Originally Posted by
heatwave23
I started watching cycling a couple of years ago and honestly find myself fast forwarding though most of it. Now in a in a industry where bicycles are so “high” tech that they cost as mush as a high performance 600cc sport bike, I think we really need to get with the times and update how the media covers the tour. I would like to find some middle ground between were we are now and coverage that includes the following. I also understand that some of these items will have issues in the mountains but IMO it’s sad when NASCAR has higher tech coverage than cycling.
More speed coverage
Grade
GPS tracking of the riders
Computer generated maps that track the cyclist and can be used by the announcers for predictions.
Power
Heart Rate
Helmet cams
I think it would be great to see how many WATTs a break way is averaging as compared to the teams chasing them, I can’t be the only one who wants to see how much power the sprinters are putting down. Yes I know some riders will not like the extra gear but I have things at work I don’t like too. I also don’t mind if they have to delay coverage in order to put this together.
We should at least get something like this for the time trial. I mean I am sure that they can do better than a couple of time check points.
http://www.break.com/usercontent/200...he-641501.html
Some of these improvements might be nice if they could be implemented without adversely effecting the riders. But at the present time just getting any coverage of anything in America other than a couple of the big races is the problem. The TDF coverage is about as good as it gets. If most bike races had that good of coverage and could be seen in America on a few channels, life would be good.
And while circuit races in America would be easier to video. They would probably be rather boring to watch. In fact, it may be that short circuit races in America are one of the reasons for the disinterest in bike racing. In my opinion there is not enough speed and loud noise to interest a large number of spectators in a bike circuit race. But at least people can identify with the adventure of going on a long road ride away from home on their own power.
It's the camera close ups that matter in bike racing and can only be had with traveling motorcycle cameras. So when you need 6-8 motorcycle cameras, a few fixed cameras and preferably 2 helicopter cameras ( though 1 helicam is often good enough), the cost gets high to video a long bike race. And only the big bike races can afford to do this. This alone might be one of the reasons that there is not more bike racing coverage on TV. Because the video coverage is poor in all but the biggest races.
However, I wonder if small recessed helmet CAMs in time trial helmets could help to improve the TT coverage which is usually not very interesting. To cover a TT well requires lots of fixed cameras so most of the whole course can be viewed. But since this is seldom done, a few frames of helmet cam here and there might make things more fun to watch.
The one thing that they could add which would ramp up the excitement for viewers would be to have several cameras in the team cars filming the crews which are following the riders. In order to protect team tactics only TV audiences would be allowed to see what was going on in the cars. The team cars would not be allowed to have TV's in them. Only the 2-way radios to the riders.