Ask a Pro with Phil Gaimon

This is part of the new "Ask a pro" series, with Share the Damn Road founder Phil Gaimon. If you have a question for Phil, email it to phil@sharethedamnroad.com

Question from Zachary in Tennessee: I was wondering if/how you follow the Tour. As a pro, do you feel you have a different perspective from the rest of us?

For the most part, I think that TV coverage doesn't do a great job explaining what you're seeing, so you have to know a lot about bike racing to understand why certain teams are chasing, why some breaks stick and others don't, etc. Depending on where you're watching it, different channels oversimplify the racing to a different extent. I remember seeing Tour coverage on ESPN Sportcenter in the 90s, and the ANCHOR ended the segment with "I just don't see how Lance can finish 80th and still be winning the race". In the same segment, they showed Lance "staying out of trouble", with footage where he was 5 feet to the right of the pack, clearly peeing off the bike on a downhill. Hopefully, you're watching Versus coverage, which does better every year explaining what's going on. I especially like the box at the bottom that tells you the groups on the road and how far back they are from the leaders.
Personally, unless I'm riding the trainer or something, I hate watching a bike race that I want to be in. It's cool to see it, but I eat my heart out every minute. Same thing goes if I DNF a race I'm at: I don't want to stay and watch the finish.
Also, it's hard to watch the known dopers in the races. I see Basso and Vino in there, and yeah, they served their time, but these guys are going to keep getting the job that I want every year, because of their exploits when they were filthy. To me, having those guys in the race means they're now being rewarded for their past, rather than punished. I'm not sure what the answer is, but it makes me question whether I have a future in bike racing as a guy that would never do it.