Quote Originally Posted by the sniper View Post
But we're led to believe that WRC rallies are too long, people's attention spans are too short nowadays to follow such an event... Yet many tens, even hundreds of thousands of people make the effort to line the routes of major tours to catch just a brief glimpse of these events. Sound familiar? The stages last and are broadcast for hours, for many hours of which very little is happening. Some events are one long day, the Grand Tours go on for WEEKS!

Can you imagine major cycling stage races being as popular as they are now had their formats been standardised and diminished in scope to the extent that most rallies have?
as i wrote just above, cycling is standardized! take the vuelta, giro, and tour. starts same hours, finishes every day around 5 o'clock. even mountain stage are more or less same days in the 3 week span... and has plenty of difference from rally. yes, it has stages (but 1 per day). yes hardcore fan goes in the mountains and wait for hours but that's all. if you tune in 30 min at the stage end u can see everything important and know immediately who won the day. if you have 30 rally car u have to wait 1hr to know who won a stage. in the meantime is possible another stage is already running. big number of people is made by bystanders when passing in village and town. people can attend from home garden (yes sometimes rally too, but not comparable). and so on, told before. cycling is more marketable tv wise, 'cause is very much simpler compared to rally.
another fundamental thing: in cycling you can see athletes!!! (i mean their faces)