The Difference Between F1 and Tour de France, And What That Means For Trail Running

This post was spilled into my LinkedIn feed via the almighty algorithm, and for once it’s actually a good one and one worth sharing here (I still would’ve loved to be able to link to this post on an open website, but what can you do). Anthony Walsh, who I had never heard of until today is the host of the Roadman Cycling & Anthony Walsh Podcasts, among other things. And why would I have heard of him, I am not into the cycling world. But Anthony shares a story I remember when Netflix first dropped their Cycling documentary series about the Tour de France:

Drive to Survive: 57 million watch hours in two weeks. Netflix’s cycling show: 1.5 million.
That’s not just a flop. That’s revolt.
But the real moment Netflix lost cycling happened on Stage 18, 2022 Tour de France.
Pogačar crashes on a descent. Jonas Vingegaard – wearing the yellow jersey – has a choice: attack his fallen rival or wait.
He waits.
In cycling, the yellow jersey isn’t clothing. It’s a contract. You earned this. You represent the sport now. You carry its values.
That moment – a leader showing respect to a fallen rival – is pure cycling.
Raw. Authentic. Dramatic.
Netflix cut it.

The difference between Formula One and the Tour de France (in Anthony’s perspective):

They thought cycling needed their Hollywood formula – the same blueprint that made F1 a global phenomenon.
But F1 runs on ego. Billionaire team owners. Pit wall politics. Manufactured rivalry.
Cycling runs on code. Respect. Silent suffering under extreme pressure.
Netflix tried to force F1’s conflict-first template onto a sport built on trust.

I’m not here to comment on either Netflix, Formula 1 or Cycling, but want to draw some comparison to trail running, and specifically how we, in the media talk about it.

When Drive to Survive dropped like a bomb on living rooms TVs all around the world it really ushered in a new way of sports documentaries. The story-telling was compelling, it was fun to watch and the show brought a whole new audience to the sport. This of course had media people in every sport frothing at the mouth and wondering what “their Drive to Survive moment” would look like for their respective sport. And yes, in trail running we wondered this too. But Anthony Walsh’s post makes a good point:

While Netflix was manufacturing soap opera, they missed the real magic

Given the current media budgets and audiences in trail running we’re about a million miles away from getting one of these high profiles documentaries shot for us, but this didn’t stop talking heads from trying to emulate the Netflix line of story telling: rivalries were conjured up, top runners pinned against each other, and historic match ups were prophesied ahead of big events. Kilian made a point after this year’s Western States that for the elite runners there used to be a saying that “the race starts at … Forest Hill (or wherever)” and that nowadays there’s no casual and even communal running for the first 1/3 or 1/2 of a highly competitive event anymore, but the race right after the gun. So yes, races to get faster and with that more competitive. But does that competition need to spill out into the way we talk about these athletes? Is the smack talking and encouragement to measure yourself against your rivals necessary, or even wanted in our sport? If I look at best in our sport, our GOATs if you will, I don’t see them enjoying this type of talk or willingly embracing this role they seem to be forced into. Trail running, especially ultra trail running is still mostly you, the athlete, against the course, the trail, the route through the landscape in any given circumstance. If you have a good day, and a better day than the competition, you come out on top. You can race against each other on the trails, with your bib on, when it counts – that’s when it matters. But trail running doesn’t run on:

…ego. Billionaire team owners. Pit wall politics. Manufactured rivalry

…as Anthony describes Formula One. The sport of trail running is way more like road cycling:

Respect. Silent suffering under extreme pressure

Let’s hope we can keep our sport that way and won’t let media people chasing advertising dollars turn trail running into something it is not. And if they do try, let’s hope its fans recognize this manufactured farce and revolt against it just like the cycling fans did.