chase196126 said:
Honestly, opinions like this sicken me. Cycling may have some major issues with drugs but stopping a beautiful sport to try to clean it up will simply kill it, or relegate it to the same popularity as Race Across America.
You say it is completely irrelevant what other sports do in comparison to cycling. To the contrary, it is incredibly relevant. We keep pushing cycling as the sacrificial lamb in the fight against doping, yet no other sport has put itself in the situation cycling has ... To most reporters and fans sport is entertainment, they don't care how filthy the athletes are as long as they don't know about it ... Other sports avoid testing and taking down athletes, especially stars, where cycling has killed the reputation of most of its major players from the last 20 years. If you are calling for the death of pro cycling, you should be calling for the death of all professional sports because they all have the same dirty performances.
For some reason I get the feeling that you are one of the people who calls for clean riding and then gets all ****ed off that racing is no longer exciting. If you want clean rides you are going to see efforts that are human, not extra terrestrial. You cannot condemn doping on one hand and complain about physical performance on the other.
The solution to saving Pro Cycling is to continue running races, increase anti doping pressure, educate new riders, and increase punishments (both suspensions and jail time). Your idea is short sighted and biased.
This is one really naive cycling fan wearing bifocals.
NO TRUE FAN wants to watch
ANY CYCLING RACE these days because there is
NO ASSURANCE from the cyclists themselves, teams, owners, the UCI, the IOC, the TDFs or any other organizing body that races are clean. That is the true and realistic state of cycling today and not the myoptic one you portray.
To suggest fans want to watch racing even though it is filthy because it is the so called "beautiful sport" is just plain ignorant. Doping, the Ullrichs. Rasmussens and most of all the Armstrongs of cycling (plus the hundreds of others) have ruined cycling by proving the sport is riddled with cheating. Who in their right mind wants to watch the Tour de France without being cynical it is a fair race.
To say "cycling
may have some major issues with drugs" is the understatement of the year and demonstrates that you just don't get it Cycling is in a huge mess because it has a stupendous problem with drugs. It permeates all of cycling culture. Cycling is sick, sick, sick and there is no hope for the sport for at least 10 to 20 years
It will and should get kicked out of the Olympics. As long as the Pat McQuaids of the world are in charge of cycling it will be on life support.
I have cancelled my reservations to the 2013 TDF because I will not waste my money watching a fraudulent sport, permeated with liars, cheats, perjurors and false pretenders. Sponsors are leaving the stinking mess like proverbial rats. What credible company would want to have anything to do with pro cycling.
What happens in other sports is truly irrelevant. Only an apologist for drug cheating would resort to pointing fingers at other sports. Clean up your own backyard first. Pointing fingers at others is a useless diversion tactic.
Will I continue to ride my bike. Hell yes because it truly is an etherial feeling to challenge my body hearing the silent hum of a well tuned machine. But watching pro racing is for dummies.