Originally Posted by
Zinger
Well you're probably right and since I haven't subscribed to their service I should probably defer. My concern was selling the sport to more than 400,000 Americans and when you look at it from their perspective the first 3 hours of a cycling road race is with commentary more akin to watching golf than a high speed Nascar auto race.
I do realize that selling a sport isn't their job though.
I grew up with highlights of Formula 1 racing. I knew I liked it, but I didn't really understand it or get all to worked up over it either. It wasn't until Speed Channel gave us every race, along with the practice sessions, qualifying and the full race that I really began to love it and understand it. Kind of like soccer today in America. Nobody from my generation would ever sit through a full soccer game, because we didn't really see it much except during the Olympics and maybe the World Cup. Now, with more exposure, Americans are really taking to it. They get it now.
So I think the way to sell a sport is to get people to understand it - the strategies, tactics, the teams and riders, and IMHO you can only do that, if you watch the full event, the whole stage. You have to immerse yourself in it. Watching an hour re-cap is not going to make some newbie understand cycling and it's tactics or get all to excited by it.