summertime- and cycling fans get screwed again

Nothing like watching the tour to remind you how, as fans of the sport of professional cycling, we continue to get screwed by networks, by cable companies, the crtc and whoever else is responsible for broadcasting what is actually a sport and treating like a silly hobby of interest only to europeans or flakes.

TSN1, available on digital cable, has been broadcasting the tour and also broadcast the Giro d'Italia. However, it's not carried by Videotron. It has been carrying live coverage in the morning (from Versus) and rebroadcasting at night. But alas, not every night. It is frequently preempted by CFL football. Obviously the concept of "stage race" has eluded those in charge; imagine if only one or two games of the hockey playoffs aired?

Canal Evasion broadcasts the tour live every morning and evening, never preempting it for anything, but as a french version of OLN, its schedule the rest of the year is cooking, travel shows and reruns of "Amazing race" dubbed into french. A couple of years ago, they aired the Giro, but abandoned it supposedly due to poor ratings.

In fact, showing only one bike race a year is akin to showing only the superbowl, the world series or the Stanley cup playoffs. The cycling season begins in the spring and ends in the fall. But we get nothing but one race a year because even after all this time, it's not seen as a sport- by networks which routinely broadcast poker and darts. Cyclists bleed even more than hockey players; they don't get halftime, or a bench, or substitutes, or dancing girls, or the sidelines. You get injured, you either stay in and suffer or you're out. Cyclists have ridden up the alps with broken elbows and collarbones and finishes stages while wrapped up like mummies. They routinely defy the laws of physics by riding bikes over roads that, for the rest of the year, are limited to pedestrians or farm equipment. And somehow, it's not seen as enough of a sport to warrant more than a few hours a week, once a year.