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

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

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

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).

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

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.