TdF reporting in Germany
This article was in a German national newspaper on Thursday (my translation)-
(Headline) Careful, not all professional cyclists are doped!
(Sub-headline) For TV viewers, everything is going to be different in this year’s Tour de France. No longer will the winners be the public heroes, rather the losers. These are the honest, not doped sportsmen who fail in grandiose fashion along the invincible route.
(Text) The Tour de France is about to begin. It could be the most unfair Grande Boucle of all time. Because for the first time it’s possible that not all riders have been able to be supplied with stimulants. And that’s unjust. All friends of cycling sport standing on the road edge are therefore asked not only to urge on dropped riders but also to spray them with oxygen-enriched blood or creams containing cortisone.
Admittedly, this could cause unrest in the peloton. But experts reckon anyway with ruined stages, in particular because cyclists who are under suspicion from their colleagues as likely being the next one to ‘come out of the closet’ will make panic breakaways.
Happily for TV viewers, the stage reports won’t appear exclusively in the Pharmacist’s Weekly magazine, but Channel 1 and Channel 2 will once again be present. Though more pressure is probably on the TV reporters than on the riders. After all, they have been regularly accused of keeping quiet about doping and their scathing about lack of success may have actually promoted doping.
In a training camp, all TV reporters had to agree to a Reporting Code of Ethic. Interviews with winners are to begin with critical questions like “Don’t you feel ashamed of the margin you won by? Do you think nobody noticed why?”
That doesn’t mean enthusiasm is forbidden, for example, on the notorious climb up to Plateau-de-Beille, an acceptable commentary might be “Fantastic, our Andi Klöden has no answer to Valverde’s attack. Super, he’s falling completely to pieces. We were starting to worry he would keep up this poisoned speed”.
The TV channels have also agreed to have advertising breaks just when sprint finishes are about to occur. As compensation, hours later they will show live, the broom wagon crossing the line, the bus carrying the exhausted and eliminated riders. The proposed commentary at such moments: “Great that honest sport can still be seen here”.
It is true the German Channels 1 and 2 (equivalent of BBC 1) are again showing the Tour every day this year, for instance, on Monday 3¾ hours live, and on Sunday week 6 hours live (the Tignes mountain stage), but they have said they may stop live reports if there are any new doping scandals at the Tour.
(Headline) Careful, not all professional cyclists are doped!
(Sub-headline) For TV viewers, everything is going to be different in this year’s Tour de France. No longer will the winners be the public heroes, rather the losers. These are the honest, not doped sportsmen who fail in grandiose fashion along the invincible route.
(Text) The Tour de France is about to begin. It could be the most unfair Grande Boucle of all time. Because for the first time it’s possible that not all riders have been able to be supplied with stimulants. And that’s unjust. All friends of cycling sport standing on the road edge are therefore asked not only to urge on dropped riders but also to spray them with oxygen-enriched blood or creams containing cortisone.
Admittedly, this could cause unrest in the peloton. But experts reckon anyway with ruined stages, in particular because cyclists who are under suspicion from their colleagues as likely being the next one to ‘come out of the closet’ will make panic breakaways.
Happily for TV viewers, the stage reports won’t appear exclusively in the Pharmacist’s Weekly magazine, but Channel 1 and Channel 2 will once again be present. Though more pressure is probably on the TV reporters than on the riders. After all, they have been regularly accused of keeping quiet about doping and their scathing about lack of success may have actually promoted doping.
In a training camp, all TV reporters had to agree to a Reporting Code of Ethic. Interviews with winners are to begin with critical questions like “Don’t you feel ashamed of the margin you won by? Do you think nobody noticed why?”
That doesn’t mean enthusiasm is forbidden, for example, on the notorious climb up to Plateau-de-Beille, an acceptable commentary might be “Fantastic, our Andi Klöden has no answer to Valverde’s attack. Super, he’s falling completely to pieces. We were starting to worry he would keep up this poisoned speed”.
The TV channels have also agreed to have advertising breaks just when sprint finishes are about to occur. As compensation, hours later they will show live, the broom wagon crossing the line, the bus carrying the exhausted and eliminated riders. The proposed commentary at such moments: “Great that honest sport can still be seen here”.
It is true the German Channels 1 and 2 (equivalent of BBC 1) are again showing the Tour every day this year, for instance, on Monday 3¾ hours live, and on Sunday week 6 hours live (the Tignes mountain stage), but they have said they may stop live reports if there are any new doping scandals at the Tour.
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