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How much of the tour do you actually watch?

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Professional Cycling For the Fans Follow the Tour de France,the Giro de Italia, the Spring Classics, or other professional cycling races? Here's your home...
View Poll Results: How much of each stage do you watch
100% I don't miss a word
14
14.29%
98% I barely miss anything
22
22.45%
85% I get almost of it
28
28.57%
75% I get a little bored
7
7.14%
60% I miss a bunch but see a lot too
6
6.12%
50% I only see about half
2
2.04%
40% Less then half
6
6.12%
25% Its to long and I have ADD
3
3.06%
10% I hate those saab commercials!
5
5.10%
<5% I fast forward my TiVo to the final spring and see who wins!
5
5.10%
Voters: 98. You may not vote on this poll

How much of the tour do you actually watch?

Old 07-19-07, 06:56 PM
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How much of the tour do you actually watch?

How much of the tour do you actually watch? Every day is atleast 3 hours and am curious if you watch all 3 hours or what.

Also do you have a TiVo or something else so you can fast forward through the commercials/boring parts?


**EDIT*** Damn that last choice is supposed to say SPRINT NOT Spring!!!!
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Old 07-19-07, 06:59 PM
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I watch every morning. I have a tv card in my notebook at work. If the morning had something really significant happen, I watch a later broadcast as well.
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Old 07-19-07, 07:12 PM
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TiVO live coverage and watch it all the way through (minus commercials). Every day. Well, except the rest day shows.

I *do* skip past the stuff I've just watched - there's a lot of recaps of footage from the previous stages that I don't need to see again.

Okay, maybe I should change my vote since I don't technically watch 100%. I watch 100% of the fresh coverage.
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Old 07-19-07, 07:42 PM
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xxx

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Old 07-19-07, 09:18 PM
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i watch every day if i'm home. usually i'm either on vacation or out of town on work in july though, and this year's no exception, so i've missed a couple days (including the day vino went down).
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Old 07-19-07, 09:43 PM
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I just finished filling out a Nielsen television research diary. They are going to be surprised how much Tour coverage I watch. I usually watch from the start to 10 a.m. each morning. Then I have the 3-hour show on each night, even if it's just on in the background. I must confess that I also watched the rest day re-cap, as well.
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Old 07-20-07, 03:36 AM
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I don't believe commercials are part of the race, I watch all of the race but none of the commercials.
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Old 07-20-07, 05:50 AM
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Originally Posted by doctortalk121
all of it on HD.

how do you watch it in HD?

I assume you are in the US, what channel and service provider?
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Old 07-20-07, 07:03 AM
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i Tivo the VS live coverage. then watch it latter the same day. depending on the stage and overall race i may follow online in the morning then kinda skip thru the stage at night. for the mountain passes and TTs i general wait and watch it when i get home so i can be surprised. later.
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Old 07-20-07, 07:09 AM
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I watch in the morning, but sometimes take my ride during the later half, so I watch at night (enhanced coverage) as well. The broadcast at night is better because Al and Bob are re-broadcasting, and I don't have to listen to all of Phils bloopers. Although the morning broadcast is amusing, because of Phil ...
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Old 07-20-07, 07:11 AM
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I DVR and skip all the commercials...I will also fast forward just watching the time gaps of the break away and not stop until it starts coming down...for the boring flat stages.
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Old 07-20-07, 07:15 AM
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Originally Posted by doctortalk121
all of it on HD. the commercial skip is set at one minute, getting used to hitting it three times. sometimes four, I rarely hit the back button to see if anything was missed.

HD? its not being shown in HD in the States. where would this HD cast be taking place? later.
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Old 07-20-07, 07:56 AM
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How d'ya reckon that? I don't get all the Phil and Paul bashing. They know their stuff, are vastly experienced and are good broadcasters. People always nitpick them - oh, they said his name wrong, they didn't realize what was going on for at least 30 seconds in this circumstance. There have been plenty of threads about that topic so I won't go into how it's a lot tougher than it looks. But sometimes bike races do get boring and it's tough to fill dead air. I know one thing for sure, however: everyone who complains about the Vs. coverage hasn't been a fan as long as I have by a good decade. You obviously don't remember when the only way to follow it in the US was by reading about it in Velonews long after it happened. I'm quite grateful for the great coverage the provide (So shut the F up! )

I think Dutch TV shows the whole thing - they start at something like 4:30 or 5:30 mountain and go all the way to the end.

I pick it up at 7:00 mountain when I get to work. Turn on the Dutch online stream, hit mute, then fire up the Eurosport audio stream and listen to Sean Kelly do the color. Can't say I know the play-by-play guy's name. He's a bit over the top and it always sounds like Sean can barely tolerate him.

Mind you, I don't actually watch every minute - I've got work to do - but I listen to the whole thing from 7:00 to the end and click over to the video window when it sounds like I should.

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Old 07-20-07, 08:01 AM
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I don't watch at all - television is Satan's tool.
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Old 07-20-07, 08:06 AM
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F off. They start f'n early.
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Old 07-20-07, 08:41 AM
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No less intelligent than "incorrect".

I have no clue when they really start. I'm not up that early in the morning. According to the NOS schedule, they started at 12:55 CET today for the web stream - according to https://wwp.centraleuropeantime.eu/ that's 4:55am MDT. Last I checked that was between 4:30 and 5:30 am MDT. But like I said - I'm not up that early so I can't vouch for them putting up the proper schedule. I also don't really have first hand knowledge of how they establish that CET is 8 hour ahead of MDT nor am I in Europe to take sun angle reading and establish what time it actually is. I also don't know for certain that my teachers tought me correctly that 4:55 is between 4:30 and 5:30. So I'll save you the time:

incorrect

edit: According to cyclingnews.com the official start time for today's stage was 12:58 CET. Again, however, I'm not in France, don't know where cyclingnews.com gets their info and not entirely sure that 12:58 is after 12:55, so I'll give myself another: incorrect.

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Old 07-20-07, 09:22 AM
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I try to watch as much as I can when I get home. I'm guessing it's about 50% maybe a little more I see.
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Old 07-20-07, 09:26 AM
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I love it all but mostly focus on the mountain stages, where most of the GC action is.
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Old 07-20-07, 09:28 AM
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Originally Posted by botto
:whoosh:


WTH is that supposed to mean anyways ? woosh ?

Is that the sound that Boonen makes when he wins a stage...
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Old 07-20-07, 09:33 AM
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Originally Posted by botto

btw - they don't start that early, but what the hell do i know, i only live there.
That's too bad.
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Old 07-20-07, 09:53 AM
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Originally Posted by botto
after watching some VS coverage this morning i wonder how any of you could watch 5 mins of it.
man they know how to kill the sport. not a surprise, if there was anyone with talent at VS, they wouldn't be there for long.
I don't know any different
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Old 07-20-07, 11:04 AM
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er........that says the actual start was at 12:55 CET......just like I said......

Talked to a buddy of mine who says he was on the NOS feed at 5:30ish MDT - 13:30 CET......so it was on that early at least.....that's 35 minutes after their schedule and it was in progress when he signed on.

So why don't we try a different approach here. You obviously have all the answers.....so how bout some positive info instead of just negative. How 'bout you answer some questions to get us all up to speed:

1) The Tour says the start was scheduled for 12:55 CET, what time did it actually start?

2) NOS claims their feed started at 12:55 CET, what time did it actually start?

Now, I know that they took it to the end, so if you can provide the above info we can calculate just how much of the stage could've been watched remotely today.

Thanks for the info, I'm sure we all appreciate you sharing some little tidbits of your encyclopedic knowledge.

Chris
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Old 07-20-07, 11:21 AM
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LOL - so you don't have the answers, huh? Somehow that doesn't surprise me. Just like Bettini's helmet. LOL.
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Old 07-20-07, 11:25 AM
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Originally Posted by Turboem1
How much of the tour do you actually watch? Every day is atleast 3 hours and am curious if you watch all 3 hours or what.

Also do you have a TiVo or something else so you can fast forward through the commercials/boring parts?


**EDIT*** Damn that last choice is supposed to say SPRINT NOT Spring!!!!
Live coverage IS fun...but i love to pick up a newspaper the next morning and read the results as WELL AS analysis. I am still a TDF newbie, and commentary is helpful and informative.

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Old 07-20-07, 11:44 AM
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I watch the last hour or so. Switching from TdF coverage during commercials or monotonous long flat sections. Crashes and other good stuff are repeated freguently so I rarely miss serious action. When the wife has her turn with the controller she likes finishes and major hill climbs; switching to cooking reality shows when Rolls and the rest are on too much.
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