# Not impressed with NBC Sports cycling coverage



## nonsleepingjon (Oct 18, 2002)

I caught the late night coverage of the race in Colorado the past couple nights and gotta say I'm not impressed with NBC Sports. Long commercial break, some sweeping footage of the road or scenery, an interview with a cyclist, then maybe a minute of actual race footage before cutting back to scenery or a commercial. Maybe the style was in part because it was a recap that had to fit in one hour, but even then I would prefer more race footage, more discussion of the tactics etc. The interviews are interesting, but do them as an inset to the race footage. I love the grand vistas of Colorado, but I tuned in to watch a bike race.


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## GA1911 (May 4, 2010)

I'm with you, not impressed at all. I was really ticked off last night, I wanted to see the guys running down the dirt road on the Cottonwood Pass, but that was too early for NBC and only got a few seconds of coverage. I know you can't show the entire stage, but they can do better than that.

Oh well, I guess some coverage is better than none.


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## AlanE (Jan 22, 2002)

Today took the prize. No video feed of the race itself, except for an empty finish line. Pretty sad display of U.S. technological superiority.


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## JoelS (Aug 25, 2008)

Hey, I'm just glad they're covering it! Yes, it could be better. But it's better than nothing at all.


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## Skimmy (Dec 13, 2011)

I would describe what I just saw as "no coverage at all".


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## Hooben (Aug 22, 2004)

The way I understand it, the really good coverage comes from a French company. The French are obviously not in charge of the Colorado race. The United States just lags behind in too many things these days.


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## Opus51569 (Jul 21, 2009)

While I'm happy to be able to watch any cycling on TV, the USA Pro Challenge on NBCSN does seem a bit lacking compared to the TdF coverage (which I actually thought was pretty good). Yesterday, I was looking forward to seeing the riders race the dirt road, but by the time they joined the coverage, they were well on their way to Independence Pass. Still better than nothing, though.


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## LookDave (Sep 29, 2007)

Gotta view NBC Sports coverage of this race, and most other cycling they cover, as like watching Baseball Tonight on ESPN. You get some highlights, some snips of actual action, some interviews, some analysis, etc. But if you want to watch an actual ball game, or actual cycling race, not going to happen on these shows.


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## RyleyinSTL (Aug 6, 2012)

today took bad coverage to a new level of bad. They had a total of maybe 15 minutes of actual live race coverage. The rest was "live" video of the beer tent. They blamed the rain for wrecking the equipment.


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## Mr. Versatile (Nov 24, 2005)

I agree the coverage is poor. They begin at well after the half way mark, probably only show maybe the last 25% of the race. We miss break aways, strategies, scenery, how various riders are faring. I'm watching it because it's at least something.


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## OldChipper (May 15, 2011)

Better than nothing, but I agree entirely with the OP.


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## thalo (Jul 17, 2011)

is this the same as the RS tour tracker? i watched that online today and it was okay. Only until the last few KM that it was just the finish line waiting for Jensupreme to cross. there were pauses and glitches along the way (because of the weather) but some good video of the truck driver blazing through the downpour with no rain jacket while the namby-pamby peleton had to zip up so they wouldnt get their pretty jerseys wet.


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## nonsleepingjon (Oct 18, 2002)

thalo said:


> is this the same as the RS tour tracker? i watched that online today and it was okay.


Yeah, I found the RS Tour Tracker today and it's the same footage --- except the recap that I watched the past couple nights was just snippets of that footage intermixed with a bunch of commercials and other non-race footage.


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## Monk (Jan 28, 2012)

I DVR it. It's a must! (Paul and Phil are a hundred times better than The Vuelta commentators IMO too). As someone who hunted the "TVguide" every season and set the Betamax in hopes of ANY cycling on TV, I'll take what I can get! 

Just about every major race has coverage now, be happy you don't have to read about it in some Euro bike mag 4 months after the fact.


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## colorider7 (Jun 14, 2012)

I totally agree. The coverage is terrible, but better than nothing. I was out on Indy Pass yesterday and it was incredible. Tommy D's ride was about as epic a breakaway as it gets. Cycling has a long way to go in the US and I just hope Lance's development doesn't set us back ( it won't here in Colorado! -- we are cycling fanatics! -- go TJ! -- go Tommy D!). Good riding... Colorider.


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## colorider7 (Jun 14, 2012)

Totally agreed on Paul and Phil! Cheeky move that! Go Jens V! Crazy ride today! Hope yet for us old guys! Go TJ! The US needs a new hero! Good riding. Colorider


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## sovereign (May 27, 2010)

Here's some:

2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge Independence Pass Summit - YouTube

Today's start: 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge 3rd Stage Start- Aspen - YouTube


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## Mr. Versatile (Nov 24, 2005)

I've never seen so many advertisements in my life.


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## alanincolorado (Aug 26, 2012)

*Finally folks talking about POOR NBC sports coverage*

Early in the week of USA Cycling Challenge in Colorado I searched for others who were upset by this piss poor coverage by NBC Sports. I did watch some via Internet on steephill.tv which actually links to NBC, but without the interviews in middle of race, and commercials. They do run a 20-30sec Radio Shack commercial once in a while. I never remembered Versus being this bad but since NBC Sports took them over it's become horrible. NBC Sports does not know how to cover cycling. I would like to be in board room when these idiotic decisions are made.


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## stanseven (Nov 9, 2011)

The tour tracker wasn't bad at all. Sure the coverage should be better but this is about as good as it can be until more people watch and covage improves from added ad revenue. This week is filled with pro football pre-season games every day of the week.


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## Samadhi (Nov 1, 2011)

NBC's coverage of the Pro Challenge blows.

One thing I found particularly annoying was the near constant mispronunciation of place names.


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## JackDaniels (Oct 4, 2011)

Video feed was terrible. I was downtown Boulder yesterday watching on the big screen. It was painful.


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## dino8031 (Aug 8, 2012)

Yea, I agree the feed was not great, but it's always good to hear Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen. I love those guys. 

It's probably for the same reason none of my cell phones work around here. I'm live in Boulder BTW.


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## 4Crawler (Jul 13, 2011)

The recap show they had on NBC Sports today had a lot of the missing live coverage of all the road stages. Versus used to do that with the TDF coverage, morning show was the live coverage, then afternoon show might have some of the missing coverage that was taped on each camera motorbike, then the evening show had lots more interviews and commentary.

Of course then the NBCSports coverage stopped and you needed to change to NBC to pick up the remainder of the time trial.


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## allison (Apr 19, 2006)

4Crawler said:


> The recap show they had on NBC Sports today had a lot of the missing live coverage of all the road stages.


I LOVED the recap show that was on today before the live coverage started. It was really great, behind the scenes, more interviews, really good. I know they can't logistically do that every day for every stage, but I think it was good and would be awesome if they did that more for other similar races, or each week at the Tour. 

I think I got lucky yesterday having only recorded the NBC Sports coverage, plus 30 minutes. I didn't miss any coverage, and they showed a lot of post-stage waiting for podiums. Today I wound up not watching it live, realized at 2 that it wasn't recording, NBC Sports had Indy Car on, and so I luckily noticed that NBC had the USPro Cycling on, otherwise I would've missed the end of the race, which would've sucked. 

NBC needs to do them on one channel or the other (at least each day) instead of expecting everyone to be watching live and switching back and forth.


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## Sylint (Jul 27, 2009)

allison said:


> I LOVED the recap show that was on today before the live coverage started. It was really great, behind the scenes, more interviews, really good. I know they can't logistically do that every day for every stage, but I think it was good and would be awesome if they did that more for other similar races, or each week at the Tour.
> 
> I think I got lucky yesterday having only recorded the NBC Sports coverage, plus 30 minutes. I didn't miss any coverage, and they showed a lot of post-stage waiting for podiums. Today I wound up not watching it live, realized at 2 that it wasn't recording, NBC Sports had Indy Car on, and so I luckily noticed that NBC had the USPro Cycling on, otherwise I would've missed the end of the race, which would've sucked.
> 
> NBC needs to do them on one channel or the other (at least each day) instead of expecting everyone to be watching live and switching back and forth.



They had been advertising it for awhile during the coverage that they would be finishing the TT stage on the main NBC.


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## 4Crawler (Jul 13, 2011)

allison said:


> I LOVED the recap show that was on today before the live coverage started. It was really great, behind the scenes, more interviews, really good. I know they can't logistically do that every day for every stage, but I think it was good and would be awesome if they did that more for other similar races, or each week at the Tour.
> 
> I think I got lucky yesterday having only recorded the NBC Sports coverage, plus 30 minutes. I didn't miss any coverage, and they showed a lot of post-stage waiting for podiums. Today I wound up not watching it live, realized at 2 that it wasn't recording, NBC Sports had Indy Car on, and so I luckily noticed that NBC had the USPro Cycling on, otherwise I would've missed the end of the race, which would've sucked.
> 
> NBC needs to do them on one channel or the other (at least each day) instead of expecting everyone to be watching live and switching back and forth.


Yes, luckily my DVR caught both shows. I also set up my Cycling recording setting to record 1 hour beyond the end of the scheduled show and that usually gets any over run.


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## Bocephus Jones II (Oct 7, 2004)

nonsleepingjon said:


> I caught the late night coverage of the race in Colorado the past couple nights and gotta say I'm not impressed with NBC Sports. Long commercial break, some sweeping footage of the road or scenery, an interview with a cyclist, then maybe a minute of actual race footage before cutting back to scenery or a commercial. Maybe the style was in part because it was a recap that had to fit in one hour, but even then I would prefer more race footage, more discussion of the tactics etc. The interviews are interesting, but do them as an inset to the race footage. I love the grand vistas of Colorado, but I tuned in to watch a bike race.


The coverage sucked, but I think they were a bit constrained with the short time they had to show the race. Always started at least halfway into the race and they skipped some of the best climbing sections IMO (Cottonwood Pass/ Lee Hill right at the start where it's super steep.


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## il sogno (Jul 15, 2002)

Terrible coverage. Tons of break ups in the transmission - France can get us pictures off the Col Du Tourmalet NBC can't get us shots from the Boulder environs. 

And I hate, HATE that damn Nissan leaf advertisement graphic that shows up at the 1K to go banner. It breaks up the flow of the race.


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