Nationally, the Super Bowl achieved a 43.4% market-share rating. There's no doubt that with its estimated 86 million viewers, the sheer numbers are more impressive than what I'm about to report on. I don't mean to suggest that the Super Bowl is unimportant. Rather, I want to open your eyes to a different sport that most Americans know nothing about. It might be a culture shock for many of you to find out that a sport you haven't even heard of has such popularity in a place you have heard of. This might be another one of my reply-less, esoteric posts, but I'm bored enough to post it anyway.
In Belgium, the Cyclocross World Championships, a one-day cycling race, earned a 66.5% market-share rating. That's a million out of a population of 1.5 million. And the race wasn't even in Belgium - it was in Germany. These people all tuned in to see a man named Sven Nys win.
So... what the heck is cyclo-cross anyway? Imagine a mountain-bike race, except that a) everyone has to ride on road bikes with skinny tires and clipless pedals, although they are at least outfitted with suspensions, and b) some parts of the course require the rider to get off the bike and carry it. Such as, up a flight of stairs. Like many mountain-bike races, cyclo-cross is usually run on a circuit, so it presents the same difficulties over and over again. As such, it may be the most grueling endurance sport there is. The pool of riders powerful enough to handle it is very, very small.
It's not uncommon for road riders to do cyclo-cross in the offseason to keep their legs fresh and try something different, although they always get badly humbled. Even Lance did a 'cross race during winter '02, and it paid off when he had to go cross-country suddenly during the '03 Tour de France. If you remember the stage where Joseba Beloki suddenly had his career-ending crash right in front of him, and Lance had to steer through a field, dismount from his bike, and run across the road right in front of Alexandre Vinokourov and Tyler Hamilton, that pretty much sums up the ability required for a cyclo-cross race.
In Belgium, the Cyclocross World Championships, a one-day cycling race, earned a 66.5% market-share rating. That's a million out of a population of 1.5 million. And the race wasn't even in Belgium - it was in Germany. These people all tuned in to see a man named Sven Nys win.
So... what the heck is cyclo-cross anyway? Imagine a mountain-bike race, except that a) everyone has to ride on road bikes with skinny tires and clipless pedals, although they are at least outfitted with suspensions, and b) some parts of the course require the rider to get off the bike and carry it. Such as, up a flight of stairs. Like many mountain-bike races, cyclo-cross is usually run on a circuit, so it presents the same difficulties over and over again. As such, it may be the most grueling endurance sport there is. The pool of riders powerful enough to handle it is very, very small.
It's not uncommon for road riders to do cyclo-cross in the offseason to keep their legs fresh and try something different, although they always get badly humbled. Even Lance did a 'cross race during winter '02, and it paid off when he had to go cross-country suddenly during the '03 Tour de France. If you remember the stage where Joseba Beloki suddenly had his career-ending crash right in front of him, and Lance had to steer through a field, dismount from his bike, and run across the road right in front of Alexandre Vinokourov and Tyler Hamilton, that pretty much sums up the ability required for a cyclo-cross race.