Wiesbaden, July 18th, 2023

Today, on the occasion of the current Tour France, the sports marketing agency ONE8Y has presented further market research results from its global sports business database “ONE8Y DB”. As part of a representative market research study in nine countries among more than 8,500 cycling enthusiasts aged between 16 and 69, specific questions were asked about the relevance of cycling - with some surprising revalations.

The Tour de France (TdF) is one of the biggest sporting events in the world - with huge international interest among cycling fans. However, the other two three-week national tours, the Vuelta a España and the Giro d'Italia, also have a large fan base worldwide. Regardless of the popularity and interest in the respective tours, ONE8Y asked fans the crucial question: Which of the three grand tours would you choose if you were only allowed to watch one competition?

The results speak for themselves: in eight of the nine analyzed markets, the final choice is the Tour de France - in Spain, however, only slightly ahead of its own national tour, the Vuelta (41%). A look at the Italian market, meanwhile, shows the national pride and euphoria for the country-specific race: 71% of Italian cycling fans would choose the Giro d'Italia over the Tour de France.

ONE8Y CEO Hendrik Fischer comments: “The importance of the Tour de France in an international context is very clearly demonstrated by those results. The organizers of the TdF have invested a lot in developing the Tour de France brand in recent years - and this is now all the more evident in the figures. This dominance will become even stronger in the coming years - and is also going to have a strong impact on the teams. The participating teams generate a large part of their annual media visibility through the Tour of France. Therefore, this also counts for the sponsors.”

When asked how individual interest in cycling has developed in the markets, an average of 33% of all respondents stated that interest has increased - for 62% it has remained the same. The greatest growth in interest was identified in Brazil (+53%) and the USA (+39%) - followed by Spain with 32%. The second lowest growth in interest was recorded in France with 28% growth - followed only by New Zealand with 25%.

ONE8Y also investigated another major issue - in particular, how the cycling-interested population in the countries surveyed feel about the doping problem in professional cycling. The results are very encouraging. Across all cycling fans from the nine countries, more than half (country average = 61%: “definitely” and “rather yes”) believe that there is less doping today than in the past. The New Zealanders (52%) are the most critical of this, followed by the Germans and the French (both 54%).

Hendrik Fischer adds: “Cycling has regained a lot of credibility in recent years. The monitoring and increasing professionalization mean that fans have largely regained their trust - a very pleasing development and a good foundation for companies that want to invest in professional cycling as a sponsorship platform.”

The study results are excerpts from the world's first license-based market research database in the sports business called “ONE8Y DB”. This database contains valid market research data from over 40 countries on a wide range of sports marketing and business information. All further information on the database can be found atwww.one8y-db.com.