Tiogar : had to amend the stats : made a few typos. (doing a lot of that lately for some reason).
Here is Fotheringhams article : and his thoughts with the numbers of viewers etc.
Victorious Landis faces a future as uncertain as the Tour itself
William Fotheringham in Paris
Monday July 24, 2006
The Guardian
In 11 months' time the Tour de France circus will arrive in London for the great race's first ever grand départ from these shores. It is unlikely to arrive in any more certain a state than when it rolled into Paris yesterday for the sprint on the Champs-Elysées, won by Thor Hushovd.
To start with, it is unclear whether the first winner of the era after Lance Armstrong will actually make it to The Mall and Buckingham Palace next July. Floyd Landis completed his victory as expected over the weekend but he will have a hip replacement in the next few weeks and he will then enter territory where no cyclist of his level has been before. The former Mennonite mountain biker may recover in time for London or he may not.
By some quirk of fate races in the sixth year of a decade tend to be anachronistic, tucked between the reigns of two great champions, often with an unexpected result. The Dane Bjarne Riis, for example, won in 1996, which saw the end of Miguel Indurain; 10 years earlier was Bernard Hinault's last Tour, with his absorbing duel with Greg LeMond.
The pattern of this Tour was different from the controlled, largely predictable, years of Armstrong, with Landis's team unwilling to take a grip of events. Seven riders wore the yellow jersey, close to the record, while the outcome was in doubt until halfway through the final time-trial. As late as Saturday morning, Landis, Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre were all potential winners, with 30 seconds between them, and Landis's winning margin at the end, 57 seconds, was the closest since his fellow American LeMond's eight-second victory in 1989.
There were some intriguing patterns. The men at the top of the standings were familiar faces: Andreas Kloden finished second in 2004, Oscar Pereiro has twice finished 10th, Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastres are hardly spring chickens. A little further below them, however, there is a new generation, represented by the Italian Damiano Cunego, who took the best young rider's award; the Luxembourgeois Franck Schleck, who won at L'Alpe d'Huez, and the German Marcus Fothen.
At least two home cyclists should be at the start in London, assuming Bradley Wiggins decides he wants to return to the race after finishing his first Tour yesterday. Wiggins will grow in confidence and his fellow Briton David Millar finished in style, taking 11th place in Saturday's time-trial and then escaping twice yesterday on the Champs-Elysées. At one point Wiggins was active in the chase behind him.
The 2006 Tour began with the biggest doping scandal in cycling history, which is saying something given the abundance of disgrace that preceded the ejection of Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Francisco Mancebo, plus four of Alexandr Vinokourov's Astana team. The race reached its climax, however, with one of the most surprising mountain stages in the race's history last Thursday. It was a reminder, if it were needed, that while cycling can plumb the depths, it can also scale colossal heights of suspense and fortitude.
It would have been reasonable, perhaps, to expect a strong message from the Tour winner about the incident that shook the race before it had started and which is likely to shape cycling in the next few months, if not years, as the legal ramifications rumble on. But Landis did not seem willing to connect with the issue on Saturday and hid behind platitudes.
After being pressed on the subject he came up with this: "In this sport it's clear we do more than other sports to prevent doping and solve the problem. We have a reputation that seems not to want to go away. It's up to every child's parents to explain to them when they are watching the race what the best decisions are about."
This was a Tour where the favourites disappeared amid murky allegations and, as one revelation from the Spanish police followed another, no one seemed to have any idea just how much drug-taking was or was not going on, if Wiggins' view is typical. "I thought the sport was cleaner [before the scandal] but I've given up predicting anything," he said. "You just don't know. I don't know any more."
If that is the view of someone at the sharp end, who could forgive the fans for being confused if not sceptical? Perhaps this year's doping scandal was one too many, perhaps the viewing public were merely saturated with sport after the World Cup, but there was a distinct drop in television viewing figures for this year's race, with German audiences down 43%, those in America dropping 52% and French viewers down 23% for the first 16 days of the race, before Landis's epic on the stage to Morzine redressed the balance.
There were also disconcerting gaps among the spectators, notably at Pla-de- Beret in Spain but also in the Alps, where L'Alpe d'Huez was less populous than usual, and at La Toussuire where relatively few spectators watched Floyd Landis struggle. Even on Saturday's final time-trial there were long stretches of road where the riders were racing entirely alone.
This is a new trend for the Tour and it will be intriguing to see if it is merely a one-off, particularly as the French had their best Tour in at least 10 years, with Cyril Dessel and Christophe Moreau in the top 10 and six stages going to riders from French teams.
Hushovd's finish sprint ahead of the points winner Robbie McEwen - taking the prize for the third time - provided a curiously symmetrical ending for the most surprising race in many years, as the Norwegian had also won the opening prologue in Strasbourg. The Norwegian sandwich that enclosed the race was orderly enough; the three-week filling, however, was a smorgasbord of surprises.
Here is Fotheringhams article : and his thoughts with the numbers of viewers etc.
Victorious Landis faces a future as uncertain as the Tour itself
William Fotheringham in Paris
Monday July 24, 2006
The Guardian
In 11 months' time the Tour de France circus will arrive in London for the great race's first ever grand départ from these shores. It is unlikely to arrive in any more certain a state than when it rolled into Paris yesterday for the sprint on the Champs-Elysées, won by Thor Hushovd.
To start with, it is unclear whether the first winner of the era after Lance Armstrong will actually make it to The Mall and Buckingham Palace next July. Floyd Landis completed his victory as expected over the weekend but he will have a hip replacement in the next few weeks and he will then enter territory where no cyclist of his level has been before. The former Mennonite mountain biker may recover in time for London or he may not.
By some quirk of fate races in the sixth year of a decade tend to be anachronistic, tucked between the reigns of two great champions, often with an unexpected result. The Dane Bjarne Riis, for example, won in 1996, which saw the end of Miguel Indurain; 10 years earlier was Bernard Hinault's last Tour, with his absorbing duel with Greg LeMond.
The pattern of this Tour was different from the controlled, largely predictable, years of Armstrong, with Landis's team unwilling to take a grip of events. Seven riders wore the yellow jersey, close to the record, while the outcome was in doubt until halfway through the final time-trial. As late as Saturday morning, Landis, Oscar Pereiro and Carlos Sastre were all potential winners, with 30 seconds between them, and Landis's winning margin at the end, 57 seconds, was the closest since his fellow American LeMond's eight-second victory in 1989.
There were some intriguing patterns. The men at the top of the standings were familiar faces: Andreas Kloden finished second in 2004, Oscar Pereiro has twice finished 10th, Cadel Evans and Carlos Sastres are hardly spring chickens. A little further below them, however, there is a new generation, represented by the Italian Damiano Cunego, who took the best young rider's award; the Luxembourgeois Franck Schleck, who won at L'Alpe d'Huez, and the German Marcus Fothen.
At least two home cyclists should be at the start in London, assuming Bradley Wiggins decides he wants to return to the race after finishing his first Tour yesterday. Wiggins will grow in confidence and his fellow Briton David Millar finished in style, taking 11th place in Saturday's time-trial and then escaping twice yesterday on the Champs-Elysées. At one point Wiggins was active in the chase behind him.
The 2006 Tour began with the biggest doping scandal in cycling history, which is saying something given the abundance of disgrace that preceded the ejection of Jan Ullrich, Ivan Basso and Francisco Mancebo, plus four of Alexandr Vinokourov's Astana team. The race reached its climax, however, with one of the most surprising mountain stages in the race's history last Thursday. It was a reminder, if it were needed, that while cycling can plumb the depths, it can also scale colossal heights of suspense and fortitude.
It would have been reasonable, perhaps, to expect a strong message from the Tour winner about the incident that shook the race before it had started and which is likely to shape cycling in the next few months, if not years, as the legal ramifications rumble on. But Landis did not seem willing to connect with the issue on Saturday and hid behind platitudes.
After being pressed on the subject he came up with this: "In this sport it's clear we do more than other sports to prevent doping and solve the problem. We have a reputation that seems not to want to go away. It's up to every child's parents to explain to them when they are watching the race what the best decisions are about."
This was a Tour where the favourites disappeared amid murky allegations and, as one revelation from the Spanish police followed another, no one seemed to have any idea just how much drug-taking was or was not going on, if Wiggins' view is typical. "I thought the sport was cleaner [before the scandal] but I've given up predicting anything," he said. "You just don't know. I don't know any more."
If that is the view of someone at the sharp end, who could forgive the fans for being confused if not sceptical? Perhaps this year's doping scandal was one too many, perhaps the viewing public were merely saturated with sport after the World Cup, but there was a distinct drop in television viewing figures for this year's race, with German audiences down 43%, those in America dropping 52% and French viewers down 23% for the first 16 days of the race, before Landis's epic on the stage to Morzine redressed the balance.
There were also disconcerting gaps among the spectators, notably at Pla-de- Beret in Spain but also in the Alps, where L'Alpe d'Huez was less populous than usual, and at La Toussuire where relatively few spectators watched Floyd Landis struggle. Even on Saturday's final time-trial there were long stretches of road where the riders were racing entirely alone.
This is a new trend for the Tour and it will be intriguing to see if it is merely a one-off, particularly as the French had their best Tour in at least 10 years, with Cyril Dessel and Christophe Moreau in the top 10 and six stages going to riders from French teams.
Hushovd's finish sprint ahead of the points winner Robbie McEwen - taking the prize for the third time - provided a curiously symmetrical ending for the most surprising race in many years, as the Norwegian had also won the opening prologue in Strasbourg. The Norwegian sandwich that enclosed the race was orderly enough; the three-week filling, however, was a smorgasbord of surprises.
....Just glad I had my wireless laptop with me to stay tuned as the dealership had their tv locked on cnn....
