# Another gripe about VS coverage...



## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

Am I wrong, or did OLN used to scroll the names of the riders in a breakaway at the bottom of the screen in Tours past? 

Why don't they do that anymore on VS? Kinda buggers me to have to wait for a half an hour for one of the commentators to say who is in the break...


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## Bocephus Jones II (Oct 7, 2004)

BenWA said:


> Am I wrong, or did OLN used to scroll the names of the riders in a breakaway at the bottom of the screen in Tours past?
> 
> Why don't they do that anymore on VS? Kinda buggers me to have to wait for a half an hour for one of the commentators to say who is in the break...


Shaddap...if you have to watch 10 hours of commercials and 3 fishing shows during the intermission it's still better than no coverage!  You should send them all your money and your firstborn child for gods sake!


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

yah and where's kirsten's gumms?

And where's my cutters?

fc


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

BenWA said:


> Am I wrong, or did OLN used to scroll the names of the riders in a breakaway at the bottom of the screen in Tours past?
> 
> Why don't they do that anymore on VS? Kinda buggers me to have to wait for a half an hour for one of the commentators to say who is in the break...


Not in 2006..

But they did have where the polka dot and yellow jersery were.

I think it looked better last year.


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

francois said:


> yah and where's kirsten's gumms?
> 
> And where's my cutters?
> 
> fc



eh?


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## mtbykr (Feb 16, 2004)

*well*

I'm happy to have coverage...we could go back to the "CBS 30min wrapup" every sunday. Yes it could be better, but i'm happy to have what we do..........although online streaming would be nice


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## BikinCO (Feb 17, 2004)

*What!!!??!?*



BenWA said:


> Am I wrong, or did OLN used to scroll the names of the riders in a breakaway at the bottom of the screen in Tours past?
> 
> Why don't they do that anymore on VS? Kinda buggers me to have to wait for a half an hour for one of the commentators to say who is in the break...


Are you f'ing kidding me! All of this *****ing about Versus is lame. I just spent a week in a hotel without Versus. Your complaint is almost as lame as the dude *****ing about no HD coverage.


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## Einstruzende (Jun 1, 2004)

BikinCO said:


> Are you f'ing kidding me! All of this *****ing about Versus is lame. I just spent a week in a hotel without Versus. Your complaint is almost as lame as the dude *****ing about no HD coverage.


I'm one of those griping about no HD coverage.

I'll tell you what, you spend 3k-5k on a higher end TV, then be told that VS is HD, only to find out it isn't.

In spite of all that, I'm going to back off complaining about VS' coverage. Since the prologue, it has been pretty good. Though Phil and Paul (or maybe it's just one of them) say some of the most ignorant things.


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

BikinCO said:


> Are you f'ing kidding me! All of this *****ing about Versus is lame. I just spent a week in a hotel without Versus. Your complaint is almost as lame as the dude *****ing about no HD coverage.


Whatev, just seems dumb to me that they quit doing something that they used to do that was rather useful


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## Cervelo-er (Apr 10, 2004)

+1 to BenWa

Some of you have a very Bush Administration view of VS...you're either with us, or against us!!!

Phk it, should we just be happy the coverage isn't in black and white and leave it at that?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't constructive criticism usually IMPROVE things?

Would any of us be riding bicycles is someone wouldn't have said, hey, this walking thing works just fine, but wouldn't it be better to use some wheels to a mechanical advantage?

Or should they have just shut up and been happy they were lucky enough to walk?

Jeez.


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## BikinCO (Feb 17, 2004)

*Try this*



BenWA said:


> Whatev, just seems dumb to me that they quit doing something that they used to do that was rather useful


1. Print this list
http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/RIDERS/us/engages.html
2. Get riders number from his back or his bike
3. Now look at the list (hint: it is in numeric order) and find the riders name

Now you know who is who:idea:


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## elroyxx (Dec 19, 2005)

One thing that I think everyone forgets about the VS coverage is that they don't control any of the video feeds...including the graphics. They get the feed from French TV who supplies it to all of the outlets broadcasting the race. OLN just supplies the commentary via Phil and Paul. So, you see the same video feed whether you are watching in the US or on Eurosport or streaming online via Serbian TV. If you have a beef with the coverage take it up with the French.

Personally I have no major gripes about the coverage. As someone mentioned above, a few years ago we had nothing. I'm thrilled that I get to watch the best bike race in the world live. Would HD be nice?? Sure. Would streaming video online be nice. Heck yeah. I'd even pay extra for that. I'd love to see each stage in person, but that's not going to happen either. So lets take what we can get and appreciate it. There may come a day when VS doesn't see the economic benefit to broadcasting the race and then we are really screwed.


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

BenWA said:


> Whatev, just seems dumb to me that they quit doing something that they used to do that was rather useful


Which was?


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

Einstruzende said:


> I'm one of those griping about no HD coverage.
> 
> I'll tell you what, you spend 3k-5k on a higher end TV, then be told that VS is HD, only to find out it isn't.
> 
> .


*SORRY ABOUT THE PICTURE BREAK UP!!!!!
*

:ciappa: rrr: :crazy: :ihih: :ihih: :ihih: :ihih: :ihih:


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

BikinCO said:


> 1. Print this list
> http://www.letour.fr/2007/TDF/RIDERS/us/engages.html
> 2. Get riders number from his back or his bike
> 3. Now look at the list (hint: it is in numeric order) and find the riders name
> ...


Dang, now that's a capital idea. Thx!


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## Francis Cebedo (Aug 1, 2001)

BenWA said:


> eh?


My friend Kirsten Gumm. Apparently, she's a real adventure racer now.









I miss the little lady.


The Cutters - remember those crazy americans following Lance around?
Good riddance.

fc


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## Spongedog (Aug 6, 2005)

The coverage is great, and the race has been great!!!!!!


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## zosocane (Aug 29, 2004)

The video feed (French TV) is excellent
The French camera work is excellent (as good as the Italian cameramen that cover MSR and Giro)
The Versus chyron messages are good, no gripes.
Phil & Paul are excellent.
It's Al Trautwig that i want to strangle. "The Peloton", "The Peloton", "The Peloton" -- he must say it 100 times every night, drives me 'friggin nuts. I understand they bring him on during prime time because I assume newbie cycling fans can learn things more easily, but he kills me.

I do miss hearing Anthony and Brian from cycling.tv, but I DON'T miss logging on to cycling.tv.


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

fornaca68 said:


> The video feed (French TV) is excellent
> The French camera work is excellent (as good as the Italian cameramen that cover MSR and Giro)
> The Versus chyron messages are good, no gripes.
> Phil & Paul are excellent.
> ...


Some people who replied above responded as though my anger towards Versus runs so deep that I want to blow up their tv station with a car bomb. Ease up. I, much like fornaca68, enjoy just about everything about the coverage (minus the Traut)...I simply wish they had kept the feature that I spoke of in my OP, that's all. Is that really that "lame" of a complaint?


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## zeytin (May 15, 2004)

BenWA said:


> Some people who replied above responded as though my anger towards Versus runs so deep that I want to blow up their tv station with a car bomb. Ease up. I, much like fornaca68, enjoy just about everything about the coverage (minus the Traut)...I simply wish they had kept the feature that I spoke of in my OP, that's all. Is that really that "lame" of a complaint?


It's all good BenWA people have to have something to be upset about. Hey you know I see the yellow and green jerseys on the screen next to Peleton and the time but I don't see the other jerseys.
Though...maybe you shouldn't have called it a "gripe"


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## BikinCO (Feb 17, 2004)

*Yes*



BenWA said:


> Is that really that "lame" of a complaint?


It reminds me of a girl that I went to high school with. Her parents gave her a BMW for her 16th birthday. They had it parked out front after school with a bow around it. She saw it and started crying because it was the wrong color.


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

BikinCO said:


> It reminds me of a girl that I went to high school with. Her parents gave her a BMW for her 16th birthday. They had it parked out front after school with a bow around it. She saw it and started crying because it was the wrong color.


wow, that's just a perfectly parallel comparison.


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## dcfdrescue2 (Oct 18, 2006)

bas said:


> Which was?


The question that started this thread. Post #1


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## SeeVee (Sep 25, 2005)

Einstruzende said:


> . Though Phil and Paul (or maybe it's just one of them) say some of the most ignorant things.



Try talking for about 5 hours straight for 21 days and if you dont say anything "ignorant" you can probably get a job at VS.


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## SeeVee (Sep 25, 2005)

BikinCO said:


> It reminds me of a girl that I went to high school with. Her parents gave her a BMW for her 16th birthday. They had it parked out front after school with a bow around it. She saw it and started crying because it was the wrong color.


Yeah. I know that girl! 

She had two twin brothers named Lemongello an Orangello.

Her neighbor boy next door died from eating pop rocks and coke. 

Her uncle, a car mechanic, strapped a jet engine to his car and died in the desert when he could not stop the car and it drilled into the side of a mountain

. Her boyfriend was killed by gangbangers when he flashed his highbeams at them one night only to get shot as part of the gang initiation.

One day her dog was hacking and coughing so she took it to the vet for observation. He vet called her and told her to get out of the house and call the police ASAP! It turns out the dog was choking on three fingers! When the police got there, the found an intruder in the closet who nearly bled to death--becuase he was missing three fingers! 

And the worst part of it, her little sister was making funny faces and crossed her eyes. They have been stuck like that now for about 3 years! 

Yeah, that girl was kewl.


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## firstrax (Nov 13, 2001)

SeeVee said:


> Yeah. I know that girl!
> 
> She had two twin brothers named Lemongello an Orangello.
> 
> ...


You left out the fact that her best friends boyfriend knew someone who saw a picture of a guy that invented a carburetor that increased gas mileage to over one hundred miles per gallon..........of water!


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

no wai, rly?


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## bas (Jul 30, 2004)

bas said:


> Which was?



I proved that it did NOT happen in 2006.

I'm not sure it ever happened. 

Maybe he's been watching too much Eurosport online. They do it on their webpages.


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## BikinCO (Feb 17, 2004)

SeeVee said:


> Yeah. I know that girl!
> 
> She had two twin brothers named Lemongello an Orangello.
> 
> ...


hahahahahahahaha.

Her name was Courtney Bowers and her father owned Village Imports in Chattanooga.


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## MichaelC (Mar 15, 2004)

*No Sound*

The Versus feed from Comcast in Chicago has had no audio output at all for the last two days. When I reported it this morning, they told me I'm the second person to have called. Only two of us in Chicago watching this?!


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## BuenosAires (Apr 3, 2004)

I don't know how old you guys are, but as someone who has followed the Tour for over 20 years now, you won't hear a peep from me about VS coverage. It's leaps and bounds over what we had during the Lemond era.


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## rufus (Feb 3, 2004)

elroyxx said:


> One thing that I think everyone forgets about the VS coverage is that they don't control any of the video feeds...including the graphics. .


actually, you'll have some French graphics, but VS puts up there own as well. if it were all French graphics, then why are they all in English? 

they have been scrolling riders names along the bottom, but it's been inconsistent. I'd much rather they just shjow a list off to the side, like they're doing with the riders they have heart monitors on, or where the favorites are positioned on the course. much easier to take in with a quick glance.


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## KenS (Jan 28, 2004)

*Did happen in my high school*



SeeVee said:


> Yeah. I know that girl!
> 
> She had two twin brothers named Lemongello an Orangello.
> 
> Her neighbor boy next door died from eating pop rocks and coke.


Something like this did happen in my high school. The girl got a yellow jag for her birthday and didn't like it for some reason. Her dad took it over and she got a mustang mach 1 as a replacement. (I think it was a mach 1.)

You can imagine the talk inspired by the initial appearance of a jag in a high school parking lot and the debate that followed the switch to an american muscle car. (Gee, can you tell I grew up in the South?)

Ken


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## tube_ee (Aug 25, 2003)

Those of us who remember trying to listen to Sam Posey talk over John Tesh's soundtrack while standing next to a big potted plant do not complain about Vs. / OLN's Tour coverage.

Even if Paul Sherwen does say the same things over and over and over and...

You get to watch live bike racing on TV. 20 years ago we'd have killed for that.

And I actually have grown to like Al Trautwig. He started off not knowing anything about the sport, and not really liking it much. He's learned a lot, and he seems to "get it."

Vs's TV coverage of the Tour is as much better than CBS from the 1980s as Bicycling Magazine is worse now than it was then.

--Shannon


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## rodster (Jun 29, 2006)

tube_ee said:


> Those of us who remember trying to listen to Sam Posey talk over John Tesh's soundtrack while standing next to a big potted plant do not complain about Vs. / OLN's Tour coverage.
> 
> Even if Paul Sherwen does say the same things over and over and over and...
> 
> ...


Exxxxaaactly! I kind of like Al these days. No comparison to how bad he was on the 1989 ABC coverage. Yes, and bring back Kirsten Gum, she was fun. Nice to see Frankie getting a wee bit of booth time this year rather than being relegated to showing us Lance's decals on his bike. 

The tour is a three week rolling commercial for tourism in France. Note the numerous scenic helo shots of chateau's, lakes, vineyards, mountains, etc etc that the French TV feed serves up. HD can't be too far down the road.


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## BenWA (Aug 11, 2004)

bas said:


> I proved that it did NOT happen in 2006.
> 
> I'm not sure it ever happened.
> 
> Maybe he's been watching too much Eurosport online. They do it on their webpages.


2005 they had it, as a box that periodically showed up in the corner of the screen. Listed the names, numbers, and teams of riders in the lead breakaways.


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## Mike Prince (Jan 30, 2004)

tube_ee said:


> Those of us who remember trying to listen to Sam Posey talk over John Tesh's soundtrack while standing next to a big potted plant do not complain about Vs. / OLN's Tour coverage.
> 
> Even if Paul Sherwen does say the same things over and over and over and...
> 
> ...


Absolutely. I remember those tragic telecasts, I may have some of them on VHS somewhere. Vs coverage is excellent this year IMO, better than previous years when P & P were so enamored with Lance that you never heard much else.

I lived in the UK in 2001 and remember the Eurosport coverage, which video-wise was about the same as now. Listening to David Duffield and Sean Kelly discuss where they ate dinner in the middle of a stage got old real quick though. Phil and Paul may try to sensationalize a lot of things, but as long as you take their blunders in stride you can understand just how good the coverage is.


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## collarboneclub (Aug 22, 2006)

i grew up with the coverage consisting of a 100 to 200 word newspaper article on pg 6 of the sports section, written by someone who had absolutely no clue about the strategy and tactics of the race, let alone the history of it. i think versus is pretty damn good


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