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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

#91

Post by honzabe »

hilbert42 wrote: post #86

As someone who used to be involved in outside television broadcasts I have to give full marks for the fabulous TV production. Not only is this a huge technical undertaking but also it's consistently almost flawless—it's outside broadcasting par excellence. (Unless, one's been involved outside TV production, it's difficult to realize how complex and involved such productions are especially if they're to go without a h…

I absolutely agree with you, I just want to point out something that affected my viewing habits: that modern tech you mention also enabled "amateurs".

I have been watching Grand Tours since I was a kid; watching together with my dad was our family ritual and I am emotionally attached to it. However, this year I was a bit busy and I did not watch Giro d'Italia. But I found time to watch content made by NorCal Cycling and The Vegan Cyclist.

I know live-streaming a huge event like Tour de France is not comparable to making videos about a personal experience and publishing them after the race. But GoPros and drones made possible videos like [1] - as a cycling fan, I find that really exciting. A talented filmmaker and storyteller (like The Vegan Cyclist, in my opinion) can make a lot of bang for the buck with them. And what is especially enticing about this kind of content is the experience of "being inside" - personal attachment to the protagonist and a lot of footage from within the peloton. And pro cycling is not very good at it yet.

Maybe that was the hole the Netflix documentary was trying to patch? I have not seen it yet. I have seen the first two seasons of "The Least Expected Day: Inside the Movistar Team" and I think that was a good idea, although they should hire someone like The Vegan Cyclist to make it interesting (BTW, I have no affiliation to the guy).

It might seem crazy that I see events like Tour de France competing with "amateurs" but those amateurs might be able to attract a lot of attention for a dollar and I already see some money going in - like The Vegan Cyclist being sponsored by Canyon and a bunch of other companies.

[1] https://youtu.be/lRwGtPek1FQ

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

#92

Post by hilbert42 »

honzabe wrote: post #91
hilbert42 wrote: post #86

As someone who used to be involved in outside television broadcasts I have to give full marks for the fabulous TV production. Not only is this a huge technical undertaking but also it's consistently almost flawless—it's outside broadcasting par excellence. (Unless, one's been involved outside TV production, it's difficult to realize how complex and involved such productions are especially if they're to go without a h…

I absolutely agree with you, I just want to point out something that affected my viewing habits: that modern tech you mention also enabled "amateurs". I have been watching Grand Tours since I was a kid; watching together with my dad was our family ritual and I am emotionally attached to it. However, this year I was a bit busy and I did not watch Giro d'Italia. But I found time to watch content made by NorCal Cycling…

Amateurs have been behind the foundation of many activities whether sports, games, music or professions. It's interest for interest sake that's key, people act out of interest because they enjoy what they are doing usually without being paid.

Moreover, their interests often turn professional and when they do they're usually good professionals because their work is more than just a job.

My interest in television started much earlier than before I was professionally involved in TV, it grew out of an interest in electronics as a kid which I did as a hobby, this developed and that became one of my professions.

I do have one concern however, amateur interests, sports and others often risk becoming too big. When that happens big money usually gets involved and that can ruin the amateur status for all but a few elites at the top. We've seen this in the Olympics, football, etc.

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

#93

Post by light_hue_1 »

heywhatupboys wrote: post #38
light_hue_1 wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And the women who ride represent the top 0.00001% of Earth's best humans in the best shape too! And their accomplishments outside any effort that the vast amount of people will ever do in a day of their lives. Of course women can complete such races! We know this because they do it all the time. Not only that, they can even win! All we need to do is let them. Take the RAAM (Race Across America, a gruelling almost 300…

[flagged]

Again, just look at the data!

Men's vs women's time trials.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCI_Road_World_Championships_%... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UCI_Road_World_Championships_%...

In 2022 women allowed to race the same TT tracks as men for the world championship. Had the top woman (Ellen van Dijk) competed in the men's field, she would have ranked 31st. The 27th ranked man (Alexey Lutsenko) won a stage at the Tour de France and has ranked top 20 in the race.

Stop it with the sexism, please. Women can complete the men's races. Not just overall, not just keeping up and even beating men in the long term, but as you can see even stage by stage they can keep up. The evidence for that is overwhelming and clear.

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

#94

Post by baanlox »

InCityDreams wrote: post #58
ulfw wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[dead]

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

#95

Post by clpm4j »

mcpackieh wrote: post #72
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,…

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.

I'm not sure it was the tour that was popular when Lance was winning it... Lance was popular and his Live Strong brand was popular, but I don't think many Americans actually cared about world tour cycling.

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

#96

Post by jimbokun »

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.

What if they staggered it and just had the women starting each stage a day behind? (Or vice versa.)
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