You may never have heard of the Tour of Poland, but its been going for 68 years and I can tell you one thing, the Poles know how to get brand advertising across on tv.
Take a look at any professional cycling team kit and it's covered in sponsors logos - bike races are essentially huge marketing exercises, from the caravan of promotional vehicles that drive the course for the fans before the race to the helicopters capturing the stunning scenery for the tv audience of millions. Hell, I even booked a holiday in Italy this year because the scenery looked so beautiful.
I have to hand it to the organisers of the Tour of Poland, I've never seen so many different vehicles for brands. Thousands of 12ft tall, multi-coloured, inflatable balloons line the road, 300ft banners laid out on the ground and even horse riders carrying banners as they gallop alongside the peloton. If it's inflatable and you can stick a logo on it, they've used it.
In fact if it wasn't for the fact that the cyclist is basically a moving billboard, there would be no professional cycling on tv around the world, no Tour de France, nothing. And yet as I write this, the top ranked team in the world, HTC-highroad (Mark Cavendish's team) has just gone belly up because of a shortfall in sponsorship revenue. In what other sport would that happen?
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