Anyone catch the Sally Jenkins' column in today's Washington Post about Floyd Landis and doping?  You can find it here:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/24/AR2007042402594.html. 

One quote from the column which interests me is: "What should be an open-and-shut case has been confused by the sloppiness of the French lab, and the blindly prosecutorial behavior of the World Anti-Doping Agency and its underling, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, which threaten to compromise the facts and make the accused, Landis, look like a victim."

OK, yeah, that sounds about right.  But I grew tired of this story not even a week after it broke.  Besides, everything you want to know about doping can be found here:  http://www.racingunion.org/CommentView,guid,fb399aa8-5df9-4b9a-a366-a9ae2d8fdb01.aspx,

here:  http://www.racingunion.org/CommentView,guid,b7221ef0-5b13-432d-83bc-c3a4d42571cc.aspx,

and especially here:  http://www.racingunion.org/CommentView,guid,1ab8bb45-ed7c-474a-bc3d-a12f3b797397.aspx

What's more interesting to me is our local Pravda's view of the sport of cycling:  In the Post's world, cycling is, apparently, almost exclusively about two items:  doping and the Tour de France (it used to be that the drop-down menu for the Post online didn't even have "cycling" as an option.  Instead, they had "Tour de France."  It's true!).  Oh, and don't forget about Lance Armstrong's problems with authorities because of a swimmin’ hole he installed at his dacha in Texas.

But, when it comes to the print edition of the Post (I'm not talking about all those AP stories you can get from the online version), try finding a real story about the Tour of Flanders or the Giro d'Italia.  Hell, you don't even have to go overseas – try finding out how things are going in the Tour of California or the Tour de Georgia.  I dunno, maybe they've run a story about the CSC Invitational.

But, then again, maybe not …

Maybe this critique is unfair since the Post's coverage of sports in general is lacking – unless, of course, it's dealing with every little minutia involving the professional football team which is located near Washington.  And it's probably unfair of me to single out the Post - the local media in general is due for some serious finger-waving.  And there's some bright spots.  But I have, on occasion, noticed a story printed in the Post about local amateur running events; and the Post’s coverage of high school sports have improved remarkably in the past few years.  They’ve even made some attempt at acknowledging the existence of the Washington Capitals. 

So, while acknowledging that it is perhaps a tad bit idealistic to expect the Post to actually cover some of the races in the Washington metro area, I'm wondering:  what’s it gonna take for the Post to cover some local amateur bike races?  Do we need a young super-star from Russia to join the scene here, like Alex Ovechkin with the Caps?  Maybe our own local doping scandal will grab the Post’s attention.  Recreational drugs?  Sex?  What will it take?  Have any suggestions to grab the local media’s attention; put ‘em in the comments section!

-- posted by Chris