Tour de France 2015

[PotomacCyclist]

@hozn 119221 wrote:

Do you mean like https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Route_de_France_F%C3%A9minine ? There have been multi-day women’s stage races in France for decades. Or do you mean ASO organize it? Or maybe you mean a race that they air it on US cable?

I know about the women’s multi-day stage races. But as the article points out, they proceed in fits and starts. The races go bankrupt or stop running for a couple years. Or they disappear completely. None of them have much visibility in the U.S. and apparently not enough popularity in Europe either.

Something more integrated with the men’s Tour de France, I suppose. I don’t have all the answers, but I think ASO could come up with something more than just a one-day event. They could also promote it. Or if they are promoting it and the problem is with NBCSN not promoting it, they could nudge NBC/Comcast. There is more that they can do.

[Harry Meatmotor]

@PeteD 119217 wrote:

Having a Beer at Dutch Corner:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]9001[/ATTACH]

Nice pix!!!

Pete – shave your legs!!! LOL

(now back to your regular programming)

[mstone]

@ShawnoftheDread 119218 wrote:

“Moreover, having women run on the same course at the same time as the men doesn’t affect the race in any way. In fact, Boston officials accommodate the more than 20,000 official entrants by staggering the starting times.The elite women start running about half an hour before the men do, meaning that a woman actually crosses the finish line in Copley Square before a man does.”

These three sentences make no sense when put together. One would think that “at the same time” and “half an hour before” are not the same thing.

Seems pretty clear to me–they’re all on the course simultaneously, but not necessarily in the same spot on the course simultaneously. Which seems obvious–20k people in the same spot would be a hell of a high stack.

[hozn]

@PotomacCyclist 119234 wrote:

I know about the women’s multi-day stage races. But as the article points out, they proceed in fits and starts. The races go bankrupt or stop running for a couple years. Or they disappear completely. None of them have much visibility in the U.S. and apparently not enough popularity in Europe either.

Ah, ok. I didn’t even realize your post was in reference to an article linked. — Yes, what you’re saying sounds like cycling in general. Look at what’s happened with sponsorship of the pro continental teams over the past decade (probably longer). I think the challenge is just getting people interested in cycling period. Heck, it’d be nice to be able to watch the Tour with even a basic cable package.

I imagine that the popularity of women’s cycling would also benefit from having more women in the sport at amateur levels. The difference in participation is quite remarkable, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that interest in pro-level cycling is similarly disproportionate. (I’m going on the assumption that at least in this country cycling is watched primarily by cyclists.)

[hozn]

@mstone 119238 wrote:

Seems pretty clear to me–they’re all on the course simultaneously, but not necessarily in the same spot on the course simultaneously. Which seems obvious–20k people in the same spot would be a hell of a high stack.

I think the general assertion that “having women run on the same course at the same time” is rather meaningless when you then say that the start times are staggered. One cannot conclude that women are just as fast as the men (they aren’t), simply that they aren’t 30 minutes slower than the men — which in a race that’s less than 2.5 hours long, is a pretty significant percentage. I think it’s obvious to anyone that has ever walked down a sidewalk that you can have people of different paces that happen to be on the same sidewalk at the same time; that assertion is pretty meaningless.

The general idea of having women race [against other women] on the same Tour de France stages is a great idea, though. I would Tivo those races too.

[mstone]

@hozn 119243 wrote:

I think the general assertion that “having women run on the same course at the same time” is rather meaningless when you then say that the start times are staggered.

I think not–they’re still benefiting from the infrastructure, support, media coverage, fans, etc. (As opposed to the current situation when they run an entirely separate race that nobody notices.) That would also allow a direct comparison to the men’s & women’s results.

N.b. also that a staggered start isn’t mandatory, it’s simply a response to the argument that the women would screw up the men’s race. If you believe that, fine, spread them out enough to prevent that. If you want to have them all in the same massed start, that’s fine also.

Mostly it’s just another example of a decrepit sports organization appearing completely out of touch with the modern world. Podium girls? Really?

[PotomacCyclist]

@hozn 119241 wrote:

Ah, ok. I didn’t even realize your post was in reference to an article linked. — Yes, what you’re saying sounds like cycling in general. Look at what’s happened with sponsorship of the pro continental teams over the past decade (probably longer). I think the challenge is just getting people interested in cycling period. Heck, it’d be nice to be able to watch the Tour with even a basic cable package.

I imagine that the popularity of women’s cycling would also benefit from having more women in the sport at amateur levels. The difference in participation is quite remarkable, so it doesn’t come as a surprise that interest in pro-level cycling is similarly disproportionate. (I’m going on the assumption that at least in this country cycling is watched primarily by cyclists.)

I know non-cyclists who are enthusiastic fans of the Tour de France (and the Ironman World Championship in triathlon). I don’t know how many people fit into this category, but there are at least some who do.

[Steve O]

@PotomacCyclist 119212 wrote:

I think they will continue La Course, which is the one-day women’s event on July 26th.

I cannot find a single mention of this on the official Tour de France website. Google searches on “women” and “La Course” return zero results.
I was able to google it, however, and did find this. It links back to the main site, but I can’t seem to find anywhere you can link from the main site.

[PotomacCyclist]

They’ve posted info on the verified Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LaCoursebyLeTour

The page is active. The most recent post was just 13 minutes ago, with photos of the teams.

[PotomacCyclist]

This is an example of the poor job of marketing of La Course. They can’t even bother to add info about the race on the main TdF website. It’s not that difficult and it wouldn’t cost that much money. But they haven’t even done that much. This is part of the problem, the lack of promotion and organization for the women’s event.

[Raymo853]

Sad Ben King is not on the start list.

One other thing to point out about having the women’s race on nearly the same stages and nearly the same time. That would greatly increase the amount of time the road would need to be closed and/or controlled. That would really change the nature of the event for the on the ground spectators. No longer could you jump on your bike or motorcycle, into your car, camper car, etc… to make it to the next good viewing spot or a good spot on the next stage. Or in towns it would keep the city center closed down for multiple more hours, something that would kill the good will of the local businesses. Espically since people are learning the idea that hosting sporting events is such a financial benefit to locals is kind of a lie.

[PotomacCyclist]

Yorkshire experienced a significant increase in tourist spending after hosting two stages of last year’s Tour.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/general-news/tourism-figures-show-early-impact-of-tour-de-france-1-7055936

[Raymo853]

@PotomacCyclist 119272 wrote:

Yorkshire experienced a significant increase in tourist spending after hosting two stages of last year’s Tour.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/general-news/tourism-figures-show-early-impact-of-tour-de-france-1-7055936

Maybe, but their experiences do not reflect every place. And even in their case, there is a chance the extra tourist spending did not offset the rest of the cost of hosting an event such as that.

I am not saying towns should not host stages, World cup matches, bid on the Olympics, ……. just do not think it is a total windfall when you are awarded things.

[mstone]

@Raymo853 119270 wrote:

One other thing to point out about having the women’s race on nearly the same stages and nearly the same time. That would greatly increase the amount of time the road would need to be closed and/or controlled. That would really change the nature of the event for the on the ground spectators. No longer could you jump on your bike or motorcycle, into your car, camper car, etc… to make it to the next good viewing spot or a good spot on the next stage. Or in towns it would keep the city center closed down for multiple more hours

Wait, women are hours slower than men?

[PotomacCyclist]

@Raymo853 119278 wrote:

Maybe, but their experiences do not reflect every place. And even in their case, there is a chance the extra tourist spending did not offset the rest of the cost of hosting an event such as that.

I am not saying towns should not host stages, World cup matches, bid on the Olympics, ……. just do not think it is a total windfall when you are awarded things.

I’d agree that the Olympics may not benefit a host city financially, but the Tour is a different type of event. The towns don’t have to build infrastructure. Most of the towns only host one stage, so it’s not a long-term inconvenience. I’d guess that police/security would be one of the largest costs locally, but compared to large-scale construction for Olympics cities (which can run into the tens of billions of dollars), it’s not that great.

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