It's coming towards the end of the Tour de France time of year at the moment and for this week's Off The Ball Bag, we got an interesting question in from Eoghan on Facebook in regards to the coverage of cycling.
It read thus: "I love the show and the high quality sports journalism provided. However I'd like to ask why cycling is not covered in detail by the show? The perceived doping culture in cycling is a semi-consistent feature but not much coverage of the actual sport!
"Sticky Bottle yesterday printed: ''More than half – 27 to be precise – of the bans imposed by UK Anti Doping are currently being served by rugby players''. The perceived doping culture in Rugby is highlighted as a fraction of the overall rugby coverage.
"With this in mind why is cycling singled out by the show for doping ? If the editorial line taken with cycling was extended to rugby, the show should abandon rugby and talk exclusively about the doping culture in the game! I feel there is an opportunity missed to begin to educate the public on the elite side of one of the country's biggest mass participation sports."
Eoghan's question was in response to our Tour de France piece with Dr Ross Tucker and sparked an interesting debate between the lads on the Ball Bag which you can watch below.
But we also wanted to get your thoughts on his main point, so let us know your thoughts in our poll:
Is cycling getting a raw deal compared to other sports when it comes to media coverage? Poll below
📺Our debate: https://t.co/yY4v4kqHLD
— Off The Ball (@offtheball) July 22, 2017
And here's the debate between Ger, Kev, Nathan, Adrian and Dave:
If you're looking for this week's Ball Bag, look no further than this podcast player and it's also available on iTunes if you search for Highlights from Off The Ball:
