A Rant about Cycling

If you know us at all, you'd know that our family is not super 'sportsy.' I mean we do enjoy out door sports, etc, but just aren't big followers of organized sports and teams. Really I only watch a few different shows that I record during the school year, and Brad only logs about 25 hours a year of TV watching. So that doesn't keep us up to date on the various sports activities. OK, well I take that back. There are few things faithfully: The America's Cup Sailboat Racing (but that only happens once ever 4 years), the Olympics (again, not very often), the Superbowl (actually an annual activity) and most important of all... the Tour de France (20 days of cycling around France, each year in July).

Back in Brad's younger, glory days, he used to also cycle race, doing some different races in Nova Scotia, Canada, and around our valley and in the Northwest. If I can find a pic of him during this time I'll post it later. Somehow he still has this sport in his blood, so every year we watch... thank god for DVR, as the races are long, full of commercials and on at odd times of day to watch in the US.



Each year we keep saying how we'd love to go to France and see the races live. But reality is that Brad will never travel away from the Beautiful Flathead Lake or his blessed sailboat in the summer months. And honestly, I think TV coverage is probably better in some ways than being there. Those beautiful little quaint villages they ride through would be crowded, crowded, crowded, and really you can see from the TV that people must arrive to particular sites early, line up to watch, and then wait. Eventually, depending where your spot is, you've waited for all of these riders to zoom by you at 60 miles an hour. And then, poof, your moment of watching is over. I am sure it would be a rush to see, but for now I'll stick to watching it on channel 607.



Enough of the foreplay, back to my rant...Yesterday, Brad and I were catching up on watching the most recent stage #8, which was on Sunday (Monday this week was a rest day). OK, well technically today #9 has happened and is probably over with even while I type this, but am saving that for tonight to watch. But by then last 10 minutes of the race, I was so mad at the commentators, I could hardly contain my self. I was yelling, cussing, stomping my foot...pissed. So the Great Lance Armstrong, the 7 time tour winner, golden-boy of US cycling, wrecked 3 times during this stage, not even his fault wrecks, just typical stuff, pedals bumping or someone falling in front of him. These things happen, I know, but the thing that happened was that these wrecks, put him back like 8 minutes behind the overall winner. So these commentators, kept saying, "today was the day he lost the race." OMG I felt like if I could reach through the TV, I'd kick them in the teeth. There are still 12 races left, and they had just finished showing a tribute to Lance, from 2001 where he was behind 35 minutes by stage 10, and still went on to win the whole thing. All I'm saying is that anything could happen. Maybe he is over his prime, and his moment in the sun is over, but I hate that it is not even 1/2 way and they are calling results. For any racer, I think that would feel horrible. Then they were shoving all these cameras in his face asking him what he thought about his finish times, the second he crossed the line. I hate that the media thrives on the bad... So there's my rant....Oh, and by the way, Lance isn't our only favorite racer. But what he has done has been amazing and it's hard not to cheer for him.... Damn those commentators!