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Le Tour de France: Who's Watching Who?
After a day off, the 2006 Tour de France is heading into its second week today, unbeknownst to most Americans. According to the Chronicle, only 280,000 Americans watch the Tour on TV. Compare that to 91 million for the Super Bowl and 17 million for the World Series.
Americans aren't interested in international sports, mostly because we don't win them. The entire run of this year's soccer World Cup has garnered only nine million viewers nationwide -- the American Idol finale had 36 million viewers, on one night. Unless the USA is kicking ass as a country, such as in the Olympics -- and often not even then, Americans care little for televised coverage of international competition in sports like soccer, track and field, and cycling.
The Tour de France is worth watching though. It is the biggest event in the sport of cycling and really highlights the sporting differences between Americans and the rest of the world. And it's very accessible. Outdoor Life Network (OLN) provides daily repeat coverage of every single stage, including extended, live pedal-by-pedal from two of the best to ever call a race: Phil Leggett and Paul Sherwin.
This year, fate and The Man haven't made it any easier for the ADD-addled American television audience to watch skinny foreign guys in lycra riding bikes for hours and hours, day after day. After an opening week dominated more by who wasn't racing than by who was, the Tour suddenly went from a peloton of favorites to a small breakaway of "other guys."
Maillot jeune graphic from Team CSC website.
One missing 800-pound gorilla is seven-time winner and defending champion Lance Armstrong, who announced his retirement before last year's Tour victory. Without Lance, it seemed that the Tour might be there for the taking by a handful of select runners-up from the past seven years. But on the eve of the prologue Tour organizers announced that a Spanish doping investigation had implicated several riders scheduled to ride in the 2006 Tour. Fearful of even a hint of impropriety after the 1998 Festina scandal, teams and Tour organizers agreed that anybody identified by the investigation would be dismissed from the Tour.
Among those sent packing on the eve of the prologue were the heart of last year's leader's podium. 2006 Giro d'Italia winner, Tour runner-up in 2005, and prohibitive favorite Ivan Basso was on the list. So was Jan Ullrich, the only member of the field to have won a Tour. Also out, last year's fourth place finisher Francisco Mancebo.
Even those not named in the Spanish investigation were rocked. Tenacious GC contender Alexandre Vinokourov, who finished fifth in the Tour last year, was dropped from this year's Tour roster after his team was expelled by Tour organizers. So Vino is bye-bye.
Undeniably, this year's Tour was drastically affected before a rider ever turned a pedal in anger or pissed in a cup.
Inevitable early-stage crashes further winnowed an already asterisk-studded field. In stage three, the last remaining standout favorite, Alejandro Valverde, crashed and broke his right collarbone. Out of the race. Also out with crash-related injuries in the first week: Erik Dekker, Freddie Rodriquez, and Bobby Julich.
So that leaves who for brand-name-obsessed American viewers to watch? How about some hometown heroes?
The highest remaining finisher from last year's Tour is Santa Rosa resident Levi Leipheimer. Leipheimer finished sixth last year behind Armstrong, Basso, Ullrich, Mancebo, and Vinokourov. Riding for the Gerolsteiner team Leipheimer captured the prologue of this year's Tour of California in February. This could be Levi's chance at ultimate cycling glory, but he seems to shoot himself in the foot every year with one or two bad stages that kill his chances of winning it all. On Saturday, Leipheimer blew a gasket in the individual time trial, giving up more than six minutes to stage winner Sergei Gonchar.
There's also Berkeley denizen Dave Zabriskie, riding for Team CSC. Zabriskie captured the opening stage of last year's Tour and wore the yellow leader's jersey until his spectacular crash during the team time trial. ZBreeze is not known for his climbing, but this year's Tour is not as climbing-intensive as it was during the Lance years, so it's possible.
Beyond the Bay Area, many American riders are among the favorites in the remaining field. Trusty Lance lieutenant Georgie Hincappie has finally been the given the keys to the powerful Team Discovery Channel machine and the green light to go for a GC title, but he too floundered in the time trial. Chris Horner and Christian Vandevelde are two other Americans worth watching.
Flag-waving (but not flag-burning), semi-interested American sports fans can also look to American squad Team Discovery Channel for some good times. Discovery has four or five legitimate GC contenders, including Hincappie, Paolo Salvodelli, Yaroslav Popovych, and Jose Acevedo, and Team Discovery Director Sportif Johann Bruyneel is the Phil Jackson of professional cycling, so they should be a factor throughout the race.
Sure, there are many exciting international riders to watch, including Australians Robbie McEwen and Cadel Evans, Germans Andreas Kloden and Mathias Kessler, Spaniard Iban Mayo, Frenchman Christophe Moreau, and Italian Gilberto Simoni, but Americans aren't interested in anybody who doesn't do commercials for Home Depot or Viagra. For the segment of the American sporting audience that only watches "American" sports, this is the year to check out the Tour de France. There are plenty of competitive Americans in the field, and almost by default, Pennsylvania Dutch Boy Floyd Landis, winner of the 2006 Tour of California and the 2006 Tour of Georgia, now appears to be the overall favorite.
Just think of it as NASCAR on really skinny tires, with foreign guys, in another country.