Cycling is boring.
Even some professionals say it.
And that is also what viewers find in this country who get caught in a Tour de France broadcast while zapping and cannot gain much from a peloton that seems to have been moving leisurely for hours.
In Germany, people are fixated on the Tour of France and virtually ignore the rest of the racing calendar.
But that's how you miss the best, namely the most exciting and exciting, fastest and most tactically informal races.
The road cycling world championship on Sunday was a prime example of how much intensity and fascination a cycling race can spark.
Attacks, counterattacks, skirmishes, team spirit - a permanent exchange of blows between the best in their craft, for whom on (holidays) days like these "giving everything" is not just a loose phrase, but a fixed mandate.
Framed by hundreds of thousands of spectators on the edge of the track in the Belgian heartland of cycling: Flanders.
The World Cup week there was a bike festival.
With the electrifying finale of the men's race.
Bicycling showman
And a winner who hurt hosts Belgium but does a great service to cycling for another year in the rainbow jersey. The French Julian Alaphilippe is a cycling showman and a radiant, popular figure. But scary for the competition when he gets out of the saddle. Winning as a rider in the rainbow jersey is all the more valued because everyone pays attention to the wearer and tries to keep him in check. But Alaphilippe doesn't change even as a world champion. Attack is and remains its elixir. Sometimes it fails - with a (reasonably good) feeling that it has at least tried. He often triumphs - knowing that this will bring out the sweetest victories. “I don't want to be a robot,” said Alaphilippe.
It's good for cycling that more professionals are hunting in this way. Especially from the younger generation. Wout van Aert, Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel, Marc Hirschi and also tour winner Tadej Pogacar are protagonists who cannot hold on to their energy for long, but discharge it in spectacular attacks. A gain for this sport and its consumers. Almost everyone rides a bike or at least can ride a bike - and can better understand the performance of a professional cyclist than that of a professional football player.
Many people know what it means to ride to the limit for a while, or what feedback your legs give after a long bike ride.
And there are more, if you look at the sales figures for the bicycle industry.
The departure in the professional elite fits in with this.
With an Alaphilippe who likes to work on drums with his hands parallel to the exhausting footwork.
And can switch between rock 'n' roll and heavy metal nimbly during the race.