Lance's 7 TDF victories put cycling in the spotlight, and it was seemingly growing in popularity even in America. Then the doping scandal hit and interest took a nosedive.

What really irks me is these guys should have gotten the message by now that they need to clean up the sport if they ever want it to be respectable again. But AGAIN this year top cyclists are getting kicked out and hauled away for doping. These guys make Bonds look like a dope-free saint.

It really is an amazing train wreck, and no, I've never seen anything like it.

Cycling (and track) is paying the price for trying to be transparent. Baseball and football are scared to do anything close to the stringency of their testing procedures for fear of losing out on their top names.

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Lance's 7 TDF victories put cycling in the spotlight, and it was seemingly growing in popularity even in America

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Lets be accurate here. Cycling was, is, and will continue to be huge in Europe long before Lance arrived. In fact in Europe, where Lance is not universally popular, Lance's seven victories put a bit of a damper on cycling.

Now in the US, yes, Lance put cycling on the map for thousands of people. He IS cycling in the US.

Given the fact that sponsors are dropping like flies due to all of the scandals, it would be hard to make the case that it's as big in Europe or anywhere else as it has been - regardless of the impact Lance had.

They aren't as transparent as you might think...

There's been MORE dope cases in the NFL and NCAA in the last week than in the TDF!

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Given the fact that sponsors are dropping like flies due to all of the scandals, it would be hard to make the case that it's as big in Europe or anywhere else as it has been - regardless of the impact Lance had.

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What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? First of all over half the sponsors this year have sponsored professional cycling teams for over a decade.

Second, what do sponsors have to do with the thousands of people who line each stage? The tens of MILLIONS who watch the race from start to finish live?

Sponsors or no..........cycling is huge over there. The case is very easy to make by looking at the TV ratings.

Sorry Bob............you're plain wrong.

Aggiedent - the sponsors cough up the $10-20M a year it takes to run a pro cycling team. Without sponsors there are no teams.

Do you not think that T-Mobile, Discovery, etc. dropping cycling doesn't have impact? Ricco's team said is it probably dropping cycling.

L'Equipe doesn't pay the cyclists salaries.

Garmin is sponsoring a team because they are #1 in the USA in GPS, but #3 in Europe. But if their team is caught doping Garmin doesn't want to be associated with dopers.

I don't think there are a bunch of companies right now chomping at the bit to spend $20M to sponsor a cycling team. If this continues - salaries will go down, riders will leave the sport, etc. The fans might line the roads for a while, but that will diminish if their favorite riders aren't there. Cycling has its own stack of dominoes that can fall if things don't improve.

Spicewood, I understand what you are saying.

The thing is, cycling is such a part of the culture in countries like Spain, Italy, and France; no sponsor from these countries has bailed out from a doping scandal and likely never will.

When sponsors like T-Mobile (Germany) and Phonak (Swiss) have bailed out due to a doping scandal there has always been someone to fill the void. Always.

Besides, sponsorship outside of the three countries I mentioned in the first paragraph has always been a revolving door in professional cycling. Like the United States.......7 Eleven......US Postal........Discovery........etc.

Furthermore, doping in cycling is only such a big factor because they test for it. If they tested for doping in baseball and dozens of guys were suspended, would it kill the American pasttime? Not a chance. Tarnish it..........hurt it..........but not kill it.

No...........as anyone in Europe would tell you............cycling is here (there) to stay.

Dent, just nit-picking but you left out one American sponsor.

After the 7-eleven days, Motorola picked up and sent US based teams to Europe.

dent, I respectfully disagree.

If you watched the final stage of the TdF, the crowds in Paris were a fraction of years past. Fan interest is way down.

I was at the final time trial this year with some Dutch friends and their take on the whole thing was that the big tours (spain, italy and france) were in danger of being cancelled due to fans turning their back on the cycling scene due to the doping scandals. I believe that over half of this years sponsors are cutting their ties to the TdF next year.

IMHO, they are at a pivotal moment to re-take the sport, or let it die.

[This message has been edited by LyonAg (edited 7/27/2008 1:00p).]

LyonAg - funny you should mention the crowds. I watched the final stage as usual and thought the crowd looked far smaller than in years past. The Tour was good this year with good racing.

But I still believe sponsors, Euro or not, will not support the sport if the riders are found to be dopers. I think French companies in particular will have a hard time associating with a dirty sport of the TDF organizers are taking aggressive, public, positions against dopers.

pro hockey was in the gutter for 2-3 years but is now starting to come back a lil it appears.

The decline of popularity in America is because Lance is no longer riding. Not because of doping. Baseball is still popular.