Womens racing. what a waste of time.
Vino'sGhost
Posts: 4,129
Or so it would seem, I actually quite like it, its different to the mens but frequently better to watch.
This year the organisers and sponsors are paying the same prize money to the women as to the men and what are they getting from the great cycling community? Well judging by the comments in here almost no interest.
And yet the great defenders of diversity and equality and the oh so right on actually dont give appear to give a hoot when there are more important things to keep them focused.
Topics like how much orange will be on a corner,
Tour de Swiss
Tubeless tires
Pages and pages about the mens version.
Perhaps womens racing is just crap.
This year the organisers and sponsors are paying the same prize money to the women as to the men and what are they getting from the great cycling community? Well judging by the comments in here almost no interest.
And yet the great defenders of diversity and equality and the oh so right on actually dont give appear to give a hoot when there are more important things to keep them focused.
Topics like how much orange will be on a corner,
Tour de Swiss
Tubeless tires
Pages and pages about the mens version.
Perhaps womens racing is just crap.
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There's not enough coverage, or not enough easy to get to coverage. I have to follow on Twitter with short clips to give me updates. The racing is great!0
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Women’s racing is great, but due to almost zero TV time much harder to follow.
The lack of a women’s grand tour doesn’t exactly help. It’s 2018 ffs, really shouldn’t be like this.0 -
lettingthedaysgoby wrote:Women’s racing is great, but due to almost zero TV time much harder to follow.
The lack of a women’s grand tour doesn’t exactly help. It’s 2018 ffs, really shouldn’t be like this.
Absoloutley agree. Ive seen almost as much tv coverage of sportives as i have womens racing.0 -
I think you're spot on tbh - the gulf between the commentary on the mens races vs the women's race currently on is significant.
In some sports (e.g. tennis) the difference in the spectacle is significant and I can see why some would prefer watching one particular gender (some prefer women's, some prefer men's) and in other sports the professional level for women's sport is visibly less entertaining than men's (e.g. I would suggest football or cricket). But there really shouldn't be any reason why getting involved in women's cycling should be less appealing to fan's of the sport overall.2015 Canyon Nerve AL 6.0 (son #1's)
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Yes when there is decent coverage and a back story I know about I enjoy it as much as the mens - so Nicole Cooke's various worlds and Olympic bids were gripping.
I tend to follow the sport through Eurosport and this forum, I don't really buy magazines, read many websites etc so my knowledge of women's racing is limited hence I can't really discuss it.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
The TdY had live coverage every day - but I can't see anywhere to watch the Women's Tour live.
Can't really get involved in a spoiler thread when you can't see it.0 -
As others have said, very hard to follow compared to men's cycling. I generally try and watch the Giro Rosa as I'm in Italy on those dates and can follow on RAI (it gets 3 million viewers in Italy) btw. I've even watched stages on the road.
Isn't the new UCI boss (David Lappartment) ambivalent women's cycling?
I see the Route de France Feminine (ex-womens' Tour de France) has been cancelled for the second year running due to organisation difficulties.
https://www.org-rc.fr/BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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When Lappartient took over as French Federation President they had the Tour de l'Aude, La Grande Boucle and the Route de Feminine. By the time he left the Federation they had all been cancelled.davidof wrote:Isn't the new UCI boss (David Lappartment) ambivalent women's cycling?
I see the Route de France Feminine (ex-womens' Tour de France) has been cancelled for the second year running due to organisation difficulties.
https://www.org-rc.fr/Twitter: @RichN950 -
RichN95 wrote:
When Lappartient took over as French Federation President they had the Tour de l'Aude, La Grande Boucle and the Route de Feminine. By the time he left the Federation they had all been cancelled.davidof wrote:Isn't the new UCI boss (David Lappartment) ambivalent women's cycling?
I see the Route de France Feminine (ex-womens' Tour de France) has been cancelled for the second year running due to organisation difficulties.
https://www.org-rc.fr/
Yeah, says it all really.BASI Nordic Ski Instructor
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When I go out for a ride on Sunday morning it's 99% blokes. Perhaps if more women had an interest in cycling there would be more interest in womens cycling?
Even in France, it's relatively rare to see a woman riding. Maybe it's just not that interesting to women.0 -
imafatman wrote:When I go out for a ride on Sunday morning it's 99% blokes. Perhaps if more women had an interest in cycling there would be more interest in womens cycling?
Even in France, it's relatively rare to see a woman riding. Maybe it's just not that interesting to women.
Is it really 99% men ? It's predominantly men round here too of course but nothing like that extent. There are local womens rides meet and on the chain gangs and fast training rides it's still probably a good 10% women, and of course that many more women can't keep up with those compared to men. I'm talking about club cyclists on road bikes.[Castle Donington Ladies FC - going up in '22]0 -
About 1/3 of our club members are ladies.0
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As others said the coverage is terrible for the Women's Tour, I thought I'd sit and watch some while having lunch yesterday expecting ITV4 to have live coverage but apparently repeats of 80s TV shows are more interesting to TV execs.0
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Dorset Boy wrote:About 1/3 of our club members are ladies.
I did a sportive last weekend, and there were loads of women, it was refreshing. And the level of equipment was generally very high as was the level of fitness. A far cry from when i first rode cyclosportives on the continent when any woman riding was exceptional to the point that people would cheer
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Our club is near as dammit 50/50. The chain gang I rode last week was about 40% female too - I'd love to be able to watch The Women's Tour live. The audience is out there!0
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DeVlaeminck wrote:imafatman wrote:When I go out for a ride on Sunday morning it's 99% blokes. Perhaps if more women had an interest in cycling there would be more interest in womens cycling?
Even in France, it's relatively rare to see a woman riding. Maybe it's just not that interesting to women.
Is it really 99% men ? It's predominantly men round here too of course but nothing like that extent. There are local womens rides meet and on the chain gangs and fast training rides it's still probably a good 10% women, and of course that many more women can't keep up with those compared to men. I'm talking about club cyclists on road bikes.
Not rare in France, well not round here anyway. My club has a women's only group too (not saying this is good, just a fact).0 -
Which one? Cobbler Classic? I did that one and yes there were many women taking part, though I wasn't that surprised.Vino'sGhost wrote:I did a sportive last weekend, and there were loads of women, it was refreshing.0 -
there seems to be less talk about doping in womens cycling . so you will get less idiots continually starting new pointless topics about them. i see loads of women out cycling and plenty in my club . planning on going to watch the womens tour on sunday in north wales .0
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highlights on ITV4 at 8pmVino'sGhost wrote:lettingthedaysgoby wrote:Women’s racing is great, but due to almost zero TV time much harder to follow.
The lack of a women’s grand tour doesn’t exactly help. It’s 2018 ffs, really shouldn’t be like this.
Absoloutley agree. Ive seen almost as much tv coverage of sportives as i have womens racing.0 -
Is it perhaps the case that their isn't the same strength in depth in the women's peloton compared to the men's? If this is the case, perhaps it stops the TV companies and sponsors from investing in women's racing.
That one-off mountain race last year where Lizzie Deignan finished second was pretty exciting. The ladies need events like that and good coverage and maybe things will advance. The Ladies Tour of Flanders is an opportunity to showcase both races simultaneously. I think they didn't even show the finishing straight finale of the women's race live during the overall coverage, just some recorded footage a few minutes later, even though Carlton was describing the ladies' finish live and lamenting the fact that the local producer was responsible for the footage Eurosport can show. They did a better job at showing the women's race finish of La Fleche Wallone.
This observation might also be inaccurate but you have the "glamour factor" too. Liz Hatch probably got an inordinate amount of coverage as a bike rider because she is an attractive woman (IMHO), not because she was a big winner within the sport. The riders shouldn't be judged by their looks and women's cycling shouldn't "need" attractive-looking competitors to garner coverage but maybe that is still a factor in the minds of sponsors and TV producers.
DD.0 -
If people watched it they'd give it better coverage."Unfortunately these days a lot of people don’t understand the real quality of a bike" Ernesto Colnago0
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I think the women's tob was great last year and has started really well this year.
It's generally exciting from the off and it's great to see it growing.
However, itv don't help with their tob coverage. The highlights are fine (obviously live coverage would be better) but the primary commentator puts you to sleep. He doesn't show any excitement and full sprints and attacks somehow lose something for the viewer from his lack of enthusiasm. And i suspect makes the race seem quite boring for casual viewers.0 -
It's the age-old dilemma - not enough of the general public are interested in womens' cycling, so ITV puts on 80s TV repeats as they are more popular. If they showed more, there may be more interest generated, but why would they?
It's a similar argument with the gender pay difference in cycling. Why is there far more money in mens' cycling? Because more people watch mens' cycling, so more TV companies will show it, therefore more sponsors want to be associated with it.
Paying women the same as men does nothing but bend reality. Womens' cycling as a commercial spectacle is not as valuable as mens', so there is no justification for rewarding women the same as men for racing.0 -
Have we just discovered the perfect job for a certain Mr Kirby??redvision wrote:I think the women's tob was great last year and has started really well this year.
It's generally exciting from the off and it's great to see it growing.
However, itv don't help with their tob coverage. The highlights are fine (obviously live coverage would be better) but the primary commentator puts you to sleep. He doesn't show any excitement and full sprints and attacks somehow lose something for the viewer from his lack of enthusiasm. And i suspect makes the race seem quite boring for casual viewers.0 -
Well i started watching it, found the coverage too rubbish, then stopped.gsk82 wrote:If people watched it they'd give it better coverage.
Haven't seen what happened today but yesterday was a fun stage, just hard to follow with the poor coverage and highlights.0 -
The dragon ride it was a good day for itorraloon wrote:
Which one? Cobbler Classic? I did that one and yes there were many women taking part, though I wasn't that surprised.Vino'sGhost wrote:I did a sportive last weekend, and there were loads of women, it was refreshing. 0 -
I’ve often wondered if there was strength in depth, there’s certainly not much in amateur domestic racingDolan Driver wrote:Is it perhaps the case that their isn't the same strength in depth in the women's peloton compared to the men's? If this is the case, perhaps it stops the TV companies and sponsors from investing in women's racing.
That one-off mountain race last year where Lizzie Deignan finished second was pretty exciting. The ladies need events like that and good coverage and maybe things will advance. The Ladies Tour of Flanders is an opportunity to showcase both races simultaneously. I think they didn't even show the finishing straight finale of the women's race live during the overall coverage, just some recorded footage a few minutes later, even though Carlton was describing the ladies' finish live and lamenting the fact that the local producer was responsible for the footage Eurosport can show. They did a better job at showing the women's race finish of La Fleche Wallone.
This observation might also be inaccurate but you have the "glamour factor" too. Liz Hatch probably got an inordinate amount of coverage as a bike rider because she is an attractive woman (IMHO), not because she was a big winner within the sport. The riders shouldn't be judged by their looks and women's cycling shouldn't "need" attractive-looking competitors to garner coverage but maybe that is still a factor in the minds of sponsors and TV producers.
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Lucan2 wrote:It's the age-old dilemma - not enough of the general public are interested in womens' cycling, so ITV puts on 80s TV repeats as they are more popular. If they showed more, there may be more interest generated, but why would they?
It's a similar argument with the gender pay difference in cycling. Why is there far more money in mens' cycling? Because more people watch mens' cycling, so more TV companies will show it, therefore more sponsors want to be associated with it.
Paying women the same as men does nothing but bend reality. Womens' cycling as a commercial spectacle is not as valuable as mens', so there is no justification for rewarding women the same as men for racing.
This.
It's the same reason F1 drivers, golfers and footballers get paid gazillions and why most of us can't name any crown green bowlers. Nothing to do with fairness and everything to do with market forces. I don't see a big demand for women's cycling out there if I'm honest. There's not a lot of jiu jitsu on tele either.0 -
l'etape are qouting 500+ women riders out of 4,000+ total riders on the Dragon Ride,Vino'sGhost wrote:
The dragon ride it was a good day for itorraloon wrote:
Which one? Cobbler Classic? I did that one and yes there were many women taking part, though I wasn't that surprised.Vino'sGhost wrote:I did a sportive last weekend, and there were loads of women, it was refreshing.
None of them finished behind me :oops:0
