Why such meager U.S. coverage of the Tour de France?

I'm interested, for one. I guess cycling doesn't sell a lot of advertising in the US. Isn't his sponsor the US Postal Service, a not-for-profit organization? If it were Budweiser or Microsoft or Exxon sponsoring him, I bet the media would take more interest.

It will be a big news story if and when Armstrong wins, but until then it is a footnote without sponsor dollars.

not sure why cycling has never been a big draw here... the cancer angle is more human interest than sport...

I think, you can't force people to get interested in a sport.

On the other site: reporting about the Tour got 2/3 of a page (2nd site Sports/E 2) coverage in today's Washington Post, not bad at all, I think!

I too think that it should get more coverage in the U.S. I was amazed today to hear on ESPN the reporters that don't support cycling. One said , "...how can you support a sport that gives a yellow jersey to a winner? Yellow is the coward's color." Another even said, "I used to ride a bike as a kid. How can the best athelete in the world ride a bike?" Yeah right, like someone who goes and plays for a couple hours at a time and then goes and sits in a hot tub for the same amount of time is more elligible. I don't think people understand the amount of work that is put in to being such a cyclist. From what I've watched it looks like one of the most vigorous things a person can choose to do.

Next to basketball and the "ironman" (triathlons) of course.

Wait till gas goes up to five bucks a gallon or so. Then, people here will become a lot more interested in cycling.

We've got here underground car parks already (A2K'ers joining the meetin here in May were astonished, too)




even with a cycle wash



[click on the pics to enlarge]

Wow! That's fantastic. I bet the avarage German is much fitter than the avarage American, Walter.

Average you say... most likely.

Now that the race has started, coverage has increased.

Well, nine stages have been raced so far, Armstrong and team Discovery Channel have faltered a bit, and Armstrong actually lost the yellow jersey today.

That Armstrong lost the yellow jersey isn't as bad as it sounds. He lost it to a breakaway journeyman who doesn't have a chance to win the Tour. Without the jersey, Armstrong and team won't have to work as hard as they would have had to to protect it. Stage 8 saw Armstrong left alone in the mountains by all but one of his teammates, Paolo Savoldelli (who won the Giro d'Italia in May), the rest of whom were suffering a bad day. His main rival, who has turned out to be Alexander Vinokourov, the Kazakh on the German squad T-Mobile (Armstrong's long time rival, Jan Ullrich's team), launched a series of attacks against the yellow jersey on the final climb of that stage, putting the hurt on Armstrong and Savoldelli.

Armstrong had taken the yellow jersey in stage 4's team time trial which his Discovery Channel team had won. Stages 5,6 & 7 were uneventful as far as the general classification, and the yellow jersey are concerned.
This tour has so far recorded the fastest times yet, averaging about 48 kilometers per hour. The blistering pace is probably what has affected Armstrong's team. After today's stage Armstrong was quoted as saying, "One of the fastest we've ever done and it's not been exactly flat either so I expect a major crash (of fitness) from riders in the next 10 days. We just can't keep up this pace."
Monday is a rest day, and Tuesday begins the first set of mountaintop finish stages, these being in the Alps.

InfraBlue--

Thanks for the update--complete with analysis. Armstrong was diagnosed with cancer shortly after I was and I have a blissful identification with his cycling career.