Re: The reason Lance has won all these tours is he...
...was an all-American champ. Only an American (possible) winner can keep MILLIONS of American viewers stuck to their TV sets stage after stage after stage... The Tour de France managers perfectly understood that. They quickly realized that Lance Armstrong, a hero back from cancer, was a godsend that, in turn, might prove a cash cow as far as TV coverage rights were concerned... provided, of course, that he WON enough tours... US viewers, especially those hooked on cycling, bird-watching or veggie cooking, make up an affluent audience --they're worth millions of dollars in terms of purchasing power and... TV rights. Get the picture?
Now, don't get me wrong: I'm not insinuating that Armstrong's seven victories in a row were a setup. He IS the greatest champion ever of the Tour de France. To narrowly and pettily focus on the doping side as most of the French press does is to miss the larger picture. It takes a lot to rise to the top. It takes a mix of (superior) qualities and circumstances for an individual to sweep his/her way to the top of his/her discipline --be it sport, showbiz, banking, industry, politics,... Whatever your trade, art, or practice, you'll never make it to the top playing by the book, relying on others' fairness, never bending the rules....
Of course, what didn't help, in Armstrong's case was his snubbing the French media. As a sport celebrity like Armstrong, you refuse to grace L'Equipe (France's #1 sports tabloid) with an "exclusive interview" at your own peril --and cost. Indeed, French muckrakers can't rob Armstrong of his seven successive wins --but they can cunningly damage his (present and future) advertising worth. After all, nobody wants to use a "junkie" to boost one's corporate image and brands....
Posted on Wed, Jul. 27, 2005
Lance's final ride leaves uncertainties
By GIL LeBRETON
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
For three weeks, it filled our ears like a sidewalk cafe melody. Our daily Claire de Lune.
Two British voices, patiently measured. The seductive overhead scenes of the French countryside. The corkscrew mountain paths, lined with fervent onlookers.
The Tour de France makes grand television, the Outdoor Life Network (OLN) proved to us. A record 1.7 million viewers, the largest in OLN history, tuned in Sunday to watch the race's final stage.
But even as Austin's Lance Armstrong was mounting the victory podium for the seventh and final time, the void was forming behind him.
What happens now?
For OLN and the 1.7-million American viewers, will there be a Tour de France after Lance?
Certainement, the race will go on. Since 1903, the world's most famous bicycle race has survived mountain passes, occupying Germans, two World Wars and, perhaps, the most unchivalrous slap of all, Americans on the victory stand.
But for OLN, Elvis has left the building. What American cyclist is there to fill Armstrong's golden shoes?
In CBS-TV's token, overwritten wrap-up of the race Sunday afternoon, Armstrong was asked if there was an American in the wings who might look good in yellow.
As he normally does, Armstrong answered bluntly.
"Uh, no," he said. And after seven years, there should be no reason to doubt Lance now.
With five finishers in the top 17, U.S. riders have never performed as well as they did in this Tour de France. Levi Leipheimer finished sixth, Floyd Landis rode to ninth, George Hincapie was 14th and Bobby Julich 17th. Three Americans won stages.
But of those five top finishers, only Landis, who hails from Lancaster, Pa., is under 30. Julich will be 34 by the next Tour de France and Hincapie, who rode as part of Armstrong's Discovery Channel team, will be 33.
For eight years, the U.S. Postal Service served as the major sponsor of Armstrong's team. Lance repaid the USPS with six Tour triumphs. There are kids in Lyon, Munich and Milan who, if an Express Mail truck pulled up in front of their homes, would recognize the logo.
When the Discovery Channel signed to succeed USPS as the team's sponsor last summer -- for a reported three years and $30 million -- it did so under the agreement that Armstrong would ride the Tour at least one more time. He didn't go back for the croissants; he wanted to leave U.S. cycling with full pockets and in good hands.
But now what?
The sponsor doesn't run the team. A group that includes Armstrong's agent, Bill Stapleton, and Lance himself operate it.
The team manager, Johan Bruyneel, is from Belgium. Discovery's Yaroslav Popovych, who earned the Tour's white jersey as its best young rider, is from Ukraine. Hincapie looms as the sole American heir apparent.
Are Americans going to tune in next July, day after day, and cheer for a kid from the Ukraine that they've likely never heard speak? Doubtful. The French weren't all that crazy about Armstrong, either.
A lot of decisions will have to be made in the months ahead, Bruyneel said to reporters in France last week. The Discovery Channel apparently has negotiated its way onto cable TV systems abroad and down under -- over 150 nations. Bruyneel suggested that a "global" sponsor might be satisfied with a global, multi-national team.
Oh, really? Please raise your TV remote controls if you subscribe to that DirecTV cricket package.
An American TV audience is going to want to see American cyclists riding at the head of the peloton. Lance has spoiled them.
The two young U.S. names most often mentioned, David Zabriskie and Tom Danielson, are 26 and 27. Zabriskie's meltdown in this Tour, while still wearing the yellow jersey, suggests his day might be coming, but not soon enough. Neither has the war scars to challenge Jan Ullrich or Ivan Basso for three weeks.
An educated guess: The gutsy Alexander Vinokourov of Kazakhstan will jump from the German-based T-Mobile team to Discovery Channel, and Bruyneel will buttress him with at least three American riders.
Tour de France viewers here will have to live with it. Life on OLN after Lance won't be the same.
But remember this: For 83 years, no U.S. cyclist even came close to winning the Tour de France.
And American riders have now won 10 of the past 20.
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