Open letter to Laureen Ong, President of Travel Channel

Dear Laureen,

Can I call you Laureen? Perhaps that’s a bit too familiar, but I have to tell you that I’m a fan of your work. Well, I’m a fan of Samantha Brown. So, I’d like to help you out a bit.

You need to pick up the broadcasting rights to the Tour de France. Oh, I know that Discovery Channel gave it a try and it didn’t work out, but that was all about poor execution. I know you can do it better.

I have to admit that I know next to nothing about bicycle racing. Sure, I ride a bike all the time but sorting through all the riders, the teams and the race tactics is as foreign to me as the languages the riders speak. Even sitting near the finish line of the Tour de France for Stage 3 in Arenberg, all I could do was cheer, clap and try to time my camera trigger finger to capture guys moving at 40 miles an hour.

And yet, I watch. Constantly. Which brings me to my point – there is an opportunity to pull in people who aren’t currently watching by taking advantage of all of the event’s other compelling qualities: travel, food, drama, human interest and competition.

For anyone interested in travel, especially to France, showing the Tour is an unbelievable chance to showcase the country. I watch it on television every year, but the viewing experience just doesn’t cut it right now unless you’re a hardcore racing fan (which is a pretty tight niche in the US).

Currently, the Tour is shown on Vs. – also known as the home of Ultimate Fighting, Bull Riding and 1000 Ways to Die. So, there’s a huge disconnect when you tune in to see overhead views of lush green valleys, stunning mountain passes and skinny guys in spandex. Sure, cycling is as full of testosterone as those other shows, but it’s artificially injected so it barely counts.

Because of how it’s covered, most people tune in to watch the race, but I gotta be honest, there are long stretches of time in which not much happens other than riders pedaling for an hour. It’s a made-for-Tivo event, which can’t make the advertisers happy.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

If the world worked the way I want, you’d be able to catch cycling’s biggest event on the Travel Channel. Here’s why:

It’s visually captivating

Each day, riders travel through new areas of French countryside (and sometimes Belgium, Spain and Italy as they careen down mountains and across borders). Most are places that tourists don’t often visit, but they host some of the most amazing natural beauty on the planet.

Plus, the camera work for Le Tour is spectacular. In addition to death-defying maneuvers by cameramen on motorbikes, you have regular shots from overhead helicopters capturing  the action, stunning scenery and local flavor.

Smaller locations deserve more air time:

France is a beautiful country. As much as I love all the places you cover on your programming, there’s much more to it than the “15 Disgusting Foods to Try in Paris with Anthony Bourdain.”

Lille, France was virtually unknown to me, but I visited to watch a stage of the Tour and when I got there, I was overwhelmed by the sights, the cafes, the architecture – all of them are top notch, without the overwhelming nature of Paris’s tourist scene.

Every region of France has similar discoveries.

The coverage on Versus includes a brief overview of the route and the locale, but imagine how much better it could be with a correspondent who spends a day in each location learning about local cuisine, the history and stories about the people and culture?

Each town on the route turns the event into its own street festival, including parade. Even a blip on a map that passes by before a rider can shift gears plays to the cameras – creating oversized works of art by lining up campers, hay bales or whatever other tools they have at their disposal.

The Tour website already gives you a headstart, but I know you can do better with the experience and skill of your writers.

There’s over 100 years of race history to share

And not boring history, either.

There are whole libraries of books written about the Tour’s colorful past so I won’t even attempt to rehash that here, but think about it – for over a century, riders have been crazy enough to race thousands of miles over mountains. How could there NOT be great stories there? Cheating scandals (involving a train ride), crashes and the wildest spectators on the planet. In most sports, running onto the field will get you arrested. Here, runners dart into the middle of the road every day to encourage the participants.

Hard to believe that one of the most challenging events ever envisioned started in an attempt to sell newspapers!

Competition makes compelling viewing

Sure, most of your viewers don’t understand the sport. People who aren’t soccer fans see a bit of it and think “they just kick the ball around for an hour and sometimes it goes into a goal.” Cycle racing is no different. So, give viewers a primer of what the strategies are, how drafting works, how teams support a leader and the differences between sprinters, climbers and the domestiques. No need to beat it into people’s heads, but a bit of time explaining the basics will engage newer viewers.

The beauty of the Tour is that it’s not just about the overall winner – there are other competitions along the way: daily stage winners, King of the Mountains, Sprinters, Most aggressive and Best Young Rider.

It’s multi-cultural

This is on your website:

Through the engaging storytelling and unique perspectives of its on-air personalities, the Travel Channel creates travel content that inspires, entertains and taps into the human desire to experience new things, explore new places and engage with interesting people and cultures.

That statement describes every participant in the Tour, who come from dozens of nations and each have their own culture, background and perspective.

True human drama is better than so-called reality shows

Rider drama is rampant each year. Everyone knows Lance Armstrong’s story and how he overcame cancer to win 7 times. But there are almost 200 other riders each year who have dramatic and compelling stories to tell. Give viewers a horse to root for, even if it’s a fresh-faced rookie or a sprinter like Mark Cavendish, who won’t win the overall but broke down in tears after winning Stage 5.

Interpersonal conflict is inevitable. Racers have egos the size of the Tourmalet, so there are inevitably feuds and sniping along the way. Armstrong vs. Contador; Armstrong vs. Ullrich; Armstrong vs. LeMond; Armstrong vs. France. Okay, so Lance’s (second) retirement removes some of that, but someone will take his place.

Only a couple days ago a “bitch slap” fight broke out between Rui Costa and Carlos Barredo: see?

Add all of that together and you’ve now got a full month of live programming waiting for you each year – and unlike the way it’s currently shown, adding human stories and travelog to the broadcast makes it open to future re-broadcast and re-packaging (which doesn’t happen much at the moment).

In case you haven’t seen enough of the Tour to understand why it’s so amazing, here are some recommendations to get into it:

• Stage 17 – July 22^nd: The Tourmalet is one of the most famed climbs on the Tour, and is included most years, even though the route always changes. This year, it’s especially compelling as the finish line is at the top, which will mean a grueling final push to win the stage. In all likelihood, this stage will determine the final victor of the Tour.
• Stage 19 – July 24^th: The last “real” day of the tour (the final stage in Paris is normally ceremonial in nature and doesn’t allow much opportunity for riders to change their standings). As a time trial, this is very different from most of the race stages. It’s mano a mano as each racer rides the same course solo one at a time, a final test of individual effort rather than team tactics.

And Laureen? If you like this idea and can get the rights away from Versus, give me a ring. I’m available to consult (especially if Samantha Brown hosts).

Come on – who would have thought anyone would watch poker on TV? The Travel Channel made that work for several years – give this one a shot.

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