• The Cycling News forum is looking to add some volunteer moderators with Red Rick's recent retirement. If you're interested in helping keep our discussions on track, send a direct message to @SHaines here on the forum, or use the Contact Us form to message the Community Team.

    In the meanwhile, please use the Report option if you see a post that doesn't fit within the forum rules.

    Thanks!

Difference between American and European fans

Very helpful thanks

And being a brit living in Canada I have first hand experience of mis-communication that can result in cultural difference.

The time when my Canadian wife shouted up the stairs for me to bring her 'fanny pack' (bum bag!) down with me and I thought my mum was going to have a heart attack.

Only thing I would say is that there are a few more shades of grey across Europe than the article represents. I would say in the UK there is a lot less ambivalence to doping than the article implies - but I doubt this means the UK riders are clean. In fact shh I know they are not!

At the risk of getting all French are this and Italians are that... one of my most amusing memories is riding in the gran fondo Giro de Sardinia...

It was the TTT and one of the local Italian team's bus just sat in front of them pretty much all the way around the course! At one point they over took us - yes with the bus in front - as they went by they shouted at us because we hadn't moved over to let them through! It was so outragous it was funny. The official photographer had even taken a photo of them which was passed around at dinner that night - everyone laughed - nothing was done about it! The italian bus driver was given a prize at the end by one of the dutch teams (obviously as a joke) - I am not sure they got the joke! I love the Italians always have and always will.

Vive la difference! :D
 
Jun 10, 2009
249
0
0
Visit site
Cycling is like Football to the US. The only reason most people pay attention is because of LeMond or Armstrong. If football got a US athlete like those two more would pay attention but I doubt that it would endure after they retired.
 
RightWingNutJob said:
Cycling is like Football to the US. The only reason most people pay attention is because of LeMond or Armstrong. If football got a US athlete like those two more would pay attention but I doubt that it would endure after they retired.

I assume you mean soccer! The beautiful game that yanks think is for girls.

Vive la difference!
 
There's some evidence to suggest that the American sports fan is more permissive of perf enhancing drugs than the article suggests. Major league baseball has seen a mixture of acceptance and revulsion for players who have tested positive. The case of Manny Ramirez's acceptance in Los Angeles suggests that the sports news media is more concerned than the actual fanbase (An opinion often floated by Mike Wilbon). There are some very broad generalizations which make me uncomfortable in the article but it does illustrate what has historically been some profound cultural differences.

Attitudes in the US concerning these matters are VERY quickly evolving, so rapidly that I think it's hard to say with real certainty what public perception actually is.
 
What a poor article. To imply that the desire for drug-free sport is something American and the acceptance of drugs in sport as something European is just ridiculous.

I found the following passage particularly noxious ...

"My own Henry James moment came while covering the Tour for the first time, in 1987. After an early stage a strapping Italian sprinter turned up positive at doping control. Claude the press chief, his mouth framed by mustache and ascot, explained that the rider had been fined several hundred Swiss francs. He would go into the books as finishing last for that day's stage. And he would be subject to a ban if he were to test positive again.
Surely that wasn't the end of it, I thought. A rider had been caught doping in the Tour de Friggin' France ... and he would start the next morning? Over time my astonishment would gradually yield to something else: a sense of being unsophisticatedly and irredeemably American."

Geez dude, what about the fact that until only a few years ago the "punishment" for a first offender in baseball was counselling?! For years the people that ran the league, journalists and (to a lesser extent) the general public all turned blind eyes. Even now, though baseball has made some effort to clean up its act, the penalty for Manny Ramirez's positive test recently was just 50 games (less than one-third of the regular season).

And what about American Football, where players get warned in advance that they will be tested? Shawne Merriman tested positive in 2006 and was given a four game ban (equating to quarter of the regular season). He then got voted into the Pro-Bowl team (the all-star game) later than season!

So please, spare us the patriotic melodrama about the differences between Americans (and their sense of fair play) and Europeans (and their acceptance of human frailty). Total bull****.
 
May 13, 2009
653
0
0
Visit site
lean said:
There's some evidence to suggest that the American sports fan is more permissive of perf enhancing drugs than the article suggests. Major league baseball has seen a mixture of acceptance and revulsion for players who have tested positive. The case of Manny Ramirez's acceptance in Los Angeles suggests that the sports news media is more concerned than the actual fanbase (An opinion often floated by Mike Wilbon). .
In the U.S., If an athlete gets busted, then admits to it, then apologizes, then serves his supension, they are given a second chance. Example: Manny

If they get busted, does not admit to it, doesent apologize, they are looked at differently and treated differently. Example: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemons, and Pete Rose.
 
frizzlefry said:
In the U.S., If an athlete gets busted, then admits to it, then apologizes, then serves his supension, they are given a second chance. Example: Manny

If they get busted, does not admit to it, doesent apologize, they are looked at differently and treated differently. Example: Barry Bonds, Roger Clemons, and Pete Rose.

Agree, a pattern mirrored in pro cycling to a large degree
 
Jul 12, 2009
21
0
0
Visit site
Americans generally have no interest in cheating on others. These young riders come over to Europe, see what's going on, and after a long and hard-fought battle are finally pulled into the world of doping. This is just a very sad thing to happen, and I ask all young and hopeful American riders to please stay in this great country and not let themselves get corrupted on European turf. We can have a harder and more beautiful race than the TdF, generate genuine interest among American consumers, and simply block out the rest of the world, where nobody gives a d... about clean, fair sport.
 
May 26, 2009
377
0
0
Visit site
Alex99 said:
Americans generally have no interest in cheating on others. These young riders come over to Europe, see what's going on, and after a long and hard-fought battle are finally pulled into the world of doping. This is just a very sad thing to happen, and I ask all young and hopeful American riders to please stay in this great country and not let themselves get corrupted on European turf. We can have a harder and more beautiful race than the TdF, generate genuine interest among American consumers, and simply block out the rest of the world, where nobody gives a d... about clean, fair sport.

Oh man, I hope you're joking... you are, right?
 
Alex99 said:
Americans generally have no interest in cheating on others. These young riders come over to Europe, see what's going on, and after a long and hard-fought battle are finally pulled into the world of doping. This is just a very sad thing to happen, and I ask all young and hopeful American riders to please stay in this great country and not let themselves get corrupted on European turf. We can have a harder and more beautiful race than the TdF, generate genuine interest among American consumers, and simply block out the rest of the world, where nobody gives a d... about clean, fair sport.

My gosh I think George Bush has started posting here!

I love the bit about "American consumers" - I suppose we are all consumers in a way - but with reference to sport I think this can be where the problems start. Sport is for the participants. I guess the fans, spectators, onlookers do spend money and buy stuff - so consumers they are - but once the pendulum swings from competition to entertainment the problems kick in. Just in my opinion. Probably a topic for another thread and another day.
 
Mar 18, 2009
4,186
0
0
Visit site
There's one thing majorly wrong about the article.
It states more than once that european fans are nonchalant and accepting of the fact riders dope.

It's quite the opposite: most people are convinced everyone is clean and only one or two are "stupid to dope, but get caught anyway". And they don't like dopers.

Not. One. Bit.
 
Alex99 said:
Americans generally have no interest in cheating on others. These young riders come over to Europe, see what's going on, and after a long and hard-fought battle are finally pulled into the world of doping. This is just a very sad thing to happen, and I ask all young and hopeful American riders to please stay in this great country and not let themselves get corrupted on European turf. We can have a harder and more beautiful race than the TdF, generate genuine interest among American consumers, and simply block out the rest of the world, where nobody gives a d... about clean, fair sport.


Woooooooooooooooow we have a strong candidate for the village idiot competition
respect-046.gif
 
Jul 12, 2009
21
0
0
Visit site
Professional sports is all about generating revenues, and revenues are the result of consumers spending money, which is where the team sponsors come into play. I think that the success of riders such as LA has established a cycling community in the US that is large enough and is not subject to disintegrate after he has finished his career (interest didn't really drop after 2005, right?), so that focussing exlusively on the US market would make sense. So far, there are only smaller races, but why not try a "Tour of America"? You don't need the Alps or Pyrenees to have a beautiful race!
 

TRENDING THREADS