Guido Mukk wrote:
...this was just one TdF.
Cycling is much more outside that race..Lance should know that (he is trying to hire specialy 2009 TdF stars).
And Lotto ..Evans still is a man.
Dont know was it sponsor demanding..but "heil" to Evans and Menchov that they finished this race.. after first week knowledge..that this is gonna be disaster.
I just want to point out that while Cycling is much more outside of the TDF... it's not in the US.
If Radioshack won EVERY race in cycling next year and bombed in the Tour... they'd be viewed in the US as a failure. If they bombed every race except the Tour, which they won... they'd be viewed as a huge success.
And it's going to be a US team... so the Tour IS the primary focus. It has to be in order to be successful for a sponsor for advertising... at least if that sponsor is primarily focused on the US market.
ruben wrote:
Paris Roubaix is also very big in the US btw.
*spits out water*
*wipes mouth*
Are you joking? No one here gives a shit about Paris-Roubaix. Plenty of the really big cycling fans I know of, who know that the Tour isn't everything, still don't know or care about Paris-Roubaix...
US cycling calendar..
Amgen tour (governor Arnold will be there and Levi will probably win)
Tour de France (Lance is there and he should also definatly win)
ruben wrote:
Paris Roubaix is also very big in the US btw.
*spits out water*
*wipes mouth*
Are you joking? No one here gives a shit about Paris-Roubaix. Plenty of the really big cycling fans I know of, who know that the Tour isn't everything, still don't know or care about Paris-Roubaix...
I live near George Hincapie's home town.
He's recognized... as being the guy who helped Lance win a bunch of TDF's.
Nobody even knows what a "classic" race his. They have no idea he was pretty good at them. All they know is he won a stage at the tour, helped Lance... and wore yellow for a day.
It's sad... but that's what it is. Paris Roubaix means nothing to the average US sports fan. Many think the Tour of California is bigger then the Giro d'Italia because it gets more coverage here.
I spent the 3 weeks of the Tour explaining to people how Lance probably wouldn't win. Nobody believed me... because this was LANCE... and they didn't know who this Contador fellow was or why he could even THINK of taking the team leadership from Lance. When Lance got the time from the split in the pelaton to move to second, they thought it was over and he'd win easily.
That's the casual US fan on cycling.
EVERYTHING is second to the Tour.
Garmin and Columbia are both trying to grow their market outside of the US. So while those teams care a lot about the Tour... they care about other races as well.
Radioshack? Not so much. They are looking for the US market only pretty much. Since Lance will draw US TV coverage, they'll get more coverage from the other races then any other team would in their situation... but the Tour WILL be their primary focus.
