How many of you morons have even watched a bicycle race?

LeadvilleNative wrote:

Here in Colorado, they have the "Colorado Pro Challenge" or some such. It's a poor boy's Tour De France. It's passed by me twice. A hundred bicyclists zooming by at 25 mph, followed by a hundred vans with spare tires, etc. Not much to see. They say it brings hundreds of millions to Colorado. I sure don't get it. My prediction-bankruptcy and scandal within 5 years.

Criterium races, that is, road races on a small circuit (typically a mile or so), are a lot more interesting to watch as you get to see the race develop lap by lap and it's easy to move around to different vantage points. Also, given the pack dynamics of a course with a lot of turns, criteriums are tactically more complex than point to point road races.

I've watched parts of the TDF. Bike races are really boring to me. Car races are equally boring.

redux wrote:

Bike races are really boring to me.

Other than being a different sport I don't see how bike races are any different than a foot race. You ever watched a sprint on a velodrome? I would say just as exciting or more than a 100m sprint. A criterium is comparable to a middle distance race in tactic and drama lap to lap and a long road race is virtually the same as a marathon. A pack of people not seeming to slow down or speed up any substantial amount but at the end only a few have anything left for a final kick.

Mountain stages or group sprints are much more dramatic than some running events I've seen. I used to not get it and even now have a hard time watching the peleton cruise for a few hours but overall there is so much more that happens than in a foot race.

No Way wrote:

Actually, not only does the Super Bowl win, if you added up each day of the Tour (counting the same 4 million people 21 times), the Super Bowl would still win.

What's the super bowl? No I'm not joking, I really don't know.

That 9 seconds guy...

Worldwide viewing figures of Superbowl vs Champions League Final please.

You're comparing apples to oranges. You can't count each day of the Tour and compare it to the Super Bowl because it's many of the same people watching each day of the Tour.If you wanted a more direct comparison, you would have to include the NFL playoffs to compare to the whole Tour.

What's going on here then! I'm a massive cycling fan but I'm not deluded enough to suggest that the Tour is the most watched annual event.

And why would you add up the total viewers for every day of the tour and compare it to a single game?

Here's some stats anyway:

http://www.initiative.com/sites/default/files/ViewerTrack_2010.pdf

No Way wrote:

You're comparing apples to oranges. You can't count each day of the Tour and compare it to the Super Bowl because it's many of the same people watching each day of the Tour.

Did you even read my post? I mentioned the fact that you can compare the two because the Tour lasts 21 days. The football game lasts 1 day. I don't think audience viewers should be counted double but I do think that repeated viewership should count for something. The football playoffs are similar but not quite the same in that if a team loses a playoff game they cannot win the SB while winners of the Tour only win a couple of stages at best. If a football game consistent of 21 quarters each lasting 4 hours and spread out over three weeks it would not have near the viewship of the Tour and that counts for something.

*consisted

(Probably other errors too)

I was at a mountain stage in the Pyrenees of the TdF a couple of years ago. We were standing 3 km from the summit. It was a stage where all the overall leaders were just riding together to the finish without attacking each other. Would have been an incredibly boring stage to watch on TV, but being there on the mountain was fantastic. It was a giant party. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world, lots of music, dancing, drinking, impromptu soccer games (on steep inclines with hairpin turns), and a fair amount of nudity including some ridiculously hot Spanish chicks who were running around in *only* bikini bottoms and hiking boots. When the caravan came through it was mayhem, as stupid as it is for grown-ups to scramble for the lame sh\it they throw from those vehicles. When the riders finally came through the crowd noise was deafening and you thought you were in a stadium. And because there were as many people on the switchbacks below, the roar was like a rolling thunder coming up the mountain. Really cool experience. We drove up from Barcelona to see only a few minutes of bike racing and weren't really sure it would be worth it, but the whole day turned out to be amazing and in the end the bike race was secondary.

I see your point. But I'm not interested in bike racing. Hence, no amount of drama or explanation is going to get me to enjoy watching bike races.

Still would like to know... wrote:

That 9 seconds guy...

Worldwide viewing figures of Superbowl vs Champions League Final please.

Superbowl 2009 - 162 million

Champion League Final 2009 - 206 million

The European Champions League Final is the most watched sports event in the world.

The 2011 Cricket World Cup semi-final between India and Pakistan was the first sports event to get a TV audience of over 1 billion.

I did read it, and no, you can't compare the two.

Actually, you make a decent point. Let's compare to the NFL regular season, because if a team loses that game, they're still going to play the next week right?

The average NFL game had 16 million viewers in 2009, 2 million less than the average views of Stage 20 of the TdF.

The difference? There are 13-16 NFL games every week. On a week where there are 11 Sunday games, thats up to 176 viewers. Obviously many are repeats, but it's the same with the Tour.

jonesy johnson wrote:

Nobody cares about the sport. Few care about running as a spectator sport. This website proves that.

Well, doofus, since you asked back in the day they had little event in Colorado called the Coors Classic.

I watched a few stages of that. Lemond vs. Hinault.

Well, have watched the old Coors Classic in Boulder a few years back.

Went to the Superbowl last year in INDY, 2nd time I've been and the last, it is a fun event, but better to see the game on TV.

I will admit that getting on to the field after the game was fun and attending the Giants post game bash was also fun, but the game itself is just another game.

I went to see stage 7 of the TDF last summer and it is by far the better event to go to, fans are passionate and have much more class than your average Football fan. It was a mountaintop finish so it was not a blur and certainly exciting. It was a real international event with folks from all over the world on the course. Just for the record, they close the roads leading up to the final 15k or so, set up parking lots for the spectators (free) and bused over a million folks to the base of the mountain (free again) in coach buses, then you walk up as far as you would like and set up and watch and socialize. Halfway up they had a refreshment stand (bottled h20 for 1$ and other stuff cheap along with a large screen TV to watch the race until it gets close. An absolute blast, and pretty darn cheap.

Would go to the TDF again and hope to soon, will never attend another Superbowl.

No Way wrote:

Actually, you make a decent point. Let's compare to the NFL regular season, because if a team loses that game, they're still going to play the next week right?

The average NFL game had 16 million viewers in 2009, 2 million less than the average views of Stage 20 of the TdF.

The difference? There are 13-16 NFL games every week. On a week where there are 11 Sunday games, thats up to 176 viewers. Obviously many are repeats, but it's the same with the Tour.

You have a point there except once a team makes it to the playoffs everyone is essentially 0-0. The Tour builds off time throughout the entire thing. If a teams score was summed from one game to another and at the end of the super bowl the team with most points won then that would be comparable as a team that did not win the super game could claim the overall victory of the season. As it is now the regular season games mean nothing for the teams that make the playoffs. The time of every stage is important to the Tour victory.

You could compare regular season games to someone slowly being dropped out of the race for finishing outside the allowed time.

I'm not arguing the SuperBowl is more widely watched but I do contend that the Tour de France is a more internationally popular and engaging event.

I watched my first grade son and his friend race their bikes to the end of the street. I am pretty sure no performance enhancing drugs were involved.