in message <[email hidden]>, Richard Goodman
(') said:"Simon Brooke" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:6s2gp1-
[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:Well, on t'telly last night, it was nice to see
Cannondale doing a one (Cristophe Sausser) two (Roel
Paulissen) in the mens' cross country. Because I'd missed
the fact that last nights programme started twenty
On telly? Oh, bum, missed that altogether. Is there more
coverage still to come? Which channel? When?
BBC2 Scotland, and no, you've missed it. It was extremely
well done, in my opinion. Clearly not very expensively
produced, and with a little bit of acknowledgement of a non-
biking audience - not much technicality and apart from
Honda no brand names got mentioned (although the
commentators did comment on the Lefties on the winning XC
bikes). There was some helicopter overhead coverage which
worked well for the top of the downhill and for good
sections of the XC, and a lot of trackside cameras at
different points on the track - some obviously hand-held.
Although we only got coverage of the top few downhillers
runs and of that only about a minute and a half out of each
(four and a bit minute) run, we got about fifteen minutes
coverage of the Mens' Crosscountry (and, as I switched on
twenty minutes after last night's program had started and
the Womens' XC coverage was just finishing) presumably
fifteen minutes of the Womens' XC as well.
The anchor was a rather gushing woman I didn't recognise,
who did an OK-ish job. The commentary teams consisted of
one experienced TV sports commentator and one experienced
cyclist, and this worked well (wasn't the same commentary
team for all events). The commentators had done their
homework and were able to give bits of background on each
rider, and the cyclist was able to comment on things like
lines and technicalities. In the introduction to the
downhill programme the cyclist member of the commentator
team did a run down the course himself with a helmet
camera and described it as he experienced it, which was
good watching.
The interviews, although quite brief, were quite good too,
and it was interesting to see the Irish chap from the UCI,
and also the Sports Minister, being interviewed. The
implication from both interviews is that we would see more
high quality mountain bike competition in Scotland and that
there would be more promotion of it - the guy from the UCI
was extremely complimentary about the organisation of the
event, and about the crowds, which were apparently bigger
(more than 10,000 - 15,000 got mentioned on last night's
programme) than are common at cycling events.
Personally I'd have liked to see much more about the bikes -
the only one we saw in much detail was the much-hyped
Honda[1] (Greg Minnaar) which won the Mens' Downhill.
However all in all it was good television
- one hour forty minutes in all - which for a general
audience I think would have been at least as interesting
as 'Ski Sunday', which, in format, it very much resembled.
I personally didn't go much for the four-cross event - too
short to be interesting, I thought, although tactics were
interesting (that Steve Peat is a maniac - but a very
capable maniac). The downhill probably made the best
television as television, although for me the XC was the
best bit. And what was really good about it, for me, was
watching the guys on the course on bikes not that different
from mine and knowing that in the immortal words 'I could do
that' - not fast enough to compete with those guys, of
course, but there was nothing on the XC course which looked
technically beyond me.
Worth staying up late for.
[1] This bike has a bottom bracket gearbox of precisely the
type I've been suggesting for some time. However,
because it's not a URT it has a fairly complex chain-
line which must cost a bit in efficiency.
--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke)
jasmine.org.uk~simonOpen ↗ ,/| _.--''^``-...___.._.,;
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