I often listen to call-in press conferences. Most of the time press conferences aren’t too interesting. By the time the press conference is called, most bike editors already know the news. It’s mostly to get the mass media clued in to what’s going on. So when Versus had a press conference about their Tour de France coverage, I wasn’t expecting much. I thought I’d listen for a few minutes and then hang up. Versus had the “voices of cycling” Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. They are both good guys and know there stuff. Okay, sure Liggett occasionally calls out the wrong rider, but you try talking non-stop for hours on live television! The Q&A started off all right with newspaper editors asking Tour questions. But one reporter really pissed me off with a question that showed he didn’t have clue about cycling. His statement was that Floyd Landis’ stage 17 was super-human and how can cycling be believable. It hit a nerve with me and I was trying to call in myself to yell at that jerk-off. It hit a nerve with Sherwen as well and he had a good response. He stated that the Landis’ effort was not super-human and that in fact the peloton gambled about catching him and then only chased Landis for 12 miles. Then another reporter made mention of riders under suspicion that had just raced in the Giro. Liggett jumped on that one and said that Petacchi had been found to have “non-negative” by just nanograms of Salbutamol, an asthma medication that he has papers for. Phil rightly said that the amount he is over the limit has no performance enhancing abilities. I hope that the mass media reports these facts and not the quick attention grabbing headlines proclaiming that all pro cyclists dope. But I won’t hold my breath.
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I agree with you Neil – Even though you never even offered to sell me let alone give me a cool Road mag shirt. Seriously journalist’s are sensationalizing the bad instead of trying to pull the good out of cycling. The great attacks of Di Luca, and Gibo are not covered here in mainstream media but the non-negative tests were in the local paper. Just check out what Austin writes over at SI….It will make you sick the bullshit he is trying to pass off as responsible journalism.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/more/06/27/tour.de.france0702/index.html?section=si_latest
It is pretty pathetic that Lance the Tour hero is now worth more guilty to the media due to his absence in the world of sport.
Cycling realy need a PR dept, how many people realize 50% of the american public would fail a UCI drug test. The list of banned substance includes 1/3 of all legal Precriptions drug & a large hunk of the over the counter/heath food fair.
Caffine, for gods sake is banned.
Yet to read the papers cyclist must all be good time party boys or cheats. I saw a quote last week that said cycling was seting a bad example for baseball, Get real.
If we can’t stop shoting our feet in public the sport has no future.
Caffeine is not banned. 1/3 of all people would not fail the test.
Sure there are other sports that get a free pass.
It doesn’t matter.
Cycling has a serious doping problem, and it deserves all the criticism it is getting, AS LONG as the people criticizing know the facts.
as lance said, “a boo is a lot louder than a cheer.”
dude you should retitle this ‘the ignorance of cycling magazine editors living in the ass of the cyclists they write about instead of doing actual reporting.’ Do some research about Salbutamol. These guys aren’t taking it because they have asthma, and they’re not injecting it for clearer breathing either.
You’re the jerkoff, not the reporters asking real questions. Do some real reporting or just shut up, because this is worthless.
You completely lack credibility as a journalist.