Newsgroup: it.sport.ciclismo
Titolo: Vote for a real tour de force

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2326028.html
FOR ONCE, it is blindingly obvious who should be BBC Sports Personality 
of the Year. Just as blindingly obvious is that Nicole Cooke doesn’t 
stand a cat in hell’s chance of making the shortlist, let alone carrying 
off the trophy.
Why? Because in a country where virtually everyone can name David 
Beckham’s children, Big Brother contestants and all the nobodies who 
spew out of the ghastly celebrity magazines, only a fraction of the 
voting population knows who Cooke is.
Yet here, in a year when Britain has been conspicuously short on 
sporting heroes, is someone who has achieved something no Brit, male or 
female, has ever achieved — namely, won the Tour de France. The women’s 
tour may be less celebrated, less pressured and hopefully less 
drug-ridden than the men’s, but it is a formidable event and this year 
included Mont Ventoux, which most people get tired driving up, let alone 
cycling.
To get to her level means a lifetime of dedication, commitment and 
sacrifice. Surely these are the sporting qualities that BBC viewers 
should celebrate. But most important, she won something worth winning.
It is absurd to think an England footballer should win in this year of 
World Cup failure. Suggestions that the comedian David Walliams should 
win because of his fantastic charity swim across the Channel simply 
underline that we produce more celebs than real sporting success 
stories. Monty Panesar has bowled well and also become a reluctant race 
relations symbol, but his achievements do not match those of Freddie 
Flintoff, who won last year. Andy Murray is a genuine rising star but 
surely he has to get a few majors under his belt first.
A country that takes sport seriously should take cycling seriously, 
whatever its problems. A country that values real achievement should 
look no further than the Welsh cyclist who won in France.
It is a sign that neither are the case that Jade Goody probably has more 
chance of winning than Cooke. I mean to say, she lost on Big Brother and 
then entered the London Marathon without training and found she couldn’t 
do it. And her sporting efforts got more media attention than Cooke’s. 
Unbelievable. It is time to restore pride in genuine sporting 
achievement. Think winners. Vote Cooke.
-- 
http://modesta.biciticino.ch
Il sito dedicato alla giovane ciclista lituana Modesta Vzesniauskaite

 voting population knows who Cooke is.
Yeah, but its not really all that unusual. Most people don't know who Amben
Neben is here. Heck, when Lance won his 7th tour he was on TV at the Ford
cardealership where I was waiting in the customer waiting room complete with
TV,  free cookies  and coffee. While I watched Lance on TV live in the
mountains, I made remarks to the girl next to me, and to my astonishment she
had never even heard of Lance Armstrong, even after I brought it to her
attention many ways of trying to get her to remember anything about Lance.
She said flatly she had no idea who Lance was, not even remotely ever did
she remember hearing his name or who he was.
She was either the biggest liar, or that shows cycling is still a small
sport, and lots of people don't know the stars, but Lance has been one of
the biggest commercial successes ever like Tiger Woods, he was on TV all the
time in American commercials.
Luperini was a million times more successful then Cooke and believe it or
not, I was told Luperini was relatively unknown in Italy because she was so
modest and didn't work her magic like Super Mario did with the press. Even
when I visited the Italian athletic forum, nobody knew who Luperini was. The
girl who wrote my Italian piece for Luperini had no idea who she was, but
she was really astonished after learning of her palmares that such a
historic legend would be so widely unknown by the Italian people, probably
because at the same time she was in her prime, so was Pantani and all eyes
were on Pantani, and not the little Pantanina.
If Cooke wants the attention then she must become epervescent and flamboyant
like Leontion or Super Mario, since its much harder for the women, but if
they can model like Modesta or Leontion then they can work their magic.
Problem is Cooke is too manly and tomboyish to be a sexy model, so she needs
to use antics and personality to make up the difference. Cooke is not the
kind of star that has a wide appeal across the board for a huge number of
magazines which mix sexy athletes with regular models. If she had that
appeal, she would do much better.
B-