Impressed

[David Kirk]

So for what it's worth I'm impressed with the Tour coverage. I feared with all the doper stuff going on there would be nothing but dope talk and "what if's" concerning the missing riders. For the most part there's been little mention of any of this and just coverage of the event itself.

What do you all think? I'm impressed.

Dave

[Johny]

So for what it's worth I'm impressed with the Tour coverage. I feared with all the doper stuff going on there would be nothing but dope talk and "what if's" concerning the missing riders. For the most part there's been little mention of any of this and just coverage of the event itself.

What do you all think? I'm impressed.

Dave

Hey you don't wanna get a call from Lance.

[atmo]

i'm indifferent. kinda'.
al effed up (http://forums.thepaceline.net/showpost.php?p=226890&postcount=1) on the first night imho.
his was a bimbo comment* and i think it rolled
off the shoulders of the other three guys atmo.



*wrt ulrich, he said:
"...but you can easily see that a guy like Lance Armstrong can
force someone, perhaps a little too old to compete at that level
of sport, to do something to try desperately and to catch up, can't you ?"

[coylifut]

the tour is so big it just rolls on like a river. it just flows around anything that gets in its way. I'm diggin it.

[BumbleBeeDave]

. . . of those "Lance on . . . " things and I'm already sick of them. Plus I just know they're not going to have him commenting on anything REALLY interesting, like "Lance on stringy muscular girls . . . " or "Lance on Richard Pound's Personal Habits . . . " :rolleyes:

BBD

[Avispa]

i'm indifferent...

Actually, I'm barelly watching it now that I have the chance to record it. I guess I like the mountains too much, so I may watch more then.

But, I am with you DK, why re-hash on a topic so much? That's one of the reasons we have this forum! ;) [no need OLN for that!]

[Ginger]

I'd say it's probably a legal thing. The riders that are not appearing have not been convicted of a crime. So if the talking heads talk about the dopers, they'd have to deal with defamation of character.

Of course, I could be wrong.

[Elefantino]

The Lance moment thing is video vomit. Enough, already. It's like OLN is having withdrawals.

Al's Friday night apology almost, almost made me wish for Kirsten "I'm now doing informercials" Gum.

And yes, Phil butchers everything. (Two minutes? ... de la Fuerte?.

And yes, there are way, too many commercials, which makes it watching it live almost painful.

And yes, I'm tired of seeing the commercial for the Saab/Chevy TrailBlazer.

And yes, I'm very happy that I have something to complain about. I'd rather watch OLN than have to listen with my tin Italian ear to the RAI feed of the Giro.

[Kahuna]

Man you guys are a tough bunch. I'm with David K. on this. In a different post someone reminded us about the days when Tour coverage was limited to a 3 inch list showing the GC in the sports section of USA Today and the NY Times. Enter Boyer and Lemond and the situation improved to the weekend sports show on CBS complete with commentary and musical score by John Tesh.

Every day I thank my lucky stars for OLN, crappy commercials, Lance worship, and all.

And you've got to admit, they do a pretty decent job showing the attacks as they occur and having the cameras on the road at the right place at the right time.

Peace out.

-K

[atmo]

Man you guys are a tough bunch. I'm with David K. on this. In a different post someone reminded us about the days when Tour coverage was limited to a 3 inch list showing the GC in the sports section of USA Today and the NY Times. Enter Boyer and Lemond and the situation improved to the weekend sports show on CBS complete with commentary and musical score by John Tesh.

Every day I thank my lucky stars for OLN, crappy commercials, Lance worship, and all.

And you've got to admit, they do a pretty decent job showing the attacks as they occur and having the cameras on the road at the right place at the right time.

Peace out.

-K
i wonder if we can have it both ways: the race coverage we
love to see, as well as the press not covering the underbelly
of the sport the way they "didn't" back when cycling on tv
was scarce. the genie is out of the bottle atmo.

[J.Greene]

Al's Friday night apology almost, almost made me wish for Kirsten "I'm now doing informercials" Gum.

What was wrong with Kirsten? With the sound turned off she is better than the other guys.

JG

[Big Dan]

It was better today I must say..... :p

[rpm]

I'm totally into the coverage now, and I'm grateful for it. But among the things that amuse me about our OLN commentators is the fact that this year they're wearing dark blazers (with ties on their first day). It's hot there, no? I bet they're doing the anchorman thing of sitting there behind the desks with shorts and flip flops on.

I'm glad they aren't dwelling on the ongoing soap opera. But I would relish Lance showing up for the tour and being interviewed by Frankie Andreu.

[Kahuna]

Eurosport?

i wonder if we can have it both ways: the race coverage we
love to see, as well as the press not covering the underbelly
of the sport the way they "didn't" back when cycling on tv
was scarce. the genie is out of the bottle atmo.

[J.Greene]

I'm glad they aren't dwelling on the ongoing soap opera. But I would relish Lance showing up for the tour and being interviewed by Frankie Andreu.

Is there a story here? Has Frankie had access to Discovery? I haven't paid much attention the last couple of days.

JG

[atmo]

Every day I thank my lucky stars for OLN...
and
Eurosport?
exactly.
the internet has made oln simply something to do
at night after we already know the score, since we
follow all the km by km updates on cyclingnews.com.

[J.Greene]

i wonder if we can have it both ways: the race coverage we
love to see, as well as the press not covering the underbelly
of the sport the way they "didn't" back when cycling on tv
was scarce. the genie is out of the bottle atmo.

No we probably can't. For commercial reasons increased tv time will "primetime" the coverage. My Family was NASCAR when you saw it in person or listened to AM radio. TV and made for TV nascar stars has changed NASCAR in a way that the people who call themselves "nascar's roots" can't understand. I'm indifferent, but it happened. Greg,Andy,Lance, and I hope George,Floyd,Levi etc keep the momentum going and keep adding exposure to the sport. But it will "primtime" coverage.

JG

[rpm]

Is there a story here? Has Frankie had access to Discovery? I haven't paid much attention the last couple of days.

JG

Yep, there's a story there:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-armstrong24jun24,1,340691.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-pe-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true

[atmo]

No we probably can't. For commercial reasons increased tv time will "primetime" the coverage. My Family was NASCAR when you saw it in person or listened to AM radio. TV and made for TV nascar stars has changed NASCAR in a way that the people who call themselves "nascar's roots" can't understand. I'm indifferent, but it happened. Greg,Andy,Lance, and I hope George,Floyd,Levi etc keep the momentum going and keep adding exposure to the sport. But it will "primtime" coverage.

JG
mine was a rhetorical question atmo.
i think we can get all the news we need without oln.
the online sites, forums, feeds - all of them trump
watching it on tv listening to guys in a bunker telling
me what i am seeing. as i said, i watch it at nite because
it's there, but the news is dated. i don't even watch it
during the day, and i live where i work.
it's all good stuff i guess, but with it came this uber scrutiny
of our sport that marginalized the fanbase into lance watchers
on one hand and race watchers on another. some live in both
camps too.

[Kahuna]

I think this has been hashed out before. Face it, the OLN has the difficult task of finding the right balance between reporting pure facts and producing something worthy of capturing the average Amercian sports fan's attention. Remember we're dealing with a demographic that considers poker a sport. As if nascar wasn't bad enough they're televising card games on multiple sports channels. Now it's billiards on the outdoor life network. What next competitive sleeping?

Granted, OLN cycling coverage is a bit mp to watch at times but I'm still grateful that it's here period. And if they have to dramatize it, they're not doing a bad job. BTW, this is only the 2nd or 3rd season that our local cable company offered OLN in Hawaii. They could have had it all along but there was some weird licensing conflict with the sattlelite companies that prevented them from offering it for the longest time. I'm still half expecting to wake up one morning, tune into the Tour only to find OLN replaced with the Latin channel (no offense to any latino forum members) or some other surprise.

[Serpico]

Trautwig is sooooo bad :crap: , he can't even pronounce the riders names correctly

I know who 'Yan Ullrick' is, but who's 'Bobby Yu-lick'..?

and the "Spanish Inquisition" is such a lame attempt at humor--trying to cast doubt on Operation Puerto??? (which is what you'd normally be doing, calling something an 'inquisition')----no he's just trying to be witty--bad historical analogy pal

this clown is useless--does he even know cycling history (Al: "Bob, do you think you'd ever see the day when the helmets matched the jersey" [king of the mountains jersey had a polka-dot helmet])

Leipheimer makes a comment about the Tour route, comparing it to the classics, and Trautwig needs Roll to translate it for him--***?!?

somebody--get the hook

[Elefantino]

What was wrong with Kirsten? With the sound turned off she is better than the other guys.

JG

And without my wheels my bike is a lot lighter, too.

[nick0137]

Over this side of the pond, we get Phil & Paul on ITV's coverage, supplemented by Chris Boardman ("When I was in yellow....) and Graham Bell (a former Olympic.....er, skier). The coverage is OK but it is spliced 'n' diced to make it sexy and sassy so as to appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

Over on Eurosport you get David Harmon (a knowledgeable guy - he can spot which Euskatel rider it is in the distance under the helmet/glasses - but a bike geek, really) and Sean Kelly (who knows so much but is pretty much unable to impart any of it in a coherent fashion - god, sometimes I will him to finish the sentence just like I used to shout him towards the line in a one day classic). Eurosport's is coverage for the true fan. So Harmon (rightly) berates the dopers in his commentary - just like a fan really - but then gets on with the job of calling the race.

Phil & Paul adopt a "don't mention the war" approach in order not to frighten off casual viewers and, thereby, sponsors. The wider the appeal that is sought, the more "lite" the coverage will get - that's commercial TV for you. And the more likely you'll get adverse press coverage of the dopers - it's big business investigative journalism just like any other. (Enron anyone?)

I agree with E-R. We, the fans, get the best minute-by-minute coverage on the net ever. Then we go home to see what we have already "seen" during the day. I love watching it twice and picking up stuff from the TV that I missed (or the coverage missed during the day).

[rePhil]

When Andy Hampsten won the Giro I remember hunting down USA Today to follow his progress, and then waiting for Velo News to really read about what happened, Bicycling magazine followed three months later.

I am thankful for OLN, this forum and the internet.

[J.Greene]

Yep, there's a story there:

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-armstrong24jun24,1,340691.story?page=1&coll=la-headlines-pe-sports&ctrack=1&cset=true

The story I was reffering to is: is Frankie cut off from discovery BECAUSE of the article and events cited. Has anyone seen Frankie interview any Disco riders this tour?

JG

[David Kirk]

The story I was reffering to is: is Frankie cut off from discovery BECAUSE of the article and events cited. Has anyone seen Frankie interview any Disco riders this tour?

JG

No.... But I haven't seen him interview anyone really. All I've seen is the "this little hill/corner/etc. right near the end is hard" pieces. Has he been doing interviews?

Dave

[Fixed]

bro that was a pretty good race today i.m.h.o.
no more a.v. e.d.or f.r. that 's sad
cheers

[soulspinner]

I think its all good. Even the sprinter favorites arent dominating. VIVE LE TOUR...

[ClutchCargo]

I'm with Dave K. and Kahuna on this one. yes, Al Earwig is inevitably bad as the jack-of-all-trades-master-of-none sportscaster, and yes I miss the ever-changing, always-inflating Kirsten Gum (was it just me, or were those drastic blond-to-brunette and apparent plastic surgery changes kind of spooky?) . . . but how much of life is perfect?

but I get a kick out of Phil and Paul's genial banter and the chance to hear the spoken word of the English announcers. I don't care that they're not hard edged journalists. they're sportscasters, not journalists. the camera work and scenery are great. and Bob Roll is, well ... Bob Roll. I find it to be generally entertaining; and that's what pro sports are, right -- entertainment?




Tune on, er, "in"!

[MartyE]

The fact that I can sit here at work, listen to Harmon and
Kelly ( after 2 or 3 days I can almost understand him), read
live feeds and then go home and watch the Tivo'd live coverage
is like manna from heaven.
Sure Troutwhig is annoyingly ignorant, sure even I get tired
of bobke's mannerisms but what's the alternative? weekend
wild world of sports? Espn weekend coverage?

marty

[rpm]

No.... But I haven't seen him interview anyone really. All I've seen is the "this little hill/corner/etc. right near the end is hard" pieces. Has he been doing interviews?

Dave


He interviewed George Hincapie day before yesterday, so I don't think he's cut off from Discovery.

[Too Tall]

I'm not a jaded...there is still time ;)

Le Tour ends today on roads we start and finish PBP (Paris Brest Paris). Really lovely rolling terrain, lots of sycamore trees the Fr. was kind enough to plant roadside so that invading armys could walk in the shade ;)