Pro cycling on TV in BC?

[bikesandcode]

I was just wondering if any of you had any tactics for watching various pro races on TV (or streaming for that matter) in the Vancouver area.

From what I can tell, Versus in the US has a fairly good lineup but that's not available up here. There are a couple of streaming sites in Europe that I've come across as well, but that doesn't help either as the ones I've found are blocked by geo/IP lookup.

I'd like it to be in English and I don't mind paying for it, as long as I can record it so I can watch it later. Time delay would also work. (Example: Tour of Flanders will overlap with one of the Spring Series races for me.)

I know OLN (and I think TSN this year?) will have the Tour de France, but that's only a small part of the season.

Thanks.

[tkr]

Sadly OLN will not be broadcasting the TdF this year. They consider crap like Ghost Hunters, & Conspiracy Theory to be "outdoor shows", oh that and playing Mantracker 4 times in an evening. Not that I'm bitter but how hard would it be to play the VS feed live at 5 in the morning.

It is rumoured at this point that Sportsnet may provide TdF coverage this year, but I haven't been able to find confirmation on that.

The following are pay sites…

http://www.cycling.tv/ I haven't tried it yet, will be shortly… Looks like a decent selection/

Also last year I used the Versus tour tracker for more complete coverage of the TdF. The feed is on demand so it could be watched live or anytime afterwards. There is an Iphone App available for it too. There were quite a few bugs with the app, but they had them mostly sorted out by mid tour. Will try it again this year. Their site does't have a link running for it at the moment, but they should as we approach the tour start.
hope this was helpful

[Cipo]

There are a couple of streaming sites in Europe that I've come across as well, but that doesn't help either as the ones I've found are blocked by geo/IP lookup.

I'd like it to be in English and I don't mind paying for it, as long as I can record it so I can watch it later.

Welcome to my world.

First off, if you haven't yet bookmarked cyclingfans and steephill, do so; they're the go-to sites to find live feeds of Euro races. Sometimes one has feeds the other doesn't and vice-versa. Between the two, you should be able to find something for most major races, albeit not always with English commentary. For those occasions I fire up cyclingnews.com running text commentary in another window to help me through the Dutch/French/Italian/Spanish bits I can't figure out. It's a great way to improve your knowledge of foreign languages.

For races you missed live, catch up with torrents from here.

As for cycling.tv, save your money. Their technical performance can be spotty, and they tend to promise more than they ultimately deliver. Much of their "live" coverage is audio commentary only, supplemented with a delayed video highlight package.

The nice thing about living on the west coast, we can watch most of the racing live as we eat breakfast, wrapping up just before we have to leave for work.

[the mwb]

as an addition to this... universal sports did lots of coverage/synopses during the Giro this year but are all restricted to viewing within the states. A handy way around this is to use HideMyAss youtube proxy....

[Cipo]

niversal sports did lots of coverage/synopses during the Giro this year but are all restricted to viewing within the states.

Er, Sportsnet picked up Universal's live coverage of the Giro. I watched it every morning. And while it wasn't in HD and the PQ looked like ##s, it was nice to see the race on television without having to juggle sketchy streams all morning.

BTW, the Tour will be live on TSN2 this summer, in HD. Here is the schedule.

[wapiti]

I use Steephill. Bring it up on my iPod or iPad and then stream it to the big screen through the Apple TV.

I have come to the conclusion that those of us in Western Canada are a complete afterthought to the big thinkers in Toronto and I doubt I will ever see racing on TV again.

I did watch the complete Giro this year though - thank you Steephill.

[tkr]

So its that easy? bring up the steephill website on my Iphone, click on a live link and it will stream to an apple TV? I see a shopping trip this week to pick up an apple TV (been waiting for an excuse)

[wapiti]

So its that easy? bring up the steephill website on my Iphone, click on a live link and it will stream to an apple TV? I see a shopping trip this week to pick up an apple TV (been waiting for an excuse)

Yes, so long as you have updated the software on the iPhone and what not, as soon as the stream starts the "Airplay" icon shows up, hit that, it will find the Apple TV and ask you if that the unit you want to stream to, and that's is all there is to it.

For long stages, I plug the iPod in to power as well though it probably is not needed.

I don't have HD and have no intention of subscribing to HD AND additional channels just to watch the damn race. Thanks Sportsnet.