Cycling Journalism

i would like to encourage a discussion about cycling journalism and specifically about how hard it is to find real on the beat journalism as opposed to marketing. what got me started is the arrival a few days ago of the latest issue of Cycle Sport (America). this is their Tour de France review; but instead of the winner, the third place finisher is on the cover! this is just the latest example of the all-Lance, all-the-time frenzy out there. if i could get hold of someone in the magazine, i would challenge them to look at their post-Tour covers for the past 20 years to see if they ever had anyone other than the winner on their cover (the Festina tour excluded). i previously canceled Velo News for much the same reason.

besides the Armstrong problem, where is the at the race coverage and analysis? looking back, i can think of only one or two articles from Cycle Sport - which i otherwise enjoyed - that actually covered racing. everything else was written in the shop - retrospectives, previews, travel articles, etc.

i also have some problems with the latest transformation of www.cyclingnews. they have stopped providing race and stage maps for all but the biggest races, and how hard would it be to provide links to the official race web sites?

frankly, i cannot think of an english language magazine publication that provides actual reporting. www.cyclingnews is the best source of news, but analysis and reporting from races is non-existent. is it not possible for the marketplace to support actual journalism? if someone can point me to some good stuff, i would appreciate it.