“The problem with bunch sprints is that you often get a boring run-up. That is difficult to sell" - Renaat Schotte on cycling's struggles to crack worldwide TV market

Sorry but I think this analysis is seriously deficient. Think of the logic applied. Accordingly, track racing should be much more popular, it isn’t. swimming, rowing, triathlon, table tennis and dozens of others don’t really fare better and none suffer this « problem » of huge run-ups for a few seconds of adrenalin. It’s the nature of this sport and it attracts those who like that and not another of the many sports to decide between. The starting premise is wrong, some things can NOT be changed. F1 is basically no more exciting than cycling but enjoys huge popularity. Distance running is certainly no more perhaps less exciting but has more success than any cycling event except the TdF (partly because it is more than just cycling (some people love discovering unknown France this way - to evt plan future trips)) Fact is some sports will never be more popular than others but which depends on place, culture, traditions and media investment. People watch what they feel associated to, people who like cars or motorbikes > F1, etc. People who like chess will watch chess, people who run will watch Athletics or Marathons, people who lime cycling watch cycling. Cycling is not a very popular activity, some only do it as a mode of transport, many are put off by road dangers and in many countries there has been a backlash against cyclists, mostly by car drivers, does anyone then really expect that by fiddling about with cycling formats on tv people will suddenly find an interest in watching? Perhaps if there weren’t unlimited numbers of football, baseball, basketball matches at the same time to choose from… It didn’t change much for Triathlon but the one thing that would completely change things (still not a guarantee it would draw more spectators than it scares away) would be to forbid drafting, haha.

Yeah, in most cases he has a good point. Still, I love a good sprint

And problem is also that many of the big names rarely in the same race together. As they mainly do that due to scheduling reasons. So, it makes marketting the sport much harder than let's say tennis? I am not surprised of this at all

If you put cycling behind a 'pay wall' less people will watch it, thus interest in the sport will decline instead of increase. Sprint stages are a problem now that the break is only allowed a couple of minutes by the sprint teams. If you want to make them more exciting try making it easier for riders to get away, maybe by putting a longish climb near the start or at some other key point so that a buch sprint is only a 50% possibility instead of a 90% one. Just a thought.