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How the Tour de France became a $100M business

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Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#51
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Women can complete a Tour de France. absolutely not. Not a single woman in the world can keep pace with the peloton.

DFL is different from DNF. They could complete the course, no question. I think they could might be able to hang with the men's peloton on some stages, too -- it's an enormous drafting benefit. They wouldn't win climbing stages, wouldn't make breakaways, and wouldn't win sprint finishes.

> They could complete the course, no question.

asking riders to ride for 12 hours a day is inhuman.

I could complete the course. The question is in what time.

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#52

My first thought was, wait, only $100M? If this was an American event it would be pumped up to a $2B affair with a theme song, videogame and plastic figurines.

Regarding a theme song, I don't think it is official, but Kraftwerk's effort is quite well known: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt3p-F2x7rY

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#53
post #3

And yet the TV rights are a joke as it's really difficult to watch in a lot of countries and the rave would be worth more to France if the audience was expanded greatly.

That was true up until the last couple seasons (around 2020). As of today, it is finally easily available cheaply via streaming. - Peacock TV streaming service which is $5 a month (I got a $20 annual plan deal a few weeks before TdF) - GCN+ Streaming service which is $8 a month (or $50 a year) The GCN stream is available globally. I think it is also available on France24 and Sky Sports' streaming app. If this feels l…

Right you are. In the 90s, ESPN covered each stage with a nicely edited but short recap, about 30 minutes each as I recall. Not much, but better than nothing. The race has since moved around, and coverage of each stage has expanded--which, incidentally, coincides with the gradual expansion of cable channels and streaming.

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#54
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There’s all kinds of funky geo restrictions for the tdf and a bunch of other races. The rights are a mess. In the US you need to use a vpn to watch the tdf on GCN+.

You can subscribe to Peacock for something like $7 a month and watch the TdF.

Yea but they only have the TdF and a smattering of the French races (Paris-Roubaix, etc.), if you want to watch cycling year round it's not sufficient. As an American, I think the only way to watch everything is with a VPN and GCN+ or maybe Eurosport.

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#55
post #21
post #11

Recommended watching https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tour_de_Pharmacy

Note: Available on Amazon Prime Video if you have it. Lance Armstrong: "It was like a pistachio nut in a dirty bird's nest." Buahaha. A truly great obscene movie.

Not included with Prime in the UK

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The women's Tour didn't even exist before 2022 That's not exactly true, there has been many variation of it before its return in 2022. Jeannie Longo was (is?) a quite popular rider in France (despite doping affairs).

> That's not exactly true, there has been many variation of it before its return in 2022. The history is somewhat more complicated, but not less sexist. "Tour de France Femmes" has only existed since 2022. You're right that there were other races, some officially related to the Tour, some unofficially related. There was the 1955 women's tour and the 1984-1990 tours which kept getting shorter because the owner of the…

I don't know why the UCI doesn't just have a women's event alongside the men's event each day.

In motorsports (like the "24 hours of Le Mans" for example), we see organizers running multiple races at the same time. We have hypercars racing at the same time on the track as the GT3 cars. hell, this year they even let Nascar run a car in its own class along side the other cars.

In my example the results are still separated. The hypercars aren't competing against the GT3 cars, they are just all riding the same organized event. The commentators routinely rotate through the event to capitalize on viewers watching to see all of the events. This way the governing body gets the best of all worlds. They only have to host 1 event, but they get entry fees for hundreds of participants across many classifications. Those offering coverage can pool together people that might be interested in several different classifications and only have to pay for the expenses of one broadcast, while pooling together all of the viewers for maximum ad revenue. It is also good, because smaller classifications (like the single-car Nascar entry) can compete on the same track and same event to bolster interest in their sport. Everybody wins!

I don't know why the UCI doesn't do the same thing. Let the women and the men race together. They could still have different classifications if they wanted to, but they would only need to support 1 event. The television coverage is already there and it might bring in new viewers that are interested in a women's event, which bolsters ad and sponsorship revenues. Furthermore they can get more entree fees from teams, to further support the costs of the event. It has to be far cheaper than trying to run two events, while also getting better coverage and interest.

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#58
post #14

My first thought was, wait, only $100M? If this was an American event it would be pumped up to a $2B affair with a theme song, videogame and plastic figurines.

Tour de France instead is full of EPO pumped cyclists. (see Armstrong, see Ullrich etc)

>Tour de France instead is full of EPO pumped cyclists

Instead of what? All elite athletes are on the juice.

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#59
post #48
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its not much but world championship mixed relay TT is a thing. So it has already happened.

> So it has already happened. Not sure what "it" is here or how it is responsive to my comment.

>not explicitly forbidding mixed fields, but I suspect [mixed fields] won't happen even without a rule against [mixed fields].

So I point out that in a tiny sliver of pro cycling a mixed gender field is happening.

Re: How the Tour de France became a $100M business

#60
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Women can complete a Tour de France. absolutely not. Not a single woman in the world can keep pace with the peloton.

DFL is different from DNF. They could complete the course, no question. I think they could might be able to hang with the men's peloton on some stages, too -- it's an enormous drafting benefit. They wouldn't win climbing stages, wouldn't make breakaways, and wouldn't win sprint finishes.

There's always an outlier race here or there, but generally, women can not hold on to men's fields at the pro level. I have seen many pro level women enter men's pro fields just to get the workout, and they get dropped every time unless the fields are tiny. Sure, in the "Pro" category at a local crit, Marianne Vos can beat most or all of the men, but in that same race if a top men's pro racer showed up, they'd lap the field.
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