Tour de Pologne, 30 July - 5 August, 2.UWT

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So, what you're saying is that I need to convince TV2 to show it?

or just move to Timor Leste

 

[Tim Cahill]

There may be famine and civil war on the horizon in Sri Lanka but what's truly important to them is seeing how Quinten Hermans gets on at the Tour of Poland.

 

[RedheadDane]

Turns out there's also a stream on Cycling Today. In French.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

So, what you're saying is that I need to convince TV2 to show it?

Yup. Turns out it's not TVP or the organizers fault at all. Your preferred broadcaster just doesn't have the courage to show it.

 

[RedheadDane]

Yup. Turns out it's not TVP or the organizers fault at all. Your preferred broadcaster just doesn't have the courage to show it.

Generally Eurosport acts as a back-up, so that it's either both national TV and Eurosport, or just Eurosport. And there haven't been any info as to why Eurosport stopped showing it/lost rights. Surely, if it's Eurosport who randomly decided to refuse showing the race, then it's in the organisers' own best interest to provide easily an easily available stream. Even if it has to be on FB.
Until two years ago, everything was normal. Then suddenly last year... nothing!

 

[Potomac]

I'm watching the Polish broadcazt TVP1

 

[RedheadDane]

I'm watching the Polish broadcazt TVP1

Well... I have to retort to switching between Tiz and the Cycling Today stream (from Equipe)...
But can you post a link to that Polish broadcast? I'm assuming that's the one that's easily available worldwide, ie not requiring the use of log-in and/or VPN.

 

[Potomac]

Wacky violin statues seems to be the local cultural specialty today.

 

[Potomac]

I don't understand Polish, but "Bauhaus" is every 5th word

 

[RedheadDane]

Thijssen takes it.

 

[tobydawq]

Well... I have to retort to switching between Tiz and the Cycling Today stream (from Equipe)...
But can you post a link to that Polish broadcast? I'm assuming that's the one that's easily available worldwide, ie not requiring the use of log-in and/or VPN.

This is getting really tiring. Why must you always be so offended when there is the rare race that you cannot watch? We get hundreds of races in a year.

 

[Salvarani]

First WT-win for Thijssen.

 

[RedheadDane]

This is getting really tiring. Why must you always be so offended when there is the rare race that you cannot watch? We get hundreds of races in a year.

Giro Donne lost WWT status due to lack of (proper) international coverage. So... how does TdP get away with only the bare mininum, and not even telling people why?

And I'm totally fine with lesser known races not being shown. The fact that Kreiz Breizh elites is available is a nice bonus.

 

[Jumbo Visma Fan :)]

Giro Donne lost WWT status due to lack of (proper) international coverage. So... how does TdP get away with only the bare mininum, and not even telling people why?

And I'm totally fine with lesser known races not being shown. The fact that Kreiz Breizh elites is available is a nice bonus.

I agree, as a WT race you need widely available coverage, and using the bare minimum is just insulting.

 

[tobydawq]

Giro Donne lost WWT status due to lack of (proper) international coverage. So... how does TdP get away with only the bare mininum, and not even telling people why?

And I'm totally fine with lesser known races not being shown. The fact that Kreiz Breizh elites is available is a nice bonus.

I get it. But does it really serve any purpose to moan about it every day?

One big problem with Tiz is that they cut away so quickly so we didn't even get a replay of the sprint. That's pretty annoying.

 

[tobydawq]

Lol, Jonas Abrahamsen copied his compatriot and namesake, Jonas Hvideberg, by getting in the break on both of the opening stages, obtaining 12 bonus seconds and have the stage wins being taken by riders who didn't get into the top three the other day so that he has the leader's jersey, just like Hvideberg in Catalonia. A new Norwegian specialty?

Not quite as reverberating as Danish Jonases but still cool.

 

[yaco]

That was a overly technical and dangerous finale - It seems pointless to have a 200+ km stage if you throw up such a finish.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Giro Donne lost WWT status due to lack of (proper) international coverage. So... how does TdP get away with only the bare mininum, and not even telling people why?

And I'm totally fine with lesser known races not being shown. The fact that Kreiz Breizh elites is available is a nice bonus.

To be fair, the British Women's Tour didn't lose its status due to lack of international coverage meeting the minimum criteria, and while the reason that SweetSpot didn't get punished when the Giro did has been discussed plenty in the appropriate threads (usually by me), favouritism is only part of the story, as the Giro had had other organisatorial problems that may have meant they were less likely to get leniency from the UCI.

Now, at the same time, it could definitely be fairly argued that after situations like Groenewegen-Jakobsen and other organisatorial failings that Czesław Lang and his team ought to have been on final warnings themselves, but I don't know how long such probationary periods last. I mean, if there was a dangerous sprint in the Itzulia, it would seem unfair if they were to get thrown off the World Tour, since they were given last warnings when Michael Matthews had his crash from the cones on top of the metal railing posts, even though that was back in 2015 and they haven't had any issues since - but if there had been one in 2017 or 2018, it might have been a different story.

 

[RedheadDane]

To be fair, the British Women's Tour didn't lose its status due to lack of international coverage meeting the minimum criteria, and while the reason that SweetSpot didn't get punished when the Giro did has been discussed plenty in the appropriate threads (usually by me), favouritism is only part of the story, as the Giro had had other organisatorial problems that may have meant they were less likely to get leniency from the UCI.

Women's Tour was shown on Eurosport.
Again; what really irks me is the fact that there has been absolutely no info regarding coverage. Maybe it's Eurosport who are refusing to show the race - due to those crashes - but surely then it would be in the organisers' own best interest to explain that they're not at fault, and direct people to alternatives. Instead it comes across as if they're not really interested in a world-wide audience.
Or... have they taken it upon themselves to bring the sport out to some countries that might not get that much high-level cycling? And thus a major cycling nation like Denmark obviously has to miss out...

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Women's Tour was shown on Eurosport.
Again; what really irks me is the fact that there has been absolutely no info regarding coverage. Maybe it's Eurosport who are refusing to show the race - due to those crashes - but surely then it would be in the organisers' own best interest to explain that they're not at fault, and direct people to alternatives. Instead it comes across as if they're not really interested in a world-wide audience.
Or... have they taken it upon themselves to bring the sport out to some countries that might not get that much high-level cycling? And thus a major cycling nation like Denmark obviously has to miss out...

This year it was. Last year it wasn't, but they kept their status.

Poland is a pretty major cycling nation and the TDP is a very historic race. I do think that its inclusion in the PT was probably a bit of a token 'get one old Eastern Bloc race in there' gesture, but the country does have a long and proud history in the sport, however much of it was in the Ostbloc era so wouldn't be 'known' to the wider world. I mean, Ryszard Szurkowski died in February 2021, and was a mere footnote in most cycling media in the West, but he was a sporting icon in the amateur era.

 

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Again; what really irks me is the fact that there has been absolutely no info regarding coverage. Maybe it's Eurosport who are refusing to show the race - due to those crashes - but surely then it would be in the organisers' own best interest to explain that they're not at fault, and direct people to alternatives. Instead it comes across as if they're not really interested in a world-wide audience.

that's not really how it works, I think. In this case for example, Infront has bought the international broadcasting rights last year:

Infront ups cycling presence with Tour de Pologne partnership

Infront has added cycling’s Tour de Pologne to its growing summer sports media rights portfolio after reaching an agreement with the event’s right holder National Polish Television (TVP).

www.infront.sport

This means the race orgamisation is basically out of it. They hold no rights anymore. It's up to Infront then to sub-license it to whoevery pays for it. By the sound of it, with Eurosport they couldn't come to an agreement:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1553130850178387968

View: https://twitter.com/daniellloyd1/status/1553130850178387968


Eurosport tends to try to buy rights cheap and in a package for Europe as a whole. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

 

[RedheadDane]

that's not really how it works, I think. In this case for example, Infront has bought the international broadcasting rights last year:

Infront ups cycling presence with Tour de Pologne partnership

Infront has added cycling’s Tour de Pologne to its growing summer sports media rights portfolio after reaching an agreement with the event’s right holder National Polish Television (TVP).

www.infront.sport

This means the race orgamisation is basically out of it. They hold no rights anymore. It's up to Infront then to sub-license it to whoevery pays for it. By the sound of it, with Eurosport they couldn't come to an agreement:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1553130850178387968

View: https://twitter.com/daniellloyd1/status/1553130850178387968


Eurosport tends to try to buy rights cheap and in a package for Europe as a whole. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

Okay. How do I get in contact with those idiots?

My apologises to the organiserers of TdP. Seems like they got duped by a broadcasting "service" that isn't actually interested in showing their race.
Managed - after a while - to find the correct FB, and there's nothing.

 

[search]

My apologises to the organiserers of TdP. Seems like they got duped by a broadcasting "service" that isn't actually interested in showing their race.

Infront actually holds rights for other races as well, like Tour de Suisse or the Flanders Classics - so exactly those which are not always on Eurosport (Tour de Suisse) or where there have been issues in the past as well. There was one year at least where Eurosport only came to an agreemend to show the Omloop a couple of days before the start.

So no idea if they are really to blame for this, but I guess it's certain to say that they must negotiate much harder than others.

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Giro Donne lost WWT status due to lack of (proper) international coverage. So... how does TdP get away with only the bare mininum, and not even telling people why?

And I'm totally fine with lesser known races not being shown. The fact that Kreiz Breizh elites is available is a nice bonus.

Surely if there is a published minimum, you are entitled to 'get away with it'. If they draw a line in the sand, you only need to cross it.

Someone said there was a requirement of broadcast in 12 nations, and there was a list up of far more than 12 countries. It's a shame we can't watch it in UK or Denmark, but it doesn't seem interesting enough a race to get too bothered about.

Bit bothersome that there doesn't seem to a guaranteed minimum for what I must get for my GCN+ subscription, but I guess they need to make sure there is enough to bring us back next year.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Plenty of smaller races like Kreiz Breizh are streamed live and/or archived in full on YouTube or Facebook. You can't compare that to a WT race in which rights are purchased and then optioned out to broadcasters, who then have exclusive rights in a specific territory.

And, even though in my region TdP is on that same South Korean network I never heard of that aired Tour de Suisse and might or might not be on whatever satellite YV provider I have, I'm still able to watch the race quite easily on either TVP or TV3 Catalunya. Visca la Volta a Polonia!