The Tour de France and Long Tail Sports, by Jeffrey Veen

The Tour de France and Long Tail Sports

Floyd Landis, a former mountain biker from San Diego, won the Tour de France yesterday. He achieved this through one of the most extraordinary rides in modern Tour history: a 125 kilometer solo break over four Alpine climbs to gain back nearly eight minutes. He is just the third American to wear the yellow jersey in Paris, with Greg Le Mond and Lance Armstrong. And it didn't make the front page of CNN.com.

It's often suggested that American's don't follow professional cycling because it's a "fringe" sport. It's not. More people ride bikes in this country than play football, baseball, or basketball. But what's more interesting to me is how coverage of the sport I love has gotten so much better in a media landscape exploded into a long tail.

Steven Johnson wrote about this recently, suggesting that audiences become more defined and narrow, the coverage of their subject swings to expert conversation:

There's more information conveyed in shorter amounts of time, with less hand-holding from the creators. It occurred to me reading The Long Tail that the general trend from mass to niche can explain some of this increased complexity: niches can speak to each other in shorthand; they don't have to spell everything out.

So true. The Tour's coverage in the San Francisco Chronicle was embarrassingly naive: short wire store rewrites buried deep in the sport section, defining "peloton" every day as the "main pack of riders."

But US television coverage of the Tour on Outdoor Life Network acknowledges this. They provide a live broadcast of each stage in the early morning hours here in the US. The commentary is provided by Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwin - two former racers who are beloved by the cycling community as the voices of the Tour. They do an amazing job of providing insight and color, but with shorthand and jargon aimed directly at fans of the sport.

Later each day, OLN reruns the stage with pedantic commentary from Al Trautwig. The coverage is laced with explanations of why the cyclist ride so close to each other, how the teams work, and other basic concepts. Imagine John Madden telling you why the players "huddle" during the Superbowl. True fans just Tivo Phil and Paul.

Of course, I don't get my cycling coverage from the Chronicle nor color commentary from Tautwig. But it does make me wonder. If their reporting is this bad on a subject I'm close to, is it for everything? Why would I turn to a general interest media source for any news?

Slowly but surely, media is changing. And I couldn't be happier.

This entry was written by Jeffrey Veen and posted 24 July 2006 at 8:47 AM. It was filed under Cycling, Technology. | View blog reactions

Comments

1. On 24 July 2006 at 9:39 AM Josh Williams wrote:

Come on Jeff. True fans get up early to watch Phil and Paul live. Wait, I guess I'm a few hours ahead of you. ; )

That said, I do have to watch the evening recap on occasion just for my Bob Roll hyperactive hand-talking fix.

2. On 24 July 2006 at 11:10 AM Jamison wrote:

While the Chronicle is depending on wire stories for their coverage, they (and other news outlets) do seem to be waking up to the popularity of cycling.

A photo of Landis took up most of the Chronicle's front page Saturday (pushing the Israel/Lebenon war to a narrow column on the side) and I get the feeling there is just such an institutional way baseball, basketball and football are covered, the press doesn't really know how to do anything that differs.

The same is true of the World Cup and every time the Olympic Games comes around I think the coverage seems to actually get a little worse, unless you happen to be sponsored by Nike.

Of all the "niche sports" like soccer, cycling seems to have come a long way in a short time. That we even get coverage on OLN is a huge step.

3. On 24 July 2006 at 11:25 AM veen wrote:

I agree, Jamison. The coverage has been steadily maturing here in the States. And I was pleasantly surprised to see Floyd's face taking up most of the front page of Saturday's Chron.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/07/22/MNGIHK3TOB1.DTL

But even that article contains a glaring error - that he had won L'Alpe d'Huez (Fränk Schleck did).

It also included this sentence: "The second to last stage is an individual time trial in which riders race against the clock." The article on Tiger Woods at the US Open doesn't define what a "birdie" is. Clearly, the Chron is aiming for an audience that doesn't understand cycling. But I do, so I'll look elsewhere for coverage.

The bigger question, though: Does the Chron's low-brow approach mean I should look elsewhere for coverage on politics, the environment, and local events?

4. On 24 July 2006 at 11:46 AM Jeff Hartman wrote:

We got about as much coverage here in Chicago as you got in SF. An ABC anchor mentioned that Floyd "Lewis" was the new leader of the Tour. Today's front page of the sports was dedicated almost entirely to Tiger.

I'm so glad I have Tivo to get Phil/Paul. Otherwise I'd be watching the Tour with the sound off. Al/Bob are fine, but I can't handle that type of coverage.

5. On 24 July 2006 at 2:04 PM Chad Crowell wrote:

Ever since I started TIVOing the morning coverage 3 years ago I can't get enough of Paul & Phil. They are great great commentators who know about the history of their sport and talk to you without making you feel like an idiot (a'la Madden). Phil's calls of the sprints and attacks are exciting and make my pulse race while I lay on the couch thinking that I should go ride my bike (LOL). I think Al has a beautiful voice for sports but he also has that newscaster pause and effect thing that I can't stand (see any locol or national news personality for reference), and Roll, while knowledgeable and certainly entertaining, is mostly annoying (tour DE france). My wife commented about how you could drive a truck between his teeth. And the hands...lol.

Anyway, I don't really care whether the media grabs onto the Tour or not, or other races. 8 years running we have an American winning and the media coverage is slowly ramping. But Lance was a personality and Floyd is anything but. Two weeks from now he won't be seen again unlike Lance. And maybe we will have the same or better coverage next year if a non-American wins, but 2 or 3 years in a row of a non-American and the media will consider it non-news.

6. On 24 July 2006 at 4:49 PM Kevin Smokler wrote:

Question: If I can't wait another year to watch cycling on TV again, where can I tune in to some other races?

7. On 24 July 2006 at 5:15 PM Craig wrote:

Kevin asked "where can I tune in to some other races?" and as far as I know, OLN's Cyclysm Sundays at 5pm Eastern is the only game in town.

Unfortunately, watching a 20-day stage race like the upcoming Vuelta A Espana condensed down to three 2-hour shows is like reading the Cliff notes. But it's also better than nothing.

And in defense of Bob Roll's pronounciaton of Toor Day Frants, he rode in four tours and I figure that gives him the right to pronounce it anyway he wants. And this is just I guess, but I think he does it on purpose, knowing that it's irritating.

8. On 24 July 2006 at 6:18 PM veen wrote:

Kevin, http://cycling.tv/ is getting interesting (that is, if you have the right browser...)

9. On 24 July 2006 at 7:39 PM Nick Cowie wrote:

Much the same in Australia, except the Paul and Phil show is live on free to air TV (SBS) every night. It is not the full day's racing, but the last two to four hours, depending on which side of Australia you live on and how generous SBS are in cutting their other shows.

Being on the west coast the start time varied betweeen 10pm and 8:15pm (for the stages in the Alps) and was generally over by midnight.

Four or five years back SBS started out with a half hour highlights show at 6:00pm each night, then a handful of stages live, then last year all the stages.

The other media (TV, newspapers) do a reasonable job (something to do with Robbie McEwen winning the green jersey three times), though it is dumbed down a little, they might sneak peleton into their commentary in the last week of coverage. But I was getting my news from the source so I did not pay much attention.

Other races, you mean there our other cycling races than the Tour De France. Is the attitude is most australian media, SBS will give you the results and small highlights packages in their evening sports news and that is it. Tour Down Under was the exception when the commercial station with the TV rights, put on a one hour highlights show at midnight during the week and timeshifted the last couple of hours of racing on the weekend. This has not be done before and it was due to Australians doing well in the TDF and the same Australians being present at the Tour Down Under.

10. On 25 July 2006 at 6:54 PM Robbie wrote:

Jeffrey, I absolutely agree with your comments about the general media having no clues about anything, which is very noticable when they report on a subject that is close to your heart. Time and time again, I find myself shaking my head at the dumbed down nature of reporting.

I have, fo many years, avoided the mass media in favour of sourcing my news from specialist sources on a particular topic. For cycling news I go to cyclingnews.com. For news of the arab/israeli conflict I read al jazeera and the Jerusalem Post. For unbiased news on US politics, I go to Fox (joke).

I love that the internet makes this knowledge so accessible to me and look forward to the day when more and more people realise that you no longer need to tune in to the 6pm news to get whatever side of the story the producer is biassed towards.

11. On 25 July 2006 at 8:27 PM blanco wrote:

Lack of reporting? What about bad reporting, look at this gross error off the Bloomberg wire:

By Stephen Taylor
July 13 (Bloomberg) -- Floyd Landis moved into the lead of
cycling's Tour de France after the 11th stage, becoming the
first American to wear the yellow jersey since record seven-time
winner Lance Armstrong retired last year.

Excuse me, what about George Hincapie? He wore the Yellow Jersey for a day this tour (Stage Two) _before_ Floyd Landis, becoming the 3rd out of (now only) four Americans to wear the Yellow Jersey.

12. On 25 July 2006 at 8:44 PM Brian McNitt wrote:

I have to say that I didn't like Bobke when he first entered the scene but he has since grown on me. I think Bobke provides perfect counterpoint to the colorful but otherwise straight-ahead commentary of Liggett, Sherwin, and Trautwig.

One comment about the 2006 Tour commentary, what was up with the word "special" this year? Every other freakin adjective was "special"! Whether describing a ride, breakaway, chase, TT performance, or any strong effort to win a stage, it was "something special". It got to the point that I thought that there might be a competition amongst the commentators to use the word "special". =)

13. On 25 July 2006 at 9:15 PM veen wrote:

Yeah, and Dave Zabriskie wore it for three days just last year after beating Armstrong in the opening time trial.

14. On 26 July 2006 at 2:26 AM A&W wrote:

our daily paper gave us 2 front pages for thr end of the Tour, but the daily updates were hidden inside. I didn't TIVO it, but my son up there usually keeps me posted..what happened? MOM;)

15. On 26 July 2006 at 10:17 PM Ben Buchanan wrote:

It's great to cater to a niche, but at the same time if the general media didn't provide "dumbed down" versions it'd be that much harder to find new fans of any sport. I watched a little bit of Tour coverage here (same version Nick mentioned) and was glad to get the odd explanation thrown in. That said, I didn't find it hard to follow anyway!

So anyway both versions have their uses. Given the choice I guess I'd stick with the niche version and let people do their own research, but that doesn't allow for human nature (ie. laziness ;)).

16. On 26 July 2006 at 10:34 PM ben wrote:

I agree with Ben and Nick about the coverage in Australia. Cycling is really starting to break thru here. Two years ago we did not even have any coverage and now they cover each stage and as far as I know it rates well.

McEwan, Rogers and Evans are pretty well know and most people has some interest or awarness of the Tour.

Altho I do think it is funny when I hear Phil or Paul refer to the Giro as the "Tour of Italy".

17. On 27 July 2006 at 3:51 PM MDM wrote:

Regardless of today's news about Landis' positive, I'll tune-in next year, but not with a tv. If you know where to look, generous digitizers in the UK and Europe are uploading daily stages in their entirety, sans commercials. The perfect solution for tv-less fans with broadband.

Cycling.tv for the classics was great.

Is the Chronicle still a newspaper? Last week, on a day of escalating violence in the Middle East, they chose to put a half-page picture of Tiger Woods in tears on the cover.

The New Yorker wrote about the Golden Gate Bridge before the Chronicle got around to a series on it. Scooped in their own backyard. And this is just plain wrong.

18. On 27 July 2006 at 7:00 PM Nick Cowie wrote:

The bad news is that all the good that was done on this year's tour by Landis' gutsy ride in the Alps and his winnning the tour has be undone by that postive drugs test.

It may be a false alarm and have a logical reason, but just a positive result is bad news when the mainstream media report it like this http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14061936/

19. On 27 July 2006 at 11:15 PM siftee wrote:

ha ha cry for the dopehead!

20. On 31 July 2006 at 7:02 AM tom rachford wrote:

france,,,,,,,,2006,,,again kicked to the crub by the good ole U S A ,,,and the sore losers cant take it,,,,,poor babies,,,,they are so pity full
they try everything to make us look bad,,,,and we still come back year after year and kick there sorry asses,,,,,,need i say more,,,,

the french hate us,,,,,,,
and i love it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

21. On 31 July 2006 at 8:08 AM Laurent wrote:

Come on living in Belgium and you'll be able to follow mountain stage direct on TV during a 6 hour direct broadcast with very high skilled guys knowing almost everyhting about bikers, team and tactics ;-)

The whole 3 weeks is almost fully covered but Tom Boonen didn't win any stage ;-(

22. On 31 July 2006 at 11:00 AM Linda Dintenfass wrote:

Although I didn't read it every day, the NY Times had excellent, accurate coverage of each stage of the Tour.

My biggest concern regarding OLN is that they seem to be grooming Trautwig and Roll to be their main commentators, perhaps to the exclusion of Sherwin & Liggett. Most of the people who've made comments here could deliver commentary at least as insightful as Trautwig's.

Actually, I find cycling coverage declining. A few years ago, OLN had extended coverage of the Giro d'Italia and the Vuelta a Espana. They covered the one-day classics, too, including live coverage of Paris Roubaix. Sadly, the best they do now is highlights.

Bob Roll is an acquired taste. When OLN had extended Giro coverage, they had Roll do the "play by play" with Liggett and Sherwin. Roll was charming, informed and intelligent in their company. He provided the insider's perspective; I got a sense of what it would be like to be a domestique in the peloton. In the right company, he can be fabulous.

Roll is an italophile. He'd probably like to call the Tour the Giro di Francia. Those who love Italy rarely think much of the French.

23. On 31 July 2006 at 11:03 AM Linda Dintenfass wrote:

Although I didn't read it every day, the NY Times had excellent, accurate coverage of each stage of the Tour.

Roll is an italophile. He'd probably like to call the Tour the Giro di Francia. Those who love Italy rarely think much of the French.

24. On 1 August 2006 at 3:55 PM lucine wrote:

tom rachford : you're wrong... definitively...

We don't hate US people and drugs tests are done by UCI (International Cycling Union) not French. The lab is in France, that all.

In 1998 Tour de France, most popular French cyclist (virenque-5 times best climber) was banned for drugs use.

Btw, there is nothing like a Tour de France's mountain stage. Nothing in TV sports can beat that.
In France, we're enough lucky to have the full mountain stage TV coverage from start to finish line.

25. On 11 August 2006 at 4:17 PM Cecilia Jamasmie wrote:

Since you and your readers enjoy cycling, I think you might enjoy the story we have at Orato.com. It's about a guy who biked
from Mendoza to Alaska.

You can read it here: http://www.orato.com/node/44

26. On 20 August 2006 at 12:21 PM Dan wrote:

Good story, but I hate how that Orato site insists on breaking up articles into bite-sized pieces, a common pathology of online magazine and newspaper sites in general. I'd rather scroll a lot on a single web page than have to keep pressing "Next", "Next", "Next".... over and over. And, at least on Orato, the breakup isn't even done at logical stopping-points; it seems to be entirely mechanical, with breaks coming in the middle of sentences, or even between words of two-word place names.