Why The Tour de France Sucks
One of the biggest things I hate about instant replay - in any sport, but especially football - is that you can’t instantly rejoice after a big play. Nope. Before you can cheer, you have to wait to make sure it was really a legit play. Even if no one challenges the call, you still have those few seconds when you’re thinking “ohh, that was great, I hope it stands.” Instant replay steals the spontaneity.
Ditto the impact of drugs on the Tour. On Sunday you see an amazing win. But you can’t celebrate it until Wednesday, after the next drug tests, when you find out whether the win was legit or not. All too often, as was the case with Ricardo Ricco this year, or Floyd Landis in 2006, it was not. It’s like it isn’t even a live sporting event. It sucks most of the enjoyment out of the event.
I really do not care if Ricco or anyone else used some kind of performance enhancing drug. Maybe they cause long term health damage. Maybe not. If I was the one using them, I might be a bit more concerned. But even if they are as terrible as we’re constantly told, cyclists will always use them. So unless cycling officials decide to allow the drugs, the Tour is always going to suck.
July 18, 2008 at 11:15 am
Point taken. However, I think you can still enjoy the race. You just have to go into it with a different set of expectations. Instead of seeing it as the greatest sporting event on earth, think of it as “reality tv”….drama with pain (see Bill Strickland’s blog on Ricco http://sittingin.bicycling.com/2008/07/of-course-he-wa.html). I still watch with hopeful anticipation, but I also think there can be great sport (maybe even with odds) in trying to identify who rides too well to be clean. And you talk about cahonies…you can descend an Alpine slope at 60 mph and you might lose your life, but if you get busted doping, you live in shame. Now that’s risk. What I don’t understand is why they ousted Boonen. I mean, coke isn’t performance enhancing, is it? When these guys start using real drugs, the sport will be awesome! Just imagine a ’shroom inspired descent down the Tourmalet.
July 18, 2008 at 12:38 pm
“Just imagine a ’shroom inspired descent down the Tourmalet
hang out with the mtb crowd and you won’t have to imagine.