Andy Murray slams cycling for lack of skill and too many drugs… not like tennis
Yet another top star from another sport neglects to leave glasshouse before throwing stones
Andy Murray, US Open 2012, Francisco Diez, Wikimedia Commons
Andy Murray, the world number three ranked tennis player, says his sport needs to step up its anti-doping efforts including out-of-competition testing – but maintains that tennis differs from cycling in being primarily focused on the skill of the athlete, something he believes doesn’t apply in cycling, which he claims is more about physical attributes.
“I think there's very little skill involved in the Tour de France, it's pretty much just physical," said Murray, quoted in the Herald. "A lot of the way the teams work now is just science whereas with tennis, you can't teach the skill by taking a drug.
"Virtually the whole of the Tour de France was taking drugs 10 years ago,” he maintained, claiming that since 1990 tennis had seen around “65 positive tests, 10 of them recreational and 30 to 35 performance-enhancing in that time.”
The Olympic and US Open men’s singles champion, speaking in a press conference ahead of this week’s Paribas Paris Masters that was reported by Mail Online and The Herald, added in a sweeping generalisation that apparently went unchallenged: “In one year of the Tour de France you had more than that so I don't think tennis has been that bad. But that isn't to say that more can't be done to make it 100% sure there are no issues."
Admittedly, in the notorious Festina Tour of 1998, there was clear evidence of wholesale doping involving a number of teams, and fewer than half the riders who set out from Dublin finished the race in Paris due to expulsions and withdrawals, but not a single rider actually tested positive.
The truth is that with no test for EPO at the time, the riders had an advantage over the testers, and it was only by seizing the physical drugs that the authorities were able to unravel the scale of the problem.
While cycling clearly still isn’t rid of doping, and in all likelihood never will be, there is a much higher level of testing than is the case in tennis. However, Murray implies that due to the nature of their sport, tennis players have less to gain from using performance enhancing drugs, although there are longstanding rumours linking several leading tennis players to use of steroids in particular to help build their strength.
In the past, he has criticised the intrusiveness of random testing, but now believes it is essential to combat doping, especially in the off season.
“The out-of-competition stuff could probably get better,” admitted the 25-year-old, who revealed he himself had been subject to a random blood test at the weekend.
“When we’re in December, when people are training and setting their bases, it would be good to do more around that time.
“On Saturday night it was completely random and that’s good because we’re not used to doing many blood tests.
“I’ve probably had four or five blood tests this year, but a lot more urine, so it’s obviously completely necessary when you hear things like about [Lance] Armstrong.
“It’s a shame for their sport but how they managed to get away with it was incredible, for so long.”
Critics of tennis’s approach to doping argue however that that the sport must do much more to address the issue and that it does far too little testing particularly of top players.
In 2010, for example, a year that Murray spent ranked between third and fifth in the world, he did not undergo a single out-of-competition test.
During the same year, there were no out-of competition tests on three of the top five ranked women’s players – world number one Caroline Wozniacki, plus Venus and Serena Williams.
Earlier this month, an article on the website of the US magazine Tennis Now explored various hypotheses regarding doping in tennis and pointed out that while according to World Anti Doping Agency Statistics for the period from 2007 to 2011, the International Tennis Federation showed 53 positive tests, there were only 21 anti-doping rule violations recorded in the same period.
The magazine quoted the blog Tennis Has a Steroid Problem as asking: “What accounts for the difference between positive tests and violations? Did players have Therapeutic Use Exemptions allowing them to use a banned substance? Did their 'B' Sample test negative? Did a tribunal find that the players did not commit a violation? If so, what was the reason for their finding?”
While high profile doping cases in the sport remain few and far between – the biggest in recent years being when the American player Wayne Odesnik was caught red-handed with human growth hormone at Brisbane airport, eventually serving a 12-month ban, reduced from an original two years – tennis itself is now facing some uncomfortable questions.
In August, when former US Postal Service team doctor Luis Garcia del Moral was handed a lifetime ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency, the ITF acknowledged that he had worked with “various tennis players.”
It said that it would help enforce and give effect to USADA’s decision, including “not permitting Dr Garcia del Moral to participate in any capacity in, and denying him accreditation for or access to, any sanctioned tennis event or activity.”
The ITF added: “Players are asked to take careful note of the above when considering who to seek treatment, guidance and advice from in the future.”
Also in Spain, Dr Eufemiano Fuentes, the sports physician at the centre of the Operacion Puerto scandal in which athletes sanctioned were almost exclusively cyclists and non-Spanish nationals, has maintained in the past that he counted tennis players among his clients.
Whether he will name names or provide further details of his activities when the case goes to trial in Madrid in the new year remains to be seen.
Another one jumping on the band waggon. Yeah Tennis is clean, have you seen the Williams brothers. What do you perceive as a lack of skill, take it you he has never descended down a mountain on a road bike or seen a bunch sprint. Over to you Cav mate, no skill just physical attributes. Think I have lost a little bit of respect for Mr Murray here.
Cheap shot, sexist.
Cheers, G
Same article was in the independant as well. Not impressed in Murray and his sweeping statement. I wonder how many positives will turn up if tests were intensified in his sport? After all, there are some games that that go on for hours. Surely stimulants must be used to keep ones focus in those situations as weLl as the steroids mentioned for strength 
If Andy Murray thinks there's no skill required let's see him get on a bike and see how competitive he is.
If he's fit enough to play a five hour tennis match he should be able to cope with five hours in the saddle.
Not a tennis fan, never will be. cycling requires a lot more stamina, strength and technique than tennis ever will. Words of a fool imo.
As Theincrediblebike says jumping on the band waggon, but which waggon? the I hate cycling one or the I can make a stupid comment on something I know very little about just like a footballer 
Choke!
tennis ? Skill ?? ... like smash the ball as hard as
possible so the other player can't hit it whilst
making stupid grunting noises skill ????
still on the 3rd switch-back of Bwlch !
Don't get hung up on it - he's probably right about the significance of skill in tennis vs cycling. What's the problem with that?
Cycling does require a lot of skill but at the top level (apart from some exceptional cases) bike handling skills tend to be fairly uniform. Therefore physical attributes and fitness tend to become the significant differentiators. In tennis it is not uncommon to see a very fit player beaten by a very skilled player - that won't tend to happen in endurance sports.
Put simply - tennis is a game and turns on skill, cycling is a sport and turns on physical ability. That doesn't make one better than the other, it just makes them different.
Roll on Scottish Independence, we won't have to say Murray is GB Tennis Player.
We can just call him chip on the shoulder, miserable, bad advert for Scotland Tennis Player.
Chin up though, after buying a Gold Medal and getting a grand slam because all the good players were having a day off your failure to get SPOTY is sealed again.
Oh yes, and stop trying to grow a beard, you can't!
And yet the reason always trotted out for the dominance of the top 3 tennis players is their superior stamina over the course of a 5 set Grand Slam. Why can't any other player work on their endurance the same way?
Another tennis player talking balls!!
antonio
I think it'd pretty widely accepted that tennis has a significant problem with drugs, and much like the UCI today, tennis' governing body may find their current actions to combat their doping issues will be perceived as complicity at best in years to come.
With that in mind, Murray's comments are either delivered with a mind numbing amount of blinkered ignorance, or there are darker forces/motivations at work here. Either way I find it worrying.
That said, he is right, tennis is more skill and less physical when compared to cycling. However it is still all physical skill. I mean by that, that it is a physical effort to hit a ball hard, to run and take a shot etc etc. What is key to this is that with physical effort comes fatigue. When learning a skill, what makes you better is repetition... The more you do it, the better you get.
With that in mind, anything that can help you train harder and longer will be just as useful to your competitive performance as any drugs used in cycling. So Murray is probably right, come match day, they'll mainly be clean, as all their doping takes place in training.
Has he read this?
Idiot!!!! Glass houses or what!
http://bikepure.org/2012/10/cycling-serves-an-ace-against-tennis/
What a complete tool he is!
If Andy Murray thinks there's no skill required let's see him get on a bike and see how competitive he is.If he's fit enough to play a five hour tennis match he should be able to cope with five hours in the saddle.
He wouldn't get the lid on with that barnet!
+1 sponican. Getting cyclists worked up over nothing is like shooting fish in a barrell. It's embarrassing to see the same righteous indignation reaction every time.
I think there are a few too many reactionary comments here. But I do believe that professional sports around the globe have a problem with drugs. Tennis being no exception.
I had to laugh at the first comment about the 'Williams Brothers'. But more seriously, it struck me, in light of the tennis player being caught with Human Growth Hormone (HGH) that one of the side effects of its use is buckling of the teeth. Adult users are then forced to use braces to correct their teeth. I seem to remember both Williams sisters wearing them in their early careers. And didn't Andy Murray have them? It's not a sure sign, but it is rather strange that these dental problems were not fixed until adulthood.
The major problem is not cycling, but rather a lack of impetus by authorities to develop a serious anti-doping program that works. There is a lot to be sceptical about with Tennis, cycling and lots of other sports.
Oh dear, Mr Murray, yet more monotonic drivel from somebody who should, perhaps, let his tennis-playing speak for him instead of his mouth.
Operacion Puertool por favor 
I agree don't think there's too much to be gained by getting bent out of shape over Murray's comments re the relative levels of skill required for cycling and tennis, he's spent his life immersed in tennis and clearly doesn't have much of an appreciation of what is required to succeed at the top level in other sports, but if you are going to open your mouth and say stuff like this at a press conference expect it to get reported - especially by a cycling website. The other reason for including his remark on skill is that it underscores the naivety of he remarks about drugs. Murray also explicitly makes the link between skill and drug use.
I don't know much about tennis but it seems to me that fitness and stamina do play a greater part in a player's success at the very top level - isn't greater strength and stamina the attributes which are often cited as being key to Nadal and Djokovic's success against other top level players and wasn't a lack of relative strength and stamina given as a reason for Murray's failure to win key games against top players in the past?
Actually, he's probably not that wrong in claiming many cyclists were using drugs in the 1990s. And he's not wrong in claiming tennis requires more individual skill than the Tour. I'd like to see him try a BMX race though as that needs speed and skill.
But I doubt tennis was that clean of drug use in the past. And I'm sure there are plenty of other sports with a murky past. Just think about a sport like rugby for instance, which requires huge physical strength. Do you really think all the players got their muscle from working out?
OldRidgeback
Cough...Nadal....cough....Operation Puerto..
I think Andy should take a tiny wee loook at the website tennishasasteroidproblem before he gets anymore stupid.
I don't see anything other than naivety in his comments and it is not worth getting worked up about it. In the end his point is correct though, that testing is not thorough enough in Tennis and other sports.
A (classic) pathetic example of a lack of skill in cycling:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxXqQqAc2pA
www.vulpine.cc
@aslongasicycle
@vulpinecc
I think Murray is mostly right, Tennis is a sport of skill, can you imagine two supremely fit blokes trying to play tennis together? It would be hilarious if they aren't regular tennis players.
Golf, same.
Tennis and Cycling are, surprise surprise, very different. One of them involves a ball,and hence tends to require ball skills. One of them involves a bike,and involves bike skills.
I don't doubt that Murray knows that, and was just trying to point out that stamina enhancing drugs will be more effective in cycling than in tennis. However, that doesn't mean that tennis doesn't have a drug problem.
Edgeley
Spot on Tony.
I don't understand the overreaction here either. We criticise athletes for keeping to the Omertà, then slate them when they actually voice an opinion. Yes, he makes some rather ignorant sweeping statements about cycling, but he recognises that tennis can do far more and wants an increase in out of competition testing.
No doubt other sports will face their own drug revelations in years to come, let's celebrate the fact that we are facing up to the issue and not sticking our heads in the sand like so many other sports (football, US sports etc etc etc).
Some people on these forums are far too precious about our sport. We are getting pelters left right and centre because there was/is a problem. Let's face it, if the UCI had their way we'd still be in the dark about some of these revelations from the USADA report. If we pretend that all is well now we'll be facing the next Festina/US Postal in another 10 years time.
So... Man who finally manages to win something in a silly game played with fluffy green balls, invented to keep the bored Victorian middle class occupied on their lawns and universally taken up by schoolgirls, slags off one of the few real sports there is.
Piss off, Murray.
It was the late eighties, early nineties when cycling's drug problem really took off, as reflected by written memoirs by Lauren Fignon etc, and common knowledge of the various scandals.
It was also, (IIRC) the late eighties, early nineties when tennis fundamentally changed due to the escalating muscular power developed by the players - anyone remember all the controversy over the women's grunting over every shot?
It wouldn't surprise me to find an omerta in many other sports, and I think tennis is a strong contender for this.
If the bicycle was invented tomorrow, it would be seen as the solution, not the problem
If
"In 2010, for example, a year that Murray spent ranked between third and fifth in the world, he did not undergo a single out-of-competition test."
then this
"since 1990 tennis had seen around “65 positive tests, 10 of them recreational and 30 to 35 performance-enhancing in that time.”"
isn't a suprise.
As you tire your concentration and skill levels fade, that plus high prize money means there will be drugs at the top level. To the extent of endurance sports like road racing, maybe not, but then again it wouldn't suprise me if it was a similar level if testing is lax.
If his theory that there is more skill than strength involved in tennis then why is there a need to split the sport by gender? Unless he's wanting to open another can of worms within his own sport rather than poking sticks at another...
What cycling really needs right now is constructive input to help rebuild both it's reputation and also it's governance. Best example of this right now is #fansbackedcycling and it's that sort of collective that I think we (and that's the you and me "we") should be looking to gain some momentum at grass roots level. The pro's could also then do their part at the tree-top level by following some of Mr Lemond's recent advice and rising up against the UCI
That's just my tuppence worth though:)
Talking of skill in cycling, I remember (of all people) Lance Armstrong being forced to go off road in the TdF. The skill he used in not winding up a tangled mess of sinew and bicycle frame matches anything I've ever seen in tennis. Shame about the old "you know what" though.
Easy for Murray to say when he competes in an elitist sport where your mummy is your coach or you need parents with deep pockets to mortgage their house for the best coaching to develop that skill!!!
Still, he has FINALLY won a Grand Slam so that makes him an expert on everyone elses sport. Remove head from arse and smell the roses Murray, you may have some respect then for other sports and then gain some more respect from other.
Better still get on a bike at the top of a mountain and see how any minutes you are behind an average club rider at the bottom, let alone a pro. Then he can compare his skill!!!
Ill thought of comment by him but what do you expect, probably too much sunshine from wherever he is away traing while real sportsmen are out training on bikes in all weathers!!
Roll on Scottish Independence, we won't have to say Murray is GB Tennis Player.
We can just call him chip on the shoulder, miserable, bad advert for Scotland Tennis Player.
forgot to mention vastly over paid, never smiles (wonder what his girl friend sees in him $$$$ - sorry I forgot) and to have your mummy follow you around every match day to change his diaper!
The majority of top sports people have only ever been involved in their sport, and don't know what it takes to be the best at another.
He's probably right that in terms of the training at top level, tennis will focus more on the skills required to hit the ball, while cycling will focus on the fitness/speed/endurance required to race (as the skills of actually riding the bike will probably be complete by that stage). You don't often here cyclists talking about going back to basics and relearning how to ride, but you do hear tennis players talking about taking their serve apart and relearning it.
He has a point in saying he doesn't know how they got away with it for so long. They shouldn't have, and wouldn't have if everyone was doing their job properly.
And he said there should be more testing in tennis, so he isn't saying that it's clean.
Also, the press doesn't always quote people accurately. Even the title of this article is a bit misleading, he's not critical of cycling for lack of skill, he said there's little skill & it's mainly physical. In comparison to tennis, it pretty much is. His issue with drugs in cycling was during the 1990s, it isn't reported that he thinks the teams today are all still using drugs. He also says that he welcomes more testing in tennis, so he isn't saying that tennis players don't use drugs.
He's mostly right, isn't he? Admittedly, in descending and sprinting there is skill, but I think that courage (descending) and power (sprinting) are more important.
So, yes cycling has/had a massive problem with doping. And it's more to do with stamina and courage than skill. But that doesn't stop it being brilliant.
Do fans of athletics get this shirty if someone says that the 100m takes little skill, and is just about running fast for a bit?
There a quite a lot of quotes from Murray on this. Kudos to the journalist who managed to stay awake long enough to write it all down.
Precious cyclists, take a while to read these comments. It's pathetic. You're all so quick to be offended, man up for goodness sakes. Most of what he says is true.
He's kind of right, though. The main reason I like cycling is that it requires fitness but no particular athletic talent. Co-ordination is not massively important in road cycling at least. Of course, good cyclists are talented insomuchas they were blessed with unusually efficient cardio-vascular engines, but I wouldn't classify this as a talent in the same way as hitting a tennis ball that's coming at you at 100mph+. So I actually think Murray has a point.
Maybe Andy has not read www.tennishasasteroidproblem.blogspot.com It is amazing what you cannot find when you do not look for it!
Come on, Tim!
This is a non-story, and road.cc need to show a bit of responsibility in how they report it.
Murray is generalising somewhat, but the basics of what he is saying are correct - cycling is at the highest level determined by who the fittest, strongest guys are on any given day - this is also true in tennis to an extent, but the skill of the player in hitting the ball is much more of a factor than the cyclist's bike handling skills. Tactics of course are key, but they are in both sports
Everyone needs to chill a bit. Comments about him smiling, his money, his Mum - pathetic!
This is being jumped upon by road.cc in the same way that 'there should be helmet laws' was jumped upon by the national press when Wiggins spoke after winning the Olympic TT.
Andy didn't set out to berate cycling. His intention was to say that there is not enough testing in Tennis.
This is being jumped upon by road.cc in the same way that 'there should be helmet laws' was jumped upon by the national press when Wiggins spoke after winning the Olympic TT.Andy didn't set out to berate cycling. His intention was to say that there is not enough testing in Tennis.
Perhaps, he could be a little more consistent in how he expresses it:
Murray added: "I may miss a flight or a flight could be delayed, yet I have to let Wada know exactly where I will be, even when I am resting. They even turned up at my hotel in Miami while I was on holiday. Tennis has not got a big problem with drugs. I support drug testing and strongly condemn any use of drugs in sport, but there has to be a more realistic and practical way to deal with the problem with tennis players."
Taken from:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2009/feb/06/tennis-andy-murray-anti-doping
If the bicycle was invented tomorrow, it would be seen as the solution, not the problem
Yes being fit helps on a bike! But there is lots of skill to being quick! When to push to the limit and when to to roll with it (flush the lactate out and bring blood Ox levels up and heart rate down ect). This is what makes a good cyclists, to be able read the road ahead and see every rise and fall and instinctively push or roll so as to be most efficient. Andy should try three weeks at competitive level racing on a Grand Tour, I think you would be wasted and in the broom wagon on the first day! This is apart from all the tactical skills involved – avoiding trouble – being in the right place to breakaway – even having a poker face to show that every things fine when thing are hurting so much - the list is to long to mention. Get real, yes PID have damaged the sport but it is out in the open and not in closet so things can be done and are in the posses to being done, Andy and all the other rent a commentators on these issues should shut up and leave cycling alone!
..he's a ginger..their comments do not matter as they are not of our race 
From Tennis has a steroid problem; "The International Tennis Federation (ITF), and professional tennis as a whole, has zero credibility when it comes to making claims of a being a "clean sport" or having "strict doping controls." The more likely situation is widespread doping in the sport. Why? The reasons are plenty:"
After 15 reasons why the site says,
" For the reasons above (and more), the ITF anti-doping program is either completely inept, or deliberately designed to not catch players doping" "As a result, ALL tennis players have a cloud hanging over their heads"
After seeing the backlash against Cycling I cannot imagine that the International Tennis Federation are falling over themselves to clean up their act. Surely cycling should be proud of its achievement in catching cheats?
Hey, just RELAX!
Just because he's good at hitting a ball over a net doesn't stop him being an arsehole and demonstrating how ignorant he is.
Is this the same Andy Murray that not long ago complained about the pitiful testing levels as being "draconian"? The link provided above shows 6x as many tests in cycling as tennis and any fool knows that PEDs are rife at the top level of ANY sport where frequent testing isn't carried out.
Can you compare two blokes repeatedly hitting a ball across a yard (when you're fairly confident who is the better) with Cadel's Giro stage win on the strade bianche? With Boonen, Cancellara or Gilbert in spring or the varying interwoven fortunes of the protagonists on the Galibier stage in the 2011 Tour? Good god, no! My heart beats for cycling, and no amount of deeply ignorant and arrogant bollocks from some pampered twit will change that. On a bike you can escape, you are alive, you can dream you're flying.
Just another moronic boring tw&t. Get a life...
@karl_holland
Wow, 51 comments so far, tennis is really popular, and not a helmet in sight.
antonio
“Cycling isn’t a game, it’s a sport. Tough, hard and unpitying, and it requires great sacrifices. One plays football, or tennis, or hockey. One doesn’t play at cycling.”
~Jean de Gribaldy
Good old Andy,first he says he does not like the english now he is having a pop at cycling,a sport i love to bits. i cheered him on in every final right up to the day he won one......well no more Mr Murry....COME ON RODGER,NADAL,etc......
an earlier comment was made about rugby and drug testing.
Last year there was 1714 tests carried out by the IRB of which only 9 showed peculiar readings and i believe they were all from lesser known teams. Its still a small amount of checks worldwide but its getting there.
I know all the premiership clubs (rugby that is) do sporadic player checks themselves so that figure could be a lot higher if it was compiled correctly.
As for antonio's comment - there is a helmet mentioned - its Murray
Stumpy
He will never win SPOTY anyway you need to have a personality to do that
If Andy Murray thinks there's no skill required let's see him get on a bike and see how competitive he is.If he's fit enough to play a five hour tennis match he should be able to cope with five hours in the saddle.
think you might have just proved his point there mate. if you're really fit you can probably cycle fairly well - he'd beat most of us in a road race, him being a pro-athlete - but i'd bet my house that none of us could take a set off him in tennis.
stop being so reactionary, he's right about the skill level and he's probably mostly right about the drugs. unbelievably defensive cyclists in here...
+1 sponican and dodgy.
No doping in tennis Andy? I suppose the fact that average match length has skyrocketed in the last ten years has nothing to do with it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longest_tennis_match_records
Also, I am sending you money for a proper haircut and some extra unused leg razors I have here for the back of your neck. It really looks quite embarrassing.
Not much skill in tennis....just hit a ball..?
Oh and don't forget to bring mummy with you Andy.!!
And +1 for Scottish independence !!
'Golf same'??
The rule of thumb is that if you get sweaty and/or out of breath whilst letting your boss win it's technically still a sport.
Golf is not a sport - it's a leisure activity like darts and dominos except more expensive.
MercuryOne
He's entitled to his opinion but that also means I'm entitled to shove his racket up his mouth/backside (sideways). Insulting to say cycling requires little skill, what a stupid comment.
What a load of crap.
As someone said, if he wins the Sports Personality of the Year I'm gonna cry foul 'cos the boring tw@t does not have one.
I've never liked the miserable git and this has just confirmed my suspicions.
I don't think any sportsmen from other sports should comment on drugs until they're tested as much as pro-cyclists are.
'Golf same'??The rule of thumb is that if you get sweaty and/or out of breath whilst letting your boss win it's technically still a sport.
Golf is not a sport - it's a leisure activity like darts and dominos except more expensive.
Yes, 'golf same', it's a sport/game (whatever, I don't really care), I was just trying to point out to the hard of thinking of this usually intelligent forum that tennis is actually quite difficult to play - no matter how fit you are, which goes the same for golf. Understand now?
Talking rubbish
Skills in professional cycling include the ability to ride downhill at 80kph or more with only a thin layer of lycra for protection.
Stamina is required in Tennis to make it through five sets when both players serve at over 160kph.
Both sports require skill, stamina and strength.
If the standard of testing in other sports is as bad as that exposed by USADA then all sports have a serious drugs problem. That for me was the main reason to disbelieve that Lance was taking drugs, hoping against hope that USADA had it wrong.
If cycling is indeed a sport of self-abuse why aren't more cyclists sectioned under the mental health act?
Best input on this list - top work mate!
He is dull and so is tennis.......
Murray put so much effort into improving his physique and strength when he was struggling to win games. Now that he is benefiting greatly from that extra advantage it seems strange for him to refer to Tennis as being purely a skill game. That's nonsense as performance in most sports would benefit from that bit extra strength or stamina. Therefore, drugs and doping will always be a temptation in any sporting field.
As for the skill element, I will refrain from commenting on such an intricate point as I admit that I do not have sufficient knowledge to allow me to do so. Perhaps Andy Murray should have a rethink on that basis himself, or at least have a word with his Mum.
As a fellow Scot, I have always supported his efforts on the Tennis circuit, but I have to admit that his personality is not on the same level as his game. Perhaps the success of the GB cycling team and Brad Wiggins has made him a little envious?
Don't disagree with his comments re tennis skills relative to bike skills. That said, there is no way Nadal and Djokovic would have ever got near Federer without huge quantities of PEDs.
Pastaman
F*ck me, 90% of these comments are an embarrassment. If I was a non-cyclist who came on here and read this I'd be leaving with a very low opinion of the cycling community. Read it back - school playground-level name calling based on a tabloid interview, which undoubtedly will have picked out the bits that made the best story. Chill out!
And road.cc, p1ss-poor "journalism". You should write for a red-top.
If you can't see that in general the skill of the participant makes a bigger difference in a top-level tennis match than it does in a bike race then you may as well give up now. Cycling is MASSIVELY about fitness, strength (mental & physical) & the ability to suffer - and it's all the better for it.
An unfit Roger Federer will still beat most opponents outside the top 4 - an unfit Bradley Wiggins would not have a chance.
For the skill level comment I'd pretty much agree with him, anyone arguing otherwise is having a laugh. Ivan Basso is not Danny MacAskill. Although Pozzatto's bunnyhop over Cav was something pretty special!
I think Andy's had enough shit journalism written about him to last several lifetimes without this crap too... "Slams" is a bit of a pisstake. Anyone above resorting to Nationalism can fuck off too!
Sq
+1 for not getting quite so worked up about this. I also think Murray has a point on the skill thing - even though I acknowledge there's a lot of skill involved in cycling, there's more in tennis - so much more subtlety and finesse (imagine Wiggo on a tennis court (!) and then Murray on a bike if you don't agree). This is a great example of what happens when relatively complex thoughts are expressed less well than they could be, then get twisted all over the shop in the public arena until they turn into something completely different in people's minds. I think the worst you can say about Murray as a result of this is that he's a bit naive - but he's a 25 year-old professional sportsman for crying out loud! what do you expect? Chomsky?
I can understand people getting worked up over the comments made, regardless of how or if the journo twisted them to suit,
BUT
my 8 year old son has just been reading the site when i left the computer on and lo and behold he has asked "whats s**t and f**k.
Can we please try and calm down some of the language used and remember who will read the comments. Thank you.
Stumpy
My knee jerk reaction was similar to a lot of the other negative comment already posted, but on reflection he makes a fair point.
This site needs a 'like' button for posts.
"I can't believe I ate the whole thing..."
This site needs a 'like' button for posts.
caketaster likes this
Tennis ,along with football,was invented to give really dumb,boring people something to talk about.
I can understand people getting worked up over the comments made, regardless of how or if the journo twisted them to suit,BUT
my 8 year old son has just been reading the site when i left the computer on and lo and behold he has asked "whats s**t and f**k.
Can we please try and calm down some of the language used and remember who will read the comments. Thank you.
Couldn't agree more.
stumps wrote:I can understand people getting worked up over the comments made, regardless of how or if the journo twisted them to suit,BUT
my 8 year old son has just been reading the site when i left the computer on and lo and behold he has asked "whats s**t and f**k.
Can we please try and calm down some of the language used and remember who will read the comments. Thank you.
Couldn't agree more.
Woops sorry! 
Sq
I'll probably agree with Murray about the skill - I'm better on a bike than I am at tennis (and I'm not that good on a bike either) BUT I hate tennis and pretty much everything to do with the game except that Russian bird and the girl scratching her bum in the poster. 
As a Tennis Cycle and running coach. I have lost a bit or rather a lot of respect for Mr Murray. There wasn't much there is the first place if I am honest.
However Tennis matches can exceed 5 hours if thats not physical I don't know what is. 5 hours is roughly the average of a Tour de France stage. Maybe they don't play everyday admittidily but a tennis match is much more intense over those 5 hours. You can sit in the peleton for 4 with 1 hour of activity.
A grand slam is two weeks. There is definitely a degree of physicality in the Game. Novak Djokovic for instance is an incredibly physically fit player who relies an attrition quite a lot.
I do wonder how many do dope in Tennis though and football is another sport where they play a lot of very intense games every week. Tennis and especially Football will never allow for the sport to be brought down there is too much vested interest in the game.
Notice how football never comes under the spot light. Cycling is much easier game for the authorities with little effective vested interest in the sport and as a result justification for there existence.
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