all the different team cars in order to get back up to the pack. The possibilities are endless.

You could add a jackass style element to which rider can juice up the most??? Check out the jam in my veins dud!!!!

mrushton

there doesn't seem to be a problem for people watching football,swimming,tennis,motoGP,athletics etc. All sports that 'avoid' testing wherever possible.

idaviesmoore

mrushton wrote:

there doesn't seem to be a problem for people watching football,swimming,tennis,motoGP,athletics etc. All sports that 'avoid' testing wherever possible.

'S true this is. It's about time people realised that drugs and cycling aint mutually exclusive. A lot of professional sport you're seeing on tv isn't what it appears. Don't even think that most of the other sporting 'heroes' aren't taking some sort of narcotic to enhance thier performance. :roll:

leguape

iainf72 wrote:

Take it for what it's worth?

Well, it's worth nothing when it's completely unbelievable so where does that leave us?

I wonder if Bob Mould (showing my age and indie cred here) or Gorilla Monsoon are available to write scripts for cycling?

Bob can sure tell us all about how to lose that extra pound and go from fat indie slob to muscle mary. He only wrote for about two seasons didn't he, and specialised in writing "heels", also know as bad guys

skavanagh.bikeradar

Happen as maybe, but 8 wrongs (or 20 or 50) don't make a right. Besides, I'm only interested in cycling and I'd prefer my viewing not to be ridiculed every 6 months by scandal. I'm also not prepared to accept that 'that's how it is'. It could be different and I'm happy to hold out for it.

idaviesmoore

skavanagh.bikeradar wrote:

I'm only interested in cycling and I'd prefer my viewing not to be ridiculed every 6 months by scandal. .

I quite enjoy the notorioty of liking a sport with such a bad name. Besides a lot of people who ridicule the sport wouldn't be able to find their ar$e with two hands and a biology book. It never bothers me TBH

dirk_van_gently

This my only post on this subject.

This pretty much goes for all Pro sports.

THEY ARE ALL F'in CHEATS, and DELUDED cheats at that.

idaviesmoore

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

THEY ARE ALL F'in CHEATS, and DELUDED cheats at that.

I think you're holding back a bit their DVG

mrushton

when drug testing was advocated recently for MotoGP riders, they threatened to go 'on strike' so make of that what you will.

andy_wrx

I suspect the drugs would be of the Boonen variety rather than EPO though ?

Monty Dog

Re Moto GP riders - some were probably worried that they hadn't taken enough and whether there would need to be a mandated minimum before you started! Perhaps Valentino got his moniker for other nefarious practises?

iainf72

leguape wrote:

iainf72 wrote:

Bob can sure tell us all about how to lose that extra pound and go from fat indie slob to muscle mary. He only wrote for about two seasons didn't he, and specialised in writing "heels", also know as bad guys

Yep - He stopped because of "creative differences" I think. But I think he mentioned some of the wrestlers on one his more recent albums where he tried to be a techno boffin. And failed.

tubularglue

Dirk Van Gently wrote:

This my only post on this subject.

This pretty much goes for all Pro sports.

THEY ARE ALL F'in CHEATS, and DELUDED cheats at that.

I must admit, i agree 100%, and so the term professional.........................