Why is Contador never the story?

[Big GMaC]

What I mean is that he was the last of the riders that were developed under the iron curtain system

Does the name Alexandre Vinokourov ring any bells?

He is actually two months older than Jan

 

[nia O'Malley]

One would think that Versus would spring for a Spanish language translater. Shoot, they could grab one of the many fans standing around that speak both languages. They just don't think of it as a priority. I don't recall one interview with Astana's Martinelli or with any of the Astana bosses/ds'. They IMO underestimate their audience. It's insulting.
Hire some multi-lingual folks and open up their options.

It's also insulting to the sport and the host country. But anyway.

Disagree. I thinks it's more of the case that british and american commentators tend to concentrate on british and american riders. I've watched the TdF in several different languages and each one tends to favor their own home country's riders. There's no harm in it. heck, the Canadians on Evasion talk about Ryder all the time and they're speaking French!! (well, it's kind of French)

Disagree
The point is they are on about Schleck all day, read the OP properly Last I looked Schleck is not british or american

 

[ManInFull]

Because he doesn't speak english. There is absolutely nothing else to it.


In my now decade long experience, english speaking commentators (particularly british and american), place non-english speaking nations/champions slightly above great apes.



He speaks no french either, and that's not a good thing for a 3 time tour winner, in passing/

You hit the nail on the head. I rarely find American cycling fans who like riders who aren't fluent in English.

 

[SlantParallelogram]

Does the name Alexandre Vinokourov ring any bells?

He is actually two months older than Jan

Yeah well him and Jan, and that generation of riders. I only bring up Jan Ullrich because he was the most high profile of those guys.

 

[saganftw]

Disagree
The point is they are on about Schleck all day, read the OP properly Last I looked Schleck is not british or american

but schleck is one that lost seconds too bloody spanish guy who exploit his mechanical/bad shifting...after that he said he ll be back with revenge

how can you not like a guy like that,contador has nothing

 

[this_is_edie]

To the OP. Its because the versus scenario was written prior to the race that Contador was the bad guy and Armstrong the good guy. When Armstrong faltered and was not in contention for GC, they focused on Schleck, a "nice" boy from Luxembourg fluent in English as the good guy.

 

[SlantParallelogram]

Indurain no more than Contador are at all "dull" if you understand/speak spanish. Very nice, very smiling, very pleasant happy characters.

I actually speak Spanish, and I still think they are dull.

 

[La Pandera]

Disagree. I thinks it's more of the case that british and american commentators tend to concentrate on british and american riders. I've watched the TdF in several different languages and each one tends to favor their own home country's riders. There's no harm in it. heck, the Canadians on Evasion talk about Ryder all the time and they're speaking French!! (well, it's kind of French)

That doesn't explain their obvious focus and favoring of Andy Schleck. He's neither British or American. As stated by the OP, you have the Tour champion Contador and a major percentage of their oratory is raving over the rider that finished 2nd and one who is past his prime. I can't recall ever hearing any mention of the impressive grand tour record of the 3rd place finisher, Denis Menchov.

Also mentioned earlier is the fact that by not building their viewer's knowledge of the riders that will be continuing to participate in cycling events that they will be telecasting in the future they are limiting those that will have a reason to come back and view their channel next year. A very narrow focus is going to minimize their audience once their meal ticket is no longer there.

 

[Elagabalus]

Disagree
The point is they are on about Schleck all day, read the OP properly Last I looked Schleck is not british or american

I did read it. I was replying to your "english speaking commentators (particularly british and american), place non-english speaking nations/champions slightly above great apes." quip. Hey, you wrote it!

 

[schnebit]

Because, quite frankly, he's boring....

 

[sienna]

Phil and Paul seem to have a real problem with Carlos whilst being totally head over heels with Andy and Frank. This is out of character for the dynamic duo – they always seemed fairly even-handed in the past.
And things get real messy in in the commentary box when "Cav" wins a sprint.

 

[klodifan]

The fact that his English speaking skills are limited have a lot to do with it. American producers, journalists, executives believe Americans are only capable of rooting for Anglo Saxon English speaking competitors. This is reflected in the highlight reels and overall standings coverage. I do not accept Americans' inability to root for someone like Contador. However, the coverage is a cycle that turns into self-fulfilling prophesy.

Why is Contador never the story?

He goes up to get his trophy for the race and Paul and Phil spend more time talking about Schleck, how amazing he did, how he is the future, how poor old Alberto is washed up, how scared he was of the giant Schleck, and on and on. Then, OF COURSE, we had to have a side bar about the beautiful fragrance emanating from Lance’s shorts, it having been a good 20 or 30 seconds since his name had been mentioned.

What is the deal?

I heard endlessly about the sterling character and inevitable triumph of Schleck, even though it seems to me that for just about a week now every day AS has promised to whoop everyone’s *** and he never did it. And now that even Phil and Paul have admitted that Chaingate was due to shifting and not some act-of-God mechanical, I have not heard AS apologize for his comments. Frankly, AS seems more like some rich spoiled frat boy.

Nonetheless, AS is a good story to tell: 3 years best young rider, doing the tour without the support of his brother, 2nd two years in a row. Of course he deserves significant attention.

But what about Contador? We hear his team is no good, but they do well. We hear he can’t handle the cobbles, he does just fine. We hear he is out of shape, he equals everything Schleck has to toss his way. Isn’t that a great story of triumph? And doesn’t he have a personal story to tell? We hear (justifiably) about Lance overcoming cancer, well, Alberto has his own story about physical breakdown too doesn’t he? And as for character: he was in an impossible position last year when The World’s Greatest Team Manager didn’t know how to deal with the terrifying problem of having two really good riders and he never whined about it. He conducts himself with dignity.

So why is he never the story – even when he wins?

 

[scribe]

One would think that Versus would spring for a Spanish language translater. Shoot, they could grab one of the many fans standing around that speak both languages. They just don't think of it as a priority. I don't recall one interview with Astana's Martinelli or with any of the Astana bosses/ds'. They IMO underestimate their audience. It's insulting.
Hire some multi-lingual folks and open up their options.

Craig Hummer covers all of Versus' bull fighting programs. Bull sports are big in Spain. I think Versus has done their due diligence.

 

[snosnob]

Unfortunately, I absolutely agree with this assessment. The same thing happens in tennis. Nasal is humble and deferential almost to a fault. Federer is smug, arrogant and recently quite unsporting when he loses, yet he is the "One".

 

[schnebit]

The fact that his English speaking skills are limited have a lot to do with it. American producers, journalists, executives believe Americans are only capable of rooting for Anglo Saxon English speaking competitors. This is reflected in the highlight reels and overall standings coverage. I do not accept Americans' inability to root for someone like Contador. However, the coverage is a cycle that turns into self-fulfilling prophesy.

That's rediculous. I remember Indurain's English being pretty poor and he was beloved.

 

[Oldman]

That's just USA TV coverage. The Versus crew made money off Armstrong's success and are terrified of losing the US audience in a post Armstrong era. Since AC put a wet blanket over Armstrong's comeback, which for these guys is the same as threatening their collective paychecks, he will forever be the bad guy.

And his English is a strain. At the end of coverage Craig Hummer actually referred to the battles between Contador and Schleck "for years to come". Apparently the other jealous commentators didn't let him closer to LA's "zone of interview" so Craig had nothing else to talk about.

 

[S2Sturges]

Because he doesn't speak english. There is absolutely nothing else to it.


In my now decade long experience, english speaking commentators (particularly british and american), place non-english speaking nations/champions slightly above great apes.



He speaks no french either, and that's not a good thing for a 3 time tour winner, in passing/

And Miguel Indurain.. he spoke no english, I don't seem to remember if he spoke french either..... I heard he was a pretty reasonable rider

 

[sienna]

The media and all the sport's other assorted hangers on can do and say what they like. At the end of the day Contador finished up in yellow.
He is a worthy winner – get over it.

 

[Villaba]

Regarding the language, it's very simple, Contador is a profesional cyclist, he doesn't need to speak anything else than his native language, it's up to the journalist, if they call themselves good profesionals, to be able to communicate with the stars of the sport they have to follow, and after all, spanish is a very popular language in the world, it shouldn't be that difficult to find a translator or a journalist that is able to understand it. Many native english persons take for granted that everybody else in the world must speak english in a proper way, otherwise, they think you are stupid if you don't, when many of them are the ones unable to learn a second language, or at least, try to make the effort to learn it.

 

[saphblue]

Also mentioned earlier is the fact that by not building their viewer's knowledge of the riders that will be continuing to participate in cycling events that they will be telecasting in the future they are limiting those that will have a reason to come back and view their channel next year. A very narrow focus is going to minimize their audience once their meal ticket is no longer there.

I used to be frustrated about this and wonder why they didn't try to expand the viewers' horizons. I couldn't understand why they didn't have interviews and profiles that focused on Lance's competitors or interesting riders from other countries. Now I think it was always going to be a losing proposition. I suspect that the producers realized long ago that a large chunk of the U.S. audience are people who tune in for the Lance show and don't care much about the sport, the TdF or other riders. They were never going to turn these folks into cycling fans. I think they are just giving the "temporary" audience what they want. Given that there are more options for coverage these days, I'm not so concerned any more about whether Vs has the tour next year or not.

 

[Oldman]

The media and all the sport's other assorted hangers on can do and say what they like. At the end of the day Contador finished up in yellow.
He is a worthy winner – get over it.

And the beauty part is he'll be back next year. Most of those commentators may be looking for another job.

 

[forty four]

I think this is true for the US market. I would think in other countries, he gets a bit better press.

He rode a safe Tour this year, and says he may go for the Giro/Vuelta double next year. I for one think he will ride the Tour again because of this year. We can only hope that they allow Ricco in next year (I know he is a douche) also. Ricco should be able to make it a 3 way race with no time to play track stand or "huggy huggy let me give you the win." I also think Schlecklet will spend a significant amount of time in the wind tunnel and on the TT bike over the next year.

very likely

 

[Ryaguas]

Why Contador is not the story?

Well because everything that some ppl has said here, He doesn't speak english (well he does but very fluent and he doesn't want that the newspapers misunderstand his words specially after what happened the last year), He is not american, he doesn't want to be the focus of attention, etc, etc...

Contador is very humble, he just want to ride his bike and try to win everything... some of you say that he is "dull"... so I say: WTH? what is this about? He entertaint us riding his bike so awesome and he still has to do something else to be popular for you? Bah...

Maybe in the US he is not the star but in Spain he is a celebrity, but again, He doesn't want to be a celebrity he just want to ride his bike and give everything in the races...

 

[SlantParallelogram]

Nobody wants to hear an interview with guys who are always winning and always smiling. That is why the interviews with Contador and Indurain have always been so dull. I am sure they are nice guys, but they don't give interesting interviews. Lance Armstrong interviews were almost as boring for the same reason. The constant controversy about doping has always added a little bit more excitement to the otherwise dull Armstrong interviews.

Besides, I don't like the guys that win all the time. I prefer the tragic heroes, like Floyd Landis, Jan Ullrich, Laurent Fignon, the late Marco Pantani, and others of their ilk. The guys who actually have emotions, and not all of them are positive. The riders who show they are human by not winning all the time.

 

[Villaba]

Anyway, in Spain, where he really cares, he is the man right now. The two main sport sites from the country.

http://www.as.com/
http://www.marca.com/