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Once again I am disappointed by the coverage by British newspapers of the Tour de France. Yesterday Mark Cavendish won his second stage of the Tour de France. Since he is not a time triallist Mark has won every stage he possibly could win so far - 2 out of 3. He is British and the Tour de France is the biggest (cycle) race in the world - even none cyclists have heard of it. Furthermore, the one cyclist every none rider has heard of, Lance Armstrong (love him or hate him), made it to into the break group. Surely this was a story that could sell newspapers?
Apparently not. This morning's Times puts Mark Cavendish's victory 10 pages in from the back page. It seems there was no angle that the reporter could find to make the story more worthy of a page nearer the back. Note I'm not asking for the back page. I'm already resigned to our status as second class sports fans. A series of unanswered letters on this subject by myself to the Sports editors of the Telegraph, Times and Mail during Spring 2009, made me realise a cycling story would never make the back page.
Even more astonishing was what the Times felt was more important. Between the cycling coverage and the back page, there was no other story covering a sporting event. Let me say that again. Reading from the back page as sport is read, the cycling was preceded by ten pages of gossip. There was Ronaldo's introduction to his new Barcelona fans, possible transfer moves at Chelsea, more Wimbledon - even though it's now over - and pages of coverage about Brett Lee and the likely make up of the Australian Ashes Team. Oh and a nice story about why Ricky Ponting is so miserable. Some of this stuff was interesting to me as no doubt it will be to other people. But come on! Since when has gossip become more important than coverage of actual sporting events. Especially when a British athlete is successful in a global event. I despair!
Apparently not. This morning's Times puts Mark Cavendish's victory 10 pages in from the back page. It seems there was no angle that the reporter could find to make the story more worthy of a page nearer the back. Note I'm not asking for the back page. I'm already resigned to our status as second class sports fans. A series of unanswered letters on this subject by myself to the Sports editors of the Telegraph, Times and Mail during Spring 2009, made me realise a cycling story would never make the back page.
Even more astonishing was what the Times felt was more important. Between the cycling coverage and the back page, there was no other story covering a sporting event. Let me say that again. Reading from the back page as sport is read, the cycling was preceded by ten pages of gossip. There was Ronaldo's introduction to his new Barcelona fans, possible transfer moves at Chelsea, more Wimbledon - even though it's now over - and pages of coverage about Brett Lee and the likely make up of the Australian Ashes Team. Oh and a nice story about why Ricky Ponting is so miserable. Some of this stuff was interesting to me as no doubt it will be to other people. But come on! Since when has gossip become more important than coverage of actual sporting events. Especially when a British athlete is successful in a global event. I despair!
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Yep, I feel the same about the BBC website and news coverage. Brett Lee being out of the Ashes seems to be the main story. You'd have thought a pic of Cav sprinting is perfect for back pages and website front pages. Thats just the way it's going to be in Briatin I suppose.0
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Don't rant on here, tell the papers. Visit the website and look for the "contact us" page and try to pin down the sports editor. Send a brief email. If more people do this, it will generate move coverage.0
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Maybe if he shagged Jordan he'd get better coverage?0
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"There was Ronaldo's introduction to his new Barcelona fans,"
Mmmm, think they were probably Madrid fans, I doubt he has any fans in Bercelona0 -
Kléber wrote:Don't rant on here, tell the papers. Visit the website and look for the "contact us" page and try to pin down the sports editor. Send a brief email. If more people do this, it will generate move coverage.
Really? Since you read my "rant" properly you'll know I already did that :P0 -
To be fair to most of the population, Brett Lee missing the 1st (and possibly 2nd) Tests is a far bigger story than some bloke winning part of a bike race.
I actually have thought the Tour coverage in the papers hasn't been too bad, albeit very Cav & Lance-centric, but that's what sells to the non-cycling fans. Cav's stage win on Sunday made the front page of the Guardian sports supplement yesterday.0 -
ramador wrote:Once again I am disappointed by the coverage by British newspapers of the Tour de France. Yesterday Mark Cavendish won his second stage of the Tour de France. Since he is not a time triallist Mark has won every stage he possibly could win so far - 2 out of 3. He is British and the Tour de France is the biggest (cycle) race in the world - even none cyclists have heard of it. Furthermore, the one cyclist every none rider has heard of, Lance Armstrong (love him or hate him), made it to into the break group. Surely this was a story that could sell newspapers?
Apparently not. This morning's Times puts Mark Cavendish's victory 10 pages in from the back page. It seems there was no angle that the reporter could find to make the story more worthy of a page nearer the back. Note I'm not asking for the back page. I'm already resigned to our status as second class sports fans. A series of unanswered letters on this subject by myself to the Sports editors of the Telegraph, Times and Mail during Spring 2009, made me realise a cycling story would never make the back page.
Even more astonishing was what the Times felt was more important. Between the cycling coverage and the back page, there was no other story covering a sporting event. Let me say that again. Reading from the back page as sport is read, the cycling was preceded by ten pages of gossip. There was Ronaldo's introduction to his new Barcelona fans, possible transfer moves at Chelsea, more Wimbledon - even though it's now over - and pages of coverage about Brett Lee and the likely make up of the Australian Ashes Team. Oh and a nice story about why Ricky Ponting is so miserable. Some of this stuff was interesting to me as no doubt it will be to other people. But come on! Since when has gossip become more important than coverage of actual sporting events. Especially when a British athlete is successful in a global event. I despair!
Sadly, this is a recent phenomenon - papers full of transfer rumours/gossip - which seems more newsworthy than proper sport. There was a time when the football season finished and you'd hardly hear about it for 2 months. Sky Sports are the same - their lead story is nearly always football - " Carlos Kickaball has been seen visiting FC's training ground" i;e most of it is no news!
Being realistic, there are only 2 stories this week; Le Tour and Ashes. I do wonder how much the 'drug/doping' issue has affected the coverage of the sport. Saying that Joe Bloggs thinks the whole peloton is doped up - yet this morning 2 positive test have come up in Rugby League and Football.All Road/ Gravel: tbcWinter: tbcMTB: tbcRoad: tbc"Look at the time...." "he's fallen like an old lady on a cruise ship..."0 -
Maybe the BBC don’t want to give Cavendish much coverage because next year he might be riding for a Sky TV-sponsored team?Heavymental wrote:Yep, I feel the same about the BBC website and news coverage.
Apparently the possible Sky team hope to acquire Cav, Millar and/or Wiggy, as well as 7 or more other Brits, Boasson-Hagen, Lovkvist (why isn’t he in the TdF this year?), Alessandro Ballan and a couple more Italians.0 -
Heavymental wrote:Yep, I feel the same about the BBC website and news coverage. Brett Lee being out of the Ashes seems to be the main story. You'd have thought a pic of Cav sprinting is perfect for back pages and website front pages. Thats just the way it's going to be in Briatin I suppose.
The BBC websites does do live updates during the stages now, which is something.
Even most people riding bikes nly have a passing interest in the Tour, and none at all in cycling as a sport outside of the Tour. Cavendish winning stages is nice, but he's not in the Yellow jersey, so he's not really "winning" the way the casual fan understands it.
The newspapers reflect that. Expect stories if he makes it to Paris in the Green.. Then he's really won something they can go with (as long as the sub-editor will agree to run the pretty "why the green jersey is good to win even if it's not yellow" graphic)0 -
Who is Mark Cavendish? :shock:0
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Buy the Guardian then... has had great coverage of the Tour so far, including a gushing editorial by Richard Williams (their top sports writer) about Cav's heroics0
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It's better than it used to be. It's not all that long ago we were lucky to got a brief mention of who won the Tour when it was all over. Last night though I was suprised to be dodging the news so I didn't find out who'd won yesterday's stage before I watched the highlights. The beeb's even been covering some out of season news and the women's races.0
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knedlicky wrote:
Maybe the BBC don’t want to give Cavendish much coverage because next year he might be riding for a Sky TV-sponsored team?Heavymental wrote:Yep, I feel the same about the BBC website and news coverage.
Apparently the possible Sky team hope to acquire Cav, Millar and/or Wiggy, as well as 7 or more other Brits, Boasson-Hagen, Lovkvist (why isn’t he in the TdF this year?), Alessandro Ballan and a couple more Italians.
I would be very surprised if Cavendish is with Team Sky next year. Cav has already said money is not going to be a factor and it will be down to whether a team can deliver him to win stages. There is no doubt that the Comubia team are providing him with the best lead out possible and no way are Sky going to be as strong a team as Columbia.
In my view Cav would be crazy to move away from Columbia as he has the best people there to help him win stages which I don't think Sky will be able to give him.0 -
bipedal wrote:Buy the Guardian then... has had great coverage of the Tour so far, including a gushing editorial by Richard Williams (their top sports writer) about Cav's heroics
Yes, newspapers are more responsive to circulation figures......stop buying the Times and get the Guardian instead0 -
It has made the news headlines on "Lincs FM", my local radio station!
Cycling's a "minority" sport, Cav ain't going to be making £1/2 a million a week in wages, so he'll rank well behind some footballer, behind cricket, tennis & rugby (All sports we British lose at!)Remember that you are an Englishman and thus have won first prize in the lottery of life.0 -
Cav winning has been the top sport story on BBC News' UK news page for at least an hour or so after the stage. But it then gets replaced by more recent events - like Brett Lee or football chat. Fair enough, I guess - in the 24 hour news culture that exists on teh web they need to move fast to keep on top of events...0
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I've been surprised by the amount of coverage it's had recently. Yesterday there was a half page on Cavs win in the Daily Record. Usually the most you can expect is a sentence to say David Millar is in 111 place. Winner: PTP Vuelta 2007
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cannonfodder wrote:bipedal wrote:Buy the Guardian then... has had great coverage of the Tour so far, including a gushing editorial by Richard Williams (their top sports writer) about Cav's heroics
Yes, newspapers are more responsive to circulation figures......stop buying the Times and get the Guardian instead
Better still, read it on their website. They've got no idea which articles you've bought a paper for, but they certainly know which are the most popular articles online.Twitter: @RichN950 -
I complained to Radio4 as the start wasn't even mentioned on Saturday, but it does seem to be on most of their news bulletins now (although the presenter had no idea how to say Cancellara). To be fair though the 5Live coverage was quite good the other day.0
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Five Live cover the last 90mins of each stage live... go to the BBC Sport website and look for the audio link-- Dirk Hofman Motorhomes --0
