The Quebec and Montreal Cycling Grands Prix will be back on September 9 and 11 after a two-year pandemic break. The fans will undoubtedly be delighted to celebrate the new national hero of two-wheelers, Hugo Houle, and his companions Guillaume Boivin, Antoine Duchesne and Michael Woods, all starters in the Tour de France. But they will also be happy to find the voice of Louis Bertrand at the microphone of TVA Sports, who will assume the description of the only World Tour event presented on Quebec and Canadian television this year.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
This abominable and incomprehensible situation arises as the stars aligned for an unprecedented outbreak of performances by our Quebec athletes on the international cycling scene. For the first time, a World Tour team entered three Canadian riders in the Tour de France. A fourth distinguished himself within the French team Groupama-FDJ. Never have Quebec and Canada had so many participants in the oldest and most illustrious stage race in the world. Bad weather for a black screen on TV, especially since the bicycle occupied an enviable place there for thirty years.
Never have Quebec and Canada had so many participants in the oldest and most illustrious stage race in the world.
Bad weather for a black screen on TV, especially since the bicycle occupied an enviable place there for thirty years.
” An aberration ! »
I held the position of director of programs at TVA when the channel joined forces with Serge Arsenault to present daily reports of the Tour de France on the main antenna. The experience was repeated for a few years, then Évasion took over in 2003, still under the impetus of Serge Arsenault, an unparalleled promoter and a true apostle of both racing and marathon cycling. Finally, RDS acquired the broadcasting rights for the Tour de France, an adventure that ended abruptly in 2020, when an unknown actor from Texas intervened to obtain the rights.
Until 2023, Canadians have two options to watch the Tour de France live and other major World Tour events: either subscribe at great cost to the web service of FloBikes, the malicious Texan, or circumvent illegally the system by hiding their web identity behind a VPN connected to a French server or another broadcasting country. An aberration !
Like hundreds of thousands of Quebecers, I have become fan finished bike. Thanks to Serge Arsenault and my father-in-law since the first Grand Prix of the Americas on Mount Royal in 1988. Then a friend invited me, almost fifteen years ago, to register with Powerwatts. All that to say that several builders have made up for the lack of means, or ambition, of the Canadian Cycling Federation to develop a solid high-competition cycling culture in Quebec. Among these, obviously, Serge and Sébastien Arsenault, but also Louis Garneau, Paulo Saldanha, Steve Bauer, Joseph Tino Rossi, and the promoters of the Tours de Beauce and Abitibi. The last in line, and not the least, Sylvan Adams and Jean Bélanger, who joined their efforts this year in the formation of the quasi-Quebec team Israel – Premier Tech and who were rewarded by the remarkable performance of their athletes in the Tour of France.
For Quebecers’ enthusiasm for competitive cycling to continue to grow, the heroic efforts of builders and athletes are unfortunately not enough. The presence of television becomes indispensable. It starts with the Grands Prix de Québec and Montréal on September 9 and 11, but we will have to follow up with other major events, including the unmissable Tour de France.