Signs of times to come (May 2008)

(This column was pulled by AEG from the Tour of California special issue.)

In addition to animated and competitive bike racing, there were some compelling undercurrents at this year’s Amgen Tour of California. The pre-race drama provided by the Astana and Rock Racing teams was fascinating, we saw a major step forward in terms of content presentation, and the race offered a glimpse into the future of cycling.

After learning of their exclusion from the Tour de France and other ASO events for 2008, Astana used the Tour of California as a platform to launch the Trek-produced Let Levi Ride online petition. ASO’s decision is a topic for another column but, regardless, I was impressed by the subdued response from Astana and their sponsors. By avoiding branding for Trek, the team or even cycling itself, LetLeviRide.com placed the emphasis on Levi as a regular guy wronged, something that anyone can relate to. More significant, though, was how the campaign encourages fans to “be heard.”

The fact that cycling events are free to watch is one of the sport’s biggest assets, but the downside is that fans can’t vote directly with their wallets when they don’t like the decisions being made. So, even though Trek’s role in Let Levi Ride wasn’t immediately disclosed, it’s still positive that they spurred fans to express their opinions. This petition is unlikely to change ASO’s mind, but the idea behind it will hopefully influence their decision making in the future.

The Astana saga aside, Rock Racing took advantage of the hype surrounding their launch and the return of a game Mario Cipollini to raise some interesting points. Despite a torrent of criticism, Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla and Santiago Botero – prevented from starting due to an agreement signed by all the teams in the race, not a UCI ban – showed up to represent the Double R and people lined up to get their autographs. Rock Racing’s expo presence, featuring a 35-foot bus, looked to me like the most trafficked in the venue.

The implication is that the public might be more receptive to the returns of riders who’ve served their suspensions and are cleared to race than the people who run the sport might think. Although the images clash, Rock Racing and Let Levi Ride both ask the same question: is cycling establishment’s caution in reintegrating tainted riders and teams more conservative than the fans’ own attitudes? It certainly surprised a lot of the people that I talked to that public opinion appeared to swing away from the anti-doping hardliners.

An even greater portent might be the improved Adobe Tour Tracker website. If you didn’t see it, you missed out. The most notable features were live video with audio commentary and real-time GPS tracking on a per-rider basis with integrated maps. Unfortunately, the GPS features performed inconsistently, due in large part to the bad weather. Also, the site had bandwidth issues and its social features could use some refinement. Still, the Tour Tracker blew the television coverage out of the water. Not that the Versus shows were bad, but that medium in general is on the trailing edge.

There’s a tendency to say that cycling will never break through as a pro sport without television. But do we really need it? Almost everyone who has cable has a broadband data connection, and the Tour Tracker is simply better than regular television, which cannot provide the breadth or depth of information made possible by new technologies. The stronger product will win out as those features become more reliable and the Tour Tracker, in which other events have shown interest, positions cycling to take advantage of this shift.

Generally speaking, the idea of pro cycling improving its product was the theme that I noticed at the Tour of California. Taken as a whole, what happened there implies a tightening of the processes by which information is distributed and feedback is received, so that fans can become more engaged with the content produced by more responsive teams and events. The more I see, the more optimistic I am.