How popular is Vuelta in your country?

[Dr. Juice]

in rai it all has to do with whoever is director of it. don't know if he still is but I think bulbarelli? was direct of rai sports and a cycling nut so basically anything on 2 wheels and no engine was shown on rai sport throughout the year costing them a lot of money.

Until a lot of years back. I can't remember the Vuelta on Rai for at least 12 years. I watch most races on Rai.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Until a lot of years back. I can't remember the Vuelta on Rai for at least 12 years. I watch most races on Rai.

no, no. there was at least 3 or 4 years ago a rai director who was former cycling announcer. I think was bulbarelli. those few years he was at least they showed every italian race there was even junior races on rai sport.

 

[bucko007]

In Australia the average person wouldn't even know it is on. Not even with Mathews winning a stage. Next to no media interest,no coverage on tv (except on pay for view). TDF,Giro and the tour down under are the only talked about events and the ones with tv coverage.Shame really.

 

[ILovecycling]

yeah that's always hilarious to see how nos always expects dutch riders and they fail all the time

you are such a patriot ryo


also im surprised its not that popular in nederlands,always thought all cycling races are popular there to some extent.
maybe its better in belgium? (or only classics,wc,giro,tour?)

 

[Akuryo]

Germany has absolutely no interest for the Vuelta. And since I am watching cycling on Eurosport UK for a few years now, I don't mind. I am not even looking anymore if there could be highlights or live coverage in German. And absolutely nobody else is watching it (from the people I know personally). But like someone said in the Hamburg-thread: Most Germans (media and people at home) only care about cycling if there is a german Tour-winner.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

you are such a patriot ryo


also im surprised its not that popular in nederlands,always thought all cycling races are popular there to some extent.
maybe its better in belgium? (or only classics,wc,giro,tour?)

cycling is one of the biggest sports ikn netherlands. probably third biggest. but grand tours other than the tour are not popular. roubaix, agr, lbl or even something like omloop are way bigger in popularity than vuelta.

 

[ILovecycling]

cycling is one of the biggest sports ikn netherlands. probably third biggest. but grand tours other than the tour are not popular. roubaix, agr, lbl or even something like omloop are way bigger in popularity than vuelta.

iteresting,but I understand,classics are entertaining,it is more of dutch weather and dutch are good in classics,certainly better than at gt
what are the other 2 sports? (football and what?speed-skating?)


in belgium is it 2nd sport? after football,is it right belgians?

 

[Maaaaaaaarten]

iteresting,but I understand,classics are entertaining,it is more of dutch weather and dutch are good in classics,certainly better than at gt
what are the other 2 sports? (football and what?speed-skating?)


in belgium is it 2nd sport? after football,is it right belgians?

Yes in the Netherlands it can be argued that 1.football, 2.speed-skating, 3.cycling

in Belgium I guess it's 1 football, 2 cycling.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

iteresting,but I understand,classics are entertaining,it is more of dutch weather and dutch are good in classics,certainly better than at gt
what are the other 2 sports? (football and what?speed-skating?)


in belgium is it 2nd sport? after football,is it right belgians?

in flanders for sure cycling is more popular even than football. in wallonne no. you are right on that dutch list though.

 

[movingtarget]

In Australia the average person wouldn't even know it is on. Not even with Mathews winning a stage. Next to no media interest,no coverage on tv (except on pay for view). TDF,Giro and the tour down under are the only talked about events and the ones with tv coverage.Shame really.

You are wrong. SBS has been showing 30 minutes of highlights every night plus clips on the news and they are showing the last 8 stages live. Last year they showed 8 stages as well but not in sequence. I think it is better this way to see the best part of the race in sequence. At least for cycling fans I think SBS is doing a good job. The Sydney Morning Herald also has regular write ups.

 

[RedheadDane]

If you don't say the name of your country, we are not able to know the country you are talking about.

Okay. I can sooooort of understand that you didn't figure mine out, guess Viking Land isn't actually an official name for Denmark.
But... it actually says 'Denmark' under location in the top-right corner of all of Netserk's posts.

BTW I expect the Vuelta (and Giro) to move from TV2's main channel to a new sub-channel next year, but I hope they will both stay on the main channel.

They wouldn't dare!!??!!

 

[Sciatic]

i'm an american and lived in california all my life. i'd guess >90% of americans aren't aware that there is a tour of spain and >98% aren't aware that it is occurring right now or that an american is last year's champion. if you asked someone about the vuelta, they would probably respond, 'oh, is lance racing?' you can't watch the vuelta on any national tv channel here - you might get some coverage of the tour de france. in california, the tour of california gets some coverage.

I would put it in even stronger terms (Cali might have more interest than elsewhere): >99 % in US have never even heard of Vuelta/Tour of Spain. Even some of the cycling-fan friends I have will watch stages of the Giro but not the Vuelta. I think part of the latter is due to the better coverage and much better quality of the visuals (on TV or streaming) from the Giro.

 

[T-Nielsen]

Okay. I can sooooort of understand that you didn't figure mine out, guess Viking Land isn't actually an official name for Denmark.
But... it actually says 'Denmark' under location in the top-right corner of all of Netserk's posts.



They wouldn't dare!!??!!

I fear they will. I may even have to buy a tv2play subscription...

 

[gunara]

In Indonesia, as you may guess, nobody I know cares about La Vuelta, except they meet me everyday. Even a rider for Asian Conti team that I know never talk about it (because he doesn't meet me everyday ). I speculate that almost everyone know what Tour de France is, very few heard about Giro, and less than 20 people out of 250-something millions know about La Vuelta.
Strangely, it sometimes occupy a good column in local newspaper sport segment, not only the GT, monuments and WT stage races often have that, no consistency to it, some stage with a big column, then nothing at all for the next stage. But I think it's out of there are nothing else to talk about, and it's one of the news itens that come their way, or maybe in the tradition that cycling used to be popular 20-30 year ago.
But in reality, it's a lonely place for a cycling fan

 

[mariposa]

I know quite a few people here in the UK who are following La Vuelta. Admittedly the majority are keen cyclists but quite a few aren't probably partly to being brainwashed by me to watch in the past!
Empathise completely with Armchair cyclist on the appalling standard of the mainstream UK press and TV coverage of cycling in general here.

La Vuelta TV coverage can also be pretty low in the pecking order. ITV highlights are generally at 7pm but will be moved to accommodate football. With Eurosport the Tour of Britain opening stage will get top billing this coming Sunday and the Covadonga stage in La Vuelta is relegated to an hour's highlights only as Superbikes will also take priority.

Anyway I still love the race and will be going to watch it live in a few days.

 

[SafeBet]

In Indonesia, as you may guess, nobody I know cares about La Vuelta, except they meet me everyday. Even a rider for Asian Conti team that I know never talk about it (because he doesn't meet me everyday ). I speculate that almost everyone know what Tour de France is, very few heard about Giro, and less than 20 people out of 250-something millions know about La Vuelta.
Strangely, it sometimes occupy a good column in local newspaper sport segment, not only the GT, monuments and WT stage races often have that, no consistency to it, some stage with a big column, then nothing at all for the next stage. But I think it's out of there are nothing else to talk about, and it's one of the news itens that come their way, or maybe in the tradition that cycling used to be popular 20-30 year ago.
But in reality, it's a lonely place for a cycling fan

Where do you live in Indonesia?

 

[gunara]

Where do you live in Indonesia?

Currently in Sumedang, West Java, but also in Samarinda, East Kalimantan sometimes. Ever been to Indonesia or something?

 

[SafeBet]

Currently in Sumedang, West Java, but also in Samarinda, East Kalimantan sometimes. Ever been to Indonesia or something?

Yeah, I spent a month travelling Indonesia, especially Java. I remember how hard it was to get info about pro cycling there. I also designed a Tour of Java in the Race Design Thread, if you wanna check it out.
Beautiful country.

 

[yespatterns]

I'm in the US and don't have anything but Wi-Fi, so I just pull free eurosport streams. Most friends u know who are year round fans do the same. Additionally we are all masters, cats, enthusiasts. I don't know anyone who isn't a rider who is interested in watching.

 

[gunara]

Yeah, I spent a month travelling Indonesia, especially Java. I remember how hard it was to get info about pro cycling there. I also designed a Tour of Java in the Race Design Thread, if you wanna check it out.
Beautiful country.

Nice to hear, hope you can make another trip here one day. Surely I'll check your stage design out, haven't been too familiar with older part of that thread. But you make me remember that time when I still played that nagging manager game, I got frustrated for not able to recreate the old Tour de Java for the game because there was no compatible .dem files of Java I could find.

Nowadays, with Eurosport on paid cables, it's a lot easier for live viewing at least. But still I don't know any other house tuning to La Vuelta at 9 PM.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

Yeah, I spent a month travelling Indonesia, especially Java. I remember how hard it was to get info about pro cycling there. I also designed a Tour of Java in the Race Design Thread, if you wanna check it out.
Beautiful country.

there actially is a tour of java professional cycling stagerace. in general there are multiple pro teams and quite some pro riders. although it's nowhere near as popular as in philipines(where after basketball it's the biggest sport) or even malaysia

 

[gregrowlerson]

You are wrong. SBS has been showing 30 minutes of highlights every night plus clips on the news and they are showing the last 8 stages live. Last year they showed 8 stages as well but not in sequence. I think it is better this way to see the best part of the race in sequence. At least for cycling fans I think SBS is doing a good job. The Sydney Morning Herald also has regular write ups.

Beat me to it

We have it pretty good in Australia. We get good coverage of the Giro also, plus of course the Tour. In recent years we've also gotten free to air coverage of the monuments.

In the general media though it must be said that road cycling is well down the pecking order. It doesn't make the standard nightly news much, outside of the Tour. The general knowledge of the average joe is quite poor too; for a key GC rider might lose ten minutes and drop from 2nd to 12th in the overall classification, but unless that rider is from you're own country then you're unlikely to hear about it from the general news feeds. All they are interested in is who won the stage and who is leading the overall.

Cycling is well behind all the football codes, cricket, and probably tennis (at least when the Australian Open is on), golf and horse racing (at least when the Spring Carnival is on) in general popularity. And it's possible that nobody at my work place knows that the Vuelta is currently on!

 

[gunara]

there actially is a tour of java professional cycling stagerace. in general there are multiple pro teams and quite some pro riders. although it's nowhere near as popular as in philipines(where after basketball it's the biggest sport) or even malaysia

It used to be more popular in late 1980's though, crowd was better than most Middle East/Far East HC races of today. However, it was never a hellish 3-week races as in SafeBet's glorious design, I remember on its last popular editions it's mostly a roll along the coast, rolling hills here and there, and one or two mountain stages. The island's traffic and roads condition in 21th century (it's the most populous island on the planet, and with a lot of modern utter madness going on) has prevented it to be held regularly. Tour de Singkarak in West Sumatera now is the only race noticeable to general public.
I don't know cycling is more popular in Philippines than in Malaysia, I always thought Malaysia is where cycling has most popularity in Southeast Asia, I might be wrong then.

 

[Ryo Hazuki]

It used to be more popular in late 1980's though, crowd was better than most Middle East/Far East HC races of today. However, it was never a hellish 3-week races as in SafeBet's glorious design, I remember on its last popular editions it's mostly a roll along the coast, rolling hills here and there, and one or two mountain stages. The island's traffic and roads condition in 21th century (it's the most populous island on the planet, and with a lot of modern utter madness going on) has prevented it to be held regularly. Tour de Singkarak in West Sumatera now is the only race noticeable to general public.
I don't know cycling is more popular in Philippines than in Malaysia, I always thought Malaysia is where cycling has most popularity in Southeast Asia, I might be wrong then.

philipines have a very secluded cycling scene. but it's all pro and they have hundreds of pro riders and it's very big sport there. you should look into it if you have interest.

 

[LittleJo]

La Vuelta TV coverage can also be pretty low in the pecking order. ITV highlights are generally at 7pm but will be moved to accommodate football. With Eurosport the Tour of Britain opening stage will get top billing this coming Sunday and the Covadonga stage in La Vuelta is relegated to an hour's highlights only as Superbikes will also take priority.

I didn't realise they were going to do that. I understand that they may feel that the ToB should get priority, but they could do a little more than an hour of highlights of the Vuelta.