Easter in Flanders

De Ronde Recap

Sunday was an unusual Tour of Flanders. With sunny weather and warm temperatures, the conditions were not going to dictate who won. That did not keep Gerolsteiner riders from falling off their bikes however. Crashes did take their toll as an early crash probably kept Tom Boonen from getting his third title.

I was somewhat disappointed with the Versus coverage today. I went to my cousin's wedding in Salt Lake and when you share a hotel room with your two little boys, you cannot fire up the laptop and watch it live, so I recorded it on the DVR and avoided looking at the results. So when I realized after sitting down to watch it that they only had an hour's worth of coverage and of that hour only about 40 minutes was devoted to actual race coverage and that they only picked up the last 40km. Thus, while it is better than no bike racing and no Ronde, it kind of left me unsatisfied.

Anyway, Lampre's Alessandro Ballan had a great day as he rode the type of Ronde that proved why it is a classic. He had been riding well all spring and has showed good form. After covering Boonen's attack on the Muur of Geraardsbergen Ballan rode away with Predictor's Leif Hoste. The two got a lead and worked well together. Hoste has come close to winning in both 2004 and 2006 when he finished second. However, the final sprint between Ballan and Hoste proved to be about 100 meters too far for Hoste who looked to have the race won before Ballan came around him at the very end.

Hoste now has three second place finishes over the last four years. That is really hard luck for a Belgian in his home town race.

US Whatever They Called It on NBC On Saturday

In case you missed the race that almost was not, the Belgian weather on Saturday was in Virginia. NBC committed two hours of prime Saturday afternoon sports coverage to the US Open Cycling Championships which was run on a course from Williamsburg to Richmond, Virginia. The first year race had been plagued by management and sponsorship issues. However, they had the A-team out for race coverage with Bob Roll, John Eustice, and Frankie Andreu working the race with Al Trautwig. They had helicopters and motorcycles providing pictures just like you would expect in Europe. Unfortunately, bad weather delayed the start of the race and some of the domestic teams were upset about having to ride in cold, snowy and wet conditions. The course was more difficult than some of the domestic races that get run with cobbles and climbs making it Belgium like over the closing circuits in Richmond. Symmetrics Svein Tuft won the race. It is good that the race got TV coverage. However, poor weather, poor organization, poor racing and poor spectator turnout made the race less than appealing to watch on TV.

Domestic Sponsorship Blues

With the excitement permeating American cycling last fall with everyone announcing their big races, the concerns I expressed then about saturation in the market and sponsorship issues have come true. The US Open Cycling Championship failed to land a major sponsor and slashed its prize budget by 2/3rds. The Tour of Georgia only got a replacement for Ford last week announcing that AT&T would be its presenting sponsor. The Tour of Utah announced a one year hiatus to get things lined up for 2008. None of this is good for the sport. Many promoters do not realize how expensive putting on top races can be. There is a reason that great domestic races like the Coors Classic, Tour Du Pont, San Francisco Grand Prix and the Ore-Ida/HP Women's Challenge have gone out of business: expenses exceeding sponsorship revenue ultimately doom even the best events.