Cycling Is Religion

A cycling museum in Belgium is currently hosting an exhibition that explores the links between the sport and Roman Catholicism. There are more than you might think

- Alasdair Fotheringham

Inside the confessional of a Catholic church in West Flanders, where the priest’s face usually looms behind a lattice screen to hear people mumble their sins, a TV screen shows Lance Armstrong admitting his doping past to Oprah Winfrey, on an eternal loop.

“Did you ever take banned substances to enhance your cycling performance?” she asks. “Yes.” “Was one of those banned substances EPO?” “Yes.” “Did you ever blood dope or use blood transfusions to enhance your cycling performance?” “Yes.” And so on, and so on.

When the tape finally cuts and you’re left sitting on a hard wooden bench in the claustrophobic confessional, for a moment you might idly wonder if you’ll see Armstrong getting prescribed some Hail Marys as atonement rather than a life ban from cycling. But, instead, the video goes back to the beginning, and we are dragged through the whole increasingly fake-sounding procedure again.

This looping religious confession is surreal even by Belgian standards, in a country where offbeat and subversive art has always been a strong undercurrent beneath the mainstream. But for all the quirky humour of having a confessional draped in a black Radioshack jersey with the number 28, as used by Armstrong, it forms part of a very serious-minded exhibition, entitled ‘Cycling is Religion’.