SpeshulEd 

Gent Wevelgem was a pretty great race from start to finish.

And Cosmo Catalano is the best thing to happen to bike racing for US fans. I'm also a giant fan of Manual For Speed, I love reading their race coverage...err, coverage of things that happen during a bike race.

I watched stage 7 of the Volta last night and was quite amused that the main topic of conversation on Euro Sport wasn't the bike race, but a twitter argument over wearing helmets.

cthenn

Agree with the general sentiment about not complaining, considering how much we actually do get to watch on TV between at least 2 different channels, but the topic is how to improve it. I'm not going to pretend I have a list of suitable replacement broadcasters, but NBCSN currently has some terrible ones, so pretty much anything would be an improvement.

Disagree about the type of sport cycling is and how it translates to TV. Soccer is by far the most boring sport to watch IMO, yet it's probably the most watched sport on TV worldwide.

Leinster

Soccer is the most watched sport everywhere, because it is the most played sport everywhere.

Golf is way more boring than soccer to watch, but since it's a) played in massive numbers, by b) demographics that have massive disposable income, it therefore has its own cable network and is televised brilliantly wherever it is shown.

Cycling has the demographics with disposable income, but does not, as yet, have the participating numbers to get the recognition that sports like baseball or basketball get.

rick458

I have a very hard time even finding the races to watch

cthenn

Universal sports was bad on Stage 6 of Pais Vasco, the uphill ITT. Completely disregarded Purito, who of course ended up winning the whole race! What they completely blanked on was the fact that he did not make a stupid bike change like the other main contenders. Purito was down 20 seconds to Henao, etc, after the time check, but he wasn't dumb enough to think a short TT like that required a bike change. He was down 20 seconds, but he made that up simply by not changing bikes. Probably easier to keep a rhythm too, which ended up being enough to win the race. The guys on TV completely gave up on him and focused on the other riders, and were literally shocked when Purito comes in with the time to win the race.

The point is, these commentators need to try and keep up with the race, and not just stare at the TV and talk about what we already see. They should have seen that Rodriguez did not make a bike change, and that would likely mean he would have an advantage at the end. I was not in the least bit shocked when he put up the time he did, as I had already realized he was the only one not to change bikes. Just pay better attention, and try to read into the race, not so much black and white commentary on what we can all see with our eyes.

TCR Rider

I had already realized he was the only one not to change bikes.


​IIRC Tony Martin didn't change bikes either.

cthenn

That's true, I was referring to the overall contenders. I think Rodriguez was the only one not to change.

a77impala

The worst thing that happened to televised cycling was NBC taking control of Versus! Cycling is listed under other sports, Versus gave cycling exposure NBC gives it fleeting glimpses!

Marcus_Ti

...And Versus was worse than OLN...and OLN was pretty terrible too (cutting from TdF to show bull riding)

Cycling coverage in the USA simply sucks. The only sport that USA broadcasters do well is NASCAR and NFL football.

Giacomo 1 

I think its actually pretty darn good to be honest.

At the height of the cycling season, Universal, NBC/SN and BeIn has cycling on nearly continuously. Cycling is actually on more than NASCAR or football! Universal does it best IMHO and they cover races that most of us have never seen nor even heard of. There showing so much cycling that I can barely watch it all. American cycling fans are certainly in a better place than only 5 years ago, when coverage consisted of some TDF highlights and not much else.

And just because we like cycling, it's doesn't really make a blip on anybody's radar, and it certainly brings in less money than football or NASCAR, and therein lies the problem - money.

Marcus_Ti

"pretty darn good"...in that the cycling coverage (sans TdF) is only on the upper-most-tier channels that you have to spend $200/month with your cable provider to even get. And then the Giro coverage (for example) is only shown in the morning live and never again throughout the day while you're at work. In my case Time-Warner's cable box is bricked to prevent any DVR other than TWC's from ever working anyway so I have to pay even more.

Spring classics AFAIK got no coverage at all in the USA aside from 30-minute recap shows.



Yes it is "on" more often than NASCAR or NFL...it is just on channels/networks you probably don't get or want to spend $4800/year to get....and when you pay $200/month to get them (if your cable/sat provider carriers them) you get more advertisements than actual racing.

SpeshulEd 

I currently spend $200/month on my cable plan and I still don't get universal, that channel is another $15/month. I do get 100MB/s download speed though, so downloading the races from the internet works out pretty well.

jyl

I have been having good luck with a subscription to Eurosport Player and to a VPN. Most of the races are live and also available as replays. The image quality is good. The laptop can be plugged into my TV. Cost is about $15/mo.

Rich Gibson 

Same combination for me. The past months have been filled with the classics and 'tours.' Our cable gets all NBCSN, USN and BEIN. Yesterday I watched the Giro, Tour of Norway final and Stage 2 of the world sports tour. Despite this being a Giro rest day I'm watching the Women's and Mens' National road championships in Chattanooga TN over Cyclingnews.com on our home theater. Life is good!

Rich

Leinster

With this thread being resurrected, thought I'd bump this to say the Rás (Tour of Ireland) youtube coverage makes some great use of drone footage; a small race, with no budget for a helicopter, still getting aerial shots out there. https://youtu.be/xlLnyWdhLuI