Letters to the Editor
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Actually it's only partly because Lance is gone
I admit, I'm not an avid bicyclist, and last year was the first year I watched the tour in it's entirety. But I fully intended to watch it this year, because of a storyline that had been building during Lance's reign. I wanted to see which of the perennial runner-ups would win the Tour in his absence. I was looking forward to seeing Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich battle it out now that the superman was gone.
And then they got disqualified because of a doping scandal. The didn't get caught with anything, they weren't even formally charged. Their names were on a list of possible players in a doping scandal published by a Spanish newspaper. That was enough to have them booted from the tournament. That pretty much soured me on not only the Tour but bicycle racing in general.
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Speak for yourself, King
July is the month when we splurge on fancy cable (up from the cheapo local-channels-only version) just to watch the Tour. We watched it before Lance, we had a great run watching Lance win, and we're still watching. Yes, we're out of the mainstream. For most of the rest of the year, the set is off or on Sesame Street, and we (gasp!) read books. Or hike. Or ski. Or have a life away from the TV set. But anyway.
Floyd Landis, an American racing for the Phonak team, is having a hell of a run this year. However, Floyd Landis is a quiet guy who keeps to himself and happens to be a great bike racer, unlike Lance "mouth on wheels" Armstrong. So yes, there is an American to root for other than Lance. I've learned a ton about the stragegy, tactics, and team aspect of bike racing from the excellent commentators on OLN: Bob Roll, Paul Sherwen, and Phil Liggett. All three have been around cycle racing forever, understand the history of the sport and the personal histories of every racer and team, and if you're willing to listen, you can learn a lot.
Another aspect that Americans don't "get" with the tour is that these are truly international teams. The teams have sponsors, the teams have racers. If you look at any one team roster (www.letour.com), the individual racers come from all over the world. Even when Lance was sponsored by the US Postal Service and wearing a red, white, and blue uniform, the team was international. The Discovery Channel team (Lance's ex) has only one American on it this year.
But the real problem, King (and the problem of many American sports fans) is that you don't "get" endurance sports. Bunch of sweaty guys running into each other to fight over a ball? You're all over it. People doing anything in a straight line (biking, running, skiing, swimming, you name it) and ho-hum, I think I'll go wash the car.
There ARE sports that don't involve a ball. Really and truly. So sorry for you that you don't get them.
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Tour de Bore
Yeah Paul, it was the immense disappointment that Basso was not there that soured you on skiiny foreign guys racing interminably thru the mountains. Oh, and the drug scandal in a sport so unsullied by accustaions as biking. That was the other part.
Otherwise watching a bunch guys in tight shorts go bike riding for 2-9 hours is loads of fun for the family.
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Blockhead!
Finally, the one word that perfectly sums up this self-obsessed dope. "Blockhead"... yep, that's the essence of T.O. to a "T". Oh, and as an aside: once again King has proven that not only does terrific sports commentary exist outside ESPN's Page 2, but often surpasses it.
Heh. "Blockhead". I'm gonna chuckle for days over that.
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Not that bad
King, do you have a link to the actual ratings numbers anywhere? All I can find online are stories and blogs that refer to a NY Times article from July 7 - http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20F17FE3B540C748CDDAE0894DE404482.
I am not surprised that ratings have dropped, but I bet they are better for the last week than the previous week. Too many flat stages and no team tim trial that first week.
Anyway, I guess the coverage is down of the Tour is down in the US, but I am sure it is still much better than the pre-Lance coverage. My local paper has an AP story on page 5 of the sport section every day. The Tour is probably getting about half the space that the World Cup got, which isn't bad considering.
Personally I have watched every stage, though with TiVo remote in hand. I am enjoying the Tour more this year because everything is up in the air. I admit that Lance converted me to a fan of bike racing, not just of Lance, which is not true of most Americans.
PaulC, I think that you are too hard on the reaction to the current Spanish doping investigation. The teams themselves, not an outside governing body, decided to pull all riders whose names where mention in the Spanish government investigation because they didn't want to taint the entire race. I think it would have been foolish to let Urlich and the other ride because then the story through the entitre racing would have been "When is the hammer going to come down?"
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Bike Racing and a TO comment
I'd never say that I can't understand how people can watch the Tour de France because there are many things out there that I don't watch but that lots of others like...take American Idol or really, any reality show.
I can however understand why it's easy to ignore, even with a big-name person riding. The race takes longer than the Olympics(R) to happen, there's more than a few different kinds of races to be run and the race can be over even before the last day of riding is started.
Americans like their competition to be short and sweet, have 9 innings or 4 quarters and be close at the end. The "greatest" Super Bowls(R) and World Series have been those that go down to the wire or to Game 7. If the World Series is over in 4 games it's not considered a great World Series - if the Super Bowl is over in the first quarter, no one talks about it as one of the best.
That being said, these guys are great athletes and I'll always watch that...but I'm fine with watching the highlights on ESPN.
Re: TO. I still think he's a narcissistic ass. But he gets his name in the papers a lot even during the off season particularly now as his book is being sold. By the way, he claims that he was misquoted in the book...it's an autobiography.
Again, the great athlete thing, I'll watch him, but I'll always root against him...particularly now that he's on the Cowboys. He'll be complaining about Drew Bledsoe by the end of game 2 as there's no way Bledsoe will throw it to him enough...not even if he was still good and with the Patriots.