Who will be next year’s premier rider? I think an American sponsor interested in American TV viewership has no choice but to show an American face. I’ve read speculation about Vino, and I think he could win with Discovery’s resources behind him next year, but would the American public be interested? Hincapie is already on the team but can he win? What’s the contract status of Levi or Floyd Landis? Let the speculation begin…
Tyler Hamilton gets exonerated and signs with Disco and wins the TDF next year.
Hey, you said speculation!
americans don’t care about cycling, they care about lance. people aren’t watching cycling now, they’re watching lance. cbs shows an hour every sunday of the tdf with about five minutes of actual race footage. the rest of the time they talk about lance.
danielson will have a go in the vuelta, savoldelli for the giro, then popo for the tour next year. rinse, repeat.
vino is not going to discovery, and like lance said yesterday, no americans in the foreseeable future can win the tour. floyd and levi were at the top of their games this year. next year it will be basso/cunego for the giro, basso/ulrich for the tour. disco will finish top five in both.
I agree…it was all about Lance, Lance, Lance…not cycling. OLN’s nightly coverage, with all the babble and constant comercials, then 3-4 minutes of cycling, was boring as hell.
Why would anyone want to take over for Lance - it is a no win situation. If you win the tdf, big deal, you were supposed to, if you come in 2nd, you are seen like Dennis Conner, the First American to lose the Americas Cup.
If team Disco does go outside for another premier rider what will happen, the team will implode. George H. et al will most likely leave to be the man on their own team. No one wants to be passed-over for a promotion to an outsider.
The Discovery Channel is making major investments in the European tv markets and that is why they are sponsoring a team in a European sport. Discovery is paying sponsorship dollars to raise their profile in Europe, not to get us to watch Animal Planet. The sponsorship is aimed at Europeans, not the US and if a European becomes the team leader, it will not be viewed as a bad thing from the team’s standpoint. All they are interested in is keeping at the front of the pack so they can keep as much visiblity in Europe as possible. Anything that happens here in the states is just a bonus.
While I am sure they would like to have Lance ride forever, and keeping the the bonus of increased interest in the US would be a nice gift, I’m sure it is low on their priority list.
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It’s typical of US network coverage to focus on the personalities and not the actual event. If you have ever watched any of NBC’s Olympic coverage, you will know what I mean. It’s hard to know that their are actually competitions going on at the olympic games with all the up-close and personal features, graphs, charts, graphics and pretty pictures. Note to NBC and others - It’s about the competition stupid.
Just about everywhere else in the world producers let the camera’s role and let the athletes, the competition and the drama on the field of competition speak for itself. It seems only in the US that producers see TV viewers as being radically different. I say this from my home in Canada, where even in Canada, we often get to see start-to-finish coverage of things on net-work and cable TV and not all this over-hyped over produced whoo-haaa. I feel sorry for US TV viewers as they rarely if ever get to see what these truely world class sports events, like the Tour de France, The Olympic Games, the World Cup of Soccer and World Championships in many other high profile sports, are really like.
I note that the CBC’s viewership numbers of major world class sports like the Olympic Games, goes sky high driven up mostly by Americans living close to the boarder who get the CBC and are tired of the way that NBC and others cover these events( Hello NBC!!)
Fleck
Thanks for sharing that. 
Say what you will about CBS, at least they didn’t prevent OLN from showing Stage 21 live as was the case previously. What’s more, and I’m sure all will agree with me, the OLN live coverage was phenomenal as usual. Paul and Phil might some day deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Ernie Harwell or (dare I say it) Marv Albert. Their vocabulary, knowledge of the sport, and knowledge of the riders is simply incredible. The fact that they were relegated to the last 30 minutes of prime time coverage was reason enough to get DVR. I sincerely hope they stay on. In fact, it’ll probably be cheaper for OLN to use their commentary in the future (don’t P2 also serve as the voice for some other anglophone networks?) and not have to worry about Roll and Trautwig.
Did any one catch Liggett getting pantsed again on the “relate everything back to lance” test?
Trautwig: Phil, what do you think was the best one ?
Liggett (without hesitation): 1989
Trautwig: No, tour that Lance won.
Classic.
awesome comic. that one got printed.
I note that the CBC’s viewership numbers of major world class sports like the Olympic Games, goes sky high driven up mostly by Americans living close to the boarder who get the CBC and are tired of the way that NBC and others cover these events( Hello NBC!!)
Fleck **I always watch the local CBC affiliate in Windsor from across the border in Michigan for major sporting events like the Olympics and Hockey Night in Canada. Has Don Cherry’s contract be renewed for this year? **
I note that the CBC’s viewership numbers of major world class sports like the Olympic Games, goes sky high driven up mostly by Americans living close to the boarder who get the CBC and are tired of the way that NBC and others cover these events( Hello NBC!!)
Fleck **I always watch the local CBC affiliate in Windsor from across the border in Michigan for major sporting events like the Olympics and Hockey Night in Canada. Has Don Cherry’s contract be renewed for this year? **
Yes, Don Cherry will be back for at least one year.
Another american cyclist will rise in the ranks and fill in the shoes of Lance. This may take a couple of seasons. If this new individual is given some PR skills and has a natural charisma with the media, we could very well see the popularity in cycling grow even more.
Let’s face it - Lance was a great athlete, but there was something lacking in the dynamic personality department that made it sell big time. Perhaps Charles Barkley will take some interest in cycling up Alp D’Huez???
Agreed, CBC is the best… couldn’t stand watching NBC. Goes for both news and sports.