Article about Zomegan complaining regarding TOC...

[kurtinsc]

I'm a little confused by this article.

Zomegan seems to be railing about the Tour of California being scheduled to run at the same time as the Giro... but how is this any different then Catalunya being run at the same time in previous years?

Heck, there are other races during the Tour de France as well... and the Tour of California is supposed to be a lower ranked race then Catalunya.

Why would Zomegan be upset about California during the Giro, but okay with Catalunya? Is it simply reaction to Radioshack's behavior?

 

[Vonn Brinkman]

I'm a little confused by this article.

Zomegan seems to be railing about the Tour of California being scheduled to run at the same time as the Giro... but how is this any different then Catalunya being run at the same time in previous years?

Heck, there are other races during the Tour de France as well... and the Tour of California is supposed to be a lower ranked race then Catalunya.

Why would Zomegan be upset about California during the Giro, but okay with Catalunya? Is it simply reaction to Radioshack's behavior?

Check the GC last year for Catalunya:
Valv 1
Dan Martin 2

Now check the current GC and other riders for TOC. Includes Armstrong, Levi, Zabriskie, Cancellara, Schleck, Cavendish, etc.
It is true that the TOC is lower ranked than Catalunya, but it is up to the sponsors and teams to decide where they will put their main focus. In this case, the big non-Spanish teams have much publicity and sponsorship in the TOC than Italy, so like Cav, ditch the Giro for the TOC.
The TDF also has some races running at the same time...you know which? The Tour of Austria, Tour of Burgos. Does that ring a bell

 

[rhubroma]

Because the UCI shows no respect for cycling history. The Giro has gotten the shaft ever since they moved the Vuelta and Worlds to Sept-Oct. Since then it's become less international, Lance snobbed it till last year prefering as he did to do other races in prep for the Tour. Ullrich did it for training. The Giro for training for God's sake! No repect. No class.

This is because of all the financial considerations, and, in an effort to go more global and make the sport more profitable we invent new events like the Tour Down Under and the Tour of Cal. Nothing wrong with it per se, but moving the Tour of Cal to the Giro time slot, was another slap in the face to Italian cycling. Zomengan's protest is all there. There's big money in the US and money, not tradition, calls the shots. So what's good for the UCI, or at any rate perceived as such, is bad for Italian cycling. Within this conflict of interests, you'll find Zomengan's complaining totally comprehensible even if you could care less about Italian cycling and cycling tradition at large. Often Americans can't grasp this, though, as your rather naive inquiry has evidenced. No offence.

 

[Califootman]

Hey! Don't hate us Uh-mer-kuns just because we're rich and powerful!

And when the Chinese call in all our debts don't hate them, either... even if they do schedule the Grand Tour of Qinghai Lake opposite the Giro.

 

[armstrong4ever]

UCI already damaged Vuelta a España (http://www.procyclingtalk.com/sources-confirm-a-two-week-vuelta-in-2011)

Now they want to kill Giro d'Italia by making ToC ProTour in 2011 (http://bit.ly/bzTVxO)

 

[icefire]

UCI already damaged Vuelta a España (http://www.procyclingtalk.com/sources-confirm-a-two-week-vuelta-in-2011)

Now they want to kill Giro d'Italia by making ToC ProTour in 2011 (http://bit.ly/bzTVxO)

I would not give much credibility to that. A Spanish cycling magazine published last winter an interview with Vuelta director and they addressed the issue of reducing the number of stages and moving the dates back to late April. They are not considering now any of these options. They just wanted to move the dates to 1 week before to start the race before the soccer league season and to have the last stage 2 weeks before the Worlds, and that's something they've already got this year.

Back on the thread topic, ToC vs. the Giro, I guess that Zomegnan is annoyed by the fact that ToC may subtract audience from the Giro in the emerging market for cycling that is the USA. That's the difference between date coincidence with ToC vs date coincidence with Volta a Catalunya. In fact, the Giro has been rarely broadcasted in Spain unless you tuned to satellite TV.

 

[armstrong4ever]

Angelo Zomegnan about Giro d'Italia

“Cycling needs spectacle like this to lift it out of mediocrity. Look around us, there are not mountains like this anywhere in the world. What do (the riders) want? Every day, this Giro has had huge crowds along the road, on the finish, big audiences on TV,” Zomegnan said. “This is the Giro, if they don’t like it, they can race somewhere else.”

Pat McQuaid about Giro d'Italia

“Bringing in extreme events brings more publicity for the sport, but he [Zomegnan] goes a little too far in creating a spectacle and he neglects the sporting element and the safety of the riders," McQuaid said.

With ToC ProTour next year in May, and the two new Canadian ProTour races in September, it wouldn't surprise to see a Tour of China in July 2011.

"We hope to make the Tour of China an event as important and popular as the Tour de France," McQuaid said in 2007.

Don't we all love Pat McQuaid and his globalization plans?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

They don't get it, do they? You can't just create an event out of thin air and have it be as important or popular as the very foundations the sport was built on. The Abu Dhabi GP is not as important as Monaco, the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars don't have the support of the Steelers or Packers.

It doesn't matter WHAT happens, any Tour of China will NEVER, EVER be as important as the Tour de France in the eyes of any cycling fan. The words 'Tour de France' are synonymous with cycling in the eyes of huge quantities of people who have otherwise no interest whatsoever in the sport.

 

[Moondance]

They don't get it, do they? You can't just create an event out of thin air and have it be as important or popular as the very foundations the sport was built on. The Abu Dhabi GP is not as important as Monaco, the Houston Texans and Jacksonville Jaguars don't have the support of the Steelers or Packers.

It doesn't matter WHAT happens, any Tour of China will NEVER, EVER be as important as the Tour de France in the eyes of any cycling fan. The words 'Tour de France' are synonymous with cycling in the eyes of huge quantities of people who have otherwise no interest whatsoever in the sport.

You are right, of course... Although I do think a stage race in China with the UCI's backing has a chance to be pretty big. Not GT level obviously, but maybe at the ToC level perhaps, I know for sure that if they have a stage around that Badaling area they used for the '08 Olympics I'm staying up to watch.

 

[stephens]

One thing is for sure: if people want a "clean" sport, then they can't also want a Giro like it's been going and expect all the riders to really race it. No one clean can "peak" for both the Giro and the Tour in the same year.

 

[Roland Rat]

You are right, of course... Although I do think a stage race in China with the UCI's backing has a chance to be pretty big. Not GT level obviously, but maybe at the ToC level perhaps, I know for sure that if they have a stage around that Badaling area they used for the '08 Olympics I'm staying up to watch.

But that's exactly the point. Why does Bernie Ecclestone have to hold the Chinese and Australian GP's in the evening? TV. The same reason why events in extreme time zones (relative to CET) will never become as big as the Tour and a number of other European races.

 

[joy118118]

Hey! Don't hate us Uh-mer-kuns just because we're rich and powerful!

And when the Chinese call in all our debts don't hate them, either... even if they do schedule the Grand Tour of Qinghai Lake opposite the Giro.

the schedule of TOQ now is opposite TDF