Tour of Beijing - World Tour - Say what?

[craig1985]

Correct, I was there for two weeks

 

[Dutchsmurf]

German Economic Growth was 1.5% in the first quarter of 2011. Compared with China, India and Brazil all over 6%, it's nothing. Germany is doing the best form the Europen Countries but surely no rational person will argue against the fact that Asia annd Brazil are the new Economic Powerhouses. Other major sports such as Formula 1, Moto GP, Golf and Tennis have imporatant events in Asia. Cycling has lagged behind in this instance. So the success of The tour of Beijing the first world tour event in Asia will be very important.

Economic Growth doesn't say a lot. With the exception of China, all those upcoming markets still have a LONG way to go. And even in China, economic indicators like the GDP per capita are still very low. But economics isn't the point anyway.
You have to ask yourself what the Tour of Beijing will achieve. Because it is world tour, the rules dictate that local teams have hardly any chance to be able to take part. Because of the place on the agenda, the big stars of cycling won't take part. In other sports like the Formula 1, Golf and Tennis you mentioned, you get the big stars competing all around the world. Cycling just doesn't work like that. So the local audience has hardly any reason to care about their own race.

Instead of creating a Tour of Beijing out of nowhere, money should be invested in creating a local base for cycling. Create interesting races for the local teams so they get better. Then once a base is created, use that money to offer more prize money. With more money on stake, more teams will come. If the racing is interesting, people will watch it.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

And the F1 races in these 'new economic powerhouses' are the most poorly attended on the calendar (the exception is Brazil, which has a long and storied motorsports history). The audience for F1 is global, but the most rabid fanbases are in Brazil, Japan, Canada and Europe. All the teams are based in Europe. Turkey sold only 7,000 tickets for its race a couple of years ago; Bahrain has imported fans, China has bussed them in at their own expense.

The thing is, F1 and motorsport in general is pretty new at the highest level in Asia, Japan excepted. They haven't produced any top drivers or teams, and the races don't have history or tradition on their side - and this in a sport where the top racers MUST attend (the top TEAMS must attend the Tour of Beijing, but whether the Contadors, Schlecks and Cavendishes of this world go is another matter).

And how is this expansion going? Put simply, we don't know. If they don't produce any top drivers or teams, will the interest be fleeting? The venues in many of these locations are already white elephants, in little use during the year, unlike the tracks in the traditional motorsport countries, in use for various junior formulae week in week out in-season. Is it sustainable? When the government stop paying for the races (something that doesn't happen in Europe, hence why a lot of the circuits are unwilling to pay for the privilege of holding races given the prices being charged, and so races are moving away from Europe) who will be left to pick up the pieces? The Europeans, the Canadians, Brazilians and Japanese. Just like in the past when the fad of trying to break the US cooled off.

Cycling has the added problem of an already congested calendar, and plenty of regional or continental sponsors. Many of the sponsors in the WorldTour have little interest in Asia.

If this race was at the start of the season it could go in with the niche of the Tour Down Under, and follow on from that (maybe in California's old slot), and it would get a better field. At the end of the season it's either wind-down time (in which case you get a bunch of riders not really giving a damn, but without the 'season's starting!' excitement that accompanies the TDU) or preparation for the season finale, the Giro di Lombardia. Which has two problems - 1) flying halfway across the world twice isn't the best preparation for an endurance race, and 2) the parcours hardly looks conducive to preparing for a race like Lombardia.