"Carl Sundquist" <[email hidden]> wrote in
:"]news:[email hidden]:
Quoted message said:As long as the powers-that-
be in the sports media
don't understand bicycle
racing, it will remain a
freak show in their minds.
Agreed, but the problem is not just the "powers-that-be".
Ever sit down and watch a race with someone who's not
familiar with the sport? Inevitably, the fist question they
ask is, "Who's winning?" Usually, after you explain that
it's three hours into a five hour race, and those eight guys
with a fifteeen minute lead aren't going to win, and really
aren't supposed to, and they're just working for their team
leaders who are safely tucked somewhere in the pack waaaaay
behind them....once you get done explaining all that,
they're looking at you like you're some
doing a trackstand--we might get what's going on and why
it's exciting, but will the average viewer? They just don't
get it. And why should they? In popular american sports,
there really is no analog. I try to explain it as a chess
match at 30 miles-per-hour, and that helps people understand
some, but not much.
Face it....our sport has a steep learning curve, and unless
you have some knowledge of the strategy and tactics being
played out, it mostly looks like a whole bunch of skinny
white guys out for a ride.
Most americans are rased in a sports culture that doesn't
care for complex, drawn out stories. That's not to say they
can't be made interested in them, it just takes a while. I
think if you dropped the average sports fan into the crowd
at a cross race, they would "get it" immediatley. The
duration is fairly short, most of the action (on a good
course) plays out where you can see it, and, generally, the
front of the race is the front of the race. The same goes
when I take a non-racing friend up to T-town. While there
may be some things they don't understand or enjoy (the
pursuit?), for the most part they enjoy the experience, and
often they are more than willing to go again. So, I believe
there are avenues to get the uninitated interested in our
sport, but it ain't going to be easy or quick.
You're also right about the the Lance/LeMond thing. That
whole _Up Close and Personal_ approach to getting people
interested in sport by getting them interested in the
personalities involved really doesn't work. Every July
people always ask, "How's Lance doing?" not, "Who's
winning the
personality isn't involved, for them the sport might as well
cease to exist. There are some way to sell this sport to the
public, but the cult of personality isn't one of them.
