"The 33"-Road Bike Racing - Alternative to OLN for cycling on TV in US?

As becomes increasingly obvious that OLN is decreasing it's cycling coverage to TDF and not much else I have been looking around to see if there is an alternative. There doesn't seem to be much hope. Does anyone know if EuroSport is available on any of the satellite services like DirectTV?
Thanks,
Raymond

Actually, there is hope. Check this thread, you'll see what I'm talking about: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=82296

Actually, there is hope. Check this thread, you'll see what I'm talking about: http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=82296

Is there commentary (and does it have subtitles?)

From what I was told by the guy the thread refers to, there is English commentary and no "OLN-speak" directed to newbs of the sort you'd find from Al Trautwig. I'm thinking it'll be the Eurosport commentators, but I don't know for sure.

Devil: Let me make sure I've got this right. The alternative to OLN are recordings that you get a couple weeks after the stage is over?

I guess I miss the point. Thanks for the link though. I missed that thread somehow.

With OLN covering nigh but the Tour, the alternative to watching cycling on OLN is, well, nothing. Everyone follows the races at VeloNews and cyclingnews but it would be nice to actually see races that have happened recently, instead of waiting a couple months for WCP to put out a highly edited DVD. For example, the longest 2004 Tour DVD pack that WCP offers has six discs. The one from this guy has 23 discs. Not bad if I do say so myself.

Laggard,
The only live cycling on OLN is going to be the TDF anyway, so what's your beef? Two weeks is better than OLN has had on other races where you might get one hour of a 6 hour race a month later. Oh, I'm sorry I think they may have had PR live last year and some Giro, but I'm sure that won't last long. Ya gotta pay for the stuff anyway, either cable or dvd. I may drop digital cable, which I took ONLY becausee the local cable company put OLN on digital only. That will save several bucks a month. The only time I turn the cable box on is to watch cycling.

Anyway, I'm emailing the guy.

Oh I plan on contacting that guy. It sounds like a great service.

I just meant that it's no real substitute for live or same-day coverage.

So what's the fee, or do I have contact the fella to find out?

Be patient. It won't be long before the web takes over for satellite/cable TV. I expect in a couple of years you'll be able to watch ANYTHING live via webcast, especially niche-type programming. Yeah, you'll have to have cable/broadband, but most people will have it in a couple of years. And then you'll be able to save the webcast on your harddrive and burn your own DVD.

For now. . . OLN is the only north american choice to watch cycle racing. I suggest VeloNews, CycleSport or Pro Cyclign magazines to help you get your racing fix.

As becomes increasingly obvious that OLN is decreasing it's cycling coverage to TDF and not much else I have been looking around to see if there is an alternative. There doesn't seem to be much hope. Does anyone know if EuroSport is available on any of the satellite services like DirectTV?
Thanks,
Raymond

NBC is broadcasting the RAAM this Saturday at 2:30 PM - 2 hour broadcast.

NBC is broadcasting the RAAM this Saturday at 2:30 PM - 2 hour broadcast.

Race Across America? Thanks for the tip, SkyDive. I just finished reading "Cyclists Guide to Long Distance Cycling" (Pavleka and Burke) and there were lots of stories from RAAM. I wasn't previously familiar with it, but these guys cycle cross country faster than I drive! Should be interesting if they don't try to get too dramatic.

cycling.tv (http://cycling.tv)

Yes, that's it - hopefully they will have knowledeable commentators.

cycling.tv (http://cycling.tv)

Thanks for the link!

BTW, could you drop me a PM? I'm looking to exchange notes about your trip to Verona.

Koffee

You can always try downloading them via BitTorrent, though Ive admittedly used that only for stages of the Tour that I missed, so I dont know about smaller races like the classics (if you can call them smaller).

According to another thread that was just closed for some reason, a very "reputable" alternative to OLN may become Al-jezeera. I wonder if they would cover the women's races, hmmmm.

Cheers

I contacted William, and here are some details. "Basic" membership is $120/yr and "Gold" is $160. The difference is that DVD price for Basic members is $15 and for Gold is $10. So if you buy more than 8 the Gold is worth the extra price. William also has no problem with a group sharing the cost and passing the DVDs around, but there has to be one official member who does all the transactions. At what I am paying extra strictly to get the pittance OLN offers the pricing is competitive, particularly if I can put together a group of 5 or 10 to share the cost.

I contacted William, and here are some details. "Basic" membership is $120/yr and "Gold" is $160. The difference is that DVD price for Basic members is $15 and for Gold is $10. So if you buy more than 8 the Gold is worth the extra price. William also has no problem with a group sharing the cost and passing the DVDs around, but there has to be one official member who does all the transactions. At what I am paying extra strictly to get the pittance OLN offers the pricing is competitive, particularly if I can put together a group of 5 or 10 to share the cost.

Sorry, but I'm still a little confused. The $120 or $160/year gets you what exactly?

-mark

If someone gets a group together, I want in. PM me or post here.

I'd be interested in joining a group as well. I've contacted him too but would like to share if possible

I was thinking more in terms of trying to put together a local group, but if I don't get enough interest I would be willing to be part of a long-distance group. I just checked on a postal scale, and to mail a DVD in a small padded envelope would be about $1.06. A CD mailer might cost even less. If I coordinated such a group I would probably print up mailing labels, send a set of labels with each DVD so each person could stick on the next label and postage and forward it along the list. Again, though, a local group would be easier.

Count me in on a long-distance group. We definitely need someone to drive this little adventure though.

NOT IT!! :D

-mark

I'd be happy to do it.

I've already recieved a set of DVDs from him as a "trial" offer before I join. Let me know if you'd like in. He's even offering a special deal, which I'll be happy to let you know about over PM, if you'd like to join. I figure transactions can be made over paypal, and I'm pretty sure he will ship to individual addresses, but he wants one main "contact." Let me know if you have any questions, and if you'd like to do it.

Jaco

Count me in.

Thanks.

Alright, since I work in television and have DVD production equipment and experience in hand, I'll be the front man (buy the gold pkg & make copies for others). Let me get in touch with him, see what the gold package will bring us, and I'll post details here. Once we figure out how many folks want to join the group, we can discuss how much to split the costs. Any $ I can get would be gravy, because I can copy DVDs very quickly, and I'd pay $160 for full coverage of 16 (right?) races.

Stay tuned...

William,

My name is Gregg Casillo, and I'm a regular on the forums at bikeforums.net.
As you probaby know already, a bunch of us in the Road Racing forum are
interested in DVDs of any and all bike races.

I work in television and do a lot of DVD production myself. I am organizing a
group of forum members to share in the costs to purchase race DVDs from you.
Basically, I'd like to find out what races I can get, how much they would
cost, and make sure that it is okay for me to make copies for other forum
members...only for a share of what it costs me! I am not in this to profit
off of you!

I just want DVDs of any races I can get. I understand the gold membership is
$160, correct? How many races/DVDs does that offer? Do we choose what races
we would like (much preferred) or do you offer a static package of
pre-selected races?

I am willing to bet that with several forum members, we're going to want a big
selection of races if not most of the UCI/Pro Tour calendar. Any chance of a
larger volume discount, or is the gold package it? FWIW, assuming OLN covers
the TdF (come on, Lance), I plan to get that from OLN myself from cable.

Finally, what races do you record (if not all)? Like I said, we've got a good
group of racing nuts who will want to watch any race they can get their hands
on.

Regards,
Gregg Casillo

PS - If you're interested, you may want to join the discussion in the forums,
yourself at:
http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=84278

BTW, I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by trying to organize a long-distance group. Like I said, I can produce DVDs quickly & don't mind mailing them. So if I get set up with this fellow, I'll do what I can to make them available to everyone.

Basically however many people I get in my group is how many ways we'll divide the cost (DVDs from William, DVDs to copy to, sleeves of some sort, mailing costs).

Does anyone who has received DVDs from William know if the DVDs are dual-layer (9GB, commonly mass-produced, what you get from Best Buy or Blockbuster) or single-layer (5GB, cheaper, common among SOHO environments, half capacity of dual-layer)?

BTW, I hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes by trying to organize a long-distance group. Like I said, I can produce DVDs quickly & don't mind mailing them. So if I get set up with this fellow, I'll do what I can to make them available to everyone.

Basically however many people I get in my group is how many ways we'll divide the cost (DVDs from William, DVDs to copy to, sleeves of some sort, mailing costs).

Does anyone who has received DVDs from William know if the DVDs are dual-layer (9GB, commonly mass-produced, what you get from Best Buy or Blockbuster) or single-layer (5GB, cheaper, common among SOHO environments, half capacity of dual-layer)?


Thanks for taking the reigns!!

Again, count me in.

-mark

Count me in.

Marty

I'm down!

I might be interested in this

I, too, am extremely interested. . . seems like a godsend.

Mo

I'd be interested too!!

Well, I haven't heard back from him yet. Is "bicivideo@yahoo.com" his address?

I started a new thread (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=85480) to continue discussion of the 2005 ProTour race DVD group.

I would be interested also.

You do realize that copying the DVDs would be illegal dont you? Passing the original is completely legal, but copying? NOT!

Yahoo's video search is a great place to find cycling clips. Lots of archived Giro finished for instance.

And cool things like this:

http://www.mandjou.com/kraftwerk/files/Video/Tour%20de%20France.mov

Warning: Load time is sloooooow.

Well it's looking deader than dead regarding this DVD thing. Unless it's on TV here (e.g. TdF on OLN), it's not going to be as easy as I thought to acquire race coverage. If I'm lucky I'll find some stages of the Giro in torrents. Sucks. Just plain sucks.

Whoever said it's a small world wasn't a cycling fan.

Which is exactly why I asked the question in the first place. I have had no luck putting together a group to share a membership locally. We still have some time to finalize a long distance group. Let me get my trial Verona 2004 worlds DVDs and have a look. If they seem worthwhile I will route them around to those of you who are interested. A long distance group may not be the most convenient thing, but it's better than nothing.
Regards,
Raymond

Maybe the best bet would be to get the DVDs from that guy, convert them into streaming video files, and upload them to a server.

Then create a password enabled web site for access to them.

Still isn't legal but it seems safer and cheaper.