Tour de France podcasts help Future's websites to smash viewing records

BikeRadar.com and Cyclingnews.com break the records

Almost three million users visited BikeRadar.com and CyclingNews.com in July, smashing records previously set by the cycle consumer websites.

According to HBX, the number of unique users across both sites reached 2,964,043 following a bumper month for cycling with the Tour de France and the run up to the Beijing Olympics.

BikeRadar.com’s success was helped by another very successful run for the Tour de France podcast which was the second most downloaded sports podcast though iTunes throughout the Tour, with the total number of downloads reaching 123,814 – increasing more than 45 per cent on last year’s performance.

The news of the record breaking month also signals the end of the formal consultancy work on CyclingNews.com from former proprietor and publisher Gerard Knapp, who has worked on the site since Future acquired CyclingNews.com in July 2007. Gerard leaves CyclingNews.com by mutual agreement and will continue working with Future on other internet and technology related projects.

Richard Schofield is Group Publisher of Future’s sports portfolio:

“Traffic on BikeRadar.com and CyclingNews.com in July has exceeded all expectations and further establishes us as the world leader in the cycling media. It is a perfect illustration of what we do best; using Future’s knowledgeable journalists and digital technology to produce compelling cycling content for a global audience. These results are a great tribute to the hard work of the editorial and technical teams.”

“I would also like to thank Gerard for his dedication and all the fantastic support he has given us over the period since our acquisition. I wish him all the very best in his future projects.”

Gerard Knapp said, “The brilliant effort of the CyclingNews team throughout the Tour de France maintained the site’s pre-eminence as the world’s leading cycling news and results service, a position that I am sure Future will maintain. I would like to congratulate Future for continuing to support the excellent editorial team around the globe, and respecting CyclingNews’ position as the ‘go-to’ site for the world’s bike-racing community. With BikeRadar.com’s awesome resource of technology reviews and cycling routes, I believe Future is extremely well-positioned to continue to this progress going forward.”

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