top athletes don't ride bicycles

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Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports

By Mike Imrem

How thought-provoking over the weekend that the paths of Lance Armstrong
and Ricky Williams crossed halfway around the world from each other.

In France, Armstrong won the Tour de France for a record sixth consecutive
time. From Hawaii, Williams announced his retirement from the NFL.

What this started me thinking about again is the claim Armstrong
is the world's greatest athlete.

I have said this befo Even if Armstrong is the world's most dominant
athlete ever, he's nowhere near the world's greatest athlete.

What does Williams have to do with the equation?

Well, to me the suddenly former Dolphins running back was a better
athlete than Armstrong is. So is anyone who can hit Kerry Wood's curveball
or execute a crossover dribble in Kobe Bryant's face.

Wayne Gretzky was skinny enough in his prime to win the Tour de
France. Dennis Rodman could have if it wouldn't have bored him to
death. Alex Rodriguez would have if there were more money in it.

This isn't personal on my part. A half-hour on a stationary bike
is about my limit. I'd have trouble riding around France for three
weeks in a Porsche unless it was chauffeur-driven.

Back to Williams, the point being anybody who ever carried the football
once in the NFL is a better athlete than even cycling's best ever.

Put it this way: Williams could peddle a bicycle for a couple hours
in the Tour de France but Armstrong couldn't survive a single hit
in the NFL.

That doesn't minimize Armstrong's accomplishments. His training
regimen suggests he's superhuman and his cycling record confirms the
notion.

But I'm sorry ... neither makes him more athletic than an NFL running
back.

Like, it's no surprise Williams announced his retirement the week
NFL training camps begin, because few football players want to go
through that. Nor is it surprising Williams quit after five seasons,
because that's as long as any human being should have to endure the
punishment.

It's one thing to tolerate physical agony while sitting on a bicycle.
It's another while angry 300-pounders are slamming into you.

Just imagine the speed, agility and muscle - the athleticism - it
takes to navigate past, around and through people like Ray Lewis,
Brian Urlacher and Warren Sapp.

Walter Payton did it for 13 seasons. After a couple, he indicated
he would play five total, then go teach hearing-impaired children.
Unlike Williams, however, Payton just kept on keepin' on.

Now, don't you think if Payton applied himself to cycling the way
he did to football - and if it were as financially and emotionally
rewarding to Americans - that he could have become Armstrong?

I mean, if Payton could run up and down that Arlington Heights hill
to get in shape for NFL beatings, don't you think he could have withstood
a cyclist's workouts?

If Ricky Williams stays retired he will be the rare football player
- along with the likes of Jim Brown, Barry Sanders and Robert Smith
- with the strength to both play that brutal game and to leave us
wanting more.

Williams wants to explore other interests, fulfill other ambitions
and experience other sensations.

Who knows, he might even take up cycling just for the fun of it
and win the Tour de France just for the heck of it.

If so, he won't be the athlete he was as an NFL running back.



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crit pro wrote:

This is a www.dailyherald.com news story


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Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports

By Mike Imrem
[s]

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This dead horse isn't worth further beating.

Next!

Cone on! He writes for a SUBURBAN Chicago newspaper.

crit pro wrote:
This is a www.dailyherald.com news story


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FORWARDED STORY BELOW
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Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports

By Mike Imrem

How thought-provoking over the weekend that the paths of Lance Armstrong
and Ricky Williams crossed halfway around the world from each other.

In France, Armstrong won the Tour de France for a record sixth consecutive
time. From Hawaii, Williams announced his retirement from the NFL.

What this started me thinking about again is the claim Armstrong
is the world's greatest athlete.

I have said this befo Even if Armstrong is the world's most dominant
athlete ever, he's nowhere near the world's greatest athlete.

What does Williams have to do with the equation?

Well, to me the suddenly former Dolphins running back was a better
athlete than Armstrong is. So is anyone who can hit Kerry Wood's curveball
or execute a crossover dribble in Kobe Bryant's face.

Wayne Gretzky was skinny enough in his prime to win the Tour de
France. Dennis Rodman could have if it wouldn't have bored him to
death. Alex Rodriguez would have if there were more money in it.

This isn't personal on my part. A half-hour on a stationary bike
is about my limit. I'd have trouble riding around France for three
weeks in a Porsche unless it was chauffeur-driven.

Back to Williams, the point being anybody who ever carried the football
once in the NFL is a better athlete than even cycling's best ever.

Put it this way: Williams could peddle a bicycle for a couple hours
in the Tour de France but Armstrong couldn't survive a single hit
in the NFL.

That doesn't minimize Armstrong's accomplishments. His training
regimen suggests he's superhuman and his cycling record confirms the
notion.

But I'm sorry ... neither makes him more athletic than an NFL running
back.

Like, it's no surprise Williams announced his retirement the week
NFL training camps begin, because few football players want to go
through that. Nor is it surprising Williams quit after five seasons,
because that's as long as any human being should have to endure the
punishment.

It's one thing to tolerate physical agony while sitting on a bicycle.
It's another while angry 300-pounders are slamming into you.

Just imagine the speed, agility and muscle - the athleticism - it
takes to navigate past, around and through people like Ray Lewis,
Brian Urlacher and Warren Sapp.

Walter Payton did it for 13 seasons. After a couple, he indicated
he would play five total, then go teach hearing-impaired children.
Unlike Williams, however, Payton just kept on keepin' on.

Now, don't you think if Payton applied himself to cycling the way
he did to football - and if it were as financially and emotionally
rewarding to Americans - that he could have become Armstrong?

I mean, if Payton could run up and down that Arlington Heights hill
to get in shape for NFL beatings, don't you think he could have withstood
a cyclist's workouts?

If Ricky Williams stays retired he will be the rare football player
- along with the likes of Jim Brown, Barry Sanders and Robert Smith
- with the strength to both play that brutal game and to leave us
wanting more.

Williams wants to explore other interests, fulfill other ambitions
and experience other sensations.

Who knows, he might even take up cycling just for the fun of it
and win the Tour de France just for the heck of it.

If so, he won't be the athlete he was as an NFL running back.



- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FORWARDED STORY ABOVE
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Visit Suburban Chicago's Information Source at http://www.dailyherald.com

-------------------------
We had a phenomenal response to the article written by the Daily Herald?s Mike Imrem
last week in which it was suggested that Lance Armstrong was not a top athlete. In
fact, so phenomenal was the response that Mr Imrem?s inbox stopped receiving mail
halfway through last week as procycling readers quibbled with his assessment of
Armstrong?s achievements and capabilities.
--------------------------

Read it at http://www.procycling.com/news.aspx?ID=384





J. Spaceman





crit pro wrote:

This is a www.dailyherald.com news story


- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FORWARDED STORY BELOW
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports

By Mike Imrem

How thought-provoking over the weekend that the paths of Lance Armstrong
and Ricky Williams crossed halfway around the world from each other.

In France, Armstrong won the Tour de France for a record sixth consecutive
time. From Hawaii, Williams announced his retirement from the NFL.

What this started me thinking about again is the claim Armstrong
is the world's greatest athlete.

I have said this befo Even if Armstrong is the world's most dominant
athlete ever, he's nowhere near the world's greatest athlete.

What does Williams have to do with the equation?

Well, to me the suddenly former Dolphins running back was a better
athlete than Armstrong is. So is anyone who can hit Kerry Wood's curveball
or execute a crossover dribble in Kobe Bryant's face.

Wayne Gretzky was skinny enough in his prime to win the Tour de
France. Dennis Rodman could have if it wouldn't have bored him to
death. Alex Rodriguez would have if there were more money in it.

This isn't personal on my part. A half-hour on a stationary bike
is about my limit. I'd have trouble riding around France for three
weeks in a Porsche unless it was chauffeur-driven.

Back to Williams, the point being anybody who ever carried the football
once in the NFL is a better athlete than even cycling's best ever.

Put it this way: Williams could peddle a bicycle for a couple hours
in the Tour de France but Armstrong couldn't survive a single hit
in the NFL.

That doesn't minimize Armstrong's accomplishments. His training
regimen suggests he's superhuman and his cycling record confirms the
notion.

But I'm sorry ... neither makes him more athletic than an NFL running
back.

Like, it's no surprise Williams announced his retirement the week
NFL training camps begin, because few football players want to go
through that. Nor is it surprising Williams quit after five seasons,
because that's as long as any human being should have to endure the
punishment.

It's one thing to tolerate physical agony while sitting on a bicycle.
It's another while angry 300-pounders are slamming into you.

Just imagine the speed, agility and muscle - the athleticism - it
takes to navigate past, around and through people like Ray Lewis,
Brian Urlacher and Warren Sapp.

Walter Payton did it for 13 seasons. After a couple, he indicated
he would play five total, then go teach hearing-impaired children.
Unlike Williams, however, Payton just kept on keepin' on.

Now, don't you think if Payton applied himself to cycling the way
he did to football - and if it were as financially and emotionally
rewarding to Americans - that he could have become Armstrong?

I mean, if Payton could run up and down that Arlington Heights hill
to get in shape for NFL beatings, don't you think he could have withstood
a cyclist's workouts?

If Ricky Williams stays retired he will be the rare football player
- along with the likes of Jim Brown, Barry Sanders and Robert Smith
- with the strength to both play that brutal game and to leave us
wanting more.

Williams wants to explore other interests, fulfill other ambitions
and experience other sensations.

Who knows, he might even take up cycling just for the fun of it
and win the Tour de France just for the heck of it.

If so, he won't be the athlete he was as an NFL running back.



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FORWARDED STORY ABOVE
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Visit Suburban Chicago's Information Source at http://www.dailyherald.com

--
My email address ) is fake. Email sent to it will
only get caught in my spam tarpit.

You know that that guy was looking for that kind of response...


--
keydates

Richard Adams wrote in message ...
crit pro wrote:

This is a www.dailyherald.com news story


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Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports

By Mike Imrem
[s]

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This dead horse isn't worth further beating.

Next!


If I remember, it was the football players that tried out for rugby
that were always puking on the side of the field. Football is for
padded pussies, get real and play rugby or go ride a bike.

Phillip

"crit pro" wrote
Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports
By Mike Imrem

He's a pathetic writer at a lame paper begging for attention . . . the
last sport he lambasted ignorantly was soccer, and he took joy in
printing some responses he got (but didn't "get"). Still, I sent this to
him a week or two ago:

I know you will dismiss this comment just as I dismissed your column on
Monday. You might think it's just a bike-weenie desperate for
recognition for his sport; you would be wrong. I know, however, that
your column was just a desperate attempt by a mediocre, 'medium-time'
writer looking for publicity anywhere you can get it. I know your m.o.
has been to criticize sports you feel are less 'worthy' or 'athletic'
(according to your random scale of athleticism) in the past, and I know
you live for replies like this that you can discount and laugh at,
assured that they're in the wrong and comfy in your world view. Unlike
you and your assumptions, I would be and am right about all that. That's
why, although your article made me mad enough to reply to you, I will
feel a lot better, I'm pretty sure, than you once I hit 'send'.

I won't even go deeply into my complaints with the article, as you
probably knew well where the logical and factual errors were in it as
you gleefully sent it off to your editor. The title claim that "top
athletes don't ride bicycles", then the claim that lots of top athletes
of yesterday and today could win the TDF if they'd wanted to, is just
the most obvious example. Make up your mind, Mike: is winning the
toughest athletic competition in the modern world a great
accomplishment, or not? You'd be better off trying to make that claim
that is the first refuge of hack-sportswriters trying to start trouble:
that cycling isn't a sport at all. To concede that it is, but then to
claim that Wayne Gretzky or Dennis Rodman (ha!) could do it is laughable
at best and blatantly ignorant in actuality. I would expect some
research to be done before writing, even from you, Mike. In fact, I
think the only true 'statement' in your article was this: "Armstrong
couldn't survive a single hit in the NFL." Although it might not be
specifically true (I played football and have seen plenty of kickers and
QBs a lot 'sissier' looking than Lance), you're right that Armstrong
could not be an NFL star. Neither could Pedro Martinez or Jason Kidd;
does that make them worse athletes? To arbitrarily decide that football
is the ultimate sport simply because you or the readers you're trying
desperately to appeal to prefer it is insane.

I don't actually favor cycling as my favorite sport, but I don't pretend
that anyone but the world-class athletes who train literally year-round
(there's no off-season or training camps for cyclists) and burn 7,000+
calories a day to ride literally around and across France could
accomplish what they do. So congratulations on stirring up anger again;
I hope we cycling fans are more eloquent than soccer hooligans.

Brendon Troy

"Brendon M. Troy" wrote in
message ...
"crit pro" wrote
Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports
By Mike Imrem

He's a pathetic writer at a lame paper begging for attention . . . the
last sport he lambasted ignorantly was soccer, and he took joy in
printing some responses he got (but didn't "get"). Still, I sent this
to
him a week or two ago:

I know you will dismiss this comment just as I dismissed your column
on
Monday. You might think it's just a bike-weenie desperate for
recognition for his sport; you would be wrong. I know, however, that
your column was just a desperate attempt by a mediocre, 'medium-time'
writer looking for publicity anywhere you can get it. I know your m.o.
has been to criticize sports you feel are less 'worthy' or 'athletic'
(according to your random scale of athleticism) in the past, and I
know
you live for replies like this that you can discount and laugh at,
assured that they're in the wrong and comfy in your world view. Unlike
you and your assumptions, I would be and am right about all that.
That's
why, although your article made me mad enough to reply to you, I will
feel a lot better, I'm pretty sure, than you once I hit 'send'.

I won't even go deeply into my complaints with the article, as you
probably knew well where the logical and factual errors were in it as
you gleefully sent it off to your editor. The title claim that "top
athletes don't ride bicycles", then the claim that lots of top
athletes
of yesterday and today could win the TDF if they'd wanted to, is just
the most obvious example. Make up your mind, Mike: is winning the
toughest athletic competition in the modern world a great
accomplishment, or not? You'd be better off trying to make that claim
that is the first refuge of hack-sportswriters trying to start
trouble:
that cycling isn't a sport at all. To concede that it is, but then to
claim that Wayne Gretzky or Dennis Rodman (ha!) could do it is
laughable
at best and blatantly ignorant in actuality. I would expect some
research to be done before writing, even from you, Mike. In fact, I
think the only true 'statement' in your article was this: "Armstrong
couldn't survive a single hit in the NFL." Although it might not be
specifically true (I played football and have seen plenty of kickers
and
QBs a lot 'sissier' looking than Lance), you're right that Armstrong
could not be an NFL star. Neither could Pedro Martinez or Jason Kidd;
does that make them worse athletes? To arbitrarily decide that
football
is the ultimate sport simply because you or the readers you're trying
desperately to appeal to prefer it is insane.

I don't actually favor cycling as my favorite sport, but I don't
pretend
that anyone but the world-class athletes who train literally
year-round
(there's no off-season or training camps for cyclists) and burn 7,000+
calories a day to ride literally around and across France could
accomplish what they do. So congratulations on stirring up anger
again;
I hope we cycling fans are more eloquent than soccer hooligans.

This was mine which not suprisingly came back undelivered.....
Mike, thank you for sharing your personal opinion based on
ignorance..yawn. Williams would be off the back 200yds into the first
climb. I guess being noticed is more important to you than being
informed which is probably why your mailbox is full right now.

PH

"Phillip" wrote in message
om...
Richard Adams wrote in message
...
crit pro wrote:

This is a www.dailyherald.com news story


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Top athletes don't ride bicycles
Daily Herald Reports

By Mike Imrem
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This dead horse isn't worth further beating.

Next!


If I remember, it was the football players that tried out for rugby
that were always puking on the side of the field. Football is for
padded pussies, get real and play rugby or go ride a bike.

Phillip

stewart fleming said that rugby players have padding.

Now, don't you think if Payton applied himself to cycling the way
he did to football - and if it were as financially and emotionally
rewarding to Americans - that he could have become Armstrong?

You know what the biggest problem with cycling and respectability is?

Accessibility.

Riding a bike is such a common activity that it's taken for granted, rather
than assumed to be any sort of a skill-laden endeavor. Every sports writer
who drives to work comes across (and is perhaps inconvenienced by) people on
bikes. To many of them, the idea of making a huge deal out of the
athleticism required in a bicycle race makes about as much sense as it would
to glorify the rigors of a power-walking competition.

You just get on a bike, turn the pedals and go. If you're a weenie, you
claim you're not as fast as the next guy because he has a better bike, or
maybe your brake is rubbing.

This is somewhat personal to me; my father was the Sports Editor for the
local newspaper (back in the day when local newspapers were a significant
thing) for 25 years, and his long-haired weirdo son
(www.ChainReaction.com/ancientstuff.htm for proof) sucked at sports that
required you to move towards high-speed projectiles and instead took up the
more-than-obscure sport of bicycle racing. Other dads got to brag about
their son's skills at quarterback or running the 440 or how many home runs
they hit. My dad, the Sports Editor, got the weirdo kid who rode a bike
wearing a strange outfit. Racing bikes? Maybe that was something done in
Europe, and had some respect there, but it was thus one of those things that
defined why the US was the dominant sports culture of the world!

And, truth be told, one of the reasons I took up bicycle racing was because
it *was* counter-cultural. Or at least it had that appeal to an outsider.
But once you got inside, you found an entirely different world, one in which
there was a strong sense of structure & purpose, with a lot of attention to
training & technique.

My dad had written a couple of columns previously about bike racing (the
first one being the historic occasion of the very-first use of videotape at
a sporting event- the Redwood City Criterium, which was held in front of
Ampex), so it wasn't entirely obtuse to him. And when I started racing, he
started covering the more-prestigious local races (such as the Tour of
California) and became something of a liaison between bicycle racing and the
other local news organizations. He was very impressed with guys like Neel,
Crawford, Brinks... and some young upstart named LeMond. He became a fan of
the sport.

Everything's personal.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com