What is this show “Holland Sport”, on which cyclists say things to the world? It does not seem like it sets a reasonable standard for investigative reporting.
(you should probably read the comments before proceeding)
First it was Thomas Dekker, talking about how EPO didn’t help and how he only took it once. Now it’s Tom Boonen, talking about how he can’t ever remember taking cocaine. Fact is, Tommeke may just be the first case of “second-hand coke” in recorded history. Wonder how long it’s going to take to get that on his Wikipedia page.
That’s hard-hitting journalism, folks. So rather than meeting with my boss and her manager for my review this year, I think I’m just going to go over my day-job performance on Holland Sport. I’d almost certainly get a raise—maybe even a promotion. Bet I wouldn’t even need to speak Dutch.
However, outside of fawning (see comments>comments) sports shows, that lack of language agility can be a barrier. Once upon a time, I used to make an effort to keep up with rider transfers, but being monolingual makes it too hard—all that searching and auto-translating and separating fact from rumor.
Fortunately, Cyclingnews has done its best to keep on top of things—and they even made it into a Geocities-closing memorial by laying out list after list on a mile-long HTML page! Just like 1998! Awesome!
And lest any of you accuse me of calling the kettle black, I’m currently doing as much as I can to bump online cycling resources into the 21th century—to 2005, at least.
Way to go slagging off journalistic standards from second hand reports, when you can’t check the source. First of all, it is a quirky sports fan show with artistic rather than journalistic goals. Definitely not a standard sports programme or a magazine with investigating journalists. That said, Dekker was given quite a hard time on the show, the right questions were asked, some answers were had and a lot of emotion recorded. Boonen less so, but then again it was off-time, recreational use of a substance with dubious performance enhancing qualities for endurance athletes. On the show last night, Boonen said his competitive streak manifests itself in his drinking, that he lost control and was completely wasted and that he doesn’t remember taking coke. After a follow-up question, he said/admitted that last year he did do it consciously. Anyway, who cares if or what he snorted on a night out? (Well, his sponsor might.) Let the cops take care of it if it’s an criminal offence.
Indeed, Hollandsport is one of the best sport shows (with the emphasis on the latter) on Dutch tv. Not because of it’s hardhitting investigative journalism, but because of its attention to untold stories, unsung heroes and general sports’ history that is lacking in most regular sports TV shows. Do you know about regular sports shows that have 10 min items about retirees with mopeds that function as training partners for several pro-cyclists who live in the area? About 30 mins in the show…it’s Nico Willems, the rider (on a moped paid for by Karsten Kroon), and Bram Tankink. item starts at 28:40 https://tr.im/DePT
Guess that answers my question “What is this Holland Sport?”
Thanks for the info, guys—I’m sorry I misrepresented the show so badly. It’s temping to blame CN’s reporting, but any problem there is no doubt exacerbated by my enjoyment of running my mouth.
That should teach you.
Holland sport is great and i’ve never seen another sports show that’s made with such love for sport and athletes.
And the above commenter is right: Dekker was given a pretty hard time. Holland sport isn’t always ncie and friendly. (Dutch people might remember Wilfried de Jong butchering Patrick Kluivert in an interview a few years ago. No mercy at all)
For Boonen it might have something to do with the fact that (most) Dutch people don’t think it’s a big deal at all. So he took some coke on a night out, don’t we all? It’s not doping, so let him be.
I read the comments before proceeding, still wanted to comment 🙂
How is ESPN covering baseball pitchers nowadays BTW? Just wondering.
geocities-look is so right. hey didn’t you know that retro is in?
even better, is cn’s ‘guide to USA team transfers’ which includes the Canadian team Planet Energy. Let’s see who else included the Canadian teams in their transfer-o-rama? yep, me.