With cycling in Britain on a high following the successes of Team GB in last summer’s Beijing Olympics, a new street-racing series has been announced which intend to revolutionise the sport as a spectacle.
‘The Tour Series’ Director of Racing Brian Smith - a two-time Champion of the British professional road race championship in 1991 and 1994 - told BritSport Weekly that the uniqueness of the new event comes by emphasising the team over the individual, something that current cycling events rarely promote.
The format of The Tour Series sees ten teams of five professional cyclists vie to place their top three riders in the highest positions, the team with the highest-placed riders winning overall.
“Nowhere in the world has this been done before. The thinking is that we are doing things as a team effort. Normally in cycling – and in the road races of the 1970s and 1980s it was particularly true – the sport is all about the first person across the line. And in football what makes the headlines are the people who score the most goals and not the team.”
“Now after the Olympics, where Team GB came back with so many winners, there is a great emphasis on the team element and not just the individuals. When I was at school, sport was all about looking after and doing best for yourself. At the Olympics Team GB showed that it is not all about that.”
The new approach to cycling has also been paralleled with a new approach to attracting investment into the sport. Commercially the Series organisers are looking to turn the new cycling brand into a corporate affair modeled on football’s Premier League, says Smith.
“We want to see corporate challenges. Going to a football match is not just about going to the game with your mates, there is also a vast proportion of people going for corporate hospitality too. And that’s what we want to attract to cycling.”
CEO of the Tour of Britain and The Tour Series Hugh Roberts was also keen to promote the “uniqueness” of the Series from a commercial standpoint.
“We have put in place a full programme of community-based activity in the run up to the elite race event, meaning that Tour Series sponsors and partners will gain a key association with both the elite and grassroots elements of this exponentially growing sport,” he said.
“The Tour Series is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee, so all sponsorship funds are reinvested in the event, in order to increase the offering and experience for the spectators, our invited professional teams and all our event stakeholders. We are hugely optimistic for the future and very excited by the potential of this dynamic new event.”
A television deal is currently being discussed – with interest from both a free-to-air and a satellite – whereby race coverage will be broadcast ‘as live’ for one hour the day after the round. Roberts says a deal with a terrestrial broadcaster on a multi-year deal will be revealed “in the coming week.”
Smith added that the ‘as live’ coverage was a cost issue rather than a broadcaster request: “Presenting live coverage will cost twice as much [as delayed]. I think in the first year we will show as-live coverage the following evening after an event. As it gets more awareness and more popularity hopefully more sponsors will see an opportunity and we will be able to go live. But first we have to show that road cycling is an entertaining sport.”
The ten-round series begins on 21 May in Milton Keynes.
