Professional Cycling - Why no coverage Zabriskie coverage?

For such a major budget event, it's surprising that the Tour de France
broadcasting crew does not cover all riders. It's only about 3.5 hours
worth of filming (189 riders at one minute intervals + 22 minutes to
complete the course) -- much less time then a full stage. They must be
a little embarrassed to resort to stock footage. That's only slightly
better coverage then what my wife and I provide at our local races:
http://tinyurl.com/bjh7m ;)

It's especially surprising considering Zabriskie has won a lot of major
TTs in the last year.

I was wondering that, too.

I guess they just didn't expect him to win

is he from "Canadia"?

OLN sucked ass today.. I didnt appreciate the 3 hour pre race show when 2 hours into it the commentator says "oh talking about the TT, Zabriske just"..and on comes the commercial... Even durind the TT they kept going back to flashbacks, athelte profiles etc...

It was disappointing not seeing Zabriskie's ride, but he went off so early. Wasn't meant to be.

What I didn't appreciate was going to commercial just after Armstrong and Ullrich get out on the course. WTF? They won't be long, fellas. Twenty minutes. Time your commercials before they go out. The 1:00 intervals between riders going out probably didn't help TV producers much either.

OLN sucked ass today.. I didnt appreciate the 3 hour pre race show when 2 hours into it the commentator says "oh talking about the TT, Zabriske just"..and on comes the commercial... Even durind the TT they kept going back to flashbacks, athelte profiles etc...we had something similar.

We had a 1hr highlights package of last year's Tour, then, when they finally
get to the coverage, it's like: "welcome viewers. We've just had a time set by
David Zabriskie that nobody will get near!!"
Oh, thanks..:)

Well, Dave is the US TT national champ, so he probablly isn't from Canada unless he moved very young. But I don't know how the eligibility rules work

he's from utah

OLN sucked ass today.. I didnt appreciate the 3 hour pre race show when 2 hours into it the commentator says "oh talking about the TT, Zabriske just"..and on comes the commercial... Even durind the TT they kept going back to flashbacks, athelte profiles etc...


I SECOND THIS OPINION


OLN SUCKS ASS.

When there's no bicycling on all they show is bullriding.

Well, Dave is the US TT national champ, so he probablly isn't from Canada unless he moved very young. But I don't know how the eligibility rules work

OK, so we've established he's nationality isn't the reason for the lousy coverage. Although I knew Dave is from the U.S., the Canadian explanation was a very pausible explanation... it's happened in other sports especially during NBC's coverage of the Olympics.

Maybe we can take up a collection from all of you and me send to France with my camcorder to get some real coverage. I promise no commercials every 30 seconds and will limit the words 'Discovery, Trek and Lance' to no more than once per 10 seconds.

1) It sounded like Dave's ride was over before the OLN live coverage started
2) OLN doesn't control the feed, French TV does

If anyone sucks it's CSC for not placing Dave higher up in the start order where the cameras would've been on him and more importantly OLN would've been broadcasting.



It's only about 3.5 hours
worth of filming (189 riders at one minute intervals + 22 minutes to
complete the course)


So there's 22 riders on the course at any given time. That means 22 motos (44 people, moto pilots + cameramen). I suspect that the helicopter doesn't have equipment to process 22 feeds and rebroadcast that to the trailer. The producer has to select which riders to cover and sometimes they get it wrong.

1) It sounded like Dave's ride was over before the OLN live coverage started
2) OLN doesn't control the feed, French TV does

I didn't say the feed was OLN's fault did I?




If anyone sucks it's CSC for not placing Dave higher up in the start order where the cameras would've been on him and more importantly OLN would've been broadcasting.

Riis shouldn't have to plan according to the broadcaster's schedule. Maybe he felt spreading out the start times of his riders would allow one of them to capitalize on a change in the winds and produce a good result. We know he's smart guy.




So there's 22 riders on the course at any given time. That means 22 motos (44 people, moto pilots + cameramen). I suspect that the helicopter doesn't have equipment to process 22 feeds and rebroadcast that to the trailer. The producer has to select which riders to cover and sometimes they get it wrong.

It doesn't have to broadcast each feed live, but it should be ready to supplement recorded material from other cameras. The Tour is broadcasted around world, 22 crews is not a big deal. Hell, I'll save them a driver and do the driving and recording myself with a helmet-cam from my scooter.

I didn't say the feed was OLN's fault did I?


I didn't say that you did.

There's a bit of OLN-bashing going on above your post. People should have to sit through the early-90s, 7 days compressed into 2 hours, ABC/John Tesh crapfest that we used to have to watch. OLN's coverage will start looking pretty damn good.

Why wasnt' DZ wearing the Stars and Stripes?

we had something similar.

We had a 1hr highlights package of last year's Tour, then, when they finally
get to the coverage, it's like: "welcome viewers. We've just had a time set by
David Zabriskie that nobody will get near!!"
Oh, thanks..:)

Nobody will get near? Well, actually, although Zabriskie's time was the best in 102 years of Tour de France history, beating the best times of the greatest riders of the past century, within just hours, someone got within two seconds. A fella who had trouble getting his pedals clipped in, and who rode the last couple of miles at an relaxed cruise, rather than in an "all out" effort to win.

If Zabriskie and Lance are both in top form July 23rd, we should see another great time trial effort. And, my money will be on Lance. The last competitive stage of his life: if he is healthy, Lance will give us a day to remember. Especially if he can get his hands on a decent pair of pedals.

remember too, not to take anything away from Zabriskie's amazing time. His average speed was 0.09km/hour faster than Lemonds 16year old record, the Lemond Time Trial was over 3miles Longer.

I am so pleased to see someone NEW win the TT, but the next TT is MUCH longer, and it will be a much different looking result.

CSC gambled putting Zabriskie out early to take advantage of the coastal winds, which worked out. Look in the background at the start of the broadcast and you can see the winds were howling.

The coverage didn't have him because the big names go last and that's the time the advertiser's will pay for.

he's from utah

He's from Berkely, CA (where his parents still live); he trains and lives in Salt Lake City now.

Smoothie, i don't know. He pulled the same thing in the Giro, and the UCI got mad and his sponsors made him a Stars and stripes skinsuit for the second TT. I don't see why he wouldn't wear it . . .

we had something similar.

We had a 1hr highlights package of last year's Tour, then, when they finally
get to the coverage, it's like: "welcome viewers. We've just had a time set by
David Zabriskie that nobody will get near!!"
Oh, thanks..:)

Yup, Happened again. Same thing happened at the Giro. The press has not yet caught on to the fact that Dave is the heir apparent to David Millar's position as the TT man to watch.

After last years huge stage win in the Vuelta, and then his TT victories this year, he will soon become a marketing asset. Then you'll see more of him on TV.

Why wasnt' DZ wearing the Stars and Stripes?
He didn't compete in this year's TT national championship in order to help reconnoiter the course with his CSC mates.

Oh yeah, It went to Chris Baldwin, thats right... thanks

The fact that he broke a record held since 1989 in TT1 you'd think it would merit SOME coverage. I'd like to see a story on him. I mean, he took the first jersey, broke a record, and he seems like a pretty cool fella. Come on folks (OLN)...stop gawking at Lance and give someone else some well deserved limelight.