2006 Tour de France route announced, by Jeffrey Veen

2006 Tour de France route announced

It's never too soon to start thinking of next year. And in that spirit, the organizers of the Tour de France announced the race route for 2006. Next year's highlights include a jaunt through the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Germany, as well as what will certainly be some epic mountain stages.

At the moment, however, I'm even more interested in seeing how the American audience responds to this first post-Armstrong Tour. The Outdoor Life Network already curbed their coverage of both the Giro and Vuelta this year, relegating them to weekend "highlight" shows. Could the Tour de France be far behind, now that an American isn't virtually assured victory? My guess is that 2006 will be a sort of grace period - OLN coverage and US interest in the sport will extend one year past Lance, but only if another American takes a podium spot.

Then again, it might not matter at all. Last summer, the stages were available via BitTorrent and other nefarious means. If the small but passionate American audience were cut off from daily coverage, I'm sure some kid in France with broadband and a good video card will step in where the traditional networks fail. Vive le difference!

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 27 October 2005 at 2:33 PM. It was filed under Cycling.

Comments

1. On 27 October 2005 at 3:10 PM Glenn wrote:

Jeff,

Excellent question about the coverage and interest for next year's tour. I've been following pro Euro cycling for 15 years and am looking forward to a wide-open race. Maybe some of the new fans will too? While it is great watching an American lead, it is even better to see good competition with an unknown outcome. The Giro this year was amazing, despite meager OLN coverage. Also thanks bunch for the BitTorrent link. I'm pullinig the plug on Digital Cable and so will be relying on nefarious french kids for the '06 Tour.

2. On 27 October 2005 at 3:51 PM Chris wrote:

As someone that got interested in le Tour (I'm so pretentious) only in the last few years I have to say I'll be watching because despite a Lance-less tour, there are other riders I've come to know that I can root for.

These aren't just American riders. That said, interest could be pretty good if people remember how well Americans finished overall in the last tour. If you have to root for just Americans there are a number of good riders to get behind.

3. On 27 October 2005 at 4:01 PM Matt Haughey wrote:

Won't 2006 be a George Hincapie year that OLN can push the next American possible star? (even though we all know Basso will take it :)

4. On 27 October 2005 at 4:07 PM veen wrote:

My money would be on either Floyd Landis or Levi Leipheimer as the heir American, Matt. As much as I like George, I just don't see him taking the requisite minute out of Ulrich or Basso in the time trials.

And you're right, Glenn - a wide-open field will be a welcome change.

5. On 27 October 2005 at 5:39 PM Lucas Chan wrote:

It's also interesting to note that there is no team time trial next year. That's one less potential stage win for the (faux-American) Discovery team. An extra reason for US TV to lose interest.

I'm tipping Chris Horner will put in a very good (GC) performance next year.

Jeff, it was lovely to meet you in Sydney at WE05. :)

6. On 28 October 2005 at 1:52 AM Jens Meiert wrote:

It will be a great Tour, and of course, I believe in Ullrich's second victory. Finally.

7. On 28 October 2005 at 5:08 AM Mspoke wrote:

It will be interesting to see how the American audiences react post-Lance. I'm not sure that there is a US cyclist capable of getting on the podium, certinaly not Hincapie, he'd be lucky to finish top 10, probably not even top 20. Chris Horner might do a good job but I don't think he can sustain the effort over those 3 alpine stages. Landis is the best bet for top US finisher, but I'm not sure how he will find his way around France without Lance's wheel to follow.

8. On 28 October 2005 at 5:16 AM Knut Karnapp wrote:

Isn´t there a slight chance, that Armstrong is gonna start next year left? Or isn´t?

9. On 28 October 2005 at 9:49 AM Beth wrote:

Lance hinted at attempting an 8th on Oprah last month. But that was when he was pissed about the doping allegations. He may have decided against it after all. See http://tinyurl.com/9t4ng for one cyclist's hope that he doesn't.

10. On 31 October 2005 at 10:08 AM REG wrote:

The upside of this TDF for myself is that I will be riding L'etape du Tour for the third year. Along with that comes the amazing (almost ad free) coverage that France 2 televises every day! This year L'etape is following the 18th stage from Gap to L'Alpe D'Huez. Should be epic.

Lance Armstrong single handedly tranformed the TDF. For better and for worse... On the better side, his compelling story of a cancer surviving champion was almost without equal in the history of sport. He brought the TDF an unprecedented amount of publicity and introduced the race to millions people who would otherwise never have known the race. The bad side was that his victories became too predictable. The Tour became boring. This year when Armstrong caught Ullrich in the opening TT, Roger Legeay, director sportif for the Credit Agricole team stated that everyone else was now riding for second. That statement was groundbreaking by the fact that a coach in the Tour would normally never "give up" his team's chances on the first stage of the Tour. Armstrong's sole focus on the Tour was also unfair to other cyclists that had obligations to their sponsors to ride a full season. What would his Tour legacy have been if he was obliged to compete all season?

In 2006 the Tour needs to recoup its legacy. Except by participation, champions have never "made" the Tour, the Tour has "made" champions. Were the organizers fair to snub Armstrong at this year's presentation? Perhaps only to try to return the legacy of the race to where it belongs and away from Armstrong. The last thing the Tour needs in 2006 is the public and the press questioning the results of the Tour without Armstrong's presence. Vive le tour!

11. On 31 October 2005 at 1:44 PM Tony wrote:

I think you may be over-estimating the extent to which most Americans cared about the Tour these past few years. Outside the four major sports (and also NASCAR, which is considered a sport for some unknown reason), it's very hard to grab viewers in the U.S.

Look at the troubles soccer (in the form of MLS and the now defunct women's soccer league) is having, and that is a sport almost all U.S. kids play at some point already. If a sport that is already on the mind of millions and millions of Americans can't grab market share, what chance does cycling have?

12. On 6 November 2005 at 5:00 AM Stephanie_B wrote:

Great and interesting post - thanks!

13. On 27 November 2005 at 11:17 AM Finn wrote:

I was VERY disappointed in OLN's coverage(?) of the Giro and Vuelta (the latter didn't even show up on my DVR schedule), especially since I thought they gave extraordinary coverage to many of the spring 1-day classics almost every weekend. Le Tour on OLN has grown, especially since the pre-Lance days on ESPN with their 1/2-hour daily coverage. I now fear that a Lance-less race will decrease the amount of road race cycling we will see in the US. It's too bad that, given it's vested interest in the sport, Discovery doesn't get the US rights to these races and put them to good use. I'm hoping they do, 'cause I'm saying goodbye (NOT au revoir)to cable (except for broadband)and most likely signing up with DISH, who as yet does not carry OLN (cycling being the only reason to watch, anyway.) Vive le Tour! Vive le Cyclisme!