VeloCast

Liz Hatch wants to see more women's teams... Marketing to women? I hate to be a bit sexist about it but what about marketing to men- have you not /seen/ Liz Hatch? owenp wants to see more Liz Hatch...

sorry to lower the tone after all the insightful comments above

Good point about the Olympics Scott. True, the Cervelo ladies have done well in the European race scene and we should see more of that on TV. The UCI could look to tennis or athletics. (mind you, tennis only just got parity on prize money for Grand slam events)

Liz does market herself though- she has a calendar I think. With that in mind, I'm not ashamed- merely reacting in the way that is expected of me!

Yes, you have lowered the tone, Owen and you should be ashamed of yourself! ;-)

I don't think Liz or any other female cyclist gives a monkeys about marketing - all anyone wants to do is race professionally. If it's your passion and you are better than 90-odd percent of the rest of the planet at it; you would surely want to make a living from it.

I was just thinking about John's comment on the show regarding the UCI pushing through changes to the track programme allowing for parity in women's and men's events. It seems to me that we are perfectly happy to watch women's Olympic events but show little interest outside of it. Think of the TV coverage given to both men & women at the Olympics regardless of the sport. Now consider the TV coverage given to women's sport when it's professional.

It's going to take a similarly bold move by the UCI on women's road events and more companies prepared to fund squads of both men and women, like Cervelo and HTC-Columbia to increase the profile.

Mind you, I'm one X chromosome short of having an informed position on any of this!

Scott.

Owenp wrote "have you not /seen/ Liz Hatch?"

Well I hadn't but, at Owen's implied behest I've just Google Imaged her and .................... she's, ahem, very well rounded for a cyclist isn't she? Certainly I now understand why Owen wants to know more about her opinions on Campy versus Shimano etc. Not convinced she's too good on aerodynamics though - http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3252/2309749892_...

Can't agree more about Wiggle - brilliant service and I can't believe anybody ever pays extra for next day delivery when the standard service invariably gets there just as quick.

From Wiggle to Wiggo - whilst I agree with most of the views expressed about him (including Millar's pop star comments) I am mindful not to ignore the Brailsford factor. Sure money talks, both in salary AND team funding, but even if Sky were on a financial par with Garmin and Brad was being offered roughly the same salary, the opportunity to work with part of the team that made him a world and Olympic champion on the track would certainly have been a huge temptation for him. So yeah, I was disappointed about the lack of loyalty he showed to Vaughters and co, but I also give him credit for being a professional cyclist who saw an opportunity to maximise his potential in that sport by teaming up with a friend and mentor with whom he has enjoyed great success before. I'll always believe that this was as big a lure as the cold, hard cash.

Just wanted to add my tuppence worth to the Wiggle love-in. They appear to have got their business model absolutely spot-on and I get the impression that there are some very clever heads running that company. I have spent WAY too much money with them over a good number of years and have never received anything other than brilliant service.

I always thought that online retailing would struggle to come to terms with clothing, where you can't try things on before you buy. However with Wiggle (and obvioulsy they are not alone in this) you order the size you think you need, try it on, and if it doesn't fit you fill in the form online, order the correct size & the new one is with you the next day. They couldn't make it any simpler and certainly for me they have removed any lingering doubts I had about buying clothing online. Add to that the great value & quality of their own-brand clothing, dhb. I have never been disappointed with any dhb stuff & I am currently in my second season of revelling in the toasty warmth of their Roubaix bib longs.

However, I'm not sure if my inner snob would let me get an own-brand Wiggle bike - it just doesn't seem exotic enough for me. And the overtly "Shack" colour-scheme on the Rhigos frame is just boggin'. - as is the Shack team kit, John - and you know it ;-)

PS - top marks on getting the show notes up - it just about makes up for the disappearance of the enhanced podcast :-(

As far as I know, very few people have ridden the Wiggle bikes yet (I think the guys at Cycling Plus have had a tootle round the car park, kinda thing) so I wouldn't want to defend or condem them to any great degree.

But what immediately leapt to mind when reading the "inner snob" part of your message was the range of bikes from Chris Boardman, currently selling through Halfords. You're right, the years of conditioning make us want something more exotic but that Boardman Race Prepared bike is a hell of a tempting proposition. And I've seen it given nothing but fantastic reviews.

Re the enhanced podcast: We decided to go to MP3 as lots of people got in touch asking if they could get the show as an MP3 (their players didn't support m4a). So it's just makes more sense to put out the show in format that absolutely anyone can listen to. The show notes will always be there from now on for anyone that needs to follow up on stories.

Scott.

I admit to still having slight "inner snob" feelings about Boardman bikes (buying a bike in Halfords just seems wrong!), but they have the benefit of the Boardman name to give them a bit more clout and like you, I have also heard nothing but good reviews about them. I suppose if I was in the market for a new road bike & either Boardman or Wiggle (or Be-One from CRC) were in my budget, my inner snob would quickly be vanquished by my inner skinflint!

It really seams to be the buying-power that these companies have, particularly when it comes to components & groupos, that results in great value bikes. Joe public could never put a bike together for anything approaching the cost of a Boardman, for example. How much do you reckon Wiggle pay for Dura-Ace, Ultegra or Sram Red or compared to the retail price - or even the "average" bike shop's wholesale price? The mind boggles!

The rule of thumb used to be that building a bike buying the bits at retail would cost you roughly 30% more than buying the same bike as a standard bike from a big manufacturer. It still seems to hold roughly true. Re wholesale prices and margins? I know that I've seen groupsets from all the major manufacturers for sale on the likes of Chain Reaction's site for less than a wee bricks and mortar store could buy them at trade. I take advantage of it myself now, used to make me sick when I was in the trade though. ;o( The only way wee bike businesses are going to survive moving forward is by niche marketing and excellent service and even then it's becoming more of a struggle.

J

The retail side of things would be better tackled by John, but the corollary of this could be - and I stress COULD; how much markup are we paying for gruppos on a Trek, Spesh or Giant?

No offense to Boardman - and you're right; John and I have talked often about the stigma associated with a "Halfords" bike - but I don't imagine that they are shifting enough Race Prepared Carbon Pros to afford them 'buying power' and merit big discounts on SRAM Red.

Scott.