Prudhomme, rebuttal to a question, please

Lichtblick

Hi, I've been afk for a few days, during which my partner asked me this: (or words to this effect)

How come Prudhomme is in charge if he is not a professional cyclist and never has been?
Shouldn't a cyclist have that job?

Please note, guys, this is NOT my question. I'm asking for a rebuttal, because I couldn't think of one. :shock:

If it helps at all, he's a football fan. Maybe a rebuttal in football terms would help?
No swearing allowed. Ta.

slim_boy_fat

How many sports has Barry Hearn played?

RichN95.

Because he's running a business and his ability to do that has nothing to do with his ability to ride a bike. The CEO of Manchester United isn't an ex-pro.
He has ex-pros on his staff to provide technical information.

Lichtblick

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

How many sports has Barry Hearn played?

I'm so sorry, but I've never heard of him.

slim_boy_fat

Lichtblick wrote:

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

How many sports has Barry Hearn played?

I'm so sorry, but I've never heard of him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Hearn

He's a sports promoter and has turned round the fortunes of a number of marginal sports in the UK. Trained as an accountant, with no experience of playing sport yet has done wonders for a few sports when he took over the running of them.

Lichtblick

RichN95 wrote:

Because he's running a business and his ability to do that has nothing to do with his ability to ride a bike. The CEO of Manchester United isn't an ex-pro.
He has ex-pros on his staff to provide technical information.

Is that Ferguson, I've heard of him.

I'm real sorry, but I don't follow football, I merely tolerate having it on during the bike-racing off-season.....

He (the Prudhomme-doubting man) is trying (to understand my keen interest in pro cycling). This year he's even heard of Cavendish, Wiggins and Contador - and Hoy. I then explained about track and road racing, but faced with a football fanatic there's only so much polite interest to be had.

Oh and thanks to me he can now understand what Giro and Vuelta mean, and why I grab the sports pages first, for a change.

slim_boy_fat

Lichtblick wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Because he's running a business and his ability to do that has nothing to do with his ability to ride a bike. The CEO of Manchester United isn't an ex-pro.
He has ex-pros on his staff to provide technical information.

Is that Ferguson, I've heard of him.

I'm real sorry, but I don't follow football, I merely tolerate having it on during the bike-racing off-season.....

He (the Prudhomme-doubting man) is trying (to understand my keen interest in pro cycling). This year he's even heard of Cavendish, Wiggins and Contador - and Hoy. I then explained about track and road racing, but faced with a football fanatic there's only so much polite interest to be had.

Oh and thanks to me he can now understand what Giro and Vuelta mean, and why I grab the sports pages first, for a change.

No Ferguson is the manager, he picks the team and decides the tactics. A bit like a DS on a cycling team. Putting on the Tour is a bit like running a major company, with budgets, logistics, PR, advertising, etc to be taken care of. No need to have any knowledge or experience of cycling to make a good job of that. Getting the cycling side right, route, rest days, sprint points, etc is probably a very small part of organising the Tour and he will have plenty of people advising him on that who do have the knowledge and experience.

Richmond Racer

Prudhomme just needs to be a damn good senior executive, managing a commercial sporting operation for the races owned by the ASO - for the Amaury family. It requires business management skills, skills that are domain-agnostic.

RichN95.

Lichtblick wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Because he's running a business and his ability to do that has nothing to do with his ability to ride a bike. The CEO of Manchester United isn't an ex-pro.
He has ex-pros on his staff to provide technical information.

Is that Ferguson, I've heard of him.

I'm real sorry, but I don't follow football, I merely tolerate having it on during the bike-racing off-season.....

Well you did ask for it in football terms.

Manchester United is owned by the Glaser Family. The TdF equivalent of them is the Amaury Family - they own ASO.
Manchester United (the business) is run by David Gill. He comes from the world of finance. Prudhomme is his equivalent. Prudhomme is an ex-TV man.
The football side of Manchester United is run by Ferguson/Moyes. This is the technical side of the company and needs technical knowledge of the sport. The TdF equivalent is race director Jean-Francois Peschaux. He is an ex-pro.

above_the_cows

Christian Prudhomme is like Karren Brady.

Lichtblick

Slim Boy Fat wrote:

Lichtblick wrote:

RichN95 wrote:

Because he's running a business and his ability to do that has nothing to do with his ability to ride a bike. The CEO of Manchester United isn't an ex-pro.
He has ex-pros on his staff to provide technical information.

Is that Ferguson, I've heard of him.

I'm real sorry, but I don't follow football, I merely tolerate having it on during the bike-racing off-season.....

He (the Prudhomme-doubting man) is trying (to understand my keen interest in pro cycling). This year he's even heard of Cavendish, Wiggins and Contador - and Hoy. I then explained about track and road racing, but faced with a football fanatic there's only so much polite interest to be had.

Oh and thanks to me he can now understand what Giro and Vuelta mean, and why I grab the sports pages first, for a change.

No Ferguson is the manager, he picks the team and decides the tactics. A bit like a DS on a cycling team. Putting on the Tour is a bit like running a major company, with budgets, logistics, PR, advertising, etc to be taken care of. No need to have any knowledge or experience of cycling to make a good job of that. Getting the cycling side right, route, rest days, sprint points, etc is probably a very small part of organising the Tour and he will have plenty of people advising him on that who do have the knowledge and experience.

OK, this is good, thanks.

He also asked who decides on the route (each year). I have to presume that it isn''t Prudhomme per se, but a huge group of people who know down to the tiniest detail what exactly is demanded of the cyclists on the chosen route, each year.

He also asked (politely) when I was talking about the time-cut, who the commisars are? The ones who decide. The referees, I said. Are they all ex-cyclists, he asked. Of course, I said, definitively.

Now you're going to tell me that they are not? S'ok, he doesn't read this. :roll:

alan_a

Lichtblick wrote:

He also asked who decides on the route (each year). I have to presume that it isn''t Prudhomme per se, but a huge group of people who know down to the tiniest detail what exactly is demanded of the cyclists on the chosen route, each year.

Put simply, MONEY decides the route each year.

Prudhomme and his team have a basic plan. They want to include key features be it a particular alpine climb or passing through a certain village to mark an anniversary of an event or death. E.G. 2 years ago finish at the top of Galibier to mark the 100th anniversary of its first use by TdF or this yesterday passing the site of the death of Fabio Casartelli on Col de Portet d'Aspet.

However with the exception of Paris and 1 or 2 other rare exceptions (top of Galibier 2 years ago), the 40 or so towns that host a stage start / finish pay ASO for the privilege. Some towns pay massive amounts - Pau for example - because there is lots of nearby competition from other towns like Lourdes or Tarbes. Other places pay a peppercorn amount because they are the only viable option between 2 iconic stages.

The city that hosts the Grand Depart typically pays 40-50% of the total amount ASO get from stage towns.

ddraver

A good analogy is actually Dave Brailsford. Ok he had a minimal cycling career but hardly anything in comparison to most Team Managers. where his skills lie is getting the best people to do the best job they can whilst working for one aim. A reverse example would be Vaughters whos not at the races this year becase he's doing an MBA to try and catch up with Brailsford on that aspect

Clive Woodward (England Rugby) was another example where his speciality was getting technical specialists together rather than providing any great technical input himself. In many ways he was SDB before SDB happened