Cycles of Representation | Part One
A critical examination of the production of meaning in the contemporary English language cycling media
Note: This is a recreation of the 2007-published Cycles of Representation, based on unfinished files on floppy disks (remember those?). It differs from the published version you may have read, and from the version available in archives.
INTRODUCTION
Professional road cycling is a global sport. Unlike many sports, cycling is not played out through significant national leagues and competitions (such as English football’s Premier League and FA Cup, for example), but instead through an international calendar of events. Races take place across the globe, with the recently conceived ProTour event–devised to be cycling’s own Premier League–comprising Western Europe-centred prestige races. New events such as the Tour of California and the Tour de Georgia in America have attracted significantly stronger participants and larger roadside audiences than some more established races in cycling’s traditional heartlands such as Belgium and France at the same stage of the season, and although the lure of these races might not be so much the quality of the racing as it is the warmer weather, large appearance fees for big-name riders, and pressure from team sponsors eager to reach a lucrative American market, it remains telling of cycling’s increasing globalisation. Likewise, the cycling season opens with the Tour of Langkawi in Malaysia and the Tour Down Under in Australia, two races in non-traditional cycling countries that represent an emerging market for cycle sport that has full support from the sport’s international governing body and, in the case of Australia, serves to further support a structure based around established cycling success on a national stage.
It is also noteworthy that all four of the races mentioned are prefixed by the word “Tour”, despite being anything but a “tour”. This is demonstrative of the global recognition of cycling’s flagship event, the Tour de France. In 2002, the Tour de France received 1,200 hours of broadcast coverage in Europe, 385 hours in Africa, 336 hours in America, 280 hours in Asia and 64 hours in Great Britain (Wille, 2003:129), figures that are likely to have grown in Anglophone countries and in Asia with cycling’s increased popularity in these markets in the five years that have passed. This growth of non-traditional audiences for professional road cycle racing has caused a necessary shift in the cycling media and realigned the relationships and interests of the various spheres of influence within cycle sport.
Most aspects of modern sport are defined by the complex relationships between fans, media and business interests, and these relationships affect not only the ways in which sporting events are conducted, but also how they are represented, perceived and understood. Clashes of interest are to be expected from the ways in which contemporary sport operates and, as will be examined later in this essay, these clashes have the potential to be devastating for the future of a sport when they occur. Similarly, compromises as a result of these relationships are not uncommon–for instance, football matches in Britain are regularly rescheduled so as to occupy a time slot more advantageous to television broadcasters, just as cycling’s mountain stages in stage races and important single-day races take place on a weekend to maximise viewing figures (1). These are compromises that are generally of benefit to all involved parties, although participants in both sports occasionally complain of the unnecessary physical strain such a policy can place them under. So too can business interests be subject to compromise–the long running history of bicycle manufacturers providing sponsorship and machinery for teams and individual riders has led to a process by which riders secretly rebrand their preferred bicycle with the name and colours of their official sponsor when they feel that the bicycles that their sponsor provides are inadequate. (Maso, 2005:82-85). Likewise, David Beckham’s fashion-conscious media image is in direct conflict with the image that his sponsor provides – it is unlikely that Beckham relaxes in Adidas leisurewear, but it is enough that he gives the impression that this is so.
While cycling’s relationships can be understood in the same way as those of football or rugby or cricket as creating an event that results from the constant compromise of the various interests of the parties involved in all aspects of the respective sport, the balance of this tense relationship is much more weighted towards the media in cycling than any other sport. Because road cycling is itinerant, passing long distances on public roads, its live spectatorship lacks the completeness of experience provided by a stadium sport that allows access to all the developments on the field of play. There is no alternative way for a cycling fan to follow the sequence of events other than through mediated coverage and, as Fabien Wille said of the development of mediated cycle sport, “the race’s lack of visibility thus encouraged accounts based on imagination, legend or epic.” (Wille, 2003:144).
This essay examines professional road cycling’s role as a media constructed event, and analyses how the cycling media reflects, refracts and perpetuates particular representations and myths within this construct. It is important to remember that this is a study of the contemporary English-language cycling media, and as such analyses only English-language sources from the three years that are covered by the 2004 to the 2006 racing seasons. With the rapid growth in interest in cycling in America following Lance Armstrong’s record of seven consecutive Tour de France victories from 1999-2005, as well as the continuing growth in success of riders from other Anglophone countries, the English-language cycling media is an evolving subset of the global cycling media, both developing and recycling codes and practices of coverage and representation (2). Whilst broader analyses have been conducted of the cycling media prior to 2004, there have been no academic studies of the English-language cycling media during this period of continued growth.
The aim of this essay is to provide definition of the role that the English-language cycling media plays in contemporary road cycling coverage. It makes no claims that the globalisation and commodification is a recent development, and should be understood as a critical examination, rather than a critique, of the ways in which the English-language cycling media construct meanings and representations, and the reasons why this is the case.
Footnotes
1 – It could be argued, however, that the reasoning behind certain cycle races in Flanders taking place on a weekend is not intrinsically linked to economic and media developments, but rather the result of a more significant historical class structure and the conflict between Anglo-Saxon and continental Europe, something this essay will address later.
2 – The growth in terms of magazine readership in Britain is not as drastic as in America, but is still visible. Cycle Sport’s circulation in Britain increased by a modest 500 magazines from 2001-2005, and Cycling Plus saw an increase of almost 10,000 copies over the same period. Source: BicycleBusiness Magazine compiled statistics. In terms of new media, cyclingplus.co.uk recorded 2.6m page impressions during October 2006, more than 70,000 of which were unique visitors. Source: DART.