OLN - 17 surprisingly bad

Trautwig and Roll do the later re showing's of the stage. They just over dub the whole stage but the last few km's they will give you Liggett/Sherwin. You have to watch the morning live showing to get Sherwin/Liggett during the whole stage.

JRMDC said:

I just watched a tape of stage 17, not until now after 18 is already done and gone. I watched stage 16 the previous night - these were the first stages I had seen this year. I was quite surprised.

First of all, why the B-team? Why was 80% of stage 17 with Trautwig/Bobke? How does this work? Do different versions of the telecast (the morning live, the afternoon, the evening) feature different people? Why just a few minutes of Liggett/Sherwin?

Second, what superficial drama - Trautwig/Bobke just didn't have the gravitas to give the stage what it deserved. I could pile on, but I'll just leave it at that. Really, really disappointing.

Third, I vaguelly recall that in other shows, the last X portion of the race would be free of interruptions. I'd have to go through some old tapes to get the details, but this one seemed loaded with commercial breaks, including one surprisingly close to Landis' arrival in Morzine. Aargh.

Minor quibbles: first of all, many commercial breaks featured an ad for OLN's coverage the next day, and the image they used was Landis pumping his fist on stage 17 - which hadn't happened yet! (This suggests I was viewing the afternoon or evening version, not the live morning.) Distracting.

Also, many people have remarked on the surprise shown by the break when Landis caught up to them. What I saw was a rear view, so rider faces/expressions not visible, heads turning when Landis came by, but no evidence of surprise or any other reaction, unless it was the turning of the heads that was so unusual.

I hope the version sold down the road is better than what I just saw...

You saw the 'enhanced' edition. Watch it earlier in the day (if you can) with Paul and Phil. The 'enhanced' edition was weird last night I will admit. I've never seen it that bad, so I don't know....I did love Roll's "God damn" when the mics were 'off'..

As for the expressions/head turning by the riders when Landis reached them, that was unusual and was awesome! They were surprised.

thebluetrain said:

Trautwig and Roll do the later re showing's of the stage. They just over dub the whole stage but the last few km's they will give you Liggett/Sherwin. You have to watch the morning live showing to get Sherwin/Liggett during the whole stage.

thanks, bummer, my source gives me what he gives me! 🙁 For some reason, Liggett/Sherwin didn't get the last few km, they got a middle section. Or maybe I was a little numb by the end of the tape...

JRMDC said:

thanks, bummer, my source gives me what he gives me! 🙁 For some reason, Liggett/Sherwin didn't get the last few km, they got a middle section. Or maybe I was a little numb by the end of the tape...

I can deal with Roll/Trautwig Liggett/Sherwin, I am just glad I get to watch the race. 🙂

JRMDC said:

thanks, bummer, my source gives me what he gives me! 🙁 For some reason, Liggett/Sherwin didn't get the last few km, they got a middle section. Or maybe I was a little numb by the end of the tape...

Yeah, strangely enough, Phil and Paul didn't get the end of stage 17 during the "enchanced" coverage. Thankfully I watched it live in the morning with Phil and Paul, as well as the last 20k or so without commercials.

Really, watching in the morning is the only way to go for the good stages. I came home and watched it again through the eyes of Bob and Al just for kicks ;p

What is with this perpetual badgering of the [OLN] coverage?

Can't you just be happy that someone is carrying it?? The assumption here is that anyone's opinion of the commentators is of universal interest. I am glad OLN is covering the race .. and for what it's worth, I think the hosts do a pretty decent job. Funny, their foibles (like calling Landis Leipheimer etc are funny too ..).

Rather than flame me, why not explain the obsession with OLN's coverage ..

FrankBattle said:

What is with this perpetual badgering of the [OLN] coverage?

Can't you just be happy that someone is carrying it?? The assumption here is that anyone's opinion of the commentators is of universal interest. I am glad OLN is covering the race .. and for what it's worth, I think the hosts do a pretty decent job. Funny, their foibles (like calling Landis Leipheimer etc are funny too ..).

Rather than flame me, why not explain the obsession with OLN's coverage ..

Not really a flame, although you may take it that way, but there is no presumption of "universal interest" here. There is an expectation, well, at least I have one, that someone not interested in reading such opinions would not drop into this clearly titled thread, much less post a response. Why are you here? Enjoy the other threads in this forum.

JRMDC said:

Not really a flame, although you may take it that way, but there is no presumption of "universal interest" here. There is an expectation, well, at least I have one, that someone not interested in reading such opinions would not drop into this clearly titled thread, much less post a response. Why are you here? Enjoy the other threads in this forum.

Yessir. Will do. Thanks.

But what's with the constant critcism? You aren't the first. You won't be the last. But I think this is the only thread I've seen in a while dedicated to this whole I-hate-OLN's-coverage band wagon. Just thought I'd ask. You know, maybe it's something I should be doing also ..

But I'm done, unless you can enlighten me.

The guys do a fine job, not great, but decent. Like most shows there are way too many commercials and OLN, like any other network would do with a large captive audience, toots their own horn as often as possible. What's the deal with naming the channel 'VERSES' That's pretty lame.

oh man, stage 17 on OLN!

I have work at 6am so I can never catch the live coverage and am struck with the crappy night show where you go to commercial and then come back and they are 50km beyond where they were before🙄

Anyways, on stage 17, Trautwig said they would come back with Ligget/Sherwin and then they never did😕

Anyways, I was absolutely laughing my ass off when Dessel went into the ditch and Roll goes "GOD DAMN"...😄 ....they said they were going to commerical but never did😕

Also, Landis' first pump just wasnt the same without Ligget commentating🙁

They could always bring the cutters back.

FrankBattle said:

Yessir. Will do. Thanks.

But what's with the constant critcism? You aren't the first. You won't be the last. But I think this is the only thread I've seen in a while dedicated to this whole I-hate-OLN's-coverage band wagon. Just thought I'd ask. You know, maybe it's something I should be doing also ..

But I'm done, unless you can enlighten me.

Well, I'll pass on going into the details, because I think the crux of the matter is your "can't you just be happy" attitude (quote from a different post of yours). I am from the "always room for improvement" school. In this case, my view is that there is a lot of room. Your view may be different, but I have to wonder whether part of that view is due to your having an uncritical nature.

The fact that OLN's coverage is way above coverage 20 years ago is irrelevant. I'm not interested in having a lot of things be they way they used to be. (Of course, there are always areas in which the world has gotten worse, but in general progress is good and part of what makes progress happen is criticism.)

Don't worry, in a year or two when we're back to an hour a day coverage, you'll opine for the good ole days when we'd get 5 hours of coverage.

acjaz said:

Don't worry, in a year or two when we're back to an hour a day coverage, you'll opine for the good ole days when we'd get 5 hours of coverage.

Please, don't speak hese words!!!!!!!!!!

FrankBattle said:

But what's with the constant critcism? You aren't the first. You won't be the last. But I think this is the only thread I've seen in a while dedicated to this whole I-hate-OLN's-coverage band wagon. Just thought I'd ask. You know, maybe it's something I should be doing also ..

But I'm done, unless you can enlighten me.

I've been watching copies of the broadcast thanks to a generous friend and I almost turned off the first stage I was given. I have no beef whatsoever with the full coverage stages (I sometimes get full coverage, other times 'enhanced'😉 but the enhanced version of stage 11 nearly drove me to turning it off completely.

Within the first hour of a 3-hour show I don't think I saw more than 15 seconds of continuous riding. I did see "Lance On: The Tourmalet", and "Sponsor X Super Tour Moment", and "Bobke's Annoying Hand Gesture Time" sandwiched between enough commercials to make me want to pry my eyeballs out.

I'm probably being overly harsh, and I'm hoping that Stage 11 was just a particularly bad one. I did watch the enhanced coverage of Alpe d'Huez this morning and it wasn't nearly as bad.

As for OLN's coverage as a network... I think it's amazing that they're giving it as much air time as they are. To be able to turn on the TV multiple times a day and get different types of coverage is a great thing that should make any cable subscriber feel like they got their money's worth.

Like I said, the enhanced coverage was pretty bad, but at least there was the option of watching the full coverage.

fiend said:

As for OLN's coverage as a network... I think it's amazing that they're giving it as much air time as they are. To be able to turn on the TV multiple times a day and get different types of coverage is a great thing that should make any cable subscriber feel like they got their money's worth.

Like I said, the enhanced coverage was pretty bad, but at least there was the option of watching the full coverage.

OLN is giving it as much coverage as they do because it's all they've got. The rest of their programming includes either people shooting things or barbecuing what they shoot. That or reruns of Survivor. Not even the running of the bulls in Pamplona remains.

For as bad their coverage can be -over half of it is commercials, Al is irrevocably bad, Bobke is far too restrained in the role of corporate shill, and I fear Phil is going senile (how many times can you call Landis Leipheimer?)-at least someone is showing the Tour.

Unfortunately viewership is down 60% since Lance's retirement. That's an astounding drop. The good news is that a Landis win combined with a hip replacement and a repeat attempt could cause a ratings spike for next year. If cycling is going to survive on the American t.v. landscape it needs a compelling story and a face to go with it. It had that in Armstrong and now may have it again with Floyd.

There's a serious chance that within a few years the only Tour de France coverage you'll be seeing is a few minutes recap on Wide World of Sports. Wait, is the Wide World even on the air anymore?

seriously worried,

dog

I'm not going to bang on OLN's coverage of the TdF. I just want morer cycling coverage.

Does anyone know if Verses is going to add sports related coverage. More cycling coverage, soccer, female beach volleyball ?
lw

FrankBattle said:

Yessir. Will do. Thanks.

But what's with the constant critcism? You aren't the first. You won't be the last. But I think this is the only thread I've seen in a while dedicated to this whole I-hate-OLN's-coverage band wagon. Just thought I'd ask. You know, maybe it's something I should be doing also ..

But I'm done, unless you can enlighten me.

I think OLN's coverage sucks.

If they roll any more footage of the wind tunnel I'm going to vomit (actually, that might be of interest -- to see someone vomit in the wind tunnel).

Anyway, I don't think people who are marginal cycling fans tune in for several hours of bicycle-racing coverage, so running nursery school features about colorful uniforms or some bright on how important drafting is... well, it's lost of 95 percent of the people watching. And it's when I get up and fish a PBR out of the basement.

Now, I'm sure someone is going to point out that, "Hey, I was watching the other night with my girlfriend and she doesn't know jack about cycling and she likes the nursery school [censored]."

Okay. If that's the case, you explain it to her.

Look, you don't see features during MLB games about how to throw a knuckle ball or how the third-base coach is signaling to the batter and not having an epileptic seizure. (I figured out Australian League Football without all that [censored]). Going back and explaining the rules over and over again disrupts the flow of the game, or in our case, race.

Phil, Paul, Bob… they know their [censored]. But sometimes it seems they dumb the commentary down so much that they can't really examine tactics or explore tactical possibilities for fear of getting bogged down in lengthy explanations about what drafting is and why teammates don't chase each other.

I know a lot of people are waiting for the day when cycling catches on in America like NASCAR. That's pure fantasy. Take a look around. What's the percentage of fat slobs driving to work versus fit people riding? When was the last time you got run off the road by a motorist? When was the last time someone threw something at you, yelled at you, told you to get the hell off the road?

Those are the fans you have to win over.

Good f'ing luck.