Media in this country have tended to look at Cycling as just the Grand Tours. As a result we have come to view Mountain Stages as "Epic" and "Dramatic". This is probably true for a canned TV show, or a few hrs of coverage at the finish. In person it can be a very different (yawn) experience. Much of the rest the sport has to offer has been ignored. Flat stages are covered as if they are almost throwaway because in GC terms they are, and the GC battle (read Armstrong) is what they are marketing.
This has never made sense to me, as for example the Daytona 500 (close, fast racing) definitly gets better ratings here than say the 24hrs of Daytona (epic, single file march).
I thinks this bias has been conditioned into even the cycling community.