There’s nothing like seeing the Tour de France in person. I’ve been 10 times and I’m in the second year of what I hope will only be a two-year hiatus from attending the event.

Despite the long hours and the various odd ways of the country, I’m homesick for France. At the same time, I’m grateful for the Tour de France coverage on the Versus network.

It’s not the same as Eurosport or the BBC or France 2-3. But I think cycling fans should appreciate how the American cable network covers the race live daily. And we should acknowledge the talents of Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen as lead broadcasters and the work of their colleagues Craig Hummel and Bob Roll and the commentary of field reporters Frankie Andreu and Robbie Ventura.

There are problem areas, but covering the Tour isn’t a perfect science. And in brief, the network GETS the Tour de France.

But here’s my complaint. Cycling is still a niche event and Versus seemingly continues to have difficulty selling the event to mainstream adver
tisers.

That’s why during the Tour the same commercials are repeated so often they lose credibility and impact — at least for me.

The best example this year is the commercial that features videotape in reverse. There’s Alexander Vinokourov, the discredited Kazakhstan rider, rolling back up the time trial ramp. And there’s Floyd Landis having this yellow jersey removed on the podium. In all, there are six occasions shown in reverse.

The network’s point: It’s a new beginning for the Tour and so let’s move forward (by move backwards) from the travesties of past Tours. And the commercial is question makes its point — like maybe the first few times it was shown.

But now we’re a week into the 95th Tour de France and I’ve seen the reverse footage commercial probably 95 times. It’s lost of all of its effectiveness.

Paul, Phil, Bob and all the rest, great job, fellas. And kudos to the writers and producers of the commercial in question. But to the Versus sales staff: Come on, folks. You’re in the gruppetto and there are two weeks left in the race. Got anything else left to show for yourselves?