General Cycling Discussion - Sheesh. Here we go again.

From The Betting Fool in the Sports section of SFGate.com:



Sorry, people, cycling is not a sport
Betting Fool, SF Gate
Tuesday, July 22, 2003
©2003 SF Gate

URL: http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/fool/

The buzz moved throughout the office like a very small wildfire.

Lance Armstrong was making a move in the Tour de France. Left for dead, and fearing that evil German Jan Ullrich was about to pass him in Stage 15, "Our Man Lance" defied the experts and overcame an attack by a French handbag to take control of the race.

"This has to be one of the best stories in sports this year," said one cycling enthusiast.

My head began to hurt. Something was terribly wrong. Oh, that's right. Cycling is not a sport.

You heard me. For many reasons, the thing Lance Armstrong does so well is not a sport. It's an activity, a hobby. It's no different than darts, or lawn bowling or kayaking or rock climbing.

Golf is a sport. Hockey is a sport. Real bowling is a sport. Cycling is not.

Why? Glad you asked.

My basic premise is that given a couple years training and a cool bike, I could be a professional cyclist. I might not be able to compete in the Tour de France, but I'd get close. Come on, pretty much everyone can pedal a bike.

Here are few more concrete reasons why cycling is not a sport:

* The activity's top event takes place in France. Yeah, the same country that produced the Warriors' top draft pick. You know the new saying: "If it's French, it sucks!"

* There is no strategy. Oh wait, go faster than the other guy. Terrific. I don't want to hear about this alleged team strategy. The other members of "Blue Crush," or whatever the hell they call Lance's team, are caddying for the great one. They have no chance of winning. Why do they bother to show up?

* You can do it with a broken collarbone. Tyler Hamilton is courageous and all that, but seriously, this is not a sport.

* There are no balls (insert lame Armstrong testicle joke here) and no scoreboard. Not a sport.

* You have to go to REI to buy equipment for this hobby. If you can't find it at Big 5, it's not a sport.

* It's on the Outdoor Life Network in the middle of the night. Swimming and poker and pool and dogs jumping off piers are on ESPN this week. Not the Tour de France.

* When Lance retires, and American cyclists return to the middle of the pack, the Tour de France will return to its proper place in our sports media, in small type on the agate page.

* Millions of Europeans and a handful of Americans are wrong. Soccer is boring and cycling is not a sport.

* A quick recap of cycling folk: They pay $80 for a shirt because it has superior "wicking." They drive Volvos and Saabs and live in Noe Valley, are crunchy and self-indulgent, liberal, but not TOO liberal, they voted for the Green Party and they cheer those who participate in Critical "Mess." They have to do something on the weekends they can tell their vegetarian (but I eat sushi!) friends about. "I did a 50-miler on Saturday. I got an outstanding view of the sunset (or ocean, or hills, etc.)"

If their friend(s) did a 75-miler, they'd say: "I was up for that, but I had to get back for a macrobiotic party a friend of mine was holding at their new place at the Presidio."

Call me an ugly American or a beer-guzzling dinosaur. But you know I'm right.

poker and pool and dogs jumping off piers are on ESPN this week....

and to think I missed all that athleticism on ESPN.

Here's the email I sent to the Fool:


Your column today would have been merely lame had it been original. But it appears to parrot Ron Borges' msnbc.com article of nearly a year ago [cite]. Original drivel is one thing; derivative or plagiarized drivel is something else altogether.

Anyone can run too, so we better pull track and field out of the olympics. Football should be withdrawn as anyone can catch a ball and how much bravery does it take if you have to wear pads and a helmet? Baseball, hmmm, I think just about every kid knows how to play baseball so we better scratch that one too according to this logic. Hockey? Well, I suppose not everyone can ice skate, well, everyone in a certain latitude anyway, so Hockey is only a sport in southern climes where not everyone can ice skate. Nascar, Hmmm I don't think I even need to go there. My bet is this guy just outlawed all sport because everyone has a certain aptitude in just about any given sport/activity, unless you maybe look at american gladiators and that is because people don't normally hang from a ceiling and try to whack each other with giant que tips. I don't think the author did very well in debate as a child.

Also....
Last I checked golf was also extremely boring unless actually playing it in person as well (more so than soccer in my opinion).

but football, baseball etc. have, well, BALLS.

:lol:
Marty

And he claims bowling is a sport ?? If i can riff from Jim Rome.. any thing you can do with a beer in one hand, and a non-filter dangling out of your mouth, is not a sport... it is merely a recreation...

Is anyone else tired of the France bashing that has occurred the last 8 or 9 months ? Get over it people...

Jeff

So, if cycling isn't a sport, then cyclists aren't really athletes?! :roflmao: This guy is something else.

SPORT:

Main Entry: [2]sport
Function: noun
Date: 15th century

1 a : a source of diversion : RECREATION b : sexual play c (1) : physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2) : a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in

2 a : PLEASANTRY, JEST b : often mean-spirited jesting : MOCKERY, DERISION

3 a : something tossed or driven about in or as if in play b : LAUGHINGSTOCK

4 a : SPORTSMAN b : a person considered with respect to living up to the ideals of sportsmanship <a good sport> <a poor sport> c : a companionable person

5 : an individual exhibiting a sudden deviation from type beyond the normal limits of individual variation usually as a result of mutation especially of somatic tissue
synonym see FUN


© 2001 by Merriam-Webster, Incorporated
Merriam-Webster Privacy Policy

The columnist is a self-proclaimed and self-named fool... enough said and most of it by himself.

Paul L, I think the only way I could enjoy golf is where you pick a club or iron and then whack the ball and run after it using only that one stick. This could be even more fun with two people going after the same ball.

That 'anyone can do it given a few years' is the lamest Ive heard yet. I could become a helluva synchronized swimmer given time...I could be a great golfer (true athletes right there) given a few years to whack balls...I could even be a great basketball player, all I need to do is put a ball in a hoop. No scoreboard? Sorry didnt know the crowd was so stupid as to not figure out who won the stage, 'was the guy who finished halfway in the pack,was he the stage winner?', obviously hes never heard of the gc, while not a scoreboard its still a 'score', and all the jerseys too. Wheres the strategy in golf?bowling?hockey? you just try to put a ball(puck) where it belongs. the 'blue crush' that has no chance at winning, how bout the guys that sit on the bench for most of their career in professional sports? why do they show up? And yes the french bashing has gone on long enough. Shouldnt we respect other nations stances on things in the world. And whatever idiot came up with the whole 'freedom fries' and crap, I want to know if he orders 'freedom fries' or 'french fries'. Boy I think this is my longest post yet!

Originally posted by Rev.Chuck
Paul L, I think the only way I could enjoy golf is where you pick a club or iron and then whack the ball and run after it using only that one stick. This could be even more fun with two people going after the same ball.

Isn't that called croquet? Or do it with horses (or singlespeed MTBs) and call it polo.

I wonder if this guy considers NASCAR a sport. It seems to me the guy is mainly just trying to be funny (emphasis on trying). I wouldn't take this one too seriously.

Yeah. I realize it's a troll but what annoys me (and I emailed him such) that it's a derivative troll.

I wonder how long he's been covering Bay Area sports. In the Niners' glory days the Chron regularly lauded Joe Montana for his comeback from a cracked vertebra and Ronnie Lott for choosing to chop a finger off his mangled hand rather than miss games to let it heal.

The REI v. Big 5 argument is just baffling.

Why aren't they calling it the Tour de Freedom? ;D I am amazed at the idea of how democracy is only a good thing when it agrees with you. I am pretty tired of the France bashing, I thought our politicians were above petty name calling,..... wait a minute.... now that I think about it, Namecalling....' political campaigns.... name calling.... is there a connection here? Why hasn't anyone pulled Switzerland on the carpet about this (shameful how they refused to help isn't it? :) :) )? Ok, I'll quit with the sarcasm, just tired of the rhetoric. ;D

BTW Rev. Chuck, what we really need is a game with clubs, a ball, and bicycles for the players to move around on! Now THAT would be a sport! The goalie could have a BMX trick bike and a halfpipe for a goal.: :D

this guy is a dork. and also what's with ripping on cycling attire and equipment? I've never paid $80 for a jersey and even if I did it pails to the prices for authentic baseball or basketball jerseys, $150-$200+
And soccer, boring? I guess he's never heard of Manchester United....

Cool - just means one (or more) less rider(s) crowding the trails and streets.

In a tiresome screed, the Fool said:
Call me an ugly American or a beer-guzzling dinosaur.

This is a real insult to our intelligence. I, for one, can think of many better names to call him.


Originally posted by lotek
but football, baseball etc. have, well, BALLS.

:lol:
Marty


Bicycles have balls. Dozens of them. Disassemble a bottom bracket, a hub, or a headset and you can see how many balls there are in the sport of cycling.


Perhaps the Who put it best:
We're not gonna take it, never did and never will...
We forsake you.
Gonna **** you.
Let's forget you better still.

I e-mailed him...he answered - the guy is useless...just doing it because he's a moron and wants to yank some chains.

See his response below:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My latest response to him:
That's a WEAK answer.

Define what defines a "sport"! Tell me WHY golf, baseball and football ARE sports and cycling is NOT a sport...


-----Original Message-----
From: Stephen Tady [mailto:stady@sfgate.com]
Sent: Thursday, July 24, 2003 3:51 PM
To: Donaldson, Keith
Subject: Re: Cycling...not a sport...


clearly, golf, baseball and football. Those are my favorites.

>If cycling is not a sport...then please clarifiy what a sport is?
>
>Keith Donaldson

Do golfers even sweat?

That guy is just another close minded neaderthal. So some of us shave our legs, spandex is a common material in our clothing, the problem is that in every group the one that is differnt is always going to be singled out/picked on/roughed up/ or kicked out.

To categorize all of us a veggie-sorta liberals driving volvos.... well does he have another thing coming.. Like to see him try some of our shoes on weather it be riding through many inches of snow ( for the winter times in the north)....or even down here in Houston... like see him take on a all you can eat BBQ, then drink the rest of the night... Then the next day get up hangover or not, and take on the HO CHI MIN in the 95+ degree heat with the 50-100% humidity, and the mosquitoes...actually.....

lets him do his couple of months of training and then let him take on Hans Rey!

Originally posted by Paul L.
Do golfers even sweat?

Now there's something that's a hobby or activity - definitely not a sport.:D

... and that article isn't jouranlism.

I actually thought the article was a good read... I really don't think it was meant to be taken seriously. Infact, it is almost glorifying cycling, because of the intentional stupidity in his statements against cycling. Almost like saying, "I'm a dumba$$, and I don't like cycling."

Makes you want to like cycling even more. :)

" A quick recap of cycling folk: ...They drive Volvos and Saabs and live in Noe Valley, are crunchy and self-indulgent, liberal, but not TOO liberal, they voted for the Green Party..."

I hope nobody tells my former boss, the U.S. Attorney General, that I am a liberal. He might be surprised to find out.

Also, I get tired of people trying to determine what is a "sport" and what is not. The way I see it, if people compete at it and want to call it a sport, why should it bother me if they call it a sport. I have more important things to worry about.

first of all i don't see why you guys are getting riled up about it.... it sounds much more sarcastic than it does derisive. in fact if you read many of the statements they are ridiculous because the exact opposite is true.

second, his argument against cycling being a sport is useless without defining what exactly a sport is. he (along with most people) seems to think that a sport isn't a sport unless it's a spectator sport - one that is a source of entertainment to the general public. according to such a definition, sports such as cycling, competitive running, rowing, triathlon, etc aren't really sports because they (for the most part) don't really entertain anyone other than people within the sport. if however you define a sport as a grueling test of athletic ability, the above sports would be included, and others would be excluded.

Originally posted by deliriou5
first of all i don't see why you guys are getting riled up about it....

It's not so much the anti-cycling stance, which true enough is so exaggeratedly absurd that no-one could take it seriously (I think the intent is to antagonise rather than amuse though - he KNOWS he's gonna get pile of responses on this one, and that's exactly what he wants), it's more that buffoons like this without two brain cells to rub together, nor the remotest spark of originalty are PAID MONEY to spew any old drivel they want all over the public.

I breezed over a few of the Fool's other 'atricles' and they're no better. Doesn't this guy realise abuse humour went out with Andrew Dice Clay?

Years ago some one told me I should take up golf: I said "what's that". He said "well you take your putter in your hand and put your bll in the hole". I said "that sounds backwards".

Joe

Paul L, there are two bike and ball games. As mentioned by Kuon(I think), bike polo, like horse polo but with funky small framed bikes with oneside of the handlebar lopped down to about six inches so the stick will clear. Looks like fun.
Then there is cycloball. It is kind of like indoor soccer with teams of two. The bixed are fixed gear with a one to one ratio(Looks like). You block and pass the ball with the wheels of the bike. There is good video of this on "Libor Karas The Bouncing Chech" Looks like fun and REALLY hard.

Satire, even mediocre satire like this, is often difficult to identify and more difficult to swallow.

Originally posted by Prosody
Satire, even mediocre satire like this, is often difficult to identify and more difficult to swallow.

I know satire when I see it, and this wasn't it.

people who say soccer is boring have never watched a good team play

Originally posted by nismo400
people who say soccer is boring have never watched a good team play

or doesn't know the rules of the game.... and how hard it is to make a goal....

And people who say cycling is not a sport are people who doesn't know the "pleasure and pain" one can get while on the saddle...

I think it was Ernest Hemmingway that said, (paraphrasing) "The only true sports are Auto Racing and Boxing. Everything else is just a game."

Baseball- Get fat and sit there waiting for a ball to come near you hit it with a big bat and run in a circle.

Basketball - Throw a big round ball into a ring over and over with like 60 people on your team helping. FUN FUN FUN.

Hockey- Ice Skating in circles for a few hours with a total score of like 1-1. BORING.

Football. Chase the big idiot with the ball in his hand and jump on his back.

If cycling is not a sport then these sure as sh*t arent either.

I'm tired of the golf bashing! :confused: Golf is a great sport, not as demanding cardiovascularly (is that a word?), but requiring excellent hand-eye coordination and believe it or not, strategy. It's not that easy. Go ahead and try it.

Anyway, every sport requires different skills and I don't believe in bashing any of them, if people enjoy playing and competing.

Originally posted by wza97
I'm tired of the golf bashing! :confused: Golf is a great sport, not as demanding cardiovascularly (is that a word?), but requiring excellent hand-eye coordination and believe it or not, strategy. It's not that easy. Go ahead and try it.

Anyway, every sport requires different skills and I don't believe in bashing any of them, if people enjoy playing and competing.

Every time I see a set of titanium golf clubs, I think "What a waste! Those could have been a bicycle frame."

And I will bash Nascar if I want. You can't stop me. :p

Last night I was thinking about this...

Baseball - two teams play to see who hits more, and then who can run the bases faster than the ball getting thrown around
Football - two teams see who can get the ball down the field to a rectangle more than the other
Soccer - which team can kick the ball into a net more times than the other
Hockey - which team can shoot the puck into a net more times than the other
Gymnastics - who can score more points than the other
Bowling - who can knock down more pins than the other
Surfing- who can score the most points during a session
Auto racing(drag racing, Nascar, rally, etc) - Who can drive faster
Cycling- (downhill, bmx, mtn bike, road bike, psychocross) who can ride faster
(freestyle) who can score the most points

Common pattern in all of these, to see who can do that activity better.

So there you have it in "fuzzy logic", cycling is a sport.

wza97 - I actually like golf when I can afford to play, I just think it was funny that he used that as an example in comparison to soccer. Both are sports and many find both of them interesting. I just thought it was a little silly to throw golf into the picture and call soccer boring (some people do find armchair golf a little hard to stay with while channel surfing).

As far as satire, I thought satire was supposed to be funny. Although I do find this person a little amusing, kind of like a journalistic clown.

Originally posted by nismo400
people who say soccer is boring have never watched a good team play

Too right!

I love soccer. My oldest played it in high school. I loved watching his team play twice a week during the season. After he graduated, I had withdrawal symptoms for a year or two every time soccer season rolled around. Now he plays indoor soccer, but lives too far away for me to watch him. :(


A journalistic clown...pretty good description!

Originally posted by Paul L.

As far as satire, I thought satire was supposed to be funny. Although I do find this person a little amusing, kind of like a journalistic clown.

Calling this logorrhea "satire" is an insult to the memory of Jonathan Swift.


Originally posted by SpiderMike
Last night I was thinking about this...

Common pattern in all of these, to see who can do that activity better.

So there you have it in "fuzzy logic", cycling is a sport.

I have often said that boxing is the only pure sport. Two individuals, each claiming to be better than the other, set out to prove the point by pummelling each other until, ideally, only one is left standing. Minimal rules of safety and conduct are enforced only to satisfy the delicate sensibilities of our society.

Originally posted by RegularGuy
I have often said that boxing is the only pure sport.

I've often said the same thing about track. Pick a distance, first person over the line wins.

Anyway, I expect that sometime during the 2004 TdF, we'll read another article claiming that cycling's not a sport and that cyclists aren't athletes.

Regularguy--I agree. Now if they would just remove the gloves...

It's humour folks, you know, LOL,j/k, roflmao etc.
Ok, maybe it's not very funny to some, but I thought it was quite satirical.
If pro cycling isn't a sport, well that's just as well, isn't it?
Or do you want the Pro's in cycling to act like the 'true sportsmen' of baseball or basketball? I'll pass on that version of 'sportsmanship' , Thank-you.

Originally posted by wza97
I'm tired of the golf bashing! :confused: Golf is a great sport, not as demanding cardiovascularly (is that a word?), but requiring excellent hand-eye coordination and believe it or not, strategy. It's not that easy. Go ahead and try it.
.


I agree with you. I took five lessons then gave up. Enough to know how hard it is, and long enough to know I did't have the time or inclination for it. To each his own.

Originally posted by caloso
Yeah. I realize it's a troll but what annoys me (and I emailed him such) that it's a derivative troll.

I think you'll find that most trolls in the media are derivative to one extent or another. This is another that is best ignored. I have to say my decision to stop watching any form of news or reading any newspapers last year was one of the best I've ever made.

As for soccer (I believe the correct name is "football" BTW), I agree with what someone said earlier. Just watch a Manchester United game or two and you'll be hooked.

Anyone with a type-writter can write a column.
That's a dangerous activity, no one wants carpet tunnel syndrome...

We're's the spell checker?

[i] This could be even more fun with two people going after the same ball. [/B]
that cycling is not a sport, this guy is talking through his shoes

they voted for the Green Party and they cheer those who participate in Critical "Mess."


Hooray.

Methinks some people here are taking this article too seriously. Anyway, I don't imagine his 10 readers are gonna have any serious affect on OLN coverage of the TdF next year ;)

What do we care what this obvious moron ( the "Fool") has to say? He/she/whatever is an idiot.