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2/20/04:
The Week in Cycling
TRAFFIC PROBLEMS COMPROMISE THE SPORT
by John Wilcockson
Editorial Director, VeloNews
When we watch European cycling on TV, we assume that the race organizers have no
trouble having the roads closed and protected by the relevant government and
police departments. Not true. Just last week, the first two stages of the Tour
of Liguria in Italy couldn’t be held because the local authorities did not
approve the race application; and, just across the border in France, the police
were said to have taken a hostile attitude toward the Mediterranean Tour.
In Liguria, the administrators of Imperia and Savona met with their police
departments before refusing the race organizers’ application, which was said
to have been received after the formal deadline. There was a time when a small
bureaucratic error by a race director wouldn’t matter much in a cycling-crazy
like Italy, but times (and traffic conditions) have changed significantly in the
past 20 years.
Even though there are few tourists on the Riviera coasts of Italy and France at
this time of year, cities like Cannes, Genoa, Nice and Savona are jammed with
traffic year-round. Roads are smaller in Europe than in the U.S., and over
recent years traffic engineers have attempted to make them safer by installing a
variety of traffic circles, roundabouts, speed bumps, road-narrowing devices and
signals. Safer for cars maybe, but more dangerous for bike races.
Because of these developments, it has become increasingly difficult for
organizers to route their events, harder for the police to control them, and
(consequently) easier for local authorities to refuse permission. Even races as
big as the Tour de France have a tougher job — but, because of the event’s
international prestige and government support, race organizer ASO is able to
overcome the potential problems.
The Tour’s importance carries over to the other events organized by ASO,
including next month’s Paris-Nice, whose last two stages will be held on the
roads of the French Riviera. Whereas last week’s Mediterranean Tour did
survive the hostile police environment, it didn’t go to some of its
traditional venues, such as the city of Marseille. Instead, smaller towns (with
fewer traffic problems), such as Marignane, were used for stage finishes.
The clout of ASO also allows it to gain live TV coverage for its events. Before
the Tour organization bought the rights to run Paris-Nice a couple of years ago,
television coverage was sporadic. Now, the eight-day race has live TV (which
you’ll be able to watch on OLN), which guarantees the presence of the
world’s 22 top teams and a field of 176 riders.
Lack of TV can have the opposite effect. This week, the Costa del Sol in the
south of Spain had a field of only 108 riders. The reason? For the first time in
years, there was no national TV coverage (high costs make it more and more
difficult for networks to justify coverage of cycling), so many Division 1 teams
didn’t go, while others (upset by the lack of live images) sent
weaker-than-usual lineups.
If the TV and traffic problems continue then events like the Ruta del Sol, Med
Tour and Ligurian Tour will struggle to survive. Thankfully, they did provide
some entertaining early-season racing this year.
The Med Tour provided stage wins for world No. 1 Paolo Bettini, Tour green
jersey Baden Cooke and 2002 world champ Mario Cipollini. And the CSC team took
all three spots on the final podium thanks to its last-day team time trial
victory atop the Mont Faron climb — where CSC’s German Jörg Jaksche scored
the biggest win of his career ahead of new Italian teammate Ivan Basso.
The one stage of the Ligurian race that was held ended in a mass sprint taken by
rising Italian star Filippo Pozzatto from American Fred Rodriguez. In Spain’s
Ruta del Sol, among the stage winners were U.S. Postal’s Dutch sprinter Max
Van Heeswijk, Belgian Tom Boonen and Germany’s Erik Zabel, while the overall
victory went to Spanish veteran Juan-Carlos Dominguez of the new Saunier-Duval
team.
Many
of these winners — especially Bettini, Cipollini, Cooke, Pozzatto, Rodriguez,
Van Heeswijk and Zabel — will be shooting for the season’s first World Cup
race on March 20, Milan-San Remo. That race just happens to pass through Savona
and Imperia, where the Ligurian race had its problems last week. But the San
Remo classic is organized by RCS Sport that puts on the Giro d’Italia and the
other top 12 Italian races.
Like ASO in France, RCS has the clout (and the budget) to route the big events
pretty much where it wants; but the sport needs its smaller races just as much.
Let’s hope the problems can be addressed before it’s too late.
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