StanSeven

Yeah the cost of producing a summary is likely prohibitive. It's not like the US audience is huge and this is a big money maker for NBC. For comparison look at this

The Tour is averaging 400,000 viewers

bikerjp

I feel like I'm being suckered into a troll thread, but since no one mentioned it check cyclingtorrents.nl. Nice eurosport highlight shows available that are long enough to cover the highlights and a the last 40k or so. If you have a DVR, however, just watch what you want.

KantoBoy

no F ***** eh.

I think ITV does 1 hour summaries but I'm not sure where to find it (I went on their website and it's not working). There's old TdF videos on Youtube from ITV that are 1hr> long.

better yet, buy a DVR like what everyone's saying.

I'm just happy I can catch the NBC coverage in full HD. I had to settle for the non-HD coverage the past years.

pallen

Just watch the last hour - that's where all the excitement is
And with that, I better get out of here

rousseau

Why on earth would you watch anything other than Eurosport for cycling? Who would anyone rather listen to than Carlton Kirby and Sean Kelly? Or David Harmon, who sadly isn't doing many races this year.

Ok86

This

CbadRider

Moved from Road to Pro.

bikerjp

I just started watching Eurosport this year via cyclingtorrents because I no longer have broadcast TV. However, I don't get why people say the commentary is better. Phil and Paul may make mistakes but the Eurosport guys seem to babble about just as much and don't offer as much insight into things. Not saying they are worse but I really don't see them as better either - just different. Of course, hearing CK go nuts at a sprint finish is fun.

rumrunn6

I just put it on and watch occasionally or look up when I hear the announcer say something interesting. One summer I was between jobs and actually watched the whole thing.

but the # and length of commercials is annoying

Zinger

Excellent point. I don't even have to read the rest of the thread to agree with this one. For one thing, this isn't a sport that most Americans are willing to sit through to see who wins a stage. NBC would probably do itself and the sport a favor if they did a highlights show that lasted an hour and a half or two after each stage.

Those of us who don't fall asleep watching the peloton roll down the road for hours should have other options but they aren't doing the sport any favors in this country by taking the lazy road in showing it.

softreset

Dunno, I pay monthly for Uploaded.net and Rapidgator.net for this exact reason. Never any commercials and I can watch full and complete coverage of things that I'd never be able to otherwise. Besides, I'm supporting the Swiss government and I have money with them so it's a win-win!

mishmash85

Yeah they do an hour summary, not sure if you can get it in your country but it's showed on ITV player, not sure what time it's put up online but the show is on at 7pm - 8pm (BST)
I'm not too sure what it's like as so far I've been fortunate to catch the whole race.

rumrunn6

came home from my night job last night but I missed the replay and car racing was on. sometimes I wish they played it back to back to back 24/7

SpeshulEd 

You pay money to download things uploaded to these sites by people who downloaded them from other sites for free?

A fool and his money.

softreset

Yeah, like those silly people who pay for Cable TV, or Internet or worse... DVR. What is this, 2006?

Giacomo 1 

Well, NASCAR can get 2-300,000 fans out at the track to watch a 4-5hr race and a huge TV audience to. My point being, a fan is a fan, and if your a fan of cycling, you watch from beginning to end, just like a NASCAR fan does.

We all complained mightily on this forum about the terrible and near non-existent cycling coverage NBC provided for us, but they have really stepped it up for the TDF, and I'm very appreciative of their efforts here to pretty much kill their regular programming to give us start-to-finish coverage and replays day and night. If I was an NBC Sports exec, I'd be pulling my hair out reading the complaints in this thread...

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.

Giacomo 1 

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.

HardyWeinberg

Nice Pacific time zone bonus for tour coverage. We flip it on when we get up and can generally see the end at a time we can still leave the house w/ a relatively straight face and not too much panic about being late. Today was the 1st day of this Tour that I was late to work, but more because after the race ended I rode w/ my 8 yr old to her camp at her speed and my route to work from there was still longer than my route from home. The mountain stages will be tougher. I realize I am fortunate to have relatively slack office hours. (and they are offset by being deep in freeway traffic jams before sunrise at other times)

SpeshulEd 

Google "couch potato" (for movies) and "sickbeard" (for tv shows).

I pay for a usenet subscription once a year and everything downloads automatically. When I want to watch tv, I just hit up the jailbroken apple tv running xbmc and see what's been downloaded for me.

Zinger

Well I think you could do that in a summation and they used to do an excellent job at it when covering the old Coors Classics. They even showed team pre-race strategy sessions and had cyclists explaining rules and tactics. For taking a several day stage race and condensing it down into two hours they did a remarkable job at that back then and it was a part of growing the sport into what it is now. When I first started cycling the sport wasn't even televised at all in the US. And it wasn't just Lemond and Hampsten that got it rolling from their races in Europe. Their being exposed to an American audience in an American race had a lot to do with it.

CrankyFranky

I'm a llllluuuuukkkkkkyyyyy man - in hog heaven with the streaming coverage - i just go to work, open a window with the stream on, put up all the other windows necessary for production, and stick my headphones on. Makes the day go crisply. Every once in a while, I have to interact with someone who needs something, but I pretty much can stand around while the action comes down. I am immensely fortunate to have toured (camping mostly) through France 4 times, so the scenery from the chopper and the repartee from Phil and co. is just sooooooo much jazz for me!