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- Two Storylines From The Giro That Go Beyond the Racing.
Two Storylines From The Giro That Go Beyond the Racing.
Plus what It means for the cycling industry.
Surprise! The second post in two days? what?… That’s right, I said yesterday that I want to spend more time working on this newsletter well, here it is. I have been enjoying writing these so much that I decided to double down and write more. I know crazy, right.
The first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro D'Italia, just finished this past weekend; there was lots of good racing full of compelling stories. However, as someone who is writing about the cycling industry, there were two other stories beyond the racing that are intriguing to me.
Firstly, the broadcast coverage of the Giro is a reminder of how fragmented the media rights are for pro cycling. Cycling, unlike most sports, does not have a cohesive and all-encompassing deal for broadcast rights for the races. This leaves each race the need to negotiate their own media deals. In practice, this means that the cycling fan needs lots of different subscriptions to be able to view races that are being broadcast by different media sources. For the Giro, this means that here in the US, unlike the TdF and the Vuelta, which are both on Peacock, the Giro was being broadcast by HBO Max. This plausibly hurt viewership among cycling fans. I know many people who pay for Peacock already, but aren't willing to shell out more for a second subscription to watch the Giro. Ultimately, this means less exposure for the sponsors of the race and teams.
Despite this, sponsors seem more interested than ever in this year's Giro. Highlighting this point was the new RedBull kilometer, which was featured in most of the stages this year. This sponsorship moves beyond a typical advertisement relationship and actually adds something into the race that impacts the outcome of the race. For those who did not follow the race, the RB Km was an extra sprint point in strategic places in the race where the first, second, and third place riders get some bonus seconds deducted off of their overall time. This added some extra strategy throughout the race, and likely gave the viewer a more lasting impression of Red Bull compared to if it was in a more traditional sponsorship spot.
When this collaboration was announced, I thought, and still think, that it is a good sign for the future of road cycling. This is because a big sponsorship like this from a large consumer-focused company like Red Bull is hopefully indicative of more sponsorship interest from mainstream companies into our sport.
These two tidbits illustrate why I enjoy thinking and writing about the business side of the cycling industry. It allows me to analyze things on a deep level and relate them to the industry as a whole. While things like the Red Bull Km can be criticized on the surface level for good and bad because of how it impacted the race, I think the bigger-picture story lines are even more interesting. I hope through writing these stories I can find some that resonate with readers who share this same interest too.