Born in San Francisco over twenty years ago as a monthly column on
racing in the long-defunct California Bicyclist Magazine, Racy Language
arose from it's torpor as the 2009 Tour Of California traversed the
city by the bay. Now that the dust has settled on the Cali tour, Racy
Language will take a look at the good, the bad and the ugly from the
fourth edition of the race.
Tour De Lance
(Photo: Roberto Bettini)
The Good
Crowds, crowds, crowds: the people came out in force for this years
Tour Of California, despite the bad weather at the start of the race.
It was partly fuelled by the presence of Lance Armstrong, who had not
raced before in a major stage race in California. Cycling is the only
major sport where a fan can get up close and personal with the stars
free of charge and the California crowds took advantage of that.
(Two million people at TOC? We think not.
(Photo: Roberto Bettini)
As before at the Cali Tour, PR puffery from TOC flacks claimed that 2 million people
were along the roads of this years TOC. We think not. Yes there were a
lot of people, more than ever before. If you take 2 million people and
divide it by 750 miles of racing at the Cali tour, that comes out to an
average 2,666 people per mile; 1,333 on each side of the road. Yes
there were major crowds at most of the starts & finishes but the
claimed numbers just don't make sense in light of the fact that for
many many miles of each stage that passed through rural California,
there were not even 2,666 cows per mile. Still, kudos to the many
Californians who came out to cheer the Tour Of California riders.
J-Mac at '07 Worlds TT
(Photo Roberto Bettini)
Jason McCartney: J-Mac took the KOM jersey in unfortunate circumstances
when leader Francisco Mancebo crashed out of the Tour Of California,
but McCartney defended his jersey aggressively and in the end earned
the honor fair & square. At 35, McCartney still has plenty of juice
in his legs. Hailing from Coralville, Iowa, McCartney is a guy that
worked his way up from Team NutraFig to the big leagues with Discovery
Channel and CSC Saxo Bank. McCartney is no stranger to the Cali race,
as he was 3rd overall in 2007, a year he also notched a win in Stage 14
of the Vuelta a España. It is always great to see J-Mac, a consummate
pro rider, succeed. Chapeau Jason.
Trackin' Levi on Tour Tracker
(Photo: Roberto Bettini)
Tour Tracker: This unique feature of the Tour Of California, an on-line
streaming broadcast of the race feed provided a fascinating look at the
racing on most stages from start to finish. Usually you only get to see
the last couple of hours of a race, but Tour Tracker had the feed from
start to finish. Watching the early attacks on Stage 4 from Merced to
Clovis was fascinating as Astana struggled to keep a lid on the race
until the right move go away. It was a rare sight to see Lance
Armstrong himself on the front of the peloton pulling back an attack by
Floyd Landis. I just turned off the sound to avoid the inane commentary
and watched the images. In the future, maybe other major race
organizers will take a tip from the Cali tour folks and put in their
own version of the Tour Tracker.
Huge and well behaved crowds greet TOC on the Rose Bowl circuits on Stage 7
(Photo Roberto Bettini)
The Bad
crazy crowds, crazy crowds, crazy crowds: Did someone say that America
was once tipped on its central axis and all the nuts rolled to the
west? Well the behavior of some members of the roadside fans at the
Cali tour may bring credence to this adage, as crazy crowds of creeps
were running alongside the riders on the climbs, usually too close and as cranky Frankie Andreu said during the race
coverage "these people are not out there to encourage the riders like
in Europe, they are trying to get on camera." I even saw one guy on Mt.
Palomar running alongside the riders with a baby in his arms!? Check
out this link to Lance dealing with an obnoxious roadside runner Here. Race
organizers could have added 500 meters of barriers on both sides of the
key climbs for a more controlled environment and placed several motor
marshals staggered 50 and 100 meters in front of the riders to run
interference. The additional cost of the barriers would have been
minimal for a big-bucks race like the TOC and the motor marshals are
there in the race, so it was just a matter of making the call on race
radio.
Many riders thought the TOC stages were too hard in 2009
(Photo: Roberto Bettini)
too much, too soon: Although some riders were effusive in their praise
of the TOC, there were others who not quite as enthralled. The overall
consensus in the TOC peloton (including Carlos Sastre and Tom Boonen)
was that the course itself was too hard for mid-February. And although
the TOC may have ambitions to be the next Tour de France, they have a
long way to go to bring the technical quality, the so-called field of
play, up to the standards of many smaller, less well-funded European
races. Perhaps race owner Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) can find a
broader strategic alliance with Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), the
organizer of the Tour de France to create and manage the technical side
of the TOC.
Race Radio & Bad TV Plagued The 2009 TOC
photo Roberto Bettini
The Ugly
Race radio: why no race radio at the TOC in the first decade of the
21st century? We can send back images from Mars, but no TV or race
radio when there are poor weather conditions? It turns out that race
technical managers Medalist Sports, responsible for the race radio had
changed race radio suppliers from the 2008 edition, replacing
experienced supplier Total RF of Bensalem, PA, regarded as the
preeminent provider of broadcast wireless services in the USA. With
poor weather forecast days in advance of the TOC's Stage 1, Medalist
Sports could have specified a more robust aircraft to fly the airborne
RF repeater, one with heated wing boots and heated propellers that
could have flown in the poor weather conditions.
Reportedly, the fixed-wing plane that had the airborne RF repeater
couldn't take off from Sacramento because of ice at 4,000 feet, so
there was little video for television or radio communications for teams
or fans. This may have been remedied by a better plane and more
experience from the broadcast wireless provider. In 2008, Total RF
deployed two planes and a helicopter and always had pictures and race
radio, even in the terrible weather of the SLO stage. After Stage One,
TOC winner Levi Leipheimer complained "It was just really bad
communication," Leipheimer said. "We didn't know any of the time gaps."
For all the claims of what a world class race the TOC is, it was amateur hour where race radio and broadcast wireless was concerned.
Versus tv: All you have to do is go into the versus.com/forums to read
the publics opinion on just how bad the coverage of the TOC was this
year. The new format with the addition of no-nothing motor mouth,
former competitive ocean swimmer and lifeguard Craig Hummer to the
revered broadcast team of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen was a boner.
Bob Roll was demoted to field reporter. Hummer told an interviewer last
year "I’m the most dispensable guy on the crew. I can be replaced at
the drop of a hat" and he should be. Go back to bull riding and sailing
coverage for Versus and don't ruin cycling.
We understand that John Carter, former VP of Production and Executive
Producer for OLN was the director for TOC. Carter, who created the
"Cyclysm Sundays” shows once told Velo-Snoozer Neil Rogers that "(OLN)
decided to sacrifice airtime for (Cyclysm) because“there comes a point
for diminishing returns.” Clearly Versus, the successor of OLN is not
committed to cycling. Just whatever revenue returns they can gain from
cycling. Unlike the fantastic Tour de France feed produced by the
brilliant Jean-Maurice Ooghe, the quality of the recent TOC coverage on
Versus was poor. Amateurish. Boring. And insulting to cycling fans who
tuned in to see the ending of the last stage in Escondido which was
unceremoniously chopped off by bull riding!
Racy Language believes American cycling fans deserve better than the
TOC delivered this year. Of course that doesn't go along with the hype
and cash and general hoopla surrounding the race. But that's Racy
Language!
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