Listen now by clicking here: [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/spokesmen/The_Spokesmen_101.mp3]
Panelists:
Topics Included:
- Serotta Closes its Doors
- Power Meter Price War?
- Hydro R Thoughts
- BRAIN article claims Dealer Camp had a “near death experience.”
- Fay Vincent Argues for Stiffer Doping Penalties in WSJ op-Ed
- Tour of Utah
- Upcoming UCI Election
- Interbike
- Spinlister, The “Airbnb For Bikes,” Gets An IPhone App
David (et. Al.) – Just got through Show 101, and since it triggered the same thought as 100 I might as well share it. I don’t have time to listen to people sit around and gripe. Nothing you guys say has any hint of making a positive change to the sport, so its wasting a ton of hot air and electrons. The show used to make me excited about the cycling industry, now it just makes me sad about a sport that isn’t so important to me that its worth being sad over. So I’m done with the Spokesmen, maybe not for good, at least until 105 or 106. I may try again then, but seriously, listen to Carlton. If you want to be pissed off, fine, but don’t spend literally hours translating that state to your listening audience. My suggestion: If the UCI and the state of Pro cycling makes you so upset, stop watching. Go ride your bike, engage in the parts of it you like, but drop the angry ranting. Its costing you listeners.
Chris N.
Florida
Chris,
I can’t speak for the others- thankfully for them- but I understand your frustration with our frustrations. However, the biggest reasons for my rants at least, is because I’m so passionate about the sport, the industry, and the sad state of affairs it is currently in. I’d rather focus (no pun intended) on the positives- and there are many- but the news we get to read about the sport is overwhelmingly negative, so (for me at least) it makes me overly defensive and want to fight for it. The example of Baseball and it’s lousy doping policies and the relative ease at which the general public seems to forgive Baseball’s dopers turns my stomach. Why? Because cycling does so much to fight doping, yet we get held up as the example of “dopers are bad”.
Then there’s the UCI and their inability to help the sport look any better. Again… this particular issue gets me ranting quickly because it impacts me at the sport level, as well as the industry level… so I get it double-whammy style. So… I apologize every time we cover the topic.
On the whole, I’d like to believe that all of us are very positive about the sport and much prefer to celebrate the good… but we’re too often faced with addressing the negatives. I know it’s a choice and we could choose to talk about other things… but as a semi-topical show about “current affairs”, as such, we do tend to get caught in the murkiness. And we often discuss pre-show and even post-show if things were too negative. Sometimes… yes it is.
We’d hate to lose you as a listener, so hopefully that doesn’t happen- at least not permanently.
Somewhat similar to Chris, I agree the last two shows have hit on similar topics. Now I am not using this as a forum to tell you that I am no longer listening to you because A) That’s weird ad B) I will keep listening to you. However, I do have some opinions on the whole doping matter and since this is the internet I will now voice them.
I think one of the things that draws people to sport is that in an otherwise gray world, sports are, seemingly, black and white. In real life, no matter how hard we try, it is hard to put people in categories. George Washington, good dude, help beat the British, owned slaves. JFK, champion for civil rights, stepped out on his wife with Marilyn Monroe. But at least with sport, the guy who has the right combination of talent, hard work, and sometimes luck wins. And that is what makes sport beautiful and attractive.
Dave said something during this episode that really struck me. He said that if they broke the rules, the cheated, and that is wrong, there is no other way around that. It doesn’t matter if they were just trying to keep up with everyone else and level the playing field, they broke the rules. I find that sentiment interesting and conflicting when applying it to the real world. Take an issue like illegal immigration. There are numerous people blatantly breaking the laws, the laws are not being enforced, and people are trying to make out those who are breaking the laws as the victims. Now I am not necessarily trying to equate doping in the Tour de France to illegal immigration or trying to stand on a political soap box, I just think it is an interesting dichotomy between sport and real life.
And to address another point that was brought up, Lance getting his jerseys back. I am sort of on the side of him actually getting them back. Not because I am a Lance apologist or a uber fan, I just think a lot of the punishment put on Lance is due to him being a jerk as opposed to his doping, and that is very dangerous water. Why should Lance have his jerseys stripped, be banned from competitive events, and have his charity torn down by detractors while Levi is racing mountain bikes and George has a devo team? Why has there been more time spent on this podcast talking about Lance doping 9 years ago than Frank Schleck doping or the two guys at the Giro this year?
I think that is all the time my soap box can handle for one day.