★★★★★ 0/5

Viva la Cadel!

SBS is toasting the success of cyclist Cadel Evans, who won the 2011 Tour de France and has helped the network to land their biggest ratings of the year.

28
Leave a comment

After three weeks and 3400 kilometres of cycling, Australia’s Cadel Evans rode into the history books, winning the Tour de France -the first Aussie to do so in its 108 years.

Wearing the yellow leader’s jersey for the first time Evans cruised along the Champs-Elysees in an unbeatable position. He has twice taken second place in the annual race.

On the podium before the Arc de Triomphe, Cadel was again awarded the yellow jersey as Tina Arena sang Advance Australia Fair.

Evans’ rise in the Tour de France has been a triumph for SBS, its 21st broadcast of the event.

Saturday night’s broadcast pulled the biggest audience of the year for SBS, at 690,400, beating the 600,000 for Go Back To Where You Came From. SBS ONE even eclipsed ABC1.

It was also the highest ratings ever for a stage of the Tour de France.

To mark his success, SBS ONE has scheduled a special Cadel: Le Triomphe to screen at 10pm tonight.

Looking back at Evans’ momentous 2011 Tour de France campaign, Cadel – Le Triomphe will feature the pivotal moments in Cadel’s race for the yellow jersey. It will start with the team time trial on stage 2 and include Cadel’s stage 4 win over Alberto Contador, his courageous efforts in the Alps and his magnificent individual time trial which saw him take the yellow jersey from Andy Schleck.

Cadel – Le Triomphe will also include footage from the exclusive one-on-one interview with SBS host Mike Tomalaris after Stage 17.

28 Responses

  1. I enjoy watching all the sports and while this event rates as one of the most boring, (excluding the mountain stages) it was nice to see an Aussie win it.
    Perhaps the individual time trial could be held first, then we may get to see Cadell lead prety much throughout. At least he’d be easier to see throughout the race.

  2. I have been watching the Tour de France on SBS for many years, more so the last Five, desperately hoping/wishing that Cadel would win one day. He finally did it, and what a proud moment it was.

    Great that Tina Arena also rang the Tour de France organizers to get involved… Loved having her sing the anthem – goose bump stuff.

    Congratulations to Cadel, and SBS – it was well worth losing the sleep over the past few weeks.

  4. It was very good coverage, the scenery was spectacular, however, I do think SBS were probably taking the feed from the French broadcasters.

  7. I thought the post ad break updates were great by SBS. Whoever was sitting in the truck, selecting a highlight and then putting it to appropriate music was brilliant.

    Chumbawumba’s I get knocked down, but I get up again summed up Cadel’s mechanical stuffup on the last group stage and his career as a whole.

  9. Awesome event, awesome coverage, and an awesome effort by Cadel to finally stand on the top step. Thought it was all over when he had to stop three times on the Alp d’Huez due to bike troubles, but he “dug deep into his suitcase of courage” as Phil Ligget would say.

    The Schlecks were good to watch too and I hope that Andy gets there one day – after Cadel retires. Contador’s only mistake was slumming it at the back and losing all that time due to the crashes early on. Poor tactics cost him a podium and possibly another win.

  11. Well done to SBS for its wonderful coverage of the Tour de France. I am also not a big bike fan but love France and its cooking and began to appreciate the intricacies of team racing. Gabriel Gate is wondeful and a not to miss part of the broadcast. Ended up watching virtually every stage. My only minor criticism is that next years SBS commentary could better describe the technical details of the various categories and explain the tactical approach to this event and what is required for a team to qualify for it. I never did find out what the rules were with time elimination for example. But well done to SBS and to Cadel Evans. This has to be the greatest ever individual sporting achievement of an Australian athlete and Cadel delivering his victory speach in French and English was impressive.

  13. Congratulations SBS on what was probably the best coverage of any sporting event I’ve ever seen. The small crew you had working on the event did a fantastic job. The colour packages produced were second to none along with the commentary of Phil Ligget & Co.

  14. I read on Fox Sports website that Tina Arena actually rang the Tour de France organisers in the morning of the final stage, asking if she could perform the anthem.
    @mikeys: SBS has a daily 30-minute highlights program for the duration of the race and also a daily 15-minute update at 7.30am. Expanding the highlights show to 1 hour means it will have to start at 5.30pm. I don’t think it will attract more viewers than now.

  15. I have no interest in cycling but i’ve stayed up past 1 am watching it the last 2 nights. Was great to see Cadel win. Great moment in sporting history for Australia

  16. Congratulations to SBS for their commitment to this event for so many years. Going to live and complete coverage in recent years has been a fantastic addition to their nightly highlights package show. The wonderful sweeping camera shots are the best advertising for French tourism you could ever imagine.

  17. Brilliant conclusion to another fine year’s telecast from SBS. Congratulations to Cadel Evans, surely one of the grittiest, most determined athletes this country’s produced. It’s nearly enough to drag the road bike out and take it for a spin 🙂

  18. Well done Cadel! A fantastic effort. The Tor De France is a gruelling bike race. Each day if I woke up knowing I would be riding about 196km each day including those horrible mountains I would die. But I guess thats what they train for.

    I have never really bothered to sit down and watch much of the Tour but my dad watches it so I would just saw parts in the background but Saturday night I stayed up and watched part of his time trial then last night I wathced hime take off to Paris and taped the rest.

    Its probably the most relaxing ride Cadel has done in awhile and you can tell he just enjoyed every moment of it. Cadel you are a legend!

  19. and I think Tina Arena sounded great. No music, outdoors in windy conditions. Yet we are hard pressed to have our Anthem sound good in controlled conditions at the AFL Grand Final.

  21. For a bloke of his age it was a truly epic win. He is the oldest winner for 83 years and when you consider the setbacks and disappointments he has had over the past few years it is a remarkable achievement. So a great story combined with superb all round coverage produces a ratings winner. Well done to all involved……Enjoy your victory Cadel, you deserve it…….

  23. I saw most of the final stage last night, including the presentations, and I thought it was strange to have a singer performing Advance Australia Fair without background music, until you pointed out it was Tina Arena (even SBS’s Mike Tomalaris did not tell viewers who she was). Obviously the organisers had chosen Tina because she has lived in France for several years, has released a couple of French-language albums, and is very popular there.

  25. Congratulations to Cadel Evans – a truly inspirational rider – I’ve been following his progress since the mid-90s when he was my Mt Bike idol, and now look at him!!

    Commendable effort to SBS – much respect to you for your love of cycling.

    Next year, let’s have a 1 hour high-lights show for those of us who simply cannot stay up throughout the night.

Leave a Reply