It’s partly form the TV license (although only a fraction of it) it’s from advertisers at the course (which is very different form the team sponsors), and some other stuff. It was a smart move from the organisers to have the women finish after the men, to increase viewership. Having the men’s & women’s race on the same day has some other advantages too. Parts of the infrastructure for broadcasting can be shared (like the extremely expensive relay-airplane). Disadvantage is, that the women’s race does not add much value for the sponsors & host towns, since people (still) are mostly there for the men’s race.
I can imagine that women’s racing is particularly popular in NL, since dutch women are just completely dominating the sport . But I know that it’s not that far off in other countries. When there are live broadcasts of women’s races, viewership is always high.
All this is just a long way of saying: the priority needs to be to put on womens races and broadcast them. Which is expensive. Or like one of the organisers put it quite bluntly: “we can dish out 16k for the female winner of omloop, or we can organise a female Scheldeprijs. We can’t do both” (paraphrasing)
So again, not saying it’s right or wrong, but if there is less viewership of A compared to B, the pool will obviously be less. I can’t think of anywhere this wouldn’t be the case, not even considering genders and not even considering sports
It’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem. organising, and especially broadcasting races is extremely expensive. And it will only pay off with a certain viewership, for which there are no guarantees. Companies just don’t like to take these kinds of risks. So you kinda need good viewership to attract advertisers (and get some decent money for the TV license), but to have good viewership you need to broadcast first, which means spending tons of cash.
There are of course some other factors at play, but it’s the gist of it.
I think Women’s sports, not just cycling, isn’t being done any favors by having men mixed into the field due to new social norms. I watch women’s highlights on YouTube when they come up on the playlists I watch, but I don’t explicitly look for women’s races to watch because I don’t know any of the athletes, probably because they are not as mainstream. In fact I can’t think of any female cyclist off the top of my head, except one who is questionable.
This issue doesn’t seem to exist in other sports like Tennis and Golf, neither of which I watch but can think of several players off the top of my head. I don’t know what the pay gaps are, but at least the athletes are more well known, then again cycling is a fairly niche sport on a global scale
This is the chicken and egg problem again … you don’t know any of the athletes because there aren’t enough races. The viewing figures for elite women’s cyclocross show that when you offer footage on a par with that of the men, you get real engagement and a broader range of viewers. This season and last, the women’s CX was frequently more interesting and exciting than the men’s - which is why I hardly missed any of the women’s races all season, but skipped a few of the men’s.
Yea it’s a tough one to figure out. If less people watch, the broadcasting companies don’t want to take a chance and spend money showing something that they think people don’t want to see, but they don’t know if people aren’t watching because they don’t care or because it’s harder to find the broadcast.
The simple and rather simple minded retort is that this exists purely because of sexism/inequality/misogyny/patriarchy, and perhaps society has a certain prejudice towards thinking men should dominate sports but I don’t know if it really stems from malicious views. I wouldn’t watch women’s football because I don’t want to see women tackle the crap out of each other, not because I don’t think they deserve to play or are less skilled
Back onto the actual racing…just caught the finish of GP Le Samyn where Van der Poel finished with broken handlebars. Maybe not great news for the new Canyon Aeroad bars with adjustable width, assuming that’s what he was using!
Agreed - I would assume they’re the new Canyon ones that are supposed to make it super easy to travel with a bike… At first when I saw him tucked in with his hands on the center of the bar I assumed he was just trying to be aero since he was doing so much work on the front, then was disappointed when I realized there was no way he could sprint like that
A little snippet I picked up from the commentary: You know a country is stacked with talent, when the current hour record holder is not selected for the Olympic TT squad
The women’s race was a pretty exciting watch. Plenty attacks pretty much start to finish.
Norsgaard Jørgensen taking two second places in 4 days is quite a statement! What a talent.
Just got around to watching the race…MVP is a flat-out stud. HB snaps at 1.6km to go and he still leads out the sprint for his teammate, who gets the win.
Well, the best day of the cycling season is tomorrow! Who’s everyone’s picks? Hard to look past Anna and MVdP. Heart pick would be Kasia for the women.
. But I know that it’s not that far off in other countries. When there are live broadcasts of women’s races, viewership is always high.
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At first when I saw him tucked in with his hands on the center of the bar I assumed he was just trying to be aero since he was doing so much work on the front, then was disappointed when I realized there was no way he could sprint like that