Wannabe Bike Girl

It’s hard being a cycling fan. I’m never sure what to blog about these days. My love for Sylvain Chavanel, for most of my so-called tiny favorites has never wavered. It’s the big names that suffer, of course. I still like Savoldelli and Vinokourov. And I still want Unibet not to be kicked out of races and so on. But it’s hard to follow.

I did not renew my subscription to cycling.tv and I probably won’t buy Giro coverage this year and not just because I probably can’t afford it. I hope that wherever I am in July, I can watch and blog about the tour, but my love is not the same.

The other day I realized that my favorite sport has changed. It’s moved to football/soccer and cycling is dropped down two places, probably tied with golf (behind soccer/football and college American football). What’s a girl to do? You just go with it. You learn how to accept that things change and fandom changes. But it’s harder when it’s a change you didn’t necessarily want.

Doping has, and continues to, change the scope of this sport. Being a sports fan, by definition in some ways, is hard. But when there is cheating, it makes it harder. I’ll take match fixing (re: AC Milan) over doping any day. It hurts to see riders I like, riders I respect, accused. It hurts that the process destroys them — even if they are innocent. But at the same time, due to the process we’ll never know the truth unless the riders themselves speak — and even then what do we really know (re: Landis and Hamliton)?

I’ll stick with David Millar, my Aussies and Slipstream. I’ll cling to Philippe Gilbert, Francis Mourey, Jurgen van Goolen, and of course Sylvain. I’ll do it because that’s what I have. Because these are my boys and I have faith in them. Without that, this sport is lost.

I will wait out cycling and hope that when we get over this doping disaster, this terrible fate that has befallen us, that everything will have changed. And I will rely on Slipstream and Millar to guide the way. They have to.