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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

#71

Post by kolbe »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #27
pfannkuchen wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are women actually disallowed from competing in the men’s version?

Yes. According to UCI rules women are not allowed to compete in the men's race. And women are not allowed to organize a race with the same length as the men. Even just for themselves. Even though women compete in races like RAAM (Race Across America, ~5000km) and the Transcontinental Race (TCR, ~3500km) and have actually beaten the men at them. Those aren't UCI races because they wouldn't be allowed to join if they w…

You're citing amateur races with hobbyist athletes, not professional caliber ones. It's very disingenuous of you to pick these examples when objective measurable long distance data is abundant.

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

#72

Post by mcpackieh »

awad wrote: post #65
Photogrammaton wrote: post #43

I wonder whether Netflix will boost American interest in the Tour de France. Something of the kind happened with Formula 1. Interest in it here (I’m in NYC) was generally so-so, whether or not one of the races occurred here. But the 2019 launch of the Netflix documentary series Formula 1: Drive to Survive roughly coincided with the expansion of American F1 races, of which I think there are three this season, and ther…

I'm not so sure. To paint with a broad brush, Americans love fast cars and don't care too much for cycling. There's always been a large motorsport culture in the US. DTS was a big part of the F1 rise in the states, but it is but one part of the story. Things really started to change when Liberty Media acquired F1 and brought in new management. F1 needed to make the sport more accessible by opening up on social media,…

The Tour de France was popular in America when an American was winning it. Then he was revealed to be a cheating dirtbag and the American public lost interest.

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

#73

Post by mcpackieh »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #18
light_hue_1 wrote: post #8

It's also important to highlight that the Tour de France is one of the most sexist sporting events still around. Cycling in general. The cycling establishment refuses to allow equality for women. The women's Tour didn't even exist before 2022. The current women's tour is a pale shadow of the men's. The women are not allowed to ride the same tour, they can only do 8 stages and almost none of the 8 correspond to the me…

The format of the race makes it very difficult to have two separate categories (men and women), IMHO. They could indeed open the race to anyone so that both men and women could compete in the race, but then women would trail men and have no chance of winning. This means they would also have to impose a number of women per team as otherwise no team would hire women. So it's not a simple issue.

Couldn't they run two races concurrently on the same roads, ranked separately? Moot point if the women don't actually want this though.

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

#74

Post by sidibe »

paganel wrote: post #70
awad wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not so sure. To paint with a broad brush, Americans love fast cars and don't care too much for cycling. There's always been a large motorsport culture in the US. DTS was a big part of the F1 rise in the states, but it is but one part of the story. Things really started to change when Liberty Media acquired F1 and brought in new management. F1 needed to make the sport more accessible by opening up on social media,…

I’m optimistic about the big tours’ “image” presence in the US because I think that the future of pro cycling is represented by Anglo countries, plus a few Colombians and some European sporting “freaks” like Pogacar. Ah, and some Benelux guys. Italy is as good as dead when it comes to pro-Cycling, the same goes for Spain, and France... France is always on the edge of the precipice and of “we’ll never ever going to wi…

Spanish and French teams still haven't embraced the science like in England, central and northern European countries where the training is very monitored and using modern findings. Looking at Frances most popular recent riders in the Tour, Voeckler supposedly just used to basically just go on long rides to train and was drinking Coke during races a few years ago. You never see Alaphilippe looking at his wattage and going at a steady pace when the race picks up instead he'll always be attacking, dropping off or catching back up.

At some point they'll embrace the 21st century and have real contenders again

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

#75

Post by conradfr »

jacurtis wrote: post #56
light_hue_1 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 separa…

I don't think that's logistically possible.

Also spectators would have to follow two races at the same time?

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

#77

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

speed_spread wrote: post #7

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.

As for video games, Zwift strongly embraces the TdF, and is the lead sponsor of the women's "Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift".

https://www.letourfemmes.fr/

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

#78

Post by mrweasel »

haunter wrote: post #5
buro9 wrote: 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.

If you are in Europe then the Eurosport sub is only €25 for a year. No ads and you also get Wimbledon (and the other majors), Women's Football World Cup, Olympics (not this year of course) etc.

It's currently a little less than €18 per month, if you get the online service. I think they're running a discount at something like €130 - 140 per year right now, still not unreasonable if you're into various types of sports.

I can see myself having a subscription just to have Tour de France running in the background while I'm working, had I thought about it and if I had an extra monitor or TV in the office.

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

#79

Post by cbm-vic-20 »

heywhatupboys wrote: post #51
loeg wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And then do it again the next day. And the next. And so on.

I don't think I would be able to walk after two back-to-back 100km days, and these guys are doing double that with a lot more climbing nearly every day for over three weeks straight.

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

#80

Post by haunter »

mrweasel wrote: post #78
haunter wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are in Europe then the Eurosport sub is only €25 for a year. No ads and you also get Wimbledon (and the other majors), Women's Football World Cup, Olympics (not this year of course) etc.

It's currently a little less than €18 per month, if you get the online service. I think they're running a discount at something like €130 - 140 per year right now, still not unreasonable if you're into various types of sports. I can see myself having a subscription just to have Tour de France running in the background while I'm working, had I thought about it and if I had an extra monitor or TV in the office.

Really? It's 25€ a year for me, maybe depends on the location (I'm in Hungary) https://files.catbox.moe/dhq7ne.png
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