I see I'm not the only one to have my wife get interested (starting last year) due to the excellent visual coverage and Phil and Paul's commentary. It's become a nightly ritual for us. I've only been following cycling for a few years myself, but I do see how basic the commentary is. Still the fluidity and humor of those guys is enjoyable, the travelog details fill in the slow sections, and basic commentary makes it much more accessible for a general audience.
In fact our daughters started watching with us last summer, and this year, one has been following the Tour via computer at her summer job (apparently not much to do there) and the other who is home with us has been watching with great interest. We've been a day or two behind and she's in the LR watching stage 20 now to catch up so we can watch the final stage together. Admittedly there is occasional commentary on the athletes that has little to do with cycling ability, shocking sexism and objectification of the male body, actually.
Once you are into it, the nuances become more important, and we've been watching the panels and 'Ask Bobke' too, last year there was not as much interest. Like everyone we all like underdogs and come-from-behind stories, so Movistar's climb back is a favorite here, and of course we all cheered Jens' last attack.
I think it's a fine idea to write NBCSports, they really did do this one right. It'll be hard to watch the Vuelta in SD on Universal. I have just one race saved from NBC in HD, Paris-Roubaix, which I am saving for a rainy night.