Professional Cycling - For those of us without OLN...

What is the best way to watch the tour? I was thinking Discovery would re-cap, but I can't find a schedule. I know ESPN does some highlights, but I'd rather see more than just highlights. I'm willing to record the shows if they're on early/late, so time isn't a factor. If you could help me out, that'd be great. Any options are welcome.

Feel your pain! Luckily my bike club at home is recording it for me and burning to DVD to send here to Iraq. I'd suggest doing the same and ask around the local clubs and shops, if you buy the discs I'm sure someone with OLN & DVD burner will record it for you.

Good Luck!

i'm lookin forward to torrents

TV5 will broadcast live everyday, except in US and canada. If that's your case, I hope someone puts some torrents online like last year

what is a torrent? Sorry but I have no idea!

what is a torrent? Sorry but I have no idea!

file sharring program, allows you to download media off someone elses computer, for example the tour de france

Yeah, I'm in the US, so no TV5. The thing about burned copies is I'd rather be able to see it before the Tour's over...

Yeah, I'm in the US, so no TV5. The thing about burned copies is I'd rather be able to see it before the Tour's over...

i agree with that. unfortunetly, i'm not sure if even OLN will show it to me...they stopped airing cyclism here a month back or so.

if anyone wants to burn it on dvd i'd love to give you my mailing adress.....pm me if anyones interested....i'm freaking out about not being able to watch the tour, and late is better than NEVER!!!

also, is there any professional outfits that put out the WHOLE tour (not just 4 hours of recaps) on dvd????

didn't oln put the giro on streaming media or something? maybe they'll do that for the tdf? the place i'm subletting has cable and even tivo, so i was really excited about being able to record the tour come home from work and watch it, but i don't think i get oln for some reason. i would have figured it's part of the standard cable package. oh well.

I believe CBS or NBC has a one hour recap each Sunday. That's probably the next best recap. ESPN's coverage has not been that good. There's no talk about strategy, other competitions, other teams etc

If you have a good internet connection, go to this address:

http://www.letour.fr

There are several versions to choose from once you get there. English, French, etc.

During the tour, they have good coverage that automatically updates every few minutes.

I think World cycling productions also put an 16 hour dvd pack for other tours. Anyway, I still think the best alternative for short term is the torrents, you can get them with a few hours of downloading, if someone posts them quickly, you could be watching the stage with a 24 hour delay.

I haven't been able of getting something to convert analog to digital video, that stuff is expensive. if i get it i still would buy a 200 gig hard drive to make al the video processing. Be sure that if a find a way to post the videos online i will do it

Radio? There's gotta be some station with cycling people on. Better than nothing I guess.

Also, robintosh, sent you a pm.

i agree with that. unfortunetly, i'm not sure if even OLN will show it to me...they stopped airing cyclism here a month back or so.

if anyone wants to burn it on dvd i'd love to give you my mailing adress.....pm me if anyones interested....i'm freaking out about not being able to watch the tour, and late is better than NEVER!!!

also, is there any professional outfits that put out the WHOLE tour (not just 4 hours of recaps) on dvd????


OLN in Canada WILL show the Tour...Stage one 1130am Saturday....OLN basically goes Tour devoted for July. They show the day's stage at least 3 times per day.

World Cycling Productions do a 4hours DVD and usually put together a 12hour extended version as well.

I think World cycling productions also put an 16 hour dvd pack for other tours. Anyway, I still think the best alternative for short term is the torrents, you can get them with a few hours of downloading, if someone posts them quickly, you could be watching the stage with a 24 hour delay.

I haven't been able of getting something to convert analog to digital video, that stuff is expensive. if i get it i still would buy a 200 gig hard drive to make al the video processing. Be sure that if a find a way to post the videos online i will do it

I bought a 160GB external drive just to keep my Mp3's and Mpegs. I will definitely be filling it up a little with some Tour Stages. I have a TV tuner card in my Computer, so I will be taping them all. I'll end up buying the WCP 4hour DVD eventually anyways...Its way more practical when you want to go back and watch a couple races...

I watched 1998's Giro, and 1999 Tour de France today... :)

Any good links for torrents?

Im sure this will deleted...but mininova.org is very good

you also need to have a program like BITTORNADO in order to use bit torrent sites

Radio? There's gotta be some station with cycling people on. Better than nothing I guess.

Also, robintosh, sent you a pm.

Good idea!! I'll get an audio stream from ESPN (with phil and paul) live everyday. You will need quicktime 7. PM me for details.

i agree with that. unfortunetly, i'm not sure if even OLN will show it to me...they stopped airing cyclism here a month back or so.


Dude, relax. OLN Canada will be carrying daily coverage (live in the AM then rebroadcast 2 more times later in the day). Just learn to tape it and FF the commercials or watch live and mute the commercials because they usually have like 5 sponsors and the same commercials over and over again.

i really hope you're right.

do you guys in BC or Ontario get cyclism sundays anymore?

i really hope you're right.

do you guys in BC or Ontario get cyclism sundays anymore?

No, it was an early season experiment by OLN Canada. Those of us who *****ed to TSN over the winter about OLN's pathetic coverage of non-tour racing got an email early in the year with the Cyclism schedule. That schedule fizzled out around the time of the Giro (BTW, we didn't get Giro coverage due to licensing issues).

The best thing you can do is email (and get all your friends to do so too) OLN Canada praising their showing of cycling and tell 'em you bought every one of the commercial sponsors' products. :) Ask for more, more, more cycling next year. I usually make a disparaging comment about the Bowflex system too :)

OLN Canada's TdF schedule is here:

http://www.tsn.ca/oln/tour_de_france/feature.asp?fid=9699

The best thing you can do is email (and get all your friends to do so too) OLN Canada praising their showing of cycling and tell 'em you bought every one of the commercial sponsors' products. :) Ask for more, more, more cycling next year. I usually make a disparaging comment about the Bowflex system too :)

OLN Canada's TdF schedule is here:

http://www.tsn.ca/oln/tour_de_france/feature.asp?fid=9699

hmmm, yeah i guess the 2 times i e-mailed them i probably sounded like a raving maniac messed up on caffeine or alcohol(or both...) who didn't make a whole lot of coherent sense.

thanks for the schedule!!

didn't oln put the giro on streaming media or something? maybe they'll do that for the tdf?

Negative. OLN only did the stream for the days (and there were MANY!) that they didn't broadcast the race on their cable station. Since le Tour will be on OLN's cable station every day of the race, there will be no streaming Internet video feed. :(

There's gotta be something like satellite radio that you could listen to live. I always look at the www.letour.fr website, and refresh it every few minutes. They also have clips of parts of the race. Alas, it isn't the whole race, but it's cool to watch anyway.

I don't get OLN, but here in Quebec we can get Canal Evasion, which basically has the same live coverage as OLN but it's in french.SO what! It's cycling! However, I'll miss Phil and Paul, but I can't afford digital this year. The good thing though is that these commentators aren't always fawning over lance and we don't get the dopey features and interviews they have on OLN.

If you have a good internet connection, go to this address:

http://www.letour.fr

There are several versions to choose from once you get there. English, French, etc.

During the tour, they have good coverage that automatically updates every few minutes.

There is no streaming on this site...just text updates...I love it, but its not as good as WATCHING the tour.

I dont' care for reception TV or Cable. So I just read the live reports from both cyclingnews.com and velonews.com

Living on the West Coast, I've been late to work on several mornings in July because I've been awaiting the outcome of a stage before driving to work.

But Im fortunate enough to have friends who tape it for me so I can actuall watch it at a later date. Of course I have to provide 20+ tapes for him to record on. ;)

There is no streaming on this site...just text updates...I love it, but its not as good as WATCHING the tour.


Negative. OLN only did the stream for the days (and there were MANY!) that they didn't broadcast the race on their cable station. Since le Tour will be on OLN's cable station every day of the race, there will be no streaming Internet video feed. :(

So, are there any websites with video streams of le Tour?

I will audio stream with quicktime 7. Contact me by private message

I've used tvmix.net to find streaming video of int'l soccer matches. There have to be a few european sports channels that stream live online and will cover the tour.

Watch it live. I forgot about this link I kept on my laptop until now. It has internet feeds from television stations around the world (mainly Europe): http://www.beelinetv.com/

Then go to olntv.com (or eurosport.com) and listen to the stages live as you watch it on the internet.

Koffee

Watch it live. I forgot about this link I kept on my laptop until now. It has internet feeds from television stations around the world (mainly Europe): http://www.beelinetv.com/

Then go to olntv.com (or eurosport.com) and listen to the stages live as you watch it on the internet.

Koffee

OK I'm in panic mode now.
I couldn't find olntv.com & went to www.eurosport and couldn't find anything.
I'll keep trying.

Has anyone got any idea if this site will be set up in time?:
http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=1132

Ok, this site had the Giro live and possibly Le Tour. I can't read Italian so I'll have to just click around.
http://www.gazzetta.it/speciali/ciclismo/tour/2005/
Steve.

:( no cable
:( no satellite dish
:( no broad band
:D but living in the boonies means I have awesome places to ride!

I think I'll skip following the TDF and just go ride!!!!

1.5hours until the Tour Preview starts on OLN!!!
Got my computer all set to tape everything!!!

Heading out to get some breakfast now!!!

Watching the TdF coverage on OLN reminds me of how much I dislike Bob Roll!! :D

that beelinetv.com does work. I watched a little Irish tv, then flipped over to some German tv, then watched a little Spanish tv, then ended up watching some Swedish tv. You'll have to search a bit to find the bike racing, but I'm sure it'll be on there.

Koffee

onltv.com is down and i am franticly trying to cross reference all of beelines channels with the world tour coverage list of channels. I hope everyone else is having better luck

Im going ****ing nuts now...... Ive tried everything cant find oln on online tv do not have onl on cablevision brooklyn.. what to do/?

Subscribe to the beelinetv newsletter. They will send you tv channel listings and times (I just found out yesterday, so I don't know when the updates start).

Koffee

I think ive found a way to bypass the check that the letour website does to see if you are a french user or not. I'm doing this in Firefox by getting the extension "user agent switcher". However, I still need to figure out how to spoof a French user agent...im not sure what they look like.

I'll keep you posted.

Allright I have some more info on how to do this. You do not need to get firefox and an agent switcher. You just need to find a french proxy and connect through it. Then you can get to the video site that is provided to french users only. Here's the catch, you have to pay to watch, 20 euros gets you live access to each day and the whole stage, otherwise you can pay by every couple of hours or just a stage. but it does not look like you can replay them. I will check into that once I know it all works. I got this all figured out today just after the stage ended so in 24 hours I will let you know if it works or not. You also have to register for the site and provide an e-mail and password. The whole site is in french so I was cutting and pasting into freetranslation.com (i tried the webtranslation and it did not work because the freetranslation site is in the us so it does not think your in france despite using a proxy). Its slightly frustrating, but in the end it will be worth it if it means I can watch the tour while I am in Hong Kong where I can not find it on tv. I realize this is pretty vaugue on how to do this and thats on purpose, I had to find out all of this info on my own and managed to, and I have provided more then enough info to figure it out.

p.s. you do not need firefox or any extension to do this, you can do it in ie if you want, and thats how I did it so i'm not sure how it works with other browsers

I've got tivo. Anyone with tivo and a network in their homes can upload the tour onto their computers from tivo.

I seriously do NOT have the hard drive to upload this on my laptop... but if anyone does, go to the tivo website and download the software that allows you to get the shows off your tivo.

Koffee