As if to prove that this week nothing seems to be going right for British cycling, with the resignation of the Olympic team head Shane Sutton amidst allegations of bullying and sexism, and a poorly handled positive drugs test for leading cyclist Simon Yates, there was frustration all round at the Tour de Yorkshire when the live television feed failed, meaning there were no images from the women’s event in the morning, and limited covered of the men’s race on Saturday afternoon.
The women’s Tour de Yorkshire had been billed as potentially one of the biggest races on the women’s calendar, with a massive prize list and a course identical to the afternoon’s stage of the men’s three-day event over a course from Otley to Doncaster.
Start-to-finish television coverage was to be an integral part of that, as coverage on that scale is almost unheard of for a women’s event of this duration, and it should have ended up as a massive showcase for sponsors and stars alike.
It came unstuck on the morning of the race when there was a technical fault with the light aircraft which flies over the event collecting and retransmitting images from the television cameras on motorbikes and the helicopter which transmits panoramic images. This sort of trouble is rare enough to be described as a freak event, which explains why – because this race is run by the Tour de France organisers Amaury Sport Organisation – the nearest back-up plane was in France, and took time to prepare and to fly over.
So it turns out no one saw my TV attack BUT thank you for everyone's support on the road, I had goosebumps starting in Otley #proud
— Lizzie Armitstead (@L_ArmiTstead) April 30, 2016
The upshot was that while massive crowds on the latter part of the 135km route were able to witness the women’s world champion Lizzie Armitstead make a brave attempt to win on her home roads after a race where she was beset with mechanical difficulties, there was nothing for television viewers or those hoping to watch the event on a big screen at the finish, while print reporters who had come to report on Armitstead’s triumphant return to her home county had little information other than via Twitter feeds.
Live coverage eventually began an hour into the men’s race, with commentator Ned Boulting greeting viewers with: “Hallelujah.”
When asked about the television coverage, Armitstead, the 2015 road race world champion who had led a breakaway in the women’s race eventually won by the Dutch rider Kirsten Wild, said: “I had no idea. It’s one of those things but at least all the people on the streets saw us, and hopefully we’ve inspired some of the girls and boys out on the route.”
We have live pictures! Again, huge apologies for the technical issues we've encountered today #TourdeYorkshire @ITV4 @itvhub
— ITV Cycling (@itvcycling) April 30, 2016
