MSNBC ran a beautifully written rant by Ron Borges titled Great feat, but not a great athlete.  I don’t agree with most of what he says, and it’s pretty obvious to me that he doesn’t either.  His article catches the essence of our culture’s beer-swilling, violence-loving sports fans who’re fixated on ball sports.  Of course anybody who’s into basketball, football, or hockey will consider cycling a “fringe sport.”  These are the same folks who think watching a bunch of cars race 200 times around a track is exciting, although I believe they’re all secretly hoping to see a spectacular crash.  They probably don’t know (or even care, for that matter) that cycling is the national sport of France, and second in popularity only to soccer (“football”) in most of Europe.  But I’ve long since stopped trying to explain the joys of cycling to couch potatoes.  Let them drink beer, yell, and give each other high fives as they watch another overweight idiot with a criminal record cross the goal line.  I’ll go riding.