"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - How bad was the TV coverage?

I just watched the recap show that aired on ESPN last night and it was horrible! No clock on the screen; I think they only showed 2 riders split times; They also never showed a ranking of the times until the very end of the show - no updates whatsoever - so you had to remember exactly when Cancellara came in to know if Danielson beat his time. They had a lot of coverage in the first 45 minutes showing riders on the course(showing lesser known riders ride the whole course) and then in the last 15 minutes they packed all the big names in. They didn't show David Z., hardly any coverage on Hincapie. Very poorly put together. I hope it gets better.

Well from now on they'll be covering the peloton not an individual TT so it won't be so hard to figure out. And after about 2 stages, they'll be covering who ever is winning.

Hi,

Even A.L. (After Lance) cycling in the US is not a hot media sport. So in my book, any coverage is better than no coverage. Was it bad? Yes, but at least there was coverage. :)

I think I saw more empty road (waiting for a rider to crest a hill) that anything else.

I couldn't stay awake to watch it so I tried setting my new DVD/VCR from xmas. It was the first time I'd tried to use the record timer and it didn't work - got nothing but static. :( Oh well, doesn't sound like I missed much.

Hi,

Even A.L. (After Lance) cycling in the US is not a hot media sport. So in my book, any coverage is better than no coverage. Was it bad? Yes, but at least there was coverage. :)

2nd.

This is my thinking also. It wasnt the best coverage in the world but at least it was coverage (albeit at midnight here in good ole' Kansas)

They had a lot of coverage in the first 45 minutes showing riders on the course(showing lesser known riders ride the whole course) and then in the last 15 minutes they packed all the big names in.

That's a function of the start order-- the faster guys generally start last.

The rest of the comments are valid, though, but it's still better than the coverage we used to get of the TdF with 30 minute recaps packed with Fresca commercials. I bet it will improve a lot next year, and possibly even over the course of the week.

I agree 100% with the original poster.

It had the feel of watching a home-video of a bike race.

They clearly didn't have their camera positions set up right and the cameramen on the motorcycles were extremely shaky (perhaps it was their first time shooting in this way?). The editing (which I do for a living) left a lot to be desired. While the turnaround time from shooting the event to broadcast was pretty tight, they still had enough time to balance the coverage out of the riders throughout the hour. To cram the biggest names into the final 10-15 minutes was ridiculous.

Even my wife agrees with everything said here and she is not that big a fan. Yet! I'm goign to try to get her to go with me to the last stage in Redondo.

Yep: I agree it was pretty scetchy. But at least it was coverage.

At least you saw something. My parents in San Jose told me it was at least reported in the local news stations. But down here in Southern California, I found absolutely nothing.

I watched the sports reports late Sunday night and didn't catch one single note on the event. Not even an honorable mention. But they showed plenty of the NBA All Star game where multi-millionaires played street exhibition ball. The last quarter was a slamdunk contest. What a total waste of TV bandwidth. They showed NASCAR and even a local rodeo. But no bicycle racing.

It did make page 3 of todays Los Angeles Times Sports Section.

I hope it gets better or there'll be no one aware there's a bicycle race going on when it reaches the final stages here in Southern California.

zippo on TV in Canada.
NBC pre-empted the olympics for Bon Jovi at Daytona 500

TV sucks

They clearly didn't have their camera positions set up right and the cameramen on the motorcycles were extremely shaky (perhaps it was their first time shooting in this way?). The editing (which I do for a living) left a lot to be desired. While the turnaround time from shooting the event to broadcast was pretty tight, they still had enough time to balance the coverage out of the riders throughout the hour. To cram the biggest names into the final 10-15 minutes was ridiculous.


Thats how the start list goes. I would have liked to have seen Ullrich, Basso, Armstrong, etc spread out in the TdF prologue (mostly to save Jan the embarassment) but they don't do that because the best guys always start last...

While the turnaround time from shooting the event to broadcast was pretty tight, they still had enough time to balance the coverage out of the riders throughout the hour. To cram the biggest names into the final 10-15 minutes was ridiculous.

totally agreed with this. i am excited to see this event on tv even if i have to tivo it and watch it a day late. however, come on, lets edit this think a bit better. i saw no dave and very little george. at the end it was just finish finish finish at the end. come on show us some bike porn. at least its on. later.

Contact ESPN and let them know how sh1tty their coverage was.....

Fans deserve better......

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=contact/espntv

Thats how the start list goes. I would have liked to have seen Ullrich, Basso, Armstrong, etc spread out in the TdF prologue (mostly to save Jan the embarassment) but they don't do that because the best guys always start last...

I'm not saying ESPN is at fault for the order they presented things... I know the order was set by the race officials. What I'm saying is ESPN 2 allowed too much of the produced/edited program hour to the early rides and had to cram the last riders (many of the biggest names) into the final segments of the show. This was purely a producer's call, or error.

I'm happy to see any coverage of this race on TV, but I was very disappointed with the horrible show put on by ESPN. I was yelling at the TV through the whole thing, asking what was going on, where everyone was placed etc, etc. I'm not expecting much more in the future from this crappy basketball and nascar network. I really don't watch sports on TV (hockey being the exception) but I've seen a few things, and I know they can do better...they just don't care!

I'm not saying ESPN is at fault for the order they presented things... I know the order was set by the race officials. What I'm saying is ESPN 2 allowed too much of the produced/edited program hour to the early rides and had to cram the last riders (many of the biggest names) into the final segments of the show. This was purely a producer's call, or error.

When the rides are only 5 minutes long, and they're going out a minute apart, the top ten guys are all going to ride in the last 15 minutes of the event. If they're on 30 second starts you get 20 guys in that time. It's not anywhere near the size of the TdF, so they can't put a camera on each of the top riders for the full ride, so they do what they can with the motos they have and the stationary cameras.

When the rides are only 5 minutes long, and they're going out a minute apart, the top ten guys are all going to ride in the last 15 minutes of the event. If they're on 30 second starts you get 20 guys in that time. It's not anywhere near the size of the TdF, so they can't put a camera on each of the top riders for the full ride, so they do what they can with the motos they have and the stationary cameras.

Okay, that makes more sense to me then. Still seems like there were problems with their coverage, but, like someone else pointed out, it's good to get anything cycling related on TV here so really I shouldn't complain.

jeeze, it's the first decent stage race in the country in far too long, one of the first times cycling has been on something other than OLN, it was a 5 minute prologue, the coverage wasn't even BAD, and all you guys do is b!tch still?

I thought it was bad...but...it should get better the rest of the way.

even if the coverage gets better... it is still on at 1am EST

I agree that the coverage was poor. I was at the start watching, and they had a big TV to watch the guys finishing. They had a moto with Dave Z the whole way, so I was surprised that none of his ride was shown. As I was watching Dave Z's ride, it looked like he threw his chain near the bottom of the hill, because he stopped pedaling, almost stopped, and looked down at his chain, then started pedaling very slowly. I didn't read anything about it. On the plus side, all of the local TV stations showed a little coverage of the race during the sports news, and it was fairly well covered in the SF Chronicle (though they only had results for top 10).

The starting order was chosen randomly.

Ok so lets talk about this again. Last night's coverage sucked nuts. The camera work was HORRIBLE, the coverage started late because Gonzaga was playing Peperdine, which means my DVR cut out...right as they started the final sprint. :mad: Oh and come on Paul Sherwin did someone really tell you it was going to be aired live? He made a comment as they were showing footage of some decent action in the woods where the camera was cutting out that you have to deal with that...the images are live....err no no they aren't, not even close. As happy as I was with the day 1 coverage the day 2 was a dissapointment...the camera work off the back of the motorcycles was BRUTAL.

Keep complaining and we will not have coverage at all! IMO the coverage was excellent, I got to see it and I will blame everyone of you "stupid complaning I could do it so much better idiots" when we have no coverage of any cycling at all.

I've been watching cycling broadcasts for years now and I think the ToCA coverage is fine.

I set my computer to record 5 min before scheduled and end 2 hours after the scheduled end so I got it all.

Contact ESPN and let them know how sh1tty their coverage was.....

Fans deserve better......

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=contact/espntv

Contact ESPN and let them know politely how interested you are in professional bicycle racing and how you would like to see the tour of california during normal hours.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=contact/espntv

If enough of us contact them (it only takes a couple of minutes) they may listen.

Keep complaining and we will not have coverage at all! IMO the coverage was excellent, I got to see it and I will blame everyone of you "stupid complaning I could do it so much better idiots" when we have no coverage of any cycling at all.


You are actually calling me an idiot? Their coverage is terrible, amateur at best. I desperately want to see cycling covered in the US, but coverage of this caliber is a terrible disappointment. On stage one they covered the break away for twenty minutes without ever showing the peloton and wether or not they were chasing. They barely even gave time gap updates. We deserve better. I call DirecTV frequently to request EuroSport, which does a wonderful job of covering cycling.

Also - to the one who said this is the only decent stage race in the US. Don't forget about the Tour De Georgia - very good racing.

Oh. And don't call me an idiot ever again!

My wife puked...she got motion sickness from the motorcycle camera. It was funny. :D

"it should get better..."
Dude! did you (attempt) to see the
final sprints to the line in the second
days coverage?!

What is going on? I thought it was being
televised by a sports channel?? In an area--
speaking broadly--known for it's filmmaking
industry??

Dude! What are they doing?

I thought stage 2 TV coverage was decent (MUCH better than the first two days). However, I would still like a live, persistent gap timer in the corner.

Thank gawd! that WAS soooo much better than the first
two days. i've been looking forward to this since December.
Finally, some real road bike racing!!
Web coverage of the tour of Quatar just
wasn't quite doing it.. :)

Thank you Bob, thank you Paul, thank you George,
Levi, Chris, Tom, Cadel, David, guy from Saunier Duval,
Oh, geeze, thanks Floyd, Kodak Sierra Nevada for the
cool looking bikes, and big props to the cop who can't
drive--ok maybe not him, but thank Gawd! that was
just waht this couch potato needed--vicarious
sportsmanship!! Bring it Tour of California!!!

In general, Stage 2 coverage was better than the previous stages, however, the editing was very poorly done. We got none of the climbing on Redwood road, Palomares, or Calaveras. That's ok, but they only showed the middle part of Sierra road, cutting with over a mile to go, just when Levi is pushing off the front! Watching the live feed on kcbs.com was great, because they REALLY picked up the speed near the top, and there was a large mob of people at the top. How could they not even show the finish for the KOM!? That was really ridiculous.

OK, I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of stage 2 tonight. I thought it was descent and didn't notice anything bad. They even had the familiar voice of phil liggett - that was Phil right? I always get Phil and Paul mixed up. Maybe Paul was there too; I was half asleep. :D Actually, I think it was the familiar commentary that held it together. If it had been Bob Costas or some other bozo like Al Trautwig I probably would have puked up dinner right then and there. Yes, being relegated to one hour on ESPN2 at the wee hours sucks but it's better than nothing. So quit whining people. It could have been much worse!

It's all kind of bad timing...the Olympics, March Madness is heating up. It'll be better next year.

They need to throw in a murderous Mont Ventoux- Alpe D' Huez type climb. God knows California has enough mountains to do it with.

These guys basically are powering over the shortish hills that the T of Ca has offered so far.

OK, I managed to catch the last 15 minutes of stage 2 tonight. I thought it was descent and didn't notice anything bad. They even had the familiar voice of phil liggett - that was Phil right? I always get Phil and Paul mixed up. Maybe Paul was there too; I was half asleep. :D Actually, I think it was the familiar commentary that held it together. If it had been Bob Costas or some other bozo like Al Trautwig I probably would have puked up dinner right then and there. Yes, being relegated to one hour on ESPN2 at the wee hours sucks but it's better than nothing. So quit whining people. It could have been much worse!

The Deuce is using the always eloquent Paul Sherwin and Hombeboy Bubba Bobke.

Al Trout Wig is in Turin covering the biathalon skiing for NBC. I heard him yesterday and he was of using cycling terms like "suffering" and such. :)

Oh. And don't call me an idiot ever again!

Lighten up, Francis.

The verbal coverage was the only way I could keep up with what the heck was going on - the camerman on the bike was terrible. I kept yelling at the TV and turning my head sideways (as if that would've made any difference). I will be emailing ESPN next and telling them THANK YOU for covering this event - but PLEASE work on the camera thing. For God's sake, order a copy of WCP's coverage of the TdF or Giro, or heck, and European cycling event and figure out how to film the damn thing!

I haven't seen last night's coverage yet, i was asleep. But the camera work on stage 1 was something you'd get if you gave a drunk monkey a video camera. I saw far more photos of the crowd (and a jumpy crowd it was) than i saw of the riders. Plus every time they went through a shadow it was like they all vanished.

And why no helicopter? They had a helicopter at the Tour of Georgia last year. Can't they afford one in California?

I just wrote espn a note thanking them for covering the race. I also included a note to this effect:

"Don't forget most bike riders have money and they spend it. We're a pretty good demographic to go after. "

The only thing that matters to a the business side of a company like espn is ad revenue and it's probably not a bad idea to point out that we are a good audience to target.

Complaining to ESPN about the covereage will get us what? probably no more coverage! All cycling fans should E-mail them and thank them for the coverage and if you can't help yourself a little constructive critisism is ok. We should also tell them something like, how we will use Amgen products to go faster or if we get cancer. Support the sponsors so they will stay involved.

What is going on? I thought it was being
televised by a sports channel?? In an area--
speaking broadly--known for it's filmmaking
industry??


The video feed (and camera ops and motos) are probably contracted by the promoters, not ESPN.

The Stage 1 moto video at the end coming through the city streets looked like it was from a camera mounted on the helmet of the moto driver and pointed backwards-- it wasn't trying to pan to keep the riders in view as it turned.

Like someone mentioned below, it was somewhat better for stage 2.

In the long run I suspect broadcast will not be the way to watch the coverage-- they are doing live video feed on the web, and when it works it's tolerable (with play-by-play). It seems like they underestimated demand, so it doesn't work all the time, but it will probably improve faster than the broadcast coverage.

Having caught last night's stage on a lark, one last quick flip thru the channels that brought me to ESPN2 at 1:00am. The coverage wasn't all together bad, as a knowledgable cycling fan, I was able to follow what was goin on. However, for many watching a bike race for the first time, these few things could be useful to future viewers:

- Graphics like CBS used in the 80's, showing guys on bikes to illustrate how the group was split up i.e. break, chasers, and peleton with time gaps listed between the graphics.

- Helicopter shots, always exciting in the last few kilometers when a high-speed peleton is snaking its way around a downtown area towards the line.

- Get John Tesch to compose some music for the taped segments of the television coverage.

I guess it wasn't Phil and Paul... ESPN is probably new at covering this sport and didn't have a clue.