CyclingNews! please grow some testicles!

thankfully, cyclingnews continues to churn out bland, boring and altogether snoozy nooz stories so at least i have something to help put me into a deep 8-hour coma of a night.

where would i be without you, cyclingnews? probably knee-deep in empty boxes of Ambien…

predictable, lumbering, devoid of any real insight (Robert Millar aside) or even the faintest whiff of journalistic flair it may be, cyclingnews, i have to admit, is not all that bad at doing what it says on the box, which is delivering news. about cycling. so, whatever.

yet where it succeeds quite spectacularly is in playing safe. like, super safe. as in, keeping advertisers happy and making sure that the boat doesn’t even get wet, never mind gets rocked. that kind of safe.

sure, there were a couple of articles here and there that had a dig at Armstrong but they came so late in the day that they they looked more like strands of hair greased down over a balding man’s dome than anything else. they were, in effect, hiding nothing and fooling no one.

all through the Armstrong years, and the Pantani years, and the Festina days, and the Richard Virenque KOM wins, cyclingsnooze did its absolute utmost to do absolutely f**k all to reflect the unease many felt about those who were achieving ever-more incredible things on two wheels. like Liggett and Sherwin and all the rest, it kept away from controversy to the point where you’d have to ask not only if its silence effectively condoned the madness but actually encouraged it.

then there was the four-part interview in which Lance Armstrong got a very easy ride all told, all part of his Tour of Redemption which saw him tour the media outlets begging for oxygen for his little fire that he pulled around in a Radio Flyer wagon.

and yes, so it continues. today cyclingnews runs an article about the achievements of the Hincapie Development Team.

noted as a “well-known booster” for the team, the article goes on to talk about Big George’s involvement with the team:

“George loves it,” [team director Thomas] Craven told Cyclingnews Sunday after his team had successfully defended Skujins’ overall lead on the way to winning the top team prize [at the Tour de Beauce]. “It’s a great way for him to be involved in the sport. My desk is right next to his, so we talk and we help pick the teams. He called two days ago about the strategy as well as the strategy for today. He’s involved, and he comes to the closer races. We work together. He doesn’t tell me what to do, but I definitely ask him for advice.”

and uh, yeah, that is that. the journalist doesn’t mention George and EPO, or Armstrong, or, well, anything, granting Teflon George yet another free ride on the Gravy Train. he doesn’t question why a seasoned cheat like Hincapie is funding a cycling team and a ‘development’ one at that, nor why he is the title sponsor.

thankfully, the comments section brings some light to the shadiness encased in the article:

Robbie Canuck wrote:

Just what cycling does not need. The success of a team led by a doping cheat, a fraud and a liar. If cycling wants to change the doping culture first thing you do is get rid of those who were part of that culture for good.

Dope Fiend writes:

Where’s the ethics? This is why dopers still dope – because it is WORTH it!

 Evan Shaw is also on the money:

 He is no role model. This must stop. He is an advertisement for lie defraud [sic] make millions and pretend to help later. Disgusting and wrong.

and there you have it, cyclingnews. your own readers saying what you haven’t got the balls to say.

hotdamn this pisses me off. if outlets like cyclingnews and all the rest made a statement, be it public of private, that they were going to refuse to report on the successes of teams like this (and i am sorry for the guys on the team, Eddy knows how hard it is to get on a decently funded team in this sport but hey, you make your bed and then you lie in George’s EPO-stained piss, fellas), then George would have to leave the sport. he, and others like him.

just as Levi would have no support for his Gran Fraudo if the likes of Specialized didn’t sponsor it, and blah blah blah you’ve heard it all from me a dozen, a hundred times but why is this still happening? if you love this sport and want to see the change it deserves after it was bent over and double-teamed for so many, many years by Pat & Hein and whoever else was in the room with a hard-on for sweet baby Lance and his slack-arsed cohorts, and if you are in a position such as the shakers and movers at cyclinenews are, then to keep churning out disingenuous and apologist compost like this is quite frankly shameful.

bollocks.