"Tom Kunich" a écrit profondement:
| <
[email protected]> wrote in message
| news:27fb8e0b-d316-4002-b223-e97c43d689e8@t66g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
| On Feb 24, 10:24 pm, "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
| > > A French village forced the 4 Days of Dunkerque to cancel a Time
| > Trial > that
| > > would have been within their city limits. This is what is beginning to
| > > happen in France and surely it is a sign that bicycle racing in
| > Europe > is
| > > now in deep trouble.
| >
| > Oh Tom, are you being a reactionary. Perhaps there is more to it.
| > Without the facts you are being a chicken little.
|
| There's always that possibility but when I was in France during the
| Tour I used to stop in sports bars to have a beer and see what was
| happening in the Tour and in almost every case when I went in they
| didn't have a single TV with the Tour on - almost always they had
| soccer finals on. When I stopped by news stands and asked for l'Equipe
| they would try to sell me a special edition that covered nothing but
| soccer.
|
| I spent two weeks in France during the Tour and didn't see a single
| bicycle in France except for a few farmers going out into their fields
| until the day before the Tour finished in Paris (not counting the
| rent-a-bikes around the Eiffel Tower area).
|
| I talked to a really nice Frenchman from the coast who told me that
| most of France don't want anything to do with bicycles anymore though
| his area was still active.
|
| Now you can see through the actions of ASO against the riders and the
| UCI that this whole thing is a house of cards and it is beginning to
| appear about to fall in on itself. It wouldn't take a great loss of
| support from the French public to simply push bicycle racing
| completely off the page.
|
| So, while I am being a bit reactionary it isn't without something to
| react to.
|
You have it about right Tom
I haven't owned a TV for 20 years, but a couple of years ago I bought
one having made the round of the Antibes Bars and Found only One that
had the Tour on whereas 20 years ago the Tour at least, and most of the
Classics, would have been showing in _any_ bar
But people are not as interested in Bike Racing generally as they were
in years gone by.
Cycle racing is a dying sport as more and more people complain about
the inconvenience that road closures cause and the cpountry fills up
with immigrants who have no interest whatsoever in bikes except
perhaps to steal one.
Likewise traffic is unbelievable. 20+ years ago I could ride say to
Grasse from Antibes meeting, with the exception of local traffic
around Mougins and Mouans-Sartou, less than a dozen vehicles en
route. Now the traffic is nose to tail
--
Davey Crockett
-
Driving a Stake through the
Heart of the Politically Correct
http://i247.photobucket.com/albums/gg146/sylviastolz/freesylvia.jpg