Cycling coverage...

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in
news:[email hidden]:

Quoted message said:

Sunday afternoon I made it home in time to watch the OLN coverage of
the P-N prologue.

Took all of about 5 minutes to get bored/disgusted w/ Phil, Paul, and
of course, Bob and the same ol' [censored] we hear from them year after
year...
If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into a
bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

So, I found myself switching back/forth between the Tiger Woods/Phil
Mickelson duel and the finish of the Busch series Nascar race in
Mexico. Why? Because both of those shows had tension, suspense,
interesting commentary, etc...

As much as I love cycling and want to watch what goes on in the pro
ranks, it occurs to me that a major part of the problem with attracting
viewers/fans to cycling is that the programming just plain sucks.

I don't intend to reopen the inane argument about whether golf or
Nascar are sports, but I have to say that I'd MUCH rather watch the
final round between two of the sports greatest (currently) duke it out
to the final shot on the final hole or watch the final 30 laps of any
Nascar race than watch a prologue of a spring training race in France
interspersed with stupid skits involving B. Roll's conversations with
his daughter re: whether he should compete again.

That's nice.

Maybe you should do that (ie., stick to "exciting" sports like Nascar and
golf instead of "boring" sports like cycling).

- Boyd S.

enjoyed seeing cycling on TV again for a change.

On 8 Mar 2005 13:23:10 -0800, "Scott" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into a
bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

That kind of dates you. I was with a small group from my high school
class to be at UT Austin to check it out as a choice the day it
happened. Kind of cut down on the itinerary.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Wow...what station did you have? My OLN station didn't have anyone
named Phil on it.

Quoted message said:

Took all of about 5 minutes to get bored/disgusted w/ Phil, Paul, and

of course, Bob and the same ol' [censored] we hear from them year after
year...
If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into a
bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Sunday afternoon I made it home in time to watch the OLN coverage of
the P-N prologue.

Took all of about 5 minutes to get bored/disgusted w/ Phil, Paul, and
of course, Bob and the same ol' [censored] we hear from them year after
year...

TT's in general, and early spring prologues in particular, are not exactly
high drama. Is this news to you? Would you prefer that they ran it as a
crit, with bumping allowed in the corners?

Quoted message said:

If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into a
bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

Bobke does that with malice aforethought. Did you hear his pronunciations
for the cities along the route...they were spot on. I've heard he
pronounces it that way as part of his schtick, and as an intentional dig at
the French (supposedly, years ago after a hard day of racing he was
attempting to order a meal in French, and was dissed by the propietor
because he wasn't speaking it quite well enough).

GG

Quoted message said:

So, I found myself switching back/forth between the Tiger Woods/Phil
Mickelson duel and the finish of the Busch series Nascar race in
Mexico. Why? Because both of those shows had tension, suspense,
interesting commentary, etc...

As much as I love cycling and want to watch what goes on in the pro
ranks, it occurs to me that a major part of the problem with attracting
viewers/fans to cycling is that the programming just plain sucks.

I don't intend to reopen the inane argument about whether golf or
Nascar are sports, but I have to say that I'd MUCH rather watch the
final round between two of the sports greatest (currently) duke it out
to the final shot on the final hole or watch the final 30 laps of any
Nascar race than watch a prologue of a spring training race in France
interspersed with stupid skits involving B. Roll's conversations with
his daughter re: whether he should compete again.

I know Bob does it on purpose, but that doesn't make it any less
tiresome and played out. Geez, how many years has he done the same
schtick???

Boyd,

You apparently miss my point. The current coverage we get in the US on
OLN sucks and in my opinion contributes to it's low viewership. Not
that we don't get enough coverage, but rather what we get is poorly
done.

While golf isn't my cup of tea (I don't play and haven't even tried it
since high school), I challenge you to watch the coverage from this
past weekend's duel between Woods and Mickelson and tell me that the TV
coverage wasn't well done, and didn't contribute to the excitement for
the viewers. My point isn't about golf being exciting, it's about the
coverage creating excitement for the viewer.

Then, contrast that to the coverage of the P-N prologue on OLN and tell
me that you honestly don't see how that coverage would do NOTHING to
create new, non-cyclist fans of cycling. Go on, I dare you.

I agree with GaryG- a TT prologue is not the most exciting thing in the
world no matter what coverage is given- but the stages later more than make
up for it, and it's nice to get some idea of what shape everyone seems to be
in.

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know Bob does it on purpose, but that doesn't make it any less
tiresome and played out. Geez, how many years has he done the same
schtick???

Curtis L. Russell said:

On 8 Mar 2005 13:23:10 -0800, "Scott" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into

a

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

That kind of dates you. I was with a small group from my high school
class to be at UT Austin to check it out as a choice the day it
happened. Kind of cut down on the itinerary.

"High school class of 1966" dates you, Mr. Russell. UT only recently
re-opened (with heavy restriction) the observation deck at the top of
the Tower, which I could see from here but for the trees. IOW, this
shocking event, occurring in a time when mass public shootings hadn't
yet "caught on" with the public, is not anything like forgotten, unlike
the many who "followed" Whitman. <http://tower.jdedman.com/> --TP,
high school class of '67

Curtis L. Russell said:

Scott said:

If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into
a bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

That kind of dates you.

Me too. I remember the 'Buffy' episode well.

--
Firefox Web Browser - Rediscover the web - http://getffox.com/
Thunderbird E-mail and Newsgroups - http://gettbird.com/

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I know Bob does it on purpose, but that doesn't make it any less
tiresome and played out. Geez, how many years has he done the same
schtick???

Well, at this point, he's probably stuck with it. It's part of his on-air
persona, and if he started speaking as well as he can (in French, or in
English), a lot of his fan-base would probably be up in arms.

GG

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Boyd,

You apparently miss my point. The current coverage we get in the US on
OLN sucks and in my opinion contributes to it's low viewership. Not
that we don't get enough coverage, but rather what we get is poorly
done.

While golf isn't my cup of tea (I don't play and haven't even tried it
since high school), I challenge you to watch the coverage from this
past weekend's duel between Woods and Mickelson and tell me that the TV
coverage wasn't well done, and didn't contribute to the excitement for
the viewers. My point isn't about golf being exciting, it's about the
coverage creating excitement for the viewer.

Then, contrast that to the coverage of the P-N prologue on OLN and tell
me that you honestly don't see how that coverage would do NOTHING to
create new, non-cyclist fans of cycling. Go on, I dare you.

Chicken or egg? Hard to say...if cycling events regularly attracted even 5
million viewers, presumably the coverage would be better due to the larger
production budgets. But I don't think it's the coverage that results in low
viewership, but rather the low viewer numbers that result in meager
production budgets.

re: "OLN sucks"

Compared to what? It's a whole lot better now than it was 10 years ago,
though this season *is* looking kind of grim with respect to same-day
coverage of the Vuelta and Giro :-( . At least we're not stuck like those
poor [censored] up in Canada (frozen roads, no cycling coverage, and no
NHL...that's gotta hurt).

GG

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote ...

Quoted message said:

So, I found myself switching back/forth between the Tiger Woods/Phil
Mickelson duel and the finish of the Busch series Nascar race in
Mexico. Why? Because both of those shows had tension, suspense,
interesting commentary, etc...

I'm sorry, golf is not a a sport.

JF

Jim Flom said:

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote ...

Quoted message said:

So, I found myself switching back/forth between the Tiger Woods/Phil
Mickelson duel and the finish of the Busch series Nascar race in
Mexico. Why? Because both of those shows had tension, suspense,
interesting commentary, etc...

Quoted message said:

I'm sorry, golf is not a a sport.

Not everything that is interesting to watch is a sport.

Bob Schwartz
[email hidden]

Bob Schwartz said:

Jim Flom said:

"Scott" <[email hidden]> wrote ...

Quoted message said:

So, I found myself switching back/forth between the Tiger

Woods/Phil

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Mickelson duel and the finish of the Busch series Nascar race in
Mexico. Why? Because both of those shows had tension, suspense,
interesting commentary, etc...

Quoted message said:

I'm sorry, golf is not a a sport.

Not everything that is interesting to watch is a sport.

Bob Schwartz
[email hidden]

I don't know about that. What do you think about competitive Wet T
Shirt contests? I won't even go into what women at old schools Harley
events used to do to win these, but it was definitely competitive.
Bill C

Quoted message said:

"High school class of 1966" dates you, Mr. Russell. UT only recently
re-opened (with heavy restriction) the observation deck at the top of
the Tower, which I could see from here but for the trees. IOW, this
shocking event, occurring in a time when mass public shootings hadn't
yet "caught on" with the public, is not anything like forgotten, unlike
the many who "followed" Whitman. <http://tower.jdedman.com/> --TP,
high school class of '67

Actually, also class of 67. Attended UT Austin for some credits during
my senior year at Killeen High School in Killeen, TX.

Nice campus, nice weather, can't remember why I decided Michigan State
was a better choice. Only time I went there before attending, they had
snow drifts up to the second floor on the dorms and the temperature
was miserable before the 40 mph winds. Maybe I didn't realize snow
starts to look different about week 2 and gets worse from there.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Jim Flom said:

I'm sorry, golf is not a a sport.

Absolutely. The tee doesn't move during the swing, the hole stays more
or less in one place - what's with scores above 18?

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

"Curtis L. Russell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

"High school class of 1966" dates you, Mr. Russell. UT only recently
re-opened (with heavy restriction) the observation deck at the top of
the Tower, which I could see from here but for the trees. IOW, this
shocking event, occurring in a time when mass public shootings hadn't
yet "caught on" with the public, is not anything like forgotten, unlike
the many who "followed" Whitman. <http://tower.jdedman.com/> --TP,
high school class of '67

Actually, also class of 67. Attended UT Austin for some credits during
my senior year at Killeen High School in Killeen, TX.

Nice campus, nice weather, can't remember why I decided Michigan State
was a better choice. Only time I went there before attending, they had
snow drifts up to the second floor on the dorms and the temperature
was miserable before the 40 mph winds. Maybe I didn't realize snow
starts to look different about week 2 and gets worse from there.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

LOL - there's quite a few decisions I made in the 60's and 70's for which I
can't seem to reconstruct the rationale.

I suspect your decision to attend Michigan State was primarily influenced by
one of the following:

1) Parents

2) A Girl

3) Beer

4) All of the above.

GG

Curtis L. Russell said:

Quoted message said:

Nice campus, nice weather, can't remember why I decided Michigan State
was a better choice. Only time I went there before attending, they had
snow drifts up to the second floor on the dorms and the temperature
was miserable before the 40 mph winds. Maybe I didn't realize snow
starts to look different about week 2 and gets worse from there.

GaryG said:

I suspect your decision to attend Michigan State was primarily influenced by
one of the following:

Quoted message said:

1) Parents

2) A Girl

3) Beer

4) All of the above.

5) The Michigan grass was better ?

Scott said:

Sunday afternoon I made it home in time to watch the OLN coverage of
the P-N prologue.

Took all of about 5 minutes to get bored/disgusted w/ Phil, Paul, and
of course, Bob and the same ol' [censored] we hear from them year after
year...
If I hear 'Tour DAY France' one more time, I'm likely to go up into a
bell tower w/ a rifle and hurt someone :>

I didn't find the Prologue all that exciting either, but then again, I
didn't really expect it to be exciting. I mean, it's a 4K ride on the
first day of the race. I think something like 15 seconds seperated the
first 125 riders; not much to make up in the next seven days.

I enjoy Bob Roll's coments and his passion, although I could have done
without the skit by him and his daughter.

Quoted message said:

So, I found myself switching back/forth between the Tiger Woods/Phil
Mickelson duel and the finish of the Busch series Nascar race in
Mexico. Why? Because both of those shows had tension, suspense,
interesting commentary, etc...

As much as I love cycling and want to watch what goes on in the pro
ranks, it occurs to me that a major part of the problem with attracting
viewers/fans to cycling is that the programming just plain sucks.

I don't intend to reopen the inane argument about whether golf or
Nascar are sports, but I have to say that I'd MUCH rather watch the
final round between two of the sports greatest (currently) duke it out
to the final shot on the final hole or watch the final 30 laps of any
Nascar race than watch a prologue of a spring training race in France
interspersed with stupid skits involving B. Roll's conversations with
his daughter re: whether he should compete again.

Yeah, but would you rather watch Nascar or a mountain stage of any of
the Grand Tours?

Bob