In mainstream media the advice goes like this: If you want to bury bad news, release it on a Friday afternoon.
Well this is the blogosphere, folks, and we’re creating a whole new dynamic. You release bad news on a Friday, you’ve got a hailstorm from hell on your hands.
Case in point: Riccardo Ricco’s partner Vania Rossi testing positive for CERA, the exact substance that got Ricco kicked out of the 2008 Tour de France. OK, Vania’s not exactly a household word, and Ricco isn’t either. And typically news like this gets picked up by BikePure.org and maybe Bicycle.net and that’s about it. Doping is so ingrained in cycling culture, it’s just not big news any more.
But wait a sec…it’s Friday afternoon dude! Nothin’ goin’ on! A little Twitter here, a little Facebook there, blogs-a-poppin’ … soon you’ve got a veritable sheetstorm of linkerage and commentary.
So just in case you missed it, here’s BikePure, Bicycle.net, BikeRadar, VeloNews, and the always incisive Twisted Spoke.
(We do trust that Friday afternoon blahs are the only explanation for such breathless attentiveness and not the distaff nature of the crime. That would be sexist and bad form, even for the blogosphere.)