cthenn

Apparently it's not going to be televised in the USA...again. I know about the streaming sites, but for the life of me I can't figure out what time the race starts. I googled it, and found nothing about the actual start time. If anyone knows (USA time, or Belgian time, I don't care) the start time of the race, can someone let me know? Just want to know how early I have to get up to watch online

Ken Brown

Look here:

2014 Tour of Flanders Live Video, Route, Startlist, Results, Photos, TV aka Ronde van Vlaanderen 2014

sprince

Cycling coverage in the US has been crap since OLN/Versus was folded into NBC. I don't even bother to look for TV coverage any more. Fortunately there is Sporza and Eurosport.

cthenn

Thanks Ken. 1:45AM West Coast huh...mmm...no thanks I'll see if I can catch the last of it when I get up at a sane time

Sprince, at least we have some! NBCSN is covering Paris Roubaix and a couple other classics. Universal Sports Network (which most people probably don't have) is covering a few races, as well as the Vuelta. But not Giro, that's unacceptable! I'd much rather watch the Giro than the Vuelta if I had to choose one, but I'm sure there's a lot to it, why they don't/can't cover it.

kaliayev

Agree about NBC. Coverage is getting worse every season.

cafzali

Worse still is geo restrictions don't allow venues like Cycling.tv, whose coverage is good, to offer it in the U.S. I would hope they'd be able to change that.

Keith99

A lot of the time it comes down to how much the race organizers want for the feed. That often translates to a lesser race getting coverage.

To be honest I think only the Tour and the Worlds Championship are races which are assured of significant penetration into the non-cycling audience.

No Giro may well translate to the Giro thinks they are a bigger draw than the TV stations do.

Personally I think the Giro and Paris-Roubaix have the start of significant penetration and a long term contract that would give one station the incentive to build audience would be a great help for U.S. coverage (and the profit of the station and the race organizers).

asgelle

beIN Sports has the U.S. rights to the Giro. (As they did for Tirreno Adriatico and Milan San Remo.)

cafzali

I just checked and they have decent cable and satellite penetration in the U.S., although sadly not on my suburban NY provider.

cthenn

Never heard of that channel. But I love how stuff like bull riding and fishing are always on NBCSN. You can't possibly tell me those are less of a niche sport than cycling is?!?!

I do remember a few years ago one of the channels I get did show the Giro, maybe Universal Sports...guess someone else has the rights now.

sprince

it's a premium hd channel for verizon fios

asgelle

beIN Sports has 95 minutes of coverage on Sunday.

Jed19

Live?

What time?

cafzali

All I know is that I wish we'd finally be able to uncouple content from cable operators and purchase what we want directly from providers. In an era where 50-100 mb connections are common, when you pair that with a high capacity DVR, you could purchase what you want and watch it when you want. That way, no channel would subsidize another and we'd truly get more choice.

Caretaker

This from Steephill TV.

WEK

It's on beIN. Which you should have if you have Universal Sports. The full Giro is also on beIN. Watched the coverage last year and really enjoyed it. Between beIN, Universal Sports, and NBCSN, you won't miss too much.

Vlaam4ever

Looks like Bein is showing 90 minutes of it at 1PM et. that wil be enough for me. I can ride my 50 miles this morning watch the race when I get home. To defend the NBC SN they are showing the Premier League every Saturday and Sunday and it has been very enjoyable.

Looking forward to Boonen, Cancellara and Sagan get silly today

v4e

HMF

I don't mind not having it available on TV in the USA. Watching grainy feeds from overseas at the crack of dawn is one of the things that make cycling fans a tight nit bunch.

canam73

4k to go. I don't who is going to win, but what a great opportunity for Greg Van Avermaet to get another 2nd place.

canam73

Damn, I got to find a place to put some money down on this stuff.

spdntrxi

The eurosport HD feed was marginally better (if not full screen)... damn good show by the winner

canam73

That part where he calmly tricked SVM into closing the gap for him was brilliant.

jyl

Cancellara is becoming quite the sprint threat. Beats former trackie Sep Vanmarche in the velodrome at Paris Roubaix. Beats several fast finishers to get on the Milan San Remo podium. Beats Vanmarche and Van Avermat in a straight up 200 meter sprint today.

I would have been happy with Cancellara, Van Avermat or Vanmarche winning. I didn't want Vandeburgh to profit from 40 km of wheel sucking, so I'm happy he was off the podium.

Sagan didn't have any teammates for the last 70 km or so, which had to hurt, but neither did Cancellara. Dropped by Fabulous - seemingly at will - again. Ouch.

I don't mind getting up early and pirating - but the resolution is so bad it hurts. I can't recognize individual riders half the time. I'm astonished that pro racers don't have their EFFING NAME on their kit or helmet. How many team sports don't bother to identify the players?

Caretaker

^^All riders have a race number on their jersey. Start lists with race numbers are available online.

https://www.steephill.tv/classics/tou...s/#tv-schedule

Riders often do have their names on their kit but usually they are too small to read except in close-up.

To answer your question, in Rugby players wear a number corresponding to the position they play in but no name.

Caretaker

I was watching on Eurosport from about 110km 2go and it looked like one crash after another. At least one spectator seriously injured when she got hit standing on a mid-road traffic island.

#t=22