Through The Yellow Lens

I said something to a friend this morning... I explained that I felt if Nibali had, in fact, intentionally gone off when Froome had a mechanical, knowingly dropping the yellow jersey, that he did it because of the chances Froome is, in fact, doping.

In this post-heavy-doping era, it's hard to look at strong performances without looking through a different lens. In Le Tour, it's the yellow lens. The downfall of the supposed heroes of the sport left us all maybe a little jaded, dosed with a handful of skepticism. I'm a fairly new spectator... I've only been interested in cycling for the past few years, well after the Armstrong era had ended. My love developed in the midst of professional cycling's darkest moments, as the titans fell, one by one.

Froome is an unassuming fellow, but I learn every time I race that I can't read people on the bike like an open book. Unlikely riders tend to produce wattage I can't match. His gangly arms (I can't say a damn thing about gangly arms, if you've ever seen mine...), odd form (Have you ever seen the blog "Chris Froome Looking At Stems"??), and lack of diplomatic air make him an easy target for us, the fickle fans of the greatest, hardest sport. A few short years ago, we rooted for him as a young domestique, whose amazing talent was constantly overshadowed by his leader, Sir Bradley Wiggins. Throw Wiggins to the wolves, we said. We want more of this Chris Froome fellow. His quiet confidence was a sweet balance to Sir Wiggo's four-letter-worded cries. Now, however, we are more than ready to eat him alive.

We are the wolves to whom we throw them. We, the fans, so many of us cyclists ourselves, we ask for more, then cannibalize what we've been given. When I sat down this morning and reviewed what he's done at this Tour, his performance isn't even stunning enough to show me he's doing anything any of his fellow GC contenders aren't doing. What was I saying? What was I thinking? I can't prove anything. I want to believe, really. I want to believe we've made a turn for the better in the sport, in spite of what my gut sometimes tells me.

So where do we go from here? Spectators are acting out at Froome and Team Sky. While I am complicit in the skepticism at the team's performance, we spectators can't let that govern our actions. There's something dehumanizing and dark at the edge of the crowd, and it makes me uncomfortable, just as much as doping culture. Don't hurt others. Unless it's with speed. Take others to the woodshed; that's the only acceptable pain we in cycling culture should inflict on anyone, ever. If examination of our sport through colored lenses encourages a hot mess of thrown urine and pissed off spectators spitting in the faces of athletes, then the lenses must be discarded. I will continue to watch with a healthy dose of skepticism, while avoiding the yellow lens. I won't eat another person alive because of his strength.