General Cycling Discussion - Interesting Article

This guy should be shot for writing this, better yet even thinking it!!!!!

http://www.msnbc.com/news/785267.asp

Little 5, this has been posted in the road cycling forum and is already getting some angry replies. The bloke is a jerk. :mad:

Two things that you can do are write and tell MSNBC that you disagree and vote that you disagree, when I checked almost 30,000 had voted and 96% disagreed with him.

Some guy can stand, swing a baseball bat and then run 400 feet is a tremendous athlete, yet somebody who can ride a bike well or run a marathon is not.... Atleast it looks like he is alone in his opinion.

"one guy wearing an ugly yellow shirt"

All I can say that is that I am totally shocked. This fool has no understanding of the word athlete or athletic.

I received the following from the writer in response
to my e-mail to him:

Thank you for reading my swill.

As you probably can imagine, I have been inundated
with e-mail the last few days so I'm sorry it has taken
so long to get back to you.

Typically I answer each electronic missive sent to me.
However there are so many lately, the only
way to acknowledge each is by this standard response.

Please know that between trying to write my
four columns and other news stories this week,
I have taken the time to read your e-mail and all the
others.

You probably will not be surprised to learn most readers
who have taken the time to write disagree
with my position.

J

Alas, that is one of the occupational hazards of being
a snotty burned-out columnist.

You may want to compose a thoughtful letter
about how you feel and send it as a letter to the editor at the
Trib. To get directions how to send it, please go to:

www.triblive.com

Thank you again for taking the time to share
your thoughts and feelings with me.

My best,

DV
Columnist
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

Interesting, no?

It was so obviously deliberately written to get traffic to the website. ANyways, there was a counterpoint written saying that Lance is a great athlete and cyclists are great athletes, so there. You can find it on the website too.

Hey Lotek, Why'd you even bother to write to the guy? (I suppose I, too, might be tempted to see what he might say.)

Like Wabbit, I am guessing that it was just a ploy to see whether he could get everyone insensed.

Perhaps the guy has some latent psychological issues related to his childhood in which he never learned how to ride a bike and was the fattest kid in his class. Should we pity him?

Na ya, idiots abound.

Cheers,
Jamie

I couldn't find the email address of the guy, so I wrote a letter to MSNBC telling them how disappointed I was that they put that on their website. If I get a response, I will be sure to post it here.

I agree that it is a setup. Any advertising is good advertising. Look at how many extra hits they got just because someone spouted. It happens often I doubt he even truly believes it.

Originally posted by jmlee
Perhaps the guy has some latent psychological issues related to his childhood in which he never learned how to ride a bike and was the fattest kid in his class. Should we pity him?
No. That was me.

I learned to ride when I was 16. I've made up for it since.

As well as my usual commuting and weekend riding, I've cycled across Australia 4 times and I'll be doing it again next year. Wanna join me?

Maybe there's hope for that journalist guy yet.

Yet again, another jerk with nothing better to do than to troll. Seems to be an increasingly common thing in the media these days.

I have to write and hassle this clown at MSN.. The Olympics calls cycling a sport. They know better than this moron.. Cycling is a greater part of events like the Ironman... I put up these people as super athletes against any football jock any day... Think some of those big football lugs could ride 3,000 miles through the Alps.. A sports caster has no business trashing a competitive sport such as ours.. Thanks to those that hassled this idiot..
Too many Americans do not familiarize themselves to what is not popular. I'd put up our athletes against any lug in other popular American sports for endurance for cardio-vascular fitness any day..
To me the word athlete means overall fitness. We more than meet that test..

Also, I think taking journalists serious is not always a correct approach.. Journalists can be like politicians.. They rave for ratings. It is not seeking a Pulitizer, but some kind of popularity contest with their management or coying up to a certain type of readership, in their quest for popularity..
I think this can explain this journalists approach to trashing our prime cycling athletes.. Endurance wise, I would stack up our athletes any day to the average baseball or football player. Endurance is the trademark of an athlete and cyclists qualify in that category..
Funny, I have heard newspaper journalists trash cycle riders, hitting in things like cycle attire; when they haven't the slightest interest in understanding funcationality.
Well, you popularity craved sports casters- football players wear funny clothing also..

well, see we are all falling for his trick, he knows that Lance is at the top of his sports and has stir the immagination of the North American public, if he writes something negative now to Lance he will get maximum exposure on his article, and the surveys has said it all 96 percent who answered the survey said no to their question posted, . this guy should just be ignored so that he will loose his writing job , or better still send him some hate emails, :crash: :crash: :crash: :crash:

so when he wrote that 'just because lance can turn the pedals fast....' and i wrote him that 'just because you can type on the keyboards doesn't mean that you are a journalist' etc etc etc

From the afore mentioned article
On Sunday, Armstrong won the Tour de France for the fourth straight time. This is a great feat in his sport, so good for him, but who really cares?

Ok, this one line totally negates his entire column. If you participate in a sport, you are an athlete, am I wrong?

I admire Armstrong.

Does any really care what Ron Borges thinks? I don't.