2004 La Vuelta a Espana

Roadrash Dunc

Thats crazy Brunswick! they get the feed supplied for them by the Spanish - all they have to do is flick a switch , hire 2 commentators and a few technical bods.Eurosport work off a surprisingly shoe-string budget yet show 120 days cycling a year or something crazy.They have no where near 84 crew members.
Throw some adverts in there and the expense cant be that great.Theres no way you need 84 guys working 20 hour days to show this event - its all done by the Spanish (french or italian for those tours too) just pay them for the pictures.
What sort of coverage were OLN showing during the TdF to justify hiring 80 guys working that hard? You must have got wall-wall coverage and interviews galore?

Brunswick_kate

Mate..I don't run it...just quoting the man who does.

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Roadrash Dunc

No im not having a go at you i understand - just sympathising with you and reckon someone at OLN is telling porkies to fob off their viewers.

Brunswick_kate

Actually, I worked in Television and film production for a few years back when electricity was first invented etc...The crew size of 84 really doesn't surprise me and I don't think it's too far off the mark. The business is notoriously labour intensive. Really, it's not the on-air camera time that's the problem; it's the set up/tear down, truck it to the next location/ set up/tear down.

Even if OLN wasn't producing their own show, there's still the problem of lack of revenue. Advertisers aren't supporting it. OLN took a lot of crap for the fact that the advertisers for the Tour de France programming were all "Lance" advertisers...ie his sponsors but the fact is, other advertisers aren't buying in.

Interest in cycling is growing in North America. Love him or hate him, you have to thank Lance Armstrong for that. Now the interest is getting broader. Tyler Hamilton, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis...not exactly household names yet but more people are starting to realize there's more to cycling than one LA of Austin Tx.

It'll get better. In fact this year, my family is travelling a short distance to watch the Canadian National cyclocross championships in November, not something we would have considered to as a "vacation activity" a couple of years back.

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Virenque

So...first mountain stage is behind...

Roadrash Dunc

Lance has done so much for US cycling yeah.And as you say , theres plenty other quality riders you guys are producing - i wish Britain could say the same.


>>>The business is notoriously labour intensive. Really, it's not the on-air camera time that's the problem; it's the set up/tear down, truck it to the next location/ set up/tear down<<<

I dont agree with that though as its not needed! Just pay for the feed and you can screen this tour on a tiny budget.A man commentating out of a broom cupboard with some technical ability of knowing when to go for an advert break can do it himself! OLN dont need to be anywhere near Spain.

Miguel_garcia83

Easy explanation Virenque, there are 2 main reasons, 1st people in spain work in september and 2nd we rather watch it on tv, the tv audience in spain is probably the highest in the world, more than 3 millions out of a 42 million inhabitant countrym which is not bad, but the main reason is the first one, i cant go to see the stage live at aitana if i have to work tomorrow. Besides in june-july football is over, so is basketball, and the main event is cycling, either giro or tour, and now the football season has already started, which means that if you go to aitana you cant see the football. if you hint that spanish cycling fans are not passionated, just watch the pyrenees in the tour, but what you hinted was that spaniards are not interested in la vuelta, just a note to tell you that Marca, the most important spanish newspaper devotes 6 pages everyday about la vuelta, the 4 national radio stations plus marca radio brodcoast everyday live the end of every stage and spanish riders got their best shape in la vuelta

Virenque

Good, informations from first handYes, I didnt think about work and schools which start in september! And I didnt say that cycling is not popular in spain, I just didnt know why the crowds are so little!

donhix1

They do the Vuelta watching the video feed while commentating in a studio in the US. The cost are the broadcasters and the rights to the race.
I am sure that the ratings are low as everyone in the US knows what the Tour is but the average person hasn't heard of the Vuelta let alone who won last year.
With Americans at the top of the leader board there is no doubt the ratings would have been significantly better.
OLN hired a new program director and he is putting his money into the Gravity Games a X games clone.

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Miguel_garcia83

Xátiva - Alto de Aitana 162kms

1. PIEPOLI, Leonardo (ITA/SDV) 4:29:36
2. HERAS, Roberto (ESP/LST) a 4
3. NOZAL, Isidro (ESP/LST) a 10
4. MANCEBO, Francisco (ESP/IBB) a 15
5. FERRIO, Jorge (ESP/ALM) a 25
6. VALVERDE, Alejandro (ESP/KEL) a 29
7. MENCHOV, Denis (RUS/IBB) a 41
8. SASTRE, Carlos (ESP/CSC) a 52
9. LANDIS, Floyd (USA/USP) a 55
10. GONZALEZ, Aitor (ESP/FAS) a 1:09
11. GOMEZ, Angel (ESP/ALM) a 1:10
12. GARCIA QUESADA, Carlos (ESP/KEL) a 1:14
13. BELTRAN, Manuel (ESP/USP) a 1:18
14. CARDENAS, Felix (COL/BAQ) a 1:18
15. PEREZ, Santiago (ESP/PHO) a 1:18
16. CUNEGO, Damiano (ITA/SAE) a 1:27

21. GARZELLI, Stefano (ITA/VIN) a 2:08
38. EVANS, Cadel (AUS/TMO) a 5:19
44. SEVILLA, Oscar (ESP/PHO) a 6:10
59. HAMILTON, Tyler (USA/PHO) a 10:52
76. VINOKOUROV, Alexandre (KAZ/TMO) a 12:00
96º BELOKI, Joseba (ESP/SDV) a 19:53


1. LANDIS, Floyd (USA/USP) 31:46:48
2. BELTRAN, Manuel (ESP-USP) a 33
3. MANCEBO, Francisco (ESP-IBB) a 38
4. NOZAL, Isidro (ESP-LST) a 51
5. VALVERDE, Alejandro (ESP-KEL) a 57
6. HERAS, Roberto (ESP-LST) a 1:35
7. MENCHOV, Denis (RUS-IBB) a 1:52
8. SASTRE, Carlos (ESP-CSC) a 1:55
9. GONZALEZ, Aitor (ESP-FAS) a 2:25
10. BLANCO, David (ESP-KEL) a 3:30
11. GARCIA QUESADA, Carlos (ESP-KEL) a 4:19
12. GOMEZ, Angel (ESP-ALM) a 4:26
13. PEREZ, Santiago (ESP-PHO) a 4:35
14. PEREZ, Luis (ESP-COF) a 5:06
15. PEÑA, Victor Hugo (COL-USP) a 5:08

18. CUNEGO, Damiano (ITA-SAE) a 5:35
19. EVANS, Cadel (AUS-TMO) a 6:11
20. JAKSCHE, Jorg (GER-CSC) a 6:47
24. GARZELLI, Stefano (ITA/VIN) a 7:24
29. SEVILLA, Oscar (ESP/PHO) a 9:28
35. HAMILTON, Tyler (USA/PHO) a 10:29
64. BELOKI, Joseba (ESP/SDV) a 24:06
110.VINOKOUROV, Alexandre (KAZ/TMO) a 47:05


i hope you know piepoli now my friend gntlmn

Virenque

Hehe look that! Yesterdays TT:
1 Tyler Hamilton (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems 47.16 (50.90 km/h)
...
178 Leonardo Piepoli (Ita) Saunier Duval-Prodir 8.13
179 Iñigo Cuesta (Spa) Cofidis, le credit par Telephone 8.18
180 Angelo Furlan (Ita) Alessio-Bianchi 9.04

Number of all riders: 180

He was loosing time in most of the stages and he is 14:51 back now..

philoakley

A bad day for the USP's today although there's still two weeks to go. Heras rode well but his team mate Nozal was superb on the last climb. After all the work he did for Heras he only finished a few seconds behind him. Mancebo and Valverde finished very strongly after suffering earlier on the climb. Based on yesterday's TT and today's mountain stage, Mancebo and Nozal are my favourites for victory but everyone can have a bad day.

gntlmn

Yep, he's quite a climber, but weak in the TT as Virenque points out. But the way he rode today makes you wonder if he wasn't resting a bit yesterday to go for the stage win today. I think that is true. It doesn't appear that Beloki was anywhere near to help him either. Piepoli has no teammates in the top 16 in this mountain stage.

The only other duos in the top ranks are Valverdi/Garcia Quesada and Landis/Beltran. Notice that Hamilton was a miserable 10:29 back, and Santiago Perez was the only Phonak rider in the top, but still 4:35 back.

By the way, it appears Heras is back. He and Nozal took a big chunk out of the GC today, rising many places in the ranks and riding close together.

The heat took a big toll on the riders today. I counted 12 dropouts today, and I wonder how many more will not sign up for tomorrow's stage as a result of today's hot stage. It doesn't take many stages like today's to put a lot of time between the placings on GC.

keydates

I think that the reason the Vuelta has so few people relative to the Giro and especially the Tour de France is that it's a relatively new Grand Tour (I think the newest) and has thus not gained the "prestige" among other people, is/was mostly won by a Spaniard (so other big name non-Spanish people were less likely to compete), and doesn't advertise itself as much as the other Tours.