Thursday, July 21, 2005

tour de france - not in america!


is this the best ever recent tour? seems that every day there's an all-out fight for the finish line. how about the mountain stages? brutal. don't know about you, but i've been glued to the early morning coverage on oln, the only station carrying this year's tour.

why no major networks are covering this race of all races is beyond me. there's nothing else quite like it. in america, home of the texan that's dominated this race for the past seven years, i'd guess that more than 90% of americans have never even watched a stage. this is a disgrace!

the people that dream up the scheduling on the tv networks obviously know better. this will be lance's last ever professional race, and barring injury or misfortune, will surely win for a record seventh straight year. this is an incredible achievement. ata time when there's not a lot for america to write home about when it comes to world affairs, here stands lance armstrong, an ambassador respected by all in his sport and by many outside it. a texan doing more to spread a feeling of 'proud to be an american' than any bumper sticker could ever achieve, slapped on the fat backside of a gas-guzzling suv. i see a lot of nike ads featuring lance to 'just do it' if only the networks would 'just do it' justice would be served. no; what do we have right now? golf, golf and more golf.

next time an american mentions lance armstrong in a converstaion, i'll ask two simple questions: how many stages of the tour did you watch? and secondly, name two other riders in the tour.

i expect to get a lot of quiet blank responses.

1 comment:

Dop T said...

good point!