"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - US Coverage of TdF is terrible.

Sunday morning. The Tour is going on right now. CBS bought the rights to the final stage of the 2001 Tour from OLN, however, they are unwilling to show it live! When they do show the last and most famous stage of the race, CBS will only be showing coverage of one hour. I'm really upset! I wanted to watch it live! CBS (and most American sports media) is the reason why Americans don't care about cycling.

Luckily I've found live coverage (audio) of the Tour. Check it out:
http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/tdf2001/

It's not just cycling, either. ABC Sports used to broadcast the entire New York Marathon live--about a three-to-four-hour broadcast, with all the before, during, and after stuff. That was the only sports broadcast I ever made a point of watching. (I gave up watching the Olympics long ago, when it dawned on me it wasn't amateur at all.)

Then they quit. I wrote to ABC Sports about it and never got an answer.

Not only is CBS's coverage terrible, but so is every other so called "sports" network. ESPN showed a headline across the bottom of their screen this morning saying Lance won the TdF but continued the interview with some baseball player I didn't know.
No other sports channel had anything to say about the TdF or Lance.
CNN said nothing and Headline News gave Lance's victory about 30 seconds. Although they did say he is the first American to win three consecutive TdFs.
Next year I've gotta get OLN if they will be the only network with full coverage!

Ron

Here is a great story about Lance.

http://www.msnbc.com/news/606398.asp?cp1=1

Ron

CBS did a crap job with the olympics a few years ago too.

Don't worry about getting OLN next year. They have the best coverage of the TdF that you can get in the US, but they sell their rights to CBS for the final stage of the race. I just watched the show on CBS, and they showed 2 shots from todays race. I'm really angry that I have been watching the race for 3 weeks and can't even see the final stage live. Imagine how baseball fans would react to the last game of the World Series being shown 12 hours after it was over!

Listening to the live audio of the last stage wasn't much better. It was from Eurosport. Two British fellows were talking a little bit about what was happening in the actual race, and a lot of time talking about cycling events in Manchester sometime in September.

I'm in a bad mood now. I need to get on my bike for a few miles to clear my head. At least I don't have to wait for a tape delay of my own ride! :mad:

OLN is going to replay the final stage tonight at 9 p.m. E.T.

Yes Was able to tape the entire coverage I had 4 VHS tapes at 6 hours per tape, will try to edit it and make it into a 2 tapes for four hours per tape

Servus.

I have to say it.

I had to choose between who I wanted to commentate on the race because it was being shown simultaneously on Eurosport (with Tony Rominger and his cool Swiss accent) and on ARD (two clowns who haven't a clue as to what cycling really is. My Mom has more of a clue)

Even worse is if I missed the daily, full-length, live coverage and the play-by-play on the Eurosport.com, I could watch the highlights at ten p.m. Or I could listen to the radio broadcast of the stage. Or pick up any newspaper and read the Sport headlines.

Laidies and gentlemen, I hang my head in shame because I had it so good. I will give tips on how to get good coverage of the stages for next year if you all want them.

Be happy we have coverage now! Myself and my friends who have been riding for decades are amazed that we finally have any coverage at all. Has anyone stopped to think that the reason OLN sold the rights to last stage to CBS may be that it was the only way that OLN could afford to broadcast the "Tour" at all? I'm sure OLN had to pay a pretty penny for it's rights to broadcast the tour. Usually most of the last stage is a "procession" where the riders are not really racing, but "goofing off", who could have foretold the "down to the wire" contest of the " Green Jersey".

Quit B****ing, I went years having to wait days and weeks for any news of the tour

Orguasch,

I taped the entire OLN broadcast also.

OLN did a fantastic job devoting two hours a day to each day of the tour. I can't remember what channel aired it last year, I think it was ESPN 2, but they only aired 30 mins. per day.

It was a great race.

Every day that CBS had it, which was usually Sundays, OLN always broadcast their 2 hour coverage at 9 pm est. I don't have a problem with this. It allowed people without cable or satellite a small glimpse of the greatest sporting event in the world.