The New York Times notices cycling, again! But maybe not in such a good way.

After the attention paid to the Christian Vande Velde article, the editors at the New York Times perhaps could not believe their good fortune, so for the Weekend Fashion & Style section, which has a lot more readers than the weekday version, they have turned to Lance Armstrong, with an article about the "2 Lances:" one being the Cancer Foundation Guy and the other being the Texas Playboy. Needless to say, CFG does not get as much attention as TP, who has recently become actress Kate Hudson's arm candy, apparently.

Has Big Tex moved from post-athletic celebrity to becoming the new Paris Hilton? As the only American cyclist who has brought near-universal notice, if not recognition, in the US to our obscure sport he retains our interest but he is reduced in stature by these kind of articles, as is the Times, which seems to be turning into People magazine.

Maybe we should think about Lance Armstrong the way we do about other sports figures: they were great in their day but they don't have much to contribute now. They have our money and should just go away so we can concentrate on Taylor Phinney, instead of a Rich Guy Who Dates A Lot of Similar-Looking Celebrity Blondes.

The New York Times notices cycling!

Christian Vande Velde training in Switzerland
(Franca Pedrazzetti for The New York Times_

Team Slipstream-Chipotle's (soon to be Garmin-Chipotle) Christian Vande Velde is the subject of a piece in today's New York Times and offers lots of good suggestions for aspiring cyclists as he discusses his training regime. He can generate 470 Watts for 10 minutes so he is probably worth listening to, even if the article appears in the "Fashion & Style" section of the newspaper. I guess the fashion element is that argylle pattern...

However, I am not so sure about the recipe for on-the-ride food: peanut butter, rice and Nutella. No beer mentioned anywhere.

N.B. In looking at the on-line NYT today, June 20, I see that the article about Christian Vande Velde is the most e-mailed article of the newspaper!