Tour de Roid Rage!

Mr. McMoots has been watching the Tour de France on delayed internet broadcast. I’m still looking for the thing that makes it so exciting, but that’s okay. What I’m really curious about stems from all the commentators’ talk of doping scandals, in cycling and in, um, whatever other sports have been having doping scandals lately - the hammer throw? Whatever.

There are crazy medical risks and side effects associated with athletic pharmaceuticals, but it’s not like we ever show much concern for medical risks taken by other members of society in the name of fame and/or money; it seems unfair to limit our concern to athletes. I for one would quite like to watch other people explore the limits of the drug-enhanced human body. Why aren’t there sports leagues where doping is openly accepted practice?

Comments

  1. Graham wrote:

    This post in G-vision™: “Tour de ‘Rhoid Rage!”
    I’m still waiting for the explanation of why they stand up off their seats so much of the time.

  2. yami wrote:

    Me too. It’s probably a very complex calculus of aerodynamics vs. pedal leverage vs. sore butts… I do like how they all wear padded underwear though.

  3. des wrote:

    The Tour is great! (I watched bits of it in French, Danish and (most intelligibly) Norwegish at David’s flat, hoorah!)
    Much of the entertainment is the Big Picture, rather than anything that is currently happening, because very often nothing in particular is. The Really Big Picture is that it’s the most outrageously gruelling endurance event ever invented, of course.

  4. yami wrote:

    Yes, but just last night I invented about three ways to make it more outrageous and more grueling, like eliminating these nonsensical “rest days” and allowing competitors to ride across France without dividing the course into stages for purposes of “sleeping” and “eating”. And then having one day where everybody stops to have a bicycle jousting tournament.

  5. Rana wrote:

    Ooh! I’d watch that!
    (But then any sport that combines violence with fit men in little tight shorts tends to grab my attention — yay, footy!)
    Have you seen the Triplets of Belleville?

  6. yami wrote:

    Yes! Fabulous movie. The Tour de France should definitely involve kidnappings and crossing the Atlantic in a paddleboat - right after the jousting.

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