"This is the lead sentence on Procycling.com's report of the time trial on 9/11 at the Vuelta:
""It was fitting that on the third anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States that the Vuelta’s first time trial was won by the USA’s recently crowned Olympic time trial champion Tyler Hamilton.""
Huh? How's that? It was?
Well, in a real stretch, if the TT ended at the Madrid train station, just maybe you might find some minute relationship between an American winning the stage and the date. Nah, even that would be too loopy a connection.Oh, is the connection, the Twin Towers (TT) and Time Trial (TT)?
No, this is just amateur, mindless writing--like no other I can recall in reading about the sport.
Richard"
The absolute worst piece of bike writing I've ever read.
Tue, 09/14/2004 - 6:07am
Tue, 09/14/2004 - 8:29pm
#1
Or, it could be something else
I'm not sure it is necessarily mindless. I think there is a perception outside of the US that it is nice to see something good happen to an American citizen on or about the anniversary of 9/11. I don't think the fact it was a time trial had anything to do with it. If it was a regular stage won by a US rider, I think the same logic to that writer and, perphaps, many other non US writers and commentators in cycling and other sports would have applied. The fact it was a time trial was irrelevant, and I'm not sure what connection you were suggesting had it have ended in Madrid railway station.
I think there may be an analogy with a stage in the TdF several years ago, before Lance Armstrong had cancer, when he won a stage the day after his Motorola team mate Fabio Casatelli (aplogies for spelling and probably getting name wrong) died on the slopes of the Pyrenees. I remember several commentators commenting on how fitting a result that stage had been, especially as LA dedicated his win to his team mate's memory. And I believe that Tyler H also dedicated his TT victory to the memory of the victims of 9/11.
If, for instance, the United States football (soccer) team had been playing an international match that day and had won, I can easily imagine many writers expressing similar sentiments.
But I can understand that from a US citizen's viewpoint, such sentiments from foreign writers or otherwise might possibly seem patronising, which I am sure is not the intention.
That aside, this is certainly not the worst piece of writing about cycling I've ever read by a long measure. There was some mindless moron who wrote for a Maryland newspaper just after this year's TdF had finished, who wrote that Lance Armstrong and other profesional cyclists' various athletic achievements were no match for what an average NFL player does in a single game. It was a truly awful piece of writing all round. And the writer and the copy editors failed to spot a howing spelling error. The writer was talking about LA pedalling his way around France, but managed to write 'peddling'.
Tue, 09/14/2004 - 10:00pm
#2
Pun alert: currant events.
"Anthony wrote, above, ""...the writer and the copy editors failed to spot a howing spelling error. The writer was talking about LA pedalling his way around France, but managed to write 'peddling'.""
Anthony, the way Lance has merchandised himself to advertisers, do you doubt for a second he was peddling every bit as much as he was pedaling?
Peter Cossins, the publisher of procycling.com wrote me today, ""In his post-race press conference Tyler Hamilton said that he felt his victory was a small way of him being able to pay tribute to the memory of those who died in the attack on the World Trade Center. This was not explained in what was a very quickly and not too well written story [on the procycling site], but I think explains the slant of the report.""
I didn't know it was Hamilton who associated his win with the fall of the WTC. (As Cossins wrote, that wasn't expressed in the report of the stage.) Hamilton making that (odd) association does take the onus for it off procycling.com.
You also wrote, ""The fact it was a time trial was irrelevant, and I'm not sure what connection you were suggesting had it have ended in Madrid railway station.""
Anthony, Anthony, Anthony: PLEASE tell me you're not being serious! Even the NY Post and Fox News headlined THAT story.
And, of course, as I wrote, I was merely making a word play on TT standing for Time Trial and Twin Towers. If you think me too subtle, you may be the first.
"
Wed, 09/15/2004 - 4:56am
#3
I'm familiar with the story, I just don't get the connection
Richard,
I am familiar with the story re the Madrid railway station, as just about every purveyor of news in the world carried the story. I just didn't get the connection you were trying to suggest in your post. I'm obviously missing something here, unless we are talking about different stories.
I'm intrigued about which version of the Procycling story you read, because the version I saw made reference to Tyler Hamilton's comments after his TT victory, so I'm a little confused. I'm guessing that the version you read was cut for space reasons, in which case you could blame ProCycling for some injudicous sub-editing.
As for Lance peddling, I think it is Lance's sponsors that have been peddling him, rather than LA peddling himself. Either way, in the context of the article, the author was certainly talking about pedalling and not peddling.
I'm interested to know what American citizens think when foreign writers express the kind of sentiments seen in the Procycling article around the time of the 9/11 anniversary.
Wed, 09/15/2004 - 5:23am
#4
Ok, the penny's finally dropped
Richard,
I'm assuming you're making the connection with the fact that the Madrid railway bombings last December were 911 days after September 11, 2001, in which case, it might have been equally as appropriate if a Spanish rider had won a time trial ending at Madrid railway station. Sorry it took so long. Incidentally, the irony, if there is any, would have been lost on most people outside of the US, because the rest of the world writes dates the other way around, ie, day/month/year.
The US is, I believe, unique in the way people write dates, and when the expression 'nine eleven' started being used, it took a second or two for us foreigners to realise what was being talked about.
Even so, I still think it is a somewhat tenuous connection in the context of Tyler H's comments, but I appreciate you had not read them at the time you made it.
Tue, 09/14/2004 - 10:22pm
#5
I'll go with AP on this one.
Rich, that sentence is confusing. ]
CyclingNews.com had an equally head scratching lead paragraph regarding Tyler's win.
But Anthony's assesment of the Maryland writer qualify's as the worst writing of the year.
