Monday, November 19, 2007

A deeper look into the sport

Being still new to cycling I often forget how little I know about the sport; both current and even more so historically. I never followed professional cycling even remotely up until five years ago when a college girlfriend got me into the Tour. Even then though I only watched the tour and still had no idea about the world of pro riding aside from what Phil or one of the other announcers said about it; I checked my overall standings on Yahoo Sports for pete’s sake! I can’t really say that that has changed too much now either, though I do like to get a peak in on what’s going on in the world of the greats and definitely never pass up an opportunity to watch any cycling event on screen. I can’t really say this bothers me too much though either; I’ve never been a huge stat junky and aside from following up on my college sports teams here and there I don’t stress too much about the world of professional sports in general.

Occasionally though, something is brought to my attention that makes me question my lack of enthusiasm for the inner workings of the sport. While right now things are tainted by the doping scandals and bad publicity I am certain there are still a number of underlying sub-plots and emotional stories to go along with the great riders. Today reading the last two posts from BKW was one of those occasions. The two points of view are starkly different, though in the end they both portray the same sense of awe and inspiration on the inner clock-work of the sport of cycling. In my eyes it’s these kinds of accounts that make all the other shit worth it.

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