Does anyone give a damn about the Tour de France?

Not sure if this should be here or the journalism board. Mods, feel free to move it if you want.
Since there hasn't been a running thread on it -- and, really, what doesn't get a running thread around here -- does anyone still care about this race now that Lance Armstrong is gone and there's more drugs swirling around it than a bodybuilding competition situated next to a major league clubhouse?
I'm trying to decide how much play to give the first stage. It's currently an 8-inch story with a small picture on Page 4. I'm wondering if it might be better to nix it entirely, though.
What kind of play are you folks giving it?

 

Bottom of the front page here...cycling is abnormally big here, though.

 

I can answer this from two different points of view as a cyclist who won't miss a stage on TV and as newspaper man.

1. Yes, plenty of people care. Those people, however, are hard core cycling fans. The casual fan that just followed Armstrong are gone.

Sooooo....

2. I know the hard core cycling fans will get the results on-line long before the presses roll. We ran an inclusive preview story and photo - moved inside from the front where it has been the last several years. Daily stages will get a 2-3 graphs in the briefs unless Hincapie wins a stage, something huge happens or it's really slow. We'll run a story/photo when it's over, probably inside.

Maybe major metros will do something else, but coming from an upper small/lower medium daily in the South, I think this is about right. Let's face it, take away the local cycling community, and our readers know two bike racers - Lance Armstrong and me. :

 

Going inside for us. Page 4 or 5 of a six-page section.

 

I only look forward to a few things:
1) That guy who always dresses up in the colorful devil costume to cheer on the riders.
2) Seeing how close the crowd gets to riders as they're speeding along.

 

3) Wrecks.

 

I am surprised they don't wear helmets more (I think the only do it when the course is wet). Not only is it a safety measure, but think of the extra ad space (oh, I'm sorry -- sponsorship space) it would give the riders.

 

Obviously, the hardcore cyclists will be the only ones who care. Similar to the hardcores in other relatively obscure sports, they likely have their sources and those probably don't start with the local sports section.

It's both Lance Armstrong's retirement, combined with the doping problem, exacerbated by the fact that an American, Floyd Landis, had his Tour de France title stripped. George Hincapie would have to string together some titles to get casual American followers interested again - and he doesn't have the comeback from cancer angle going for him.

 

It would be a good career move to lose a testicle.

 

Are you approaching this from a savings in weight or improved aerodynamics?

 

Do you work in France?

 

The Tour de Lance is a lot less exciting without Lance.