Vaughters' 10-point plan to reinvigorate cycling:

[Dr. Maserati]

In an interview from the BBC JV has come up with some interesting ideas to help reinvigorate Pro Cycling - full BBC article here:

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe.
2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.
3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.
4.** More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.
5. More team-time trials more often.
6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the "craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer".
7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.
8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.
9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.
10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.

I think most members of the cycling community would agree with these initiatives.
There are plenty of opinions on this forum - is there anything else that could be added to this list to make Pro Cycling a better and more marketable sport?

** Obviously we don't need to discuss Point 4. on this thread.

 

[The Hitch]

"If you look at cycling's demographic it should be infinitely more successful than it is," said Garmin's Vaughters.
"It should be on the level of Premier Football. The Tour de France is maybe the world's greatest sporting event."

What does he mean by this?

What is it about cycling that should make it that popular?

 

[roundabout]

Not sure about 5 and 10 at the very least.

And with number 9 for me the fun is trying to spot a rider in the group without the help from GPS

 

[hrotha]

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe.
This is good in that it'll help bring sponsors from somewhat more exotic places to replace the dearth of money in the traditional cycling countries, but it shouldn't come at the expense of consolidated races in Europe. We all want interesting races like Montreal and Quebec, we don't want races with no character usurping the place of, say, Laigueglia, Volta a Catalunya or Emilia.
2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.
What does this even mean? More closed league, Pro Tour kind of stuff? If so, no, I don't think this is the way. The old first division/second division system worked better, in my opinion.
3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.
Disagree. Earn your spot, and let the organizers organize their races. The usual argument that a sponsor won't enter the sport if it's not guaranteed a place at the Tour is countered by itself - once the spots are covered, who's going to start a new team? For the long-term well-being of the sport, start promoting other races aside from the Tour, so that attracting new sponsors doesn't come down to just three weeks in July.
4.** More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.
If prevention means police action, I agree. Otherwise... bah, I won't say more in this subforum.
5. More team-time trials more often.
Of all the possible stage types to spice things up, you go with TTTs? Why not more cobbles more often?
6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the "craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer".
Agree. The UCI has to sell the sport better.
7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.
Equipment innovation is good and necessary, but I don't know what that has to do with letting the smartest team win unless it's some sort of F1 analogy (but JV said he wasn't into F1).
8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.
This goes with #6. Not terribly important by itself, but it's a good idea to look at new ways to make the sport more marketable.
9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.
Same as above.
10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.
Not sure how this would work or how it'd be different from CQ Ranking or the old UCI ranking, except for the part about docking points which sounds kind of silly. But he's probably thinking more of a Pro Tour-like thing.

As a way of boosting the anti-doping fight, Vaughters called for teams to be given long-term entry to the Tour de France in return for a significant donation to combat doping.

What the hell.

 

[Anonymous]

Im more worried about

11) making the teams abide by the rules for wet weather gear and visible race numbering
12) sort out the tv rights fiasco so that fans can watch races.

And that xbox 360 pop up ad thats appeared on the forum is doing my freaking tits in.

 

[luckyboy]

I love cycling, but it's never going to be popular like that (football)


2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.
Not really sure what this even means.

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.
Isn't this kinda happening anyway? What with the ASO being forced to invite them.

5. More team-time trials more often.
lol

7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.
Joking, right? This must be a joke.

10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.
The UCI ranking is pretty ****ed, but that's not going to change. This idea isn't very good.

Don't care too much about the rest of the points. Cameras inside cars etc. would be ok as some special feature after/before the race.

Cycling is absolutely transparent
wtf? JV's totally gone.

 

[The Hitch]

I dont like that it specifically mentions just the Tour. Want a proposal, do it for all GTs. Try to equalise all gts not Mcquacks method of making it look like 3 weeks in July is the only thing cycling is about.

Also lol at more ttts. Clever one there JV. Just so happens to be the disciplne Garmin are best at

 

[Dr. Maserati]

What does he mean by this?

What is it about cycling that should make it that popular?

I actually believe he is 100% correct on this (but yes, I am biased).

Most people can ride a bike and most of those own a bike.
Cycling as an activity is available to most people worldwide.

People are usually introduced to cycling at an early age and it offers young children their first introduction to some freedom and independence.

Add to that the bicycles practical use a form of transport and a fun way to maintain fitness it should be one of the most popular and accepted sports in the world.

 

[ingsve]

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.

This is completely the wrong way to go. If we want to build a good future for the sport we can't just build everything around one event. The reason JV wants this change is because right now TdF is all that matters for a lot of sponsors and teams. This proposal starts at exactly the wrong end of the problem. What instead needs to be done is work very hard to raise the profile of the other top events and make sure that they get just as much coverage as the Tour does. The sport would be much healthier if there were more sponsors that were just as happy for an invite to the Vuelta as the Tour or even better would be if the coverage of races throughout the year was so good that sponsors didn't even care specifically about the big GTs and saw them as just another nine weeks of racing just like every other week.

 

[luckyboy]

People like to cycle for fitness/transport etc. but I can see why they don't want to sit in and watch other people do it for hours.

And GTs should be more equal, yeah.

Can see why the UCI ignored this.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

I dont like that it specifically mentions just the Tour. Want a proposal, do it for all GTs. Try to equalise all gts not Mcquacks method of making it look like 3 weeks in July is the only thing cycling is about.

Also lol at more ttts. Clever one there JV. Just so happens to be the disciplne Garmin are best at

Fair enough - but remember this is coming from JVs viewpoint as someone who runs a team and has to entice sponsors to put up substantial sums and their first question will be "will we get to ride the Tour de France?"

To this end - one thing I like about the Garmin (& Cervelo) sponsorship is that it is a world wide brand.
A victory in California, Belgium or Australia etc is positive publicity in markets that the sponsor does business.

 

[flicker]

I am pretty sure that Vaughters wants to grow the sport of cycling. Although I am not a fan of Vaughters he has the best intentions on the continuence and growth of professional cycling in a big way. As for cameras in helmets, team cars, radios hey it worked for MTV reality shows, Survivor and Rally cars why not cycling.
I know that there are a lot of purists here on the forum but if Vaughters would like to present a palable plate of cycle sport, by all means do so.
I think that was the main presentation of Lance Armstrong, and it was wildly successful here in the states.

 

[Dr. Maserati]

People like to cycle for fitness/transport etc. but I can see why they don't want to sit in and watch other people do it for hours.

Which is why JV came up with some proposals to 'reinvigorate' the sport.

What proposals would you have to draw more people (spectators & viewers) to the sport? (Which in turn leads to more sponsors.)

 

[hrotha]

As for cameras in helmets, team cars, radios hey it worked for MTV reality shows, Survivor and Rally cars why not cycling.

The 1998 Giro (and I think 1999 too) had subjective cameras on the bikes of some riders. It also had a camera buried right in the finish line in circuits. It was kind of cool, but ultimately pretty irrelevant.

 

[diorgen]

Cycling should have a more consistent schedule akin to the FIS World Cup, you still have the "major" races that are like monuments like Wengen and Kitzbuhel, but each week is pretty much equally important and you don't really have racers peaking for one event and ignoring the rest of the season. The overall standings are the most important prize in skiing as well and that makes for a much easier to follow circuit than cycling with sometimes teams competing in 2-3 different races on the same day.

 

[Skip Madness]

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe.

Nice idea, but it needs to be done carefully. See how fed up lots of fans have got at being told how important the Tour of California supposedly is.

2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans.

Agree. The current system of measuring the winner by seeing who finishes the race fastest has proven too complex.

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.

The opposite. If they insist on this ProTour thing (and I can see some merit in it) limit it to fifteen teams at most, award places based on merit and allow teams to opt out of their place.

4. More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.

A bit of a platitude, but fine in principle.

5. More team-time trials more often.

The number of team time trials already is perfectly adequate. Make them shorter, though. Individual time trials, on the other hand, need to be far more numerous and far longer.

6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the "craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer".

Maybe I only speak for myself, but I really doubt most fans, casual or not, care a great deal about this. Still, they wouldn't hurt.

7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.

The smartest team? I'd say the smartest teams would be the ones who - in the absence of team radios - research the races well in advance and plan strategies accordingly before they race rather than having it dictated to them on the fly by someone in a car.

The smartest teams already win quite often. They plan their attacks carefully and use their riders wisely. Equipment innovation is fine in and of itself, but it should be made equally available to all teams where possible.

8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.

Team radios should be removed in my opinion, so no.

9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.

As 6. Of superficial interest at best, to me at least. But as a little gimmick, fine.

10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points.

There is no, and can never be, an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world. There is too much subjectivity in what makes a rider good and which races are important. Again, superficial stuff which I doubt many people care about.

11. Make races routes better to encourage more aggressive riding, giving people a reason to tune in for more than half an hour.
12. Consider reducing the number of riders per team in order to limit the control that any one team can have, again opening the doors to less predictable racing.

 

[The Hitch]

Which is why JV came up with some proposals to 'reinvigorate' the sport.

What proposals would you have to draw more people (spectators & viewers) to the sport? (Which in turn leads to more sponsors.)

I think luckyboys point, was further to our brief discussion, that he can see why you and JV might be wrong on the "cycling should be popular" point.


Sure i would love cycling do be far more popular, but i think there is so much more than the perception of doping blocking it there.

1 As Lucky said many perceive guys riding cycles around the French riviera or through the low countries as something thats quite boring.

2 The bigger problem is that people will watch what they are told to watch (by the media) in Belgium the media says cycling is important, so everyone watches. But in the most of Western Europe people are told that football and guys driving cars is whats important. In the US NFL and NBA.

3 If they do get in to it, they are often told that only 3 weeks in July matter. So just as they get into cycling in the Alpine stages, they are told they have to wait 350 days for the next big race, a time during which most will lose their interest.

 

[hfer07]

1. More races of the highest level outside of Europe. agreed, but how on earth he, Pat & Co. want to achieve that with an already busy calender----unless they want to fill up the leftovers of the Vuelta & the world's with a fourth GT.
2. Consistent, understandable formats for cycling fans. yes
3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.
since when JV supports Pat & Co.? --talking about monopolies in cycling-LOL-is all about the cash cow
4.** More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats. -Go to the Clinic
5. More team-time trials more often.
ok-since I have a strong team & can certainly want that.....
6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the "craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer".
I get crazy and "dizzy" when I read the above.......... do you want to also create a game for Xbox too? I get those fillings just by riding my bike-that's what you should promote instead
7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.
I guess he should team up with Cancellara and his "innovating bearings" tale too
8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.
I honestly care less what the DC is telling the riders---less talk and more riding please
9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.
a nintendo deal might work for that idea.....
10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world. That might mean riders have to ride Paris-Roubaix, and if they do not finish they would be docked points. so if Vandelverde crashes once more and looses 20 minutes or abandons the race-what would be your stand on that idea?

 

[Skip Madness]

13. The "half-peloton pursuit" (© Skip Madness and someone else, I forget who, 2009 [I think]).

Every rider whose position on GC starts with an odd number (so the race leader, 3rd place, 5th place, 7th place etc.) starts in town A. All those whose position is an even number start in town B. They all start at the same time, and the As ride to B then back to A again while the Bs ride to A then back to B (we'll need a dual carriageway or separate roads for some of it, obviously). This would mean that riders from the same team would be in different pelotons, providing a new dynamic and making teamwork less conventional. Stage times and points are given in the usual way.

The only problem with this is a change in wind direction would make it unfair. It needs to be somewhere pretty flat, preferably.

But it would be fun, wouldn't it.

 

[BroDeal]

As a way of boosting the anti-doping fight, Vaughters called for teams to be given long-term entry to the Tour de France in return for a significant donation to combat doping.

What the hell.

He means that the teams should be allowed to bribe their way into the Tour. Jeebus knows what else teams will be able to get by making "anti-doping" donations, but I bet the UCI has some good ideas. The UCI already has experience in such matters. Just ask Lance Armstrong.

 

[luckyboy]

Which is why JV came up with some proposals to 'reinvigorate' the sport.

1 is something that would draw a wider fanbase/sponsors. Where the races are isn't something that would change whether I would sit down and watch the race on TV though.
2 needs a lot clarification.
3 is more in the interests of teams than attracting new fans.
5 is a slightly more interesting version of the most boring part of the sport to watch. Also, they really mess up races. TTT up a mountain would be a stupid, fun one-off I suppose.
6 would be alright to attract people I guess.
7 - cycling should be about who is the strongest rider, not who has the best equipment/most money.
8 would be interesting. Hard to imagine how it would be implemented.
9 would be good to immediately find out who is attacking/who has been dropped etc.
10 CQ Ranking. The Roubaix idea is ridiculous.

What proposals would you have to draw more people (spectators & viewers) to the sport? (Which in turn leads to more sponsors.)

Really struggle to think of anything that would make cycling more exciting so as to draw new fans in. Maybe if it was advertised better/in the news more, people would watch.

Most people know nothing about cycling, apart from Lance Armstrong or Tour de France. I must seem really cynical, but I really cannot think of something that would bring fans in.

SkipMadness's points about having less riders per team + making routes better would make it more exciting for us fans, but I don't see people tuning in because there are more mountaintop finishes in such-and-such a race this year.

 

[Skip Madness]

14. Make "most aggressive rider" a jersey, use it to replace the rubbish "best young rider" classification, which is a classification for riders who are just losing with a caveat. Use the old Giro system of scoring it by number of kilometres spent out in front, but award points inversely according to how many riders are in the break/lead group:

1 lone rider = 10 points per kilometre
2 riders = 9 points each per kilometre
3 riders = 8 points each per kilometre
...
10 riders = 1 point each per kilometre

Awarding a jersey prize would add prestige, and the inverse points reward would mean attacking from the front to make big groups smaller would encourage lots more aggression.

The obstacle is it would be hard to calculate, especially on the move obviously. But surely no harder than the Giro system.

 

[Skip Madness]

SkipMadness's points about having less riders per team + making routes better would make it more exciting for us fans, but I don't see people tuning in because there are more mountaintop finishes in such-and-such a race this year.

See, I'm not sure the issue is so much getting people to flick over to the cycling to give it a chance; it's capturing them when they do flick over. To that end, smaller teams and better routes which encourage more exciting racing may not attract more people to try watching cycling, but it may encourage a lot more of the ones who do to stick around. More than Vaughter's ideas, anyway.

 

[Greenflame]

Which is why JV came up with some proposals to 'reinvigorate' the sport.

What proposals would you have to draw more people (spectators & viewers) to the sport? (Which in turn leads to more sponsors.)

- More, but smaller teams. During races no more than 6-7 riders per team, and a max for 20 riders for each team to have under contract. This would allow for more teams and thus sponsors in the races, while also making races more attractive with less control for strong teams and generally more chaos.
- A fourth GT in October / November, after the Giro di Lombardia. Possibly the Tour of California (but with more daring course than the last few years).
- Generally more races outside of Europe, as Vaughters said, but not at the expense of European races. There are quite a few European races that are pretty redundant though.
- More openness to new races: Strade Bianchi is a great race for example, with huge potential, but it hasn't gotten the attention it deserved yet.
- I agree with the camera's in helmets, feeds to race radio conversations, etc. I fear these things will not attract a lot of new fans though, since it will mainly be existing fans who will make use of these new possibilities.
- Transponders on each rider to allow for a clearer view of the race for commentators and spectators.
- In GT's and in general stage races, more bonus seconds at finishes, mountaintops, and other intermediate points.
- Besides that, more creative use of especially time trials: time trials on a climb, a descent, a cobbled road...
- Higher prize money and lower wages. Don't know if that is realistic, but it could encourage more riders to actually try to win races instead of just riding along. And the promise of a million dollars gets the imagination of viewers otherwise unknown with the sport going more than the promise of a cobblestone or a pluche donkey does.

Few things off the top of my mind. Don't flame me for these, I'm not sure about most of these myself, but might be interesting to discuss what the effects of changes like these would be.

 

[pedaling squares]

3. Long-term guaranteed entry to the Tour de France for professional teams.
hrotha summed up my perspective on this nicely. Potentially harmful to development of the sport.

4.More focus on prevention of doping, in the first place, as opposed to catching cheats.
Perhaps adequate punishment would be preventative.

5. More team-time trials more often.
Sure, I'd LOVE the TTT if I were DS of one of the strongest TTT teams. Was he taking the piss?

6. Technical innovation, such as cameras on bikes, inside cars, helmets, inside team buses to make the "craziness and danger of the peloton more real to the viewer".
Potentially a good idea, I'd like to see this get looked at, but only if it went beyond 'gimmick' and opened up a new view for old fans. You would have to have the riders involved in the process from soup to nuts.

7. Equipment innovation to see if the the smartest team wins sometimes, rather than the strongest.
Hey, it sounds like JV supports getting rid of race radios!

8. Open radios to the public and listen to your favourite team and what they are doing.
Because I want to hear the brilliance of Barney Riis, Matt White, and The Hog for 200 kms? This had better come with a 'mute' option.

9. GPS tracking of individual riders to make races fun to watch.
Sure why not. For computer feeds only so I can select/deselect who I choose.

10. Have an understandable and consistent way of determining the best rider in the world and the best team in the world
JV, just read the CN Forum! No bias here!