Monday, July 30, 2012

Dealing with Journalists


Mark Cavendish may have failed to make British cycling fans cheer* in the Road Race on Saturday, but he made up for that with an acid slap-down of BBC Sports Editor, David Bond.

Interviewed on the Mall after the race, Bond asked him “Was tiredness after the Tour de France a factor?” To which Cav replied, “Don’t ask stupid questions” and, as his minder lead him away, followed up with a query of his own: “Do you know anything about cycling?” 

On the evidence available, this cycling fan, heartily sick of the half-arsed coverage the sport usually gets, can only say that the answer is a resounding “no”. I doubt even Martin “stick to yachting” Tasker would have bothered with that question.

It gets better though, thanks to the beauty of social media. Bond has had a whinge on his own blog on the BBC site and thereby allowed a fair number of my fellow fans to put him back in his box a second time. Nice.



*Well actually he didn’t, the GB team’s tactics may not have worked out, and they may not have had the firepower to chase down the break, with limited help from the Germans and none from the Aussies (who evidently thought O’Grady’s chances from a group of 22 riders were better than Goss’ in a sprint against Cavendish and Greipel) but everyone on Box Hill cheered themselves hoarse nonetheless.

1 comment:

Duncan Brown said...

An insightful comment at 356:
"and if he hadn't participated in the Tour de France, I suppose you would've asked him if his lack of serious preparation had a detrimental effect on his Olympic performance!
...
As a sportsman or woman, you're damned by the media if you do, or damned if you don't."

Could just as easily be applied to politics commentators and bloggers.