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#1
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
But don't scare them off by acting like the pros!
http://www.irvineherald.co.uk/ayrshi...5485-29041590/ Simon Mason |
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#2
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 08:55:20 -0700 (PDT), Simon Mason
wrote: But don't scare them off by acting like the pros! http://www.irvineherald.co.uk/ayrshi...5485-29041590/ Simon Mason Indeed: get your own cyclists' legs http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/...-seen--007.jpg -- Simple Simon Mason - who cycles at 25mph in 20mph limits just because the limits do not apply to cyclists. This includes exceeding the speed limit past three schools. A total disregard for the well-being of vulnerable road users. The actions of a true psycholist. |
#3
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
More confirmation of the boom. "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in." Amazing audience figures. http://www.4-traders.com/HALFORDS-GR...ance-13709745/ -- Simon Mason |
#4
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:01:24 -0700 (PDT), Simon Mason
wrote: More confirmation of the boom. "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in." Amazing audience figures. http://www.4-traders.com/HALFORDS-GR...ance-13709745/ Meanwhile - 2 million watch the tennis and 8 million watch Coronation Street. Another own goal from Simple -- Simple Simon Mason - who cycles at 25mph in 20mph limits just because the limits do not apply to cyclists. This includes exceeding the speed limit past three schools. A total disregard for the well-being of vulnerable road users. The actions of a true psycholist. |
#5
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On 15/07/2011 22:51, Judith wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:01:24 -0700 (PDT), Simon wrote: More confirmation of the boom. "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in." Amazing audience figures. http://www.4-traders.com/HALFORDS-GR...ance-13709745/ Meanwhile - 2 million watch the tennis and 8 million watch Coronation Street. Well... quite. If a million viewers "validates" cycling, what is validated by all those millions who read The Sun or TNotW - or the millions who watch things like IACGMOOH or Big Brother? |
#6
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:01:24 -0700 (PDT), Simon Mason
wrote: "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, Halfords, purveyor of the much derided bike shaped objects isn't it? The rather rotund "hero" Mr Boardman gives semi articulate opinions and tries to look athletic pedaling slowly on the flat while wearing a girdle under his Lycra. Amazing audience figures. It is great fun, Big Brother but a bit lower class. You have lots of blood, crashes galore, fights between the drug addled participants and a completely incomprehensible race where no one seems to care who wins because, a bit like primary schools, there are enough prizes for everyone. To make it more interesting you have more cars and motorbikes than cyclists weaving in between the riders and knocking a few off here and there for added TV value. People win prizes for going a bit faster in the middle, but no one noticed, and another for getting up a hill with everyone else but no one noticed and at the end the winners are ignored because the first 200 all count as the same time and the TV is concentrating on someone with no hope of winning but is wearing a pink vest and doing really well to come in 314th. Someone else wins the vest with small but neatly done flowers on it and another wins the one with polka dots - but no-one knows why. In the meantime last years" hero's", unable to use drugs because they are in the sights of the dope testers, wallow in the middle but get a lot of TV coverage. Where else would you have a barely literate English interviewer who spoke no Spanish and completely illiterate schoolboy French trying to interview (for several minutes) a Spanish rider who spoke neither English nor French in French for an English audience? This is truly groundbreaking inanity. The tour was invented by newspapers and is great fun, you simply couldn't make up a comedy like this - people would say it was too unbelievable. |
#7
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Jul 16, 12:12*am, Peter Parry wrote:
On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 14:01:24 -0700 (PDT), Simon Mason wrote: "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, Amazing audience figures. It is great fun, Big Brother but a bit lower class. * I will translate that for you. "It is too complex for me to understand what is going on" Watch snooker instead. -- Simon Mason |
#8
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Jul 15, 10:01*pm, Simon Mason wrote:
More confirmation of the boom. "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in." Amazing audience figures. http://www.4-traders.com/HALFORDS-GR...LFORDS-GROUP-B... Methinks you may be getting a bit ahead of yourself. Any big sporting event with good TV coverage boosts participation in that sport, especially if there's local interest, e.g. a Brit doing well in the tennis, and wasn't there supposed to be a hockey revival when we did really well in the Olympics years ago? Such spikes tend to die down - some will stay with it, many won't. Another thing about the viewing figures for the TdF: it's as much a travelogue/tourist video for France as it is a cycle race. Why else do they show the great sweeping shots of the French countryside, the chateaux, etc? Even Paul Sherwin has his prepared spiel about the tourist sites they pass (no doubt issued to them by the local tourist office or race control - after all, towns pay money to get the race to go their way). |
#9
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Jul 16, 10:02*am, FrengaX wrote:
On Jul 15, 10:01*pm, Simon Mason wrote: More confirmation of the boom. "Audiences for the ITV 4 coverage, which is sponsored by Boardman, the company run by former Tour de France and Olympic hero Chris Boardman, are nightly topping 1m as Britons tune in." Amazing audience figures. http://www.4-traders.com/HALFORDS-GR...LFORDS-GROUP-B... Methinks you may be getting a bit ahead of yourself. Any big sporting event with good TV coverage boosts participation in that sport, especially if there's local interest, e.g. a Brit doing well in the tennis, and wasn't there supposed to be a hockey revival when we did really well in the Olympics years ago? Such spikes tend to die down - some will stay with it, many won't. True, however you can't go to work on a tennis racquet or hockey stick. And they don't save you loads of money on fuel. Another thing about the viewing figures for the TdF: it's as much a travelogue/tourist video for France as it is a cycle race. Why else do they show the great sweeping shots of the French countryside, the chateaux, etc? Even Paul Sherwen has his prepared spiel about the tourist sites they pass (no doubt issued to them by the local tourist office or race control - after all, towns pay money to get the race to go their way). Indeed true - that's one of the best features of the Tour, now in HD for added splendour. -- Simon Mason |
#10
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Tour de France inspires new cyclists.
On Sat, 16 Jul 2011 01:45:20 -0700 (PDT), Simon Mason
wrote: It is great fun, Big Brother but a bit lower class. * I will translate that for you. "It is too complex for me to understand what is going on" That is the whole beauty of it - no one knows what's going on, least of all the commentators. It is the most wonderful comedy. You line the route with demented drunks and make the cyclist ride through them so guaranteeing that someone will run into someone. Because they cycle close together that brings down a dozen others. The cyclists have their feet attached to the pedals so you have this wonderful spectacle of upside down crabs all trying to extract themselves from the wreckage and stepping on each others bodies and bikes - so falling over again so the performance can be repeated. Then they bring on the clowns. Into this melee come a bunch of demented assistants carrying half a dozen bicycle wheels each and rushing around like ice cream salesmen on a hot day offering them to riders lying leaking blood all over the road. The photographers leap from their motorbikes and push everyone out of the way so they can get a really close shot of the splinters of bone sticking through the Lycra. The vast army of cars accompanying this procession of cyclists block the road so the poor doctor who languishes at the back after the lunch wagon in a 2CV with an asthmatic siren can't get through. When they do they are pushed aside by the photographer trying for the close up from only 3" shot. There is then much waving of arms and shouting while the poor cyclist convulses on the road and the photographer and doctor trade blows. There is so much going on, none of it to do with racing, that you can watch it time and time again. The amateur commentators gaze with fixed glazed eyes on the auto cue and make no attempt to explain any of the arcane rules. As they can't actually see any of the riders they frequently seem unaware of what is happening (as if it mattered). It is quality comedy. Cycle racing is normally about as exciting as watching paint dry. The bit that makes it so much fun is the manufactured carnage and outstanding lack of organisation unique to the tour of France. |
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