Tour News for July 31

Final Tour de France wrap up
More TdF photos

Lance Armstrong's post-Tour appearances

Lance Armstrong
Photo: © Sirotti

From Lancearmstrong.com, here are his official appearances this week after returning home from France:

Tuesday, July 31st - Lausanne, Switzerland

A Travers a Lausanne (a hilly time trial in two parts)

Wednesday, Aug 1st - New York

Appearance on the David Letterman Show (check local TV schedule)
LA throws out first pitch in the Rangers vs. Yankees game (approximately 7:05 PM ET)

Thursday, Aug 2nd - New York

Today show, 7:40 AM ET
Live with Regis & Kelly (approximately 9:15 AM ET, check local TV schedule)

French TV audience: 3.5 million

The three hour daily live broadcast of the TdF by France 2 and France 3 TV was watched by an average of 3.5 million viewers per day, according to France Television. This was equal to an audience share of 44%, which peaked at 65% during the final kilometres of each stage. This was in fact lower than the previous four years (2000: 3.85 million; 1999: 3.8 million; 1998: 3.6 million; 1997: 4.4 million).

According to France TV's Charles Biétry, this could be explained by an additional hour of direct programming at the beginning of each stage, which was not as popular as the others. The drop could also be explained that there was no Frenchman in serious contention for the final victory, whereas in the record year of 1997 Richard Virenque was at the height of his popularity, and finished second to Jan Ullrich, with Marco Pantani coming in as third.

The mountain stages were the most popular, with the best stage of the Tour (Stage 13 from Foix to Saint-Lary-Soulan (Pla d'Adet)) attracting 5.4 million people on average, 56.7% audience share while it was broadcast on France 2. That stage saw Laurent Jalabert in his long escape, Jan Ullrich's crash, and Lance Armstrong's powerful ride to the finishing climb, where he took the yellow jersey.

Last Sunday, 6.1 million viewers (60%) watched the last part of the finish on the Champs-Elysées and the presentations. Finally, 2.2 million viewers (12.9%) saw the "Journal du Tour" after each stage, broadcast on France 3 at 20:15 in the evening.

Other audience figures

According to US figures, the final stage on Sunday broadcast on CBS received a 2.1 Nielsen rating (approximately 1.4 million households in major markets). However, the program did not include a great deal of live coverage, unlike the usual OLN broadcasts.

Dutch NOS TV experienced a similar trend to French TV, with an average daily audience of 805,000 people (market share: 50%), down from 850,000 in 2000. The final stage had 1.3 million viewers.

Also, the NOS Tour website received 3 million page views (including live reports) during the duration of the Tour.

FFC happy with Le Tour

The French Cycling Federation has called the 2001 Tour de France an "undeniable success" in an official statement. FFC president Jean Pitallier said that part of this success was the "satisfaction generated by the adventurousness and the combativeness of the French riders."

"This undeniable sporting success and popularity confirms the intelligence of the decisions taken by the directors of the Tour de France. Without being overly optimistic or naïve, it is important to recall that the efforts to restore the image of cycling must continue without slackening, and be supported by the national and international federal authorities."

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