Is America Over the Tour de France?

By David Brown and Rhonda FanningJuly 18, 2014 10:50 pm

This year’s World Cup tournament captivated tens of millions of people around the country. Television ratings soared, prompting many to ask whether it was finally soccer’s moment in America.

But there’s another global sporting event taking place right now – one that years ago had folks saying the same thing about cycling.

The Tour de France, a three-week, 2,200-mile bike race through Western Europe, is past the halfway mark of its 21 stages – and headlines surrounding the event seem to have fallen off the sports pages of most American newspapers.

The Texas Standard’s David Brown asks journalist and former professional cyclist Ian Dille if he attributes the lack of media coverage to Lance Armstrong.

“It certainly helps when you have a national figure, that has an incredible back story, that is winning every Tour de France,” explains Dille. “The sport is definitely better off because of Lance Armstrong. All those people that came to watch the tour and love it, didn’t just fall out of love with the sport, because Lance disappeared, or because of his downfall.”

What else is behind U.S. reaction to the tour this year? Listen to the interview to find out.