MDcatV

Definitely covering for the "home" viewing audience. But so what, in the 2 races they've shown this year (cali and PN), Discovery has been dominant. I was in awe watching Contador yesterday. I would argue that this is the strongest team Discovery/USPS has ever had. Only crack in their armour that I see is the ability to win a big one-day classic race, place or show yes, but win, I dont see it.

chipcom 

Just to be fair, they even pointed out themselves that perhaps it seemed like they were pulling for Discovery and that as <cough> commentators, they still tended to get carried away and root for a team that was giving such a brilliant performance.

derath

Isn't that kinda like US coverage of say, the Olympics? I mean why do they focus on the US competitors?

Go figure.

-D

botto 

victory.

ElJamoquio

Nothing left to read? You'll just be able to go through posts faster.

to infinity...

gfrance

Can't believe I did it, but I watched the Iditarod and kind of liked it. Made me appreciate my chosen participatory sport even more.

ri_us

I think that the essence of watching sports is not dependent on a country connection. It's insulting when Versus introduces the stage by saying "it's X miles between A town an B town, the same distance between D American town and E American town." It also reinforces ignorance. Watching the athlete is much more interesting than where he's from.

This posting makes me think that Green Day was right. "Don't want to be an American idiot. Don't want a nation under the new media. And can you hear the sound of hysteria? The subliminal mind f*** America."

Namenda

^^^So, in essence, what you would prefer is that Versus completely alienate its viewers, so that ratings can drop even lower, thereby allowing them to cut cycling coverage altogether.

Just a great idea. Absolutely brilliant. There are so many other networks clamoring for the TV rights to cycling, the market will just explode. Tell me, who is the idiot?

edit---Also, if you want to hash out your political diatribes, try the P&R forum. On second thought, don't...I doubt that you'll enjoy it much, if you like to use Green Day lyrics as bullet points.

botto 

√

.

1slowbastard

You're insulted by this?

Versus has many reasons for constantly pimping Disco during a race, the fact that they are a sponsor is one of them.

botto 

pot. kettle. black.

the reason why they would say that town A is the same distance from town B, as town USA D is from town USA E is so the yokels watching the race can conceptualize the distance.

duh!

alanfleisig

This from a guy who owns 4 Treks. Mind you, I own 4 Treks too.

Of course, it was probably the most exciting day of stage racing since LA's win at Sestrierre in '99, and that excitement was provided by Contrador and Disco.

donrhummy

Discovery was the strongest team in the race, easily. They almost won 50% of the stages. They executed perfectly taking victory from a guy who basically had it the whole way.

Cromulent

The essence of sports is not dependant on country connection? Have you ever seen the World Cup? The Olympics?

And I think the "X miles from town A to B being roughly equivalent to the distance between D and E American town" is great. It gives me a better sense of how far the riders are going that day. And where athletes are from is cool. Sure, I could Google it. Or I could look at the stage for that day on cyclingnews.com. But I'm watching TV, when I'm not following the race from work.

And I like to know if a guy is from Switzerland or Australia or Germany or France or Canada or Columbia or the Basque region of Spain, or wherever. I also want to know what his role is on the team, what he's won, when he's won it, and all sorts of other things.

Is Versus too USA-centric? Probably, but that's the audience. I would think that Belgian fans root for Belgian riders and Belgian teams. Italian fans generally want an Italian to win the Giro d'Italia. French fans want a French rider to win the TdF. But I think what's interesting and great about cycling, even in the Versus coverage, is that commentators and fans alike cheer for riders who turn in a brilliant race. Ultimately it doesn't matter where they're from. And Disco and Contador turned in a pretty brilliant race.

ri_us

That was the worst part. Journalists should be 1) objective and 2) at arm's length from advertisers. These guys are in bed with Trek and Disovery. The sport has enough of a black eye from drugs - why give it an ethical hernia with "journalists" with coflicts of interest? No one will respect that. Or, so I thought.

And, why make this into a jingoistic game? The sport is exciting without that stuff.

The sport needs (in part) real journalists to help it grow, not PR specialists who pose as journalists.

DogBoy

To the contrary, there is no ethical hernia if they admit their bias. If they pretended to be objective I'd agree with you. I'll admit that I'm a little put off by the pure Lance/Discovery worship but hey, if that's what it takes to keep cycling on TV I'll live with it. The only one that really bugs me is Ventura when talking about Floyd. Aside from that I take it in the same vein as the home town baseball radio play-by-play guy. You know where they stand, but they still get excited about outstanding play/riding by the other teams.

USAZorro

You obviously didn't watch Paris-Roubaix on OLN (now Vs) last year. The same commentators made just as big a deal over Cancellara's great ride as they did about Contador's yesterday.

aloysius

Did anyone mention that Versus sponsors Team Discovery? That's why.

GuitarWizard

Gerolsteiner was a weak-ass team last year too, from what I remember.

botto 

incorrect.

roadwarrior

^^^^^

Incorrect. It's a fact that they are not a sponsor of Discovery. Think about why that might be...(hint...Discovery Channel, Discovery Health, Discovery Times, Discovery Kids, Discovery Home, BBC America, Science Channel, Military Channel, Animal Planet)

OLN was a sponsor a few years back when they were still USPS. A very minor sponsor.