The 2011 Cycling Broadcast Media Challenge

Do my eyes deceive me? Is there a piece critical of Lance Armstrong up on Versus.com? If it weren’t comparing him to Mel Gibson (hard to imagine the phone calls curiously absent from Armstrong’s emails with Floyd and Dr. Kay were anywhere near that bad) or erroneously claiming that Armstrong smashed Floyd’s (or Armstrong’s own non-existant) 2006 trophy, I might actually be impressed about the fact that it’s there.

Over at Universal Sports, BikeSnobNYC has continued his blogging as well. He’s a sharp enough writer that I can almost overlook his misattribution of Sungard’s sponsorship to promises of a Contador Grand Slam; Sungard’s sponsor affiliation with Saxo dates back to the beginning of this year, and their move to title sponsor was pretty much a given long before Contador’s third Tour win, let alone the Spaniard’s (and his most trusted domestiques’) acquisition by Riis.

What it almost seems like is that Versus and US are competing to retain viewer interest at least through the Vuelta a Espana, which begins later this month. It’d be a fairly unprecedented move, especially considering that Team RadioShack (whose marketing machinery all but declared the season over in July) will not be attending. I say “almost” because it appears Versus hasn’t updated their cycling schedule since before the Tour and probably isn’t even broadcasting the race.

While Universal Sports will indeed be offering live video coverage of the event, it’s doubtful, given the criticism of both usability and level of commentary during their Giro broadcasts, that anyone will elect to pay the $15 dollars when so many easier-to-use sites are giving away better commentary for free.

At any rate, since both NBC Universal and Versus are owned by the same cable megalopoly—and have their online video services delivered by the same company—it’s hard to imagine that we, as consumers, would see any benefit from market competition between the two broadcasters.

All of this leaves me scratching my head at why Versus or Universal Sports even bother. I can’t imagine BikeSnob or whoever the heck Gerard Wright is cost much, but they must cost something. Why continue to spend money when you know better professional outlets, fan-based efforts, and a few tech-savvy pirates are going to bury you in terms of both coverage and quality during non-Tour events?

Even with an American winner defending his title at Vattenfalls, or the best-known American squad fighting to make a point at Tour l’Ain, I can’t find anything about either race on either company’s website. I can’t imagine lip-service text posts—without at least a tip of the hat to ongoing racing—are going to convince fans that the two legitimate US broadcasters are in any way serious about the sport.

I’m guessing that Joel Felicio or whoever has his job at Universal Sports would counter by saying that without them, there’d be no cycling for American audiences. But that’s just not true anymore; even Lance Armstrong, who’s made tweets I can’t find about how he never pirates music, knows where to find coverage if legitimate sources don’t make an effort to cover it.

My challenge to both Versus and US is this: take 2011 off. You say you’re tired of having fans tear you down for your hard work, so stop doing it. If it’s too hard to find advertisers, or if too few people are watching, or if no one will pay for anything online, it would make sense to stop, right?

So just don’t bid for exclusive US or online rights to any major cycling events —the only real thing limiting other video to Eastern European dudes with screencast software—for one year, and let an open and competitive market determine the future of cycling coverage.

Then, in 2012, you’ll have your change to come back and prove to everyone that you’re doing the best job possible, and that most criticism against you is levied based on spite and delusion. If you have as much confidence in your opinion as I have in mine, you should be as eager as I am to see this little experiment take place.

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Longer-Term Investments

I’m wondering who’s more surprised about Ricco’s move to Vacansoleil—fans, journalists, or the rider himself. Ricco seemed pretty sure about going to Quick.Step only a few short days ago, but as press agents anywhere can tell you, the great advantage to leaking information rather than making an above-board announcement is plausible deniability.

That said, the not-so-recently-returned Italian’s marriage to either team hardly represents particularly deep planning. Quick.Step is where GC riders have repeatedly gone to die; while plenty of fans and many in the peloton seem to think that wouldn’t be so bad, I’m doubting Ricco is particularly excited about the prospect. Vacansoleil and Ricco do each have an interest in getting invited to higher-profile races, but I just don’t see how an ostracized ex-doper make a second-tier squad with a history of being snubbed improve each others’ appeal.

But then again, maybe I’m not giving the value of a big-name signing the weight it truly deserves. Despite a lackluster season and advancing age, Carlos Sastre still makes a newsworthy title signing for a new team sponsor. Robbie McEwen, 38 years young and barely managing a footnote of a win this year, claims to have at least interest from other teams.

I hesitate to mention Vino’s recently-announced re-signing; unlike Sastre and McEwen, he’s had a fantastic season, and I think most fans were aware the Vino-4-Ever jersey wasn’t merely a statement of Astana’s faith in their homegrown talent, but also the official terms of his contract.

But as a larger trend, it seems that retirement has been going out of style as of late. One wonders if the popularity of Comeback 2.0 didn’t play something of a role in that; Armstrong’s performance at the 2009 Tour certainly may have emboldened a few riders to try and compete at a higher level than they’d otherwise planned, and he certainly didn’t hold back in exploring new technologies to achieve that end.

Lance’s small-door exit at this year’s TdF may have attracted additional interest as well; after years of suffering at the Texan’s hands in head-to-head competition, a generation of riders may find a measure of revenge in being able to carry on with high-level performances at an age where Armstrong was forced to unceremoniously throw in the towel.

Regardless of the motivations of riders and teams, though, one thing seems certain: a second post-Lance recession is unlikely. Fourteen applicants are competing for the remaining eight ProTour spots—a number that does not include Cervelo TestTeam, who will continue their thus-far successful strategy of circumventing the expense and frustration of the UCI’s red tape by focusing on producing results instead of bank guarantees.

Given the runty performance and unsteady funding delivered by the ProTour structure thus far, it’s a model the UCI might want to consider encouraging in the future.

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The International Advantage

There was some dispute in the comments section (#4) of the last post about whether or not nationalism was good business in cycling. While I think there’s something to be said on either side of the issue, I maintain that its influence will become increasingly detrimental in an ever-more-international sport.

Consider Rabobank—though widely considered a de facto Dutch national squad, they’ve made large and successful investments in foreign athletes. Since the retirements of Erik Dekker and Michael Boogerd, nearly all of their major victories have come courtesy of the Spaniard Oscar Freire or the soon-to-depart Russian Denis Menchov. It’s not like the team has suffered for the outsourcing, with the two riders bringing in a Giro, two Vueltas, two Tour podiums, several Tour stages, a Green Jersey, three San Remos and a gaggle of other assorted trophies.

There’ve been more than enough Dutch riders who could have stepped up at Rabobank, but many have chosen to ply their trades elsewhere—Karsten Kroon, Steven de Jongh, Theo Bos, among others. After Servais Knaven became the first Dutchman to win Roubaix in almost two decades in 2001, for a Belgian-registered but thoroughly international squad, I think it was laid clear to a lot of riders that their talents could be more successfully employed—even as lieutenants—on foreign teams that focused on their strongest races.

Given the success both Rabobank and Dutch ex-pats have had following this course over the past few years, it sounds ridiculous that Lars Boom would say his squad should develop more Dutch riders instead of aquiring the most underutilized classics talent of the 2010 season. It’s not like he’ll get a bigger share of the winnings if a Dutch rider is parcelling out prize money, or that Rabobank will get less camera time if a Dane crosses the line with their name on his chest.

Contrast Rabobank’s importation of talent to the approach of the major French squads, who, outside of one high-profile and ill-omened acquisition, have never shown much interest in top-tier foreign riders. While it was nice to see so many French teams and cyclists taking stages at this year’s Tour, the fact remains that at any high-profile event, they’re all still second-level players. And for the few Frenchmen who’ve elected to ride elsewhere—Sylvain Chavanel, Cedric Vasseur, Richard Virenque—the switch to a foreign squad has paid dividends.

The impression I get is that multi-national squads are better run, more focused in their objectives, and just plain tighter-knit. Bjarne Riis’ legendary commando-style training camps seemed to forge a bond stronger than any national affiliation—not really surprising, considering how many times the map of Europe’s been re-drawn over the past few centuries. Jon Vaughters has mentioned that having a core set of values can similarly draw a team together, and the team-building lesson hasn’t been lost on Columbia-HTC, either.

While national affiliation is an important historical constant in a sport where teams, sponsors, and riders reshuffle yearly, the fact remains that it’s an increasingly outdated notion—and not just because the Tour hasn’t been contested by national squads since the ’60’s. Nicholas Roche, Heinrich Haussler, and Guido Trenti have each confounded the traditional notion of nationality, and even artificial changes aren’t hard to pull off when the situation requires.

When riders feel compelled to be the best rider from their country at an event it never ends well, as Paolo Bettini recently pointed out, and as Roche discovered first hand. It’s a problem even in America—lord knows how many US title races have been won by foreigners while Americans mark each other in the battle for least mediocre. Don’t even get me started on the Best Utah Rider jersey.

So while some nationalistic appeal might appear to be good business at first, any benefit will be short term as more professional international squads extend the performance gap. While Team Sky, the first major British outfit in a generation, overspent badly to bring in a home-grown Tour contender, they had the good sense to hedge the bet by placing him amongst a veteran, multi-national team, stocked with riders from similarly diverse squads—a move that paid off almost immediately in their 2010 campaign.

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Worlds And An Open Vuleta

Well, so much for that analysis—I was pretty sure Farrar’s legs were getting soggy after a full plate of classics, three Grand Tours, and some late season one-days. But he got a pretty good amount of daylight in winning yesterday’s Vuelta stage—hardly the victory of a man beaten back by a season’s worth of effort.

Apparently an attempt at the World Title attempt is still in the cards, but unlike some other riders I could name, Farrar’s taking a real wait-and-see approach in sizing up his chances. I suppose it’s encouraging—from an American prospective, anyway—that he taking such a well-reasoned approach, but on the other hand, when a cyclist who can win long one-days is on form, parcours tends to lose relevance, as Cancellara’s Flanders/Roubaix double and Gilbert’s dual conquests at Paris-Tours and Tour of Lombardy last season, show.

Speaking of Gilbert, he’s put forth some pretty solid evidence of form heading into the end of this season—even if today’s setup in the truncated group sprint didn’t go so well. Taking the race lead on a stage tailored to his strengths was good, but far more impressive was his retention of the red kit on a stage that was not. While it’s almost certain that Gilbert will not be sticking around through the end of the event, a very interesting race is shaping up behind him, including several younger riders taking their first real shots in a Grand Tour.

That said, the argument could be made that this year’s Vuelta won’t have any sort of reliable GC picture before Stage 16 since all the prior mountain stages lacking a hilltop finish or multiple climbs, and the only TT doesn’t take place until Stage 17. I’m not quite that strict in my consideration of what makes a “real” mountain stage—especially after the GC changes on downhill finishes at this year’s Tour—but I will say that the this Vuelta will be unusually coy in revealing which riders have a shot at the top step of the Podium in Madrid.

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Guide Dogs Le Tour Challenge - Days 3 & 4, TdF Stage 16 completed

It’s been a mixture of emotions over the past two days, almost as varied as the weather in fact. There have been the glorious highs; seeing the summit of the Tourmalet emerge through the mist yesterday after a gut-busting day of foul weather and three cols. Then today we were all brought pretty suddenly back down to earth when Mac, one of our teammates, overcooked it on a 13% right hander on the descent of the Aubisque. He is fine, relatively speaking and is at this very moment licking his wounds in Pau hospital, typically for a cyclist more frustrated about missing the last two days of the tour than the pain he is in.

Despite our relief when we heard over dinner tonight that he is OK, Mac’s crash really made us all think about the risks we take, all in the name of cycling adventure. There’ll be a few nerves when we make our first descent tomorrow, but the show must go on; the Guide Dogs are counting on us!

So back to that mixed bag that was Stage 16. Tuesday’s weather was typically Pyrenean - wet. We stayed in Luchon on Monday night, which meant that we climbed from the very start on Tuesday morning, straight up the Col de Peyresourde. 5km from the summit we were in the clouds with a fine but steady rain. That in itself wasn’t a problem, in fact it was quite pleasant, but it did make the descent pretty greasy... but not much slower!

Safely across the valley, there was barely time to catch breath before the road kicked up again and marked the start of the Col d’Aspin. I had some knowledge of this one, but from the other direction, as I descended it a few years ago. I had quite a bit of company, mainly due to all the punters from the Centre Cyclisme Laurent Fignon, who were kicked out of the bus at the bottom of the climb and handed their bikes. With one col under my belt I was feeling OK, remarkably much better than I’d felt on the Port de Balès the previous afternoon. My legs felt good and I was able to tap out a steady rhythm in the rain all the way to the top.

Nobody paused for long up there in the mist. A handful of Haribo and a quick banana, jackets on and we headed off for St Marie de Campan and the start of the final and most formidable of the day's climbs, the Col du Tourmalet.

The only thing I really remember about the first 10k of the Tourmalet is rain and pain. Manageable pain though and again I was able to tap it out and actually pull away from my pal Fraser (miracles will never cease as he’s put in a lot of training hours for this). Nonetheless we’d agreed that we all ride our own ride that day and whoever felt good could go.

That fit of enthusiasm lasted until the road kicked up in earnest about a kilometre before La Mongie, arguably the ugliest square mile in the Pyrenees. I knew I had slowed, but didn’t quite realise by how much, as just as I left the last concrete hotel block of the ski resort behind me, I heard a shout. There, appearing out of the mist was Fraser, who, true to form had found his legs and was back!

From that point on we rode together, heads down but trying to keep our spirits up. I can’t tell you how glad I was to see the 1km to go sign, but it was a long time coming. The cafe on top was as warm and welcoming as I remember it, so we stayed for a while, considering our plan of attack for the descent.

Kitted out with yet more wet weather gear, we set off fairly gingerly round the first few steep bends. Now here’s the thing – the weather was completely different on the western side of the mountain – warm, sunny and dry, which made the 20 miles of descending back down the valley to our hotel a far more agreeable business. Just one niggling feeling... in three days I have to come back up this!

As I said at the start, today was a day of two halves really; gorgeous weather throughout with 35 degrees, sunshine and blue skies, some of the most beautiful mountain scenery on the planet and then there was Mac’s rendezvous with the concrete, which gave an altogether more sober tone to the end of the day. Having said that, we all agreed that, as days on the bike go, it was not half bad. Climbing the Soulor was tough, as it’s a long gradual gradient for about 20k with a nasty kick for about 8k at the end. The pain is soon forgotten when you take in the view at the top and the quick descent along the road which hugs the cliff between the Soulor and the Aubisque is simply sublime.

Once we were (mostly) off the mountain in one piece, we joined forces to bang out the last 45k to Pau – merely a formality before close of business for Armstrong and his breakaway group, but for us in all our splendid mix of ability, worth thinking about. We didn’t want to leave anyone stranded in that heat.

So I’m actually doing OK and riding into a bit of decent mountain fitness - I think. I was seriously worried about lack of preparation before I left England, but I’m riding my own tour, sticking to my rules and not chasing the front of the bunch of the man furthest up the climb and I’m really enjoying myself.

Bring on Stage 17, the Col de Marie Blanc and appointment number two with the Tourmalet.

Chris would be pleased to receive online donations in support of his Guide Dogs challenge at www.justgiving.com/Christopher-Williams2

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The world's most important cycle show in Friedrichshafen,Germany

At the beginning of September at the vast exhibition centre in Friedrichshafen, Germany,it will takes place the world's most important cycle show. Virtually every major player in cycle manufacture is there along with many not so big, all of them wanting the kind of exposure that only comes with being present in front of the kind of audience such a show attracts.

Simply walking around the perimeter of the centre (and ignoring the Zeppelin hangar beside the runway of Friedrichshafen airport) takes around 10 minutes, while a thorough investigation of the 12 main halls takes, well, days...

Which means that it is easy to overlook some of the less glamorous stands. These might be offering anything from threaded fasteners produced in their millions to identikit carbon-fibre frames. My favourite so far is the Holland Mechanics stand, on which may be viewed several of the inordinately complex machines that build wire-spoked wheels.

They are not, in truth, pretty. They are not even particularly interesting to look at, the ultimate mysteries of their operation concealed behind myriad critical but anonymous small components. The machine taking pride of place at the front of the stand looked, to the uninformed onlooker, much like its fellows but is, I was told by Holland Mechanics' Maarten van Doornik, state of the art.

Mainly this is because it has been built to work with the latest type of aluminium spoke nipple, which in addition to the conventional square flats on the inboard or hub side has a square head to be accessed from the rim trough. This head allows the application of much greater tightening torque during the building process without risk of shearing the aluminium nipple. Tighter spokes mean more durable wheels and the combination of the new spoke format and machines such as this one capable of finishing automatically a wheel assembled with them is the kind of technological advance that keeps costs down as performance improves.

Finishing a wheel? Another machine is needed to do the initial lacing and tensioning, this one bringing the wheel up to final tension and trueness. It does so in about one minute and, going by the spoke tension in the wheel sitting inside it, does indeed apply a very high tension. Given that the nipple-turning head will have a torque-sensor, it surely does so to a precise setting. And while it does the job automatically, there's a big screen to let the operator know just what's going on in there. Somewhere.

www.hollandmechanics.com

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Thunder Thor Hushovd wins stage 6 of the 2010 Vuelta a Espana

Norwegian Thor Hushovd powers to win in stage 6 of the Tour of Spain 2010 for Cervelo TestTeam; Omega Pharma-Lotto's Philippe Gilbert maintains overall 2010 Vuelta a Espana lead.

Cervelo TestTeam's Thor Hushovd claimed the third Tour of Spain stage win of his career earlier today when he won stage 6 of the 2010 Vuelta a Espana to Murcia. Hushovd also won stages in Cuenca in 2005 and Leon in 2006. It wasn't just another bunch sprint for Hushovd this time as the Norwegian has not won anything like that since stage 3 of the Tour of Missouri one year ago.

He soloed to claim his second Norwegian champion title in June and he was the fastest in a six-man group at the end of stage 3 in Arenberg at the Tour de France this year. Hushovd also finished second after Fabian Cancellara at Paris-Roubaix in April. His career has clearly switched to one of a rider more geared for the classics. He's no longer a pure sprinter.

Hushovd broke a collarbone in May and wasn't able to work specifically on his sprinting prior to the 2010 Tour de France. "I haven't sprinted enough this year for winning against someone like Mark Cavendish," Hushovd acknowledged.

Pure sprinters Mark Cavendish, Tyler Farrar, Alessandro Petacchi and Oscar Freire were missing in the 70-men peloton that contested the stage victory in Murcia today because of the 2nd category climb of Alto de la Cresta del Gallo located 17 kilometers from the finish.

A proud Thor Hushovd on the podium in Murcia. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.

"When I saw that Bennati was also there for the sprint, he was the man for me to watch", Hushovd commented after the stage finish and added "I also feared Philippe Gilbert and Filippo Pozzato who are fast finishers in small groups."

"When I came to the Vuelta, my first goal was to get back in race rhythm", Hushovd continued "The second goal was to win a stage." Now that he has reached these two goals, he can focus solely on the 2010 road cycling world championships.

At the start of stage 6 in Caravaca de la Cruz, Pozzato identified him as one of the very few sprinters who can survive the repetition of the climbs on the course of Geelong to claim the rainbow jersey in Australia on October 3rd. Hushovd's disadvantage will be the small number of teammates he'll have as Norway can line up with three riders only.

32-year-old Hushovd looked worried when he arrived in Sevilla for the 2010 Tour of Spain. He hadn't imagined that his Cervélo TestTeam team sponsor would close the business prematurely. He was still contracted with them for next year. On Monday he sealed a deal for joining Team Garmin-Cervelo for 2011, whose team manager Jonathan Vaughters was on his side as a teammate when the Norwegian first discovered what it's like to win a stage at the Tour de France. That was the team time trial won by Crédit Agricole in 2001.

Philippe Gilbert still leads overall 10 seconds ahead of Euskaltel's Igor Anton. Photo copyright Fotoreporter Sirotti.

Hushovd insisted that six of his current teammates at Cervelo TestTeam would have to follow him to Team Garmin-Cervelo - the team that had already recruited another of his former faithful teammates, Frenchman Christophe Le Mével. "I need them for the classics," the Norwegian God of Thunder said when asked about Roger Hammond, Heinrich Haussler, Daniel Lloyd, Andreas Klier, Gabriel Rasch and Brett Lancaster. That means the main focus of his career is on the classics now.

Omega Pharma-Lotto's Philippe Gilbert maintains the overall 2010 Vuelta a Espana lead before tomorrow's stage, leading Igor Anton by 10 seconds.

Stay tuned to Roadcycling.com for extensive 2010 Vuelta a Espana coverage including news, results, interviews and video highlights from every stage. Spread the word and please support our advertisers - they make our Tour of Spain 2010 coverage possible! When on the move, visit our mobile cycling magazine Roadcycling.mobi from your mobile phone or download our new cycling app for Nokia phones.

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