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Eldron

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I saw Marc Pritzen this morning while I was on my way to work. He was obviously riding and I was driving. It was on a very popular road used for training so I have, A ridden it plenty myself and, B seen plenty guys riding it and when I saw how fast he was going compared to when I ride it or see others I realised how much faster proper overseas pro's are. I am sure a lot of our local pro's can do it as fast but it was just cool to see someone that actually races in Europe.

 

EDIT before posting:

Looking at his ride now on strava, he didn't even take the KOM for the segment I saw him on........... But at least it belongs to a buddy of mine who is a local U/23 pro.

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Ah yes but that's also because cycling is only sexy to cyclists.

Let's use F1 as an example.

the brands that sponsor the teams in F1 are typically large global corps that have a sexy snazy image because F1 attracts that. Wearing a Aston Martin Red Bull puffer jacket is far less dorky that advertising taps and shower heads whetherJZ or Peter Sagan are show casing them. The F1 marketing machine is far more sexy and is far more desirable than the UCI model that's staid and stuck in the 1960s.

Cycling on the whole needs to catch a wake up and make the sport more appealing to a broader community.

Looking at Americas Cup yacht racing, the team merchandise is far sexier and appealing simply because the whole event is being marketed as a clash of Titans, brave men taking dangerous machines in one on one battle. What does cycling have to offer? A bunch of anorexic wheel sucking dopers following each other around till 100 m from the finish line. You can't merchandise that except to a very small group of die hard fans. Heck I'd much rather have a la vie Claire replica kit than team Ineos kit. It's far more recognisable to non because the marketing has carried through the generations.

 

Any of the teams can adopt a merchandising model but in order to do so they have to be more than just loving billboards for plumbing outlets. They need to create legends, super men and women. The Cape Epic sort of gets it right to a limited degree. In Europe cyclo-cross has more sex appeal to a broader audience than grand tours.

 

A completely new approach is needed.

Cycling team merchandise is a mission to get.. it isn't available like F1, football etc etc you have to order from the team.. then you have to pay import duties..so a mess.. but yeah cycling isn't exactly sexy and as much as what we don't like to admit it if the guy in the ad isn't at least something to look at it really doesn't have the appeal is could have.

 

As for BORA and then later Hansgrohe ..somewhere a long the lines they released their financial and their sales increased (by a lot) after Sagan joined the team..and of course others and success came and so on. But BORAhansgrohe also halve pretty cool, sometimes silly marketing campaigns... they are also fortunate that a few of their riders (read Sagan) is quite marketable (read good looking)

Edited by Gen
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Cycling team merchandise is a mission to get.. it isn't available like F1, football etc etc you have to order from the team.. then you have to pay import duties..so a mess.. but yeah cycling isn't exactly sexy and as much as what we don't like to admit it if the guy in the ad isn't at least something to look at it really doesn't have the appeal is could have.

I once bought a Rossi sticker for my helmet. The sun/moon one. Apart from being of amazingly inferior quality it was ridiculously expensive.

 

My sticker paid for a handful of dirt at his training facility so I'm fine with it.

Edited by Duane_Bosch
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  • 4 weeks later...

He is not the fastest sprinter in the world but certainly one of the most consistent.

 

Fabio Aru finished 18th in the Tour de la Provence today at 2.18 behind Sosa.... not too bad for a start I suppose..

Early doors for the GC men, so I'll take 18th as a decent start with room to improve.

 

I think most of us are waiting for OHN and KBK and the rest of the classics season to kick off.

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  • 1 month later...
  • 1 month later...

That sprint finish today was something to watch... Low level flying. Was it downhill? 

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14 hours ago, babse said:

That sprint finish today was something to watch... Low level flying. Was it downhill? 

Must have been. I saw a tweet saying he crossed the line at 74.5kph!

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