That last post regarding He Who Is Not To Be Named for Three Days drew a number of interesting comments, and I’ve seen some of them echoed around the Intertubes today.
The usual clot of chamois-sniffing fanboys is brandishing chain whips and pedal wrenches at the despicable Frogs (from a safe distance, as usual). But a fair number of cycling fans are starting to wonder whether Le Comeback is good for the sport.
It is, if you’re talking to website geeks who track traffic. Pretty much anything about HWINTBNFTD does more hits than Cheech and Chong. But if you’re not into sniffing chamois, or making money off those who do, it’s a topic of some debate.
I want to jabber at some length about this, but right now it’s dinnertime. A man can’t rave properly without food and strong drink. Check back in a bit, or leave your own thoughts in comments.
Mad Blog Media 
Why aren’t we mentioning Zenon Jaskula? Peter van Petegem? Yuri Andropov?
Oh the return of the Texas Tornado!?!? Bob Roll’s love child?!?!? Ooops, mis-spoke. Sorry Bobke, but your man love is nauseating. Love your antics, just not our fauning praise for some dude from Texas – and I’m not talking about A-Rod when he was good – or that dude Shrubb.
Honestly I think this whole “Return of the Greatest Cyclist Since Eddy Merckx” was not full tilt, all the way from the beginning. Look at how he has fared this year. TDU – pack filler. ToC – Top 10 but crashed at least once. MSR – pack fodder again. And then his broken clavicle. That of course not including his weak attempt at cross in Vegas in September. That should have been the first sign (and to those of us lucky enough to be there: it was) that not all is right in the body of a retired racer.
Dude, the only awareness he is giving us is that he crashes, and that crashing can hurt.
Oh, and that the French don’t like ‘mericans. Especially ones from Texas. Didn’t we already go through that with Ol’ What’s His Name a few years ago?
I know: George….Best!
Happy Paris-Roubaix (and Easter) to all!
Y’know who I miss talking about? Michael Zanoli. There was a guy who was fun to talk about. Everyone agreed that he was a jerk. None of these “HWINTBNFTD is God” vs “HWINTBNFTD is a self-aggrandizing bozo” discussions. I never had to explain my opinion of good ol’ Mike. Wonder whatever happened to him? Or should I say, “wonder how many years he’s serving?”
As for HWINTBNFTD, I’ve always thought he had every advantage a racer could have. As an American racing on an American team for an American sponsor, he only had to really show up and do well in one race to be famous. And he did that well. But I wonder if we’re seeing what happens when he races more often?
Oh, and as for the Tour of California, HWINTBNFTD got dropped on Mt. Palomar! I have sucked on that climb many times. I have no idea if this means I have anything in common with HWINTBNFTD. Hope not. I’d like to think that I treat women far better.
James, I was also at CrossVegas last year. What riled me the most wasn’t that HWINTBNFTD raced, or made a comeback, or etc., etc., but that even though he pretty much sucked, the announcers couldn’t bring themselves to stop talking about HWINTBNFTD long enough to cover the actual contenders well. Some of the world’s top talent was there – Adam Craig, the Kona guys, JHK and Sam Schultz from Fisher, Christoph Sauser for chrissakes – and HWINTBNFTD’s name seemed to be all that was coming over the loudspeaker. Oh brother. I don’t care if the old man wants to come back and race his bike again – that’s his prerogative. I care about all the currently talented racers who don’t get the recognition they deserve, because the press can’t get enough of HWINTBNFTD. Instead of talking about bike racing and racers, the cycling and mainstream press is talking about various dramas involving HWINTBNFTD (like we’re doing now, for example), because of and perpetuating the fact that to the larger world outside, HWINTBNFTD is cycling. And that’s just sad, for many reasons, some more personal than others.
I’ll leave you with an analogy of sorts from the MTB world. At the first US Pro XCT national MTB race in Fontana, CA, a couple weeks ago, former superstar racer Steve Larsen showed up to race. Larsen was on fire throughout the late nineties and early 2000’s, and had more than his share of press and adoration in those years. However, at Fontana, he showed up to race; the announcers made note of his presence; Larsen raced mid-pack and finished mid-pack; and the announcers made nothing more of it than anyone else who had raced and finished mid-pack. That’s how it oughta be in the case of HWINTBNFTD. You come back and prove to be a contender the second time around, well, we’ll mention you along with the other current contenders. You come back and prove to be nothing but a drama machine, well, we’ll keep you in the “Entertainment” section, right next to Mary-Kate and Ashley, reserving the bike racing coverage for bike racers.
This evening on the local news they devoted about three minutes of the sports segment to the Master golf thing that’s going on right now. About two and a half of those three minutes was devoted to Tiger Woods even though he’s nowhere near the lead.
I suspect long-time golf fans feel about Tiger Woods the way we all feel about HWINTBNFTD.
You know I was thinking about this again today…we might not be able to “talk” about ‘what’s his name’ but we can think about it, right? Well I was thinking about the ‘athletes’ who came back from some time off (either retirement or injury lasting a season or more), and the one thing that most of them had in common?
NIKE.
Outside of Brett Favre and Mario Lemiuex, I think all the others were in some way shape or form tied to Nike. Jordan? Duh. Tiger? Yes. Bobke’s man love? Most definitely. I wonder if there is a tie-in or just a strange coincidence.
Oh, and Joey, the only cool thing about Cross Vegas this year….besides the race? Meeting Elvis. And he was a huge cycling fan. The overweight, jumpsuit wearing Elvis. I don’t know about the other ones.
And ‘yes’ it was irritating to hear every sentence during the men’s race mention a certain unretired bike racer. So Larsen showed up in Fontana, huh? WOW!!! I remember when he was the ‘next Greg Lemond’ back in the early ’90s. Don’t know if you know this or not, but he won a tri a few years ago by obliterating the bike leg in about 4 hours!! 112 miles in 4 hours!! Not bad for a guy who apparently did the Davis Double Century in 8 hours ….. as a teenager. WOW!