Random Questions thread

[fmk_RoI]

Who else had problems to avoid vomiting after reading this article?

These are the guys who were part of the team that put together the Rapha Report. One of the other people involved in that document - Daam Van Reeth - more or less disowned the calendar changes they proposed there.

The guys are basically full of crap. IIRC one of their more recent suggestions was that cycling needs to embrace gambling companies for sponsorship. That'd be a real good look for the sport and make the petrostates look almost palatable.

 

[fmk_RoI]

2 billion.

Below is a paragraph from Van Reeth's Economics of Professional Cycling book, which talks about 2012 numbers:

Before turning our attention to the relevant data, it should be noted that inevitably, this report also suffers from the methodological limits and pitfalls described in the previous section. We use the reported TV figures for the Tour of Flanders and the Tour de France to illustrate the point. According to the report, total accumulated audience for the Tour of Flanders equals 44.18 million, while for the Tour de France, total audience is close to 2.4 billion. These numbers are so impressive that they were eagerly communicated to the media by the UCI and race organizers. But if one reads the report more carefully, a more nuanced picture emerges. First of all, already in the introductory executive summary, the accumulated audience figures are put into perspective: “The cumulative audience reached 3960 million viewers of which 533 million were generated by live broadcasts” (IFM Sports 2012, p. 6). Inside the report, Repucom also mentions, albeit in small print, that due to the way audiences are measured, “the cumulated audience by events is higher than the total net audience” (IFM Sports 2012, p. 11). Finally, Repucom clearly explains that the grand total audience is, in fact, the sum of the audiences of 4 types of broadcasts (IFM Sports 2012, p. 35): live broadcasts (“live game action of an event or a game”), sports broadcasts (“all sports items airing regularly or irregularly. As a rule, “sports” programmes usually focus on a certain game or event”), sports magazine broadcasts (“summaries of different sports, events or games. They are mostly shown regularly (daily, weekly)”) and news broadcasts (“all sports items broadcast within programs covering news”). News broadcasts have the largest audience and account for an impressive 57 % (or 2.2 billion viewers) of the global cycling audience. Sports magazine broadcasts have a share of 22 %, live broadcasts account for 13 % and sports broadcasts only deliver 8 % of the total audience (IFM Sports 2012, p. 10). This implies that, roughly speaking, worldwide live TV audiences for cycling races are only one-eighth of the accumulated TV audiences. It is understandable that Flanders Classics, the organizer of the Tour of Flanders, prefers to communicate the virtual 44.18 million cumulative audience instead of the more accurate 4.04 million live audience. But are race organizers really aware of the fact that close to 60 % of their cumulative viewers are persons whose only connection to the race is a news broadcast they just happened to watch?

 

[tobydawq]

Below is a paragraph from Van Reeth's Economics of Professional Cycling book, which talks about 2012 numbers:

Oh, so a quarter of the Earth's population doesn't watch every Giro stage?

What do people do with their time, then?

 

[fmk_RoI]

What do people do with their time, then?

Watch triathlon, apparently...

 

[tobydawq]

Watch triathlon, apparently...

This encapsulates everything that is wrong with the world!

But do you really think the 7 million figure represents people who have been glued to the screen throughout the entire competition?

 

[Koronin]

Oh, so a quarter of the Earth's population doesn't watch every Giro stage?

What do people do with their time, then?

Watch ice hockey or basketball playoffs?

 

[tobydawq]

The supposed low figures of people who watch road cycling must be because people are furious with the route designs.

 

[saunaking]

holy *** has anyone seen the bike leg of a triathlon?
either a 4+ hour TT where the only thing happening is everyone trying to calculate the 10 meter draft zone

or in olympic tri a group ride around a super shitty urban course with zero fans and barriers everywhere

pure garbage

 

[tobydawq]

holy *** has anyone seen the bike leg of a triathlon?
either a 4+ hour TT where the only thing happening is everyone trying to calculate the 10 meter draft zone

or in olympic tri a group ride around a super shitty urban course with zero fans and barriers everywhere

pure garbage

Certainly, I can understand the fascination of iron man, it is quite incredible what they do, but it sure as hell is not a good watch.

 

[Ilmaestro99]

holy *** has anyone seen the bike leg of a triathlon?
either a 4+ hour TT where the only thing happening is everyone trying to calculate the 10 meter draft zone

or in olympic tri a group ride around a super shitty urban course with zero fans and barriers everywhere

pure garbage

Triathlon is not a sport, its just something put together so that people who love training can train as hard as possible 25 hours a week with a 'goal event' in mind

 

[yaco]

That triathlon event had seven commentators including the esteemed Phil Liggett - The cycling part of a triathlon has always been a failure because this leg is on pan-flat courses which allow for drafting - You need to spice it up with some short climbs.

 

[tobydawq]

That triathlon event had seven commentators including the esteemed Phil Liggett - The cycling part of a triathlon has always been a failure because this leg is on pan-flat courses which allow for drafting - You need to spice it up with some short climbs.

Definitely, I was thinking the same during the Olympics - at least there were a lot of accelerations due to the many corners.

Or you could have it as the last discipline, allowing for tactics.

 

[limak_]

Yeah, cycling and triathlon are two completely different disciplines so saying "oh this worked very well in tri, let's do the same in cycling" is a wrong logic.

But, to add some positive bits to the discussion, Ironman (mainly) competitor Lionel Sanders' youtube channel is imo probably the best content on YT about an athlete's training, lifestyle, mentality, pre, during and post competions analysis etc.
It goes really deep into a professional athlete's mind, his motivations and struggles.

I'd like to see a similair content from one of the cyclists. Of course, we have Dowsett's videos (hour record series was excellent), Campenaert's and some others but Sanders' materials is just another level.

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

I was wondering, has there ever been a bad weather Flèche Wallonne? I mean real bad weather, like P-R 2002 or KBK 2010?

 

[Nirvana]

I was wondering, has there ever been a bad weather Flèche Wallonne? I mean real bad weather, like P-R 2002 or KBK 2010?

The worst i remember is the 1999 one that was raced under heavy rain that on the cotes was turning into snow.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Watching the end of Stage 14 and I saw some things around Yates' and Gaudu's jerseys. Would they be microphones for that Netflix thing?