A Letter To The Editor – Part Two
Much to my surprise, I received a response from my letter to Mr. Schoen regarding his article “Cycling is just not a big deal” yesterday. I certain was not expecting one given the fact that we all live in a busy society and e-mail has become less useful than it used to be. Yet, Mr. Schoen took the time to respond in detail and I post his comments for your perusal:
Mr. Ashby -
Thanks for reading and I appreciate the letter.
Please excuse me if I’m a little short in my response as I’ve been doing corresponding with writers for the last couple of weeks about this subject.
First, you raise several valid points, although I did make a concerted effort to watch the Tour on OLN and read several articles before my own “bottom of the barrel” commentary.
While winning the Tour de France requires incredible mental and physical stamina, which I respect immensly, it doesn’t change my opinion on the sport itself. Maybe by not caring for cycling you (and many others) perceive that as a slight toward Lance Armstrong.
Lance Armstrong has done more than anybody, including Greg LeMond, to raise awareness of cycling in the U.S., you are correct. Yet, it’s still a sport that many Americans only pay token attention to, and it’s 3 weeks out of the year.
If you believe that football is nothing more than “just a bunch of grown men playing grabass,” that golf is “nothing more than over-privileged men hitting a silly ball with a stick” and hockey is “really nothing more than a bunch of ballerinas on ice skates pushing each other around” that is every sports fan’s right, just as it’s mine to see cycling as nothing more than “riding a bike.”
Is winning six Tour de Frances an incredible feat? Absolutely. Physically, it’s much tougher than winning the Masters or even Wimbledon. However, I happen to believe that while it is certainly newsworthy, cycling is a fringe sport in this country and to call it the greatest athletic accomplishment in sports, as many have, is hyperbole.
Again, I appreciate the comments and I hope you will write again in the future.
dave
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“Eat your cereal with a fork and do your homework in the dark.”