Did the crowd return home to watch bass fishing?

What piqued my attention was the fact that the argument was based on cycling’s ratings on the Versus network. Felicio stated that, “bass fishing ranked twice as higher (sic) than live tour of cali (sic) coverage.” Let me repeat that statement, two guys in a boat pulling in fish as country music twangs in the background drops cycling programing like Contador on a category 1 climb. I just have to say, what the fuck is that about?

Before you start blaming Lance Armstrong and how his non-participation creates a ratings black hole, Felicio also states that cycling’s numbers, with or without Armstrong, are low for non Tour de France events. So again I ask, why?

Quite simply back in the day we were all fresh-eyed and looking for an American cycling hero. Lance Armstrong appeared. He crushed the French in their own national tour and we loved it. But not only from a sporting standpoint, but his message of increasing cancer awareness and promoting his Livestrong Foundation was inspirational to people. And Versus jumped onto the coat tails of the Armstrong story and rode it for all it was worth. This was back when Versus was called OLN, Outdoor Life Network, or as it became quickly known by cycling fans as, “Only Lance Network.” The seven-time Tour winner was in high rotation in all their coverage to a point that Armstrong was mentioned in races that he wasn’t even participating in. So now that he has retired again the amount of viewers are in the basement. This isn’t Armstrong’s fault, the fault falls onto Versus. So how do they fix this?

First Versus needs to retool their broadcast team. Both Paul Sherwen and Phil Liggett are too personally attached to Armstrong and can’t seem to come to grips with the reality that is crashing around them or at least be slightly objective to the current situation. I realize they are two of cycling’s iconic broadcasters, but they need to be reined in regarding their talking points. They have put Lance Armstrong on a pedestal and we all know what happens next.

The Lance effect

In rebuttal to this Felicio replied on Twitter that wasn’t the case and we need to look harder. To quote Hunt from his Twitter stream, “If a media company responds to criticism by saying ‘Watch more closely’ it means they are not doing a very good job.” Armstrong was the low hanging fruit and rather than stretching for something a little higher, Versus decided to just keep yanking until it was all gone.

Versus approached cycling like every viewer just stumbled upon professional cycling for the first time. Challenge the viewer and make them curious about the sport, don’t spoon feed everything as it creates boredom and malaise, even with the broadcasters. I can’t imagine that P&P wouldn’t like to break out a bit themselves and give an honest opinion. But maybe they are too far gone for that. Versus needs to cultivate viewers and stop the pandering.

Professional cycling is in a transitional period. Doping scandals are the only time the mainstream media takes an interest and to the non-cycling fan, cycling is taking on the legitimacy of WWE wrestling. In the news Contador’s clenbuterol case won’t go to CAS until August. Will the Spaniard have won another Grand Tour by that time, further shaming the UCI?

But I know this can be righted – it’s just going to take some effort and time. The Versus network, if they want to begin to cover cycling in a manner that will grow the sport, needs to be honest about the current cycling climate. I realize that the sponsored tech pieces sprinkled into the programs help pay the bills (If I have to hear one more time how expensive a bike is I’ll snap. Yes, the bikes, equipment, wheels, etc cost thousands of dollars. We know!), but some real journalism that would create an audience that is key to long term growth.

If the ratings are as bad as Felicio claims, what does he have to lose by taking these suggestions to heart? Now is the perfect time to make a constructive change.

Duh…#winning is Fabian Cancellara. The Swiss rider jumped ship from Bjarne Riis’ Saxo Bank to the newly formed Leopard-Trek and has already shown his worth. While he hasn’t scored a win in the Monuments this year, he has been Mr. Consistent and livened up pre-race press conferences by talking smack. Without Spartacus the Leo-Trekers one-day season would have looked dismal. Actually, if you remove Cancellara from the team, Leopard-Trek really doesn’t have a lot to show. You can look to Cancellara to win a stage during the Tour and the time trial world championships to make up for not winning in Flanders and Roubaix. Yeah, I said that.

The afore mentioned Gilbert has also proven to be the guy for the beginning of the season. The Belgian riding for the OmegaPharma-Lotto was third in Milan-San Remo addition to being first in Amstel. In the post-race press conference Gilbert said, “Yes, I can get a result in Flanders, but also Milan-San Remo, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Lombardy.” Sounds like he’s pointing deep to center field. After Sunday’s performance Gilbert is the strong favorite to win at L-B-L.
While these might be the guys who have shown their early season form, teams play a role in the victories. Garmin-Cervelo scored a huge win at Paris-Roubaix with Johan Van Summeren. This beanpole of a rider made his move at just the right moment. Chapeau Van Summeren! Saxo Bank looked to be in a huge crisis before their season even started. Their “A-List” rider Alberto Contador was facing a two year ban for Clenbuterol. Luckily for Contador he’s Spanish, so his country’s cycling federation let him off – for now. Team manager Bjarne Riis is betting Contador will pay off in the Tour de France, the most prestigious Grand Tour on the calendar. But lo and behold the team scores a win in, arguably, the most prestigious one-day race of the year, the Tour of Flanders, with Nick Nuyens. Whaaaaa?? Once again I didn’t see that coming. My hard earned columnist money was on Cancellara. The video from the Saxo Bank car in the last 200 meters of the race was priceless. Riis, his assistant and mechanic look like they might stroke out and pee themselves at the same time when Nuyens won. In their defense I don’t blame them.

Ironically while Fabian Cancellara was one of the big winners his team Leopard-Trek isn’t. Cancellara was often isolated when the heat came down and it’s just due to his amazing strength and his magical ball bearing that he was able to pull out any sort of results. The Luxembourg squad gets a thumbs down for overall team performance.

Another team that’s been invisible in the Monuments is RadioShack. With Lance Armstrong retiring again (?) not much has been written about their performances on the road. After the Australian Pegasus group collapsed Robbie McEwen was left swinging in the breeze and was picked up by The Shack for what must have been a deal. If not Bruyneel needs to re-read his “We Might As Well Win” book. Back in the pre-Cavendish days McEwen was The Man. Now, not so much. While there hasn’t been much to write about them during the classics season, the team made headlines with Bruyneel being suspended by the UCI for sending disrespectful tweets aimed at officials. Jeez, just writing that takes me back to middle school with notes being passed in homeroom creating stupid drama. It’s not like he went all Kobe Bryant on them. Of course my favorite Shack drama is a possible break away cycling league that the Belgian is rumored to be starting. And as I write this Johan and 15 other team managers walked out of a UCI meeting held in the Monte Carlo room at the Brussels Sheraton which leads me to my next big loser so far.

Pat McQuiad cannot get a break this season. Bike racers and managers hate him. The bike industry thinks his ideas will ruin the sport that he’s the president of. Good Lord Pat – you should suspend yourself from making any kind of decisions. Go on holiday and reboot yourself because right now you are Nero playing the fiddle as Rome burned. The race radio debate has gone from discussion to threats to now open warfare between yourself and team mangers. CyclingNews.com reported that the Irishman sent a fiery email to Jonathan Vaughters stating, “”I have had enough of this High Moral Ground from you and I am refraining myself from writing exactly what I am thinking.” Wow…and they say Floyd Landis sends some crazy emails! On the plus side McQuaid always assures pundits something to write about. He’s the Sarah Palin of cycling – guaranteed to say or do something that is so ridiculous you couldn’t have made it up.

Only a few months into the season we’ve had great victories and brewing controversies. I can’t wait for the Giro de Italia! The Italian police are kicking over rocks and are catching the cockroaches as they are scurrying about. Lance Armstrong and ex-doctor Michele Ferrari are BFFs again? Oh the drama. To be continued…

Now before you blast off an e-mail to Versus abut how I hate women’s racing and I should be given a thousand lashes due to my insensitivity, let me explain the situation. According to an article on VeloNews.com, AEG (the owner of the Amgen Tour of California) has proposed a prize payout based on how many men the women beat in the Solvang race of truth. To me this type of man versus women contest doesn’t give legitimacy to professional women’s cycling.

To further worsen the deal, on the same day the UCI has organized the Chrono Gatineau women’s time trial in Quebec, Canada. And according to VeloNews.com the professional women are choosing Solvang over Quebec. Why when it seems that Solvang is nothing more than a side show event?

As you may realize the Amgen Tour of California is this country’s biggest stage race and attracts thousands of people a day to a stage. The Solvang time trial is popular due to the fact it’s held in the picturesque Danish-themed town. From a spectators point of view it’s a great stage! Compare that to the possible spectator turnout for a time trial in Quebec (also a lovely town – don’t get me wrong). Add to the equation the cash payout that could be possible for beating several beat-down domestiques from Quick Step’s “B” squad who just want to make the time cut – yeah, Solvang wins every time.

Olympic time trial gold medalist Kristin Armstrong is quoted on PodiumCafe.com saying, “I love the system! As a time trialist it fires me up to see how many men I can ‘girl.’” No doubt about it, Armstrong will ‘girl’ several guys on the 15 mile course, but is that an equal barometer of strength?

Like I mentioned, the men will have raced five stages prior to Solvang’s time trial. For a good portion of them, this stage is just to be ridden through with no intention of wasting energy because the following day is Amgen Tour of California’s first true mountain top stage. As a former resident of that area, I know that climb all too well and it will be brutal. So to me it doesn’t seem like that glorious of a battle of the sexes event.

While Armstrong has stepped up and said she’d participate in the Solvang time trial, women in the media haven’t been so keen on this event. Lyne Lamoureux of Podium Insight is one of the most recognized domestic women cycling journalists around and has said she won’t cover the event. Jen See of Podium Cafe has also expressed her disapproval of the Solvang time trial format.

This event reminds me of an episode of a television show I watched called Undercover Boss. The CEO of Hooters went undercover to see how his restaurants were being operated. In one scene the manager of a Hooters had the women servers play his “reindeer games” in order to leave early. Even the CEO of Hooters thought that game was degrading. Is AEG making the women play reindeer games too?

I think that a women’s event is a great idea to run during the men’s time trial. However the execution is all wrong. AEG should award the prize payout on how the women perform against other women. I e-mailed Andrew Messick, president of AEG, this morning regarding the proposed women’s time trial, the payout plan along with a couple of other questions. His reply in full, “We expect to make an announcement at the end of the week.”

Personally I’m hoping to see more women’s racing but conducted in a way that is respectful of them as competitors and not held as a side show to another event

The latest edition of the Tour of Flanders was a resounding hit. The last 100 kilometers were exciting with attacks, counter-attacks, and the occasional crash. The proponents of banning race radios couldn’t point to this year’s Ronde and say that the action was predictable. And in an interesting twist the UCI allowed video cameras to be installed into the team cars to truly see behind the scenes of what goes on behind the steering wheel.

At times it was rather ordinary – telling riders to move up or even simply to just “go.” One interesting conversation captured on film was when Wilfred Peters, the team QuickStep director told the Leopard-Trek director that their rider Cancellara was “too strong.” This was obviously in response to a request from Leopard-Trek for their QuickStep rider Sylvain Chavanel to take a pull. Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. It was poker being played out at 30 miles per hour and Peters wasn’t blinking. However the most interesting, and the one statement that set off fireworks in Twitter and in forums immediately, was the order from Garmin-Cervelo’s Jonathan Vaughters.

With 25 kilometers remaining Cancellara and Chavanel were still up the road. Behind the pack was mostly disorganized except for BMC who had put seven of their riders to the front. The next hill on the agenda was the Tenbose, the 16th out of the 18 climbs of the day. It’s only 455 meters long with an average gradient of 6.4%.BMC was obviously not satisfied with the situation and wanted to catch the duo, possibly for Ballan or Hincapie, who was riding his 16th Ronde. The video feed switched from the racers to the Garmin-Cervelo team car driven by Vaughters. With a mic in one hand he gave an order to their top sprinter Tyler Farrar. “Don’t work, survive for the sprint.” That set off a storm of reactions from the cheap seats. There was still racing to be done and Vaughters was already waving off his guys? However lets look a little deeper.

We have been forever told to never quit. The phrase “you’re a quitter” is considered fighting words. There are summer movies made every year that portrays the hero fighting against overwhelming odds and sure death to actually snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. How many times have we heard the expression quitting is not an option? History is filled with inspiring stories of people who didn’t quit. Did Thomas Edison stop after his first light bulb failed to illuminate the room? No! Did the Wright brothers stop trying to fly after their first crash? No! Did Coco Chanel stop making perfume after Number 1 through 4 smelt like the Seine on a muggy day? No! But here was Vaughters basically telling his riders to quit and lets try for, at best, third. Life and certain situations don’t always go the way you want and plan “B” is your only option.

At this point in the race it’s fourth quarter at the Ronde and someone needed to throw a Hail Mary. Unfortunately Vaughters didn’t have enough players on the field. Heinrich Haussler, who has been a dark horse favorite this year spent most of 2010 not racing due to a knee injury. At this point in the season he simply hadn’t built up the miles in the legs to be seen as a credible threat. Of course you have the duo of the reining world champion Thor Hushovd and Tyler Farrar. The Norwegian was on the long list of potential winners, as was Farrar. However Hushovd was dropped on the Bossberg and Farrar was their only other rider still in the main group with any legs left. Was Farrar, a sprinter, supposed to go to the front with BMC and swap pulls in the wind to help close a gap? No – that just doesn’t make sense.

Due to modern technology viewers from around the world were able to sound off immediately about what was considered Vaughters’ poor tactical decision. The anti-Vaughters reaction got so bad that during the race he was compelled to Twitter, “Whoa there, everyone…. We had 2 riders in that group. Farrar and Thor. I’m not having either work.”

In reality Vaughters conversation was going on in several team cars throughout the peloton, just not seen by the viewing public. It was only BMC who was willing to burn matches like a pyromaniac in order to bring back the break. The rest of the field was either too decimated or fatigued to respond.

What could have Garmin-Cervelo done differently? The Argyle army could have been more active in the early moves and alert for the obvious Panzer attack by Leopard-Trek. But now I’m literally playing Monday morning quarterback and I’m sure JV is mulling over those options as well. Regardless, next Sunday is the Queen of Classics – Paris-Roubaix. While the Tour of Flanders and Roubaix have the same cobblestone characteristics, the French race is flatter and in Vaughters’ words better suited to Hushovd. So hurray for in-car cameras and I hope we continue to see them in action. I’m sure they’ll continue to provide writing fodder and at times show that battles are lost in pursuit of the victory in this season’s war.

Another week of the Vuelta is in the can and there was drama. Race leader Igor Anton of the Bleeding Carrots, err…I mean Euskaltel-Euskadi and his teammate Eroi Martinez either touched wheels or hit a pothole and came down in a heap. Anton suffered from multiple abrasions and later that night had surgery for a broken elbow. And that was the end of his spell in the red leader’s jersey.

Anton was destined to lose the lead anyways but it really hurts to lose it due to a crash. But hey, that’s racing. So Liquigas-Domo’s Vincenzo Nibali has now retained the jersey. With a week of racing remaining it looks like we have ourselves a race!

While the podium finishers look to be sorted out, I like how Nicolas Roche and Tommy Danielson have been creeping up the GC with kudzu-like determination. As I write this post, Roche, the son of 1987 Triple Crown Winner (Tour de France, Giro d’ Italia, World Championships victories all in the same year) Stephen Roche is sitting in sixth and Danielson in eighth. Let’s not forget the new American wunderkind Tejay Van Garderen (Columbia-HTC). He’s sitting in 11th place on general classification in his first Grand Tour. With a tough week in front of him, there’s still opportunity for the young American to move up.

The Spanish Tour wasn’t the only race going on. In an effort to globalize ProTour racing, the UCI organized two days of racing for our neighbors to the North. For my Canadian readers – I’m talking about you.

Read the full post at Versus.com

We’ve had some exciting stage race news of late, the Tour of Colorado…err… The Quiznos Pro Challenge was announced. The Colorado stage race is light on details but with Lance Armstrong being the Colorado governor’s BFF I’m sure the first year will go off without too much drama. The 2012 edition may have some issues when Armstrong is knee deep in subpenas and unable to throw political clout behind it. Lost in the shuffle is a stage race that truly deserves attention – The Tour of Utah.

With a prologue around the state capital in Salt Lake City followed by five tough stages, the Tour of Utah is arguably the toughest stage race in the U.S. Unfortunately the dates that the Tour of Utah occupies on the calendar for 2011 could potentially butt right up against the new Quiznos Pro Challenge. So is the true challenge going to be that the Colorado race doesn’t push the Utah stage race into a poor spot on the calendar?

Read the full post at Versus.com.

This past Sunday the third annual Brentwood Grand Prix took place in sunny Southern California. The field contained two national champions from two different cycling specialties – reigning time trial champion David Zabriskie and former criterium national champion Rahsaan Bahati. Two riders with two completely different cycling skill sets. Zabriskie’s skills against the clock are ranked among the best. Bahati is one of the best domestic sprinters and a hands on favorite for Saturday’s US Pro Criterium Championships in Glencoe, Illinois. These two different riders also share a different opinion on the ongoing subpoenas and the effects they will have on professional cycling.

The previous Wednesday before the Brentwood Grand Prix, three-time Tour de France champion Greg LeMond spoke to a grand jury that had been convened in Los Angeles. As expected there were no big announcements of what occurred because testimony given before a grand jury is a secret. But this didn’t stop two L.A. Times reporters from driving across town to Brentwood to ask Bahati and Zabriskie their thoughts on the ongoing doping scandal.

Read the full post at Versus.com.

It’s the age-old issue – equal pay for equal work. For bike racing this is a touchy subject as men and women’s prize lists are rarely equal. Not only is the pay rarely equal but the race distances are also significantly shorter. Local race promoters are stuck between a rock and a hard place: The women’s fields in comparison to the men’s fields are smaller so it’s hard for race promoters to pay out 10 deep when there may be not that many more ladies in the race. Of course, at women’s NRC races the fields are bigger but again the distances and pay are not equal.

The upcoming Atlanta 100K race dramatically showcases both of these inequalities. The women’s event, which is NRC categorized, is a 10-kilometer race with a $2,000 pay-out. The men’s non-NRC race is 100 kilometers and pays $10,000. The Atlanta 100K race offers a dramatically shorter race for the women. Is this unfair for women or just the harsh reality of participating in a sport that is on the fringes here in the States?

Read the full post at Versus.com.

The New York Times today posted on their website more doping news – but it really wasn’t news. According to the New York Times a rider has corroborated Floyd Landis’ claims of doping during the Postal Team years. The rider wished to remain anonymous because, “investigators advised him not to speak publicly about the information he provided. He has not been called before the grand jury that has been convened in Los Angeles to investigate the case.”

The rest of the article doesn’t really disclose any bombshells – just rehashing what we already know: riders are being subpenaed with some being offered “sweetheart” deals to spill their guts about what they may or may not know.

Read the full post at Versus.com.

Last week the news “leaked” about a stage race that had been brewing for a while: the Tour of Colorado. Lance Armstrong had some conversations with the Governor of the Centennial state, Bill Ritter, last year with the idea that the state would host a UCI-level stage race.

“Lance and the governor have had several conversations about their shared desire to bring a staged competitive race back to Colorado,” said Ritter’s spokesman to The Colorado Independent.

When the Tour of Missouri was finally put out of its misery (its “will it be back, won’t it be back” status with the pleas from social media such as Facebook and Twitter only delaying the obvious), a slot on the cycling calendar opened up. Miraculously filling that vacant month in August 2011 will be the “Title Sponsor Name to be Announced Later” Tour of Colorado.

Read the full post at Versus.com.