# Pro cycling TV coverage



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

So how are you going to be getting your TV coverage of pro cycling this year? You can pick more than one option if you like.

I have no idea what to do now that DirecTV is no longer carrying Versus. I really like the DirecTV/Tivo set-up that we have been using for the last 10 years or so. I don't see any good options in my area (San Jose Bay Area). I either have to organize some alternate coverage in the next few weeks or fall back to on-line coverage. Cycling and Formula 1 are just about the only things I watch on TV. I'm thinking of getting Comcast at $30 a month for 6 months and then dropping it, but ukwife won't like the additional monthly fees.


----------



## AJL (Jul 9, 2009)

Yeah, I have DirectTV too, so I'm probably fcuked wrt to watching the TdF . Don't know if Versus will be re-airing stages via the web.


----------



## Geoman (Dec 27, 2009)

In the past I have definitely watched a live stream on versus's website. Or that may just have been the toc. Don't remember.


----------



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

Geoman said:


> In the past I have definitely watched a live stream on versus's website. Or that may just have been the toc. Don't remember.


This is what they offered last year. The free video is limited:



> Versus is offering live video from the tour as part of a "Tour de France Race Tracker" application, which offers users information on race standings, GPS tracking of individual riders, and a Twitter feed about the Tour. It also has 50 on-demand video clips from the race, which mostly run about one minute each.


But the HD stream sounds OK ($3 a day, $35 for all) assuming that it works as promised.


----------



## jpdigital (Dec 1, 2006)

I had a good friend from France living here over the summer. He gave me a link that showed live streaming TdF coverage for free. http://www.rojadirecta.org

Other than that, for other races you might keep track of what's going on on UniveralSports. IMO the commentary's so-so but the overall coverage and video is good (especially for being for free).


----------



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

jpdigital said:


> He gave me a link that showed live streaming TdF coverage for free. http://www.rojadirecta.org


Very helpful thanks!

Last year I watched a lot of cycling on Versus (via DirecTV), Universal, and on-line feeds. I guess I was spoilt by all the coverage. Versus was great for watching the spring classics (well some of them) and of course the TDF. Versus was the backbone of my cycling fix. It worked really well using Tivo to time-shift and to compress the coverage down to the interesting parts and to fit the time available to watch. 

Universal was a real bonus for the Giro and for the Vuelta. The random on-line feeds for other Euro races were nice because most of them tended to finish around breakfast (Pacific Coast Time) and I could watch the last 10-20km. However, the feeds are generally pretty frustrating for me due to needing to search for links, picture break-up, mediocre quality, scrolling idiot twit-fest on the screen, foreign language commentary, lack of time-shifting, etc. I'm not intending to complain, it is good for free, but I can't imagine watching major races and the grand tours that way.

This year I'm really struggling for a solution. I wish there was something like cycling.tv that actually worked, had good customer service and covered the TDF. I'd pay good money for that. I'm even considering using a slingbox to get comcast from another location, but that seems ridiculous.


----------



## mohair_chair (Oct 3, 2002)

I'm in San Jose, and once DirecTV is done showing Friday Night Lights, I may dump it for AT&T. DirecTV has been pissing me off with their crappy HD service. Over Christmas, I was playing with my brother's AT&T box, and it seems to have far superior HD, at least in Burbank. AT&T also has Versus and Universal Sports, and AT&T is already my internet provider.


----------



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

mohair_chair said:


> I'm in San Jose, and once DirecTV is done showing Friday Night Lights, I may dump it for AT&T.


I'm just up the road in Santa Clara (95050) and already have AT&T phone and DSL. However, they don't do Uverse at my address according to this. Switching service is such a pain for us because we're pretty hooked on Tivo. Comcast has a Tivo box now, but again not yet available in my area.


----------



## JSR (Feb 27, 2006)

ukbloke said:


> This is what they offered last year. The free video is limited:
> 
> 
> 
> But the HD stream sounds OK ($3 a day, $35 for all) assuming that it works as promised.


FWIW - I used the free stream to watch the race in 2009. It was ok - not great, but serviceable. The video on the monitor was limited to a small window, but the link generally held up, barring a few glitches here and there.

Time Warner in my area demands some sort of premium service to receive Versus, which I don't normally subscribe to. Even to upgrade for July I would have to pay a service charge, plus the additional fees.

I'll probably go with the Versus web feed again.

JSR


----------



## AJL (Jul 9, 2009)

ukbloke said:


> This is what they offered last year. The free video is limited. But the HD stream sounds OK ($3 a day, $35 for all) assuming that it works as promised.


One can buy into the same 2009 package (sans GPS tracking obviously) for $10US now. Might be worth it to check out the quality (1Mbps should be pretty good).


----------



## wiz525 (Dec 31, 2007)

Rumblings of an end coming in the DirecTV/Versus dispute....

http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/hockey/comments/an_end_coming_to_the_versus_directv_dispute/


----------



## scottie (Apr 28, 2004)

I'm hoping Versus will be back on Directv soon as well. I called and complained and was given a $60 credit on my bill but I want Versus back. 

Here is what we stand to miss:

Tour Down Under: 
January 17, 6-6:30p ET Cancer Council Criterium
January 19-23, 6-6:30p ET 
January 24, 6-7p ET
February 7, 6-6:30p ET Highlights Show
The first stop on the world cycling calendar, the Santos Tour Down Under kicks off the cycling year in exhilarating style. The week-long event brings the top ProTour professional cycling teams to race on the streets of Adelaide and regional South Australia each January. Up for grabs are important UCI ProTour points and the Santos Tour Down Unders Ochre Leaders Jersey.

Tour of Qatar: February 21, 3-4p ET
Qatar is big business in the cycling world, despite the not exactly bicycle friendly conditions and regularly attracts the biggest names from the sport, and the country is seriously being mooted for a Tour de France start.

Tour of Oman: February 28, 3-4p ET
The city of Muscat in the Sultana of Oman, Eddy Merckx and Dirk De Pau have found an agreement in order to organise a new road cycling event, from the 14th to the 19th of February 2010 for which the technical organisation will be entrusted to Amaury Sport Organisation, organisers of the Tour de France.

Paris-Nice: March 7 & 14, 5-7p ET
Paris-Nice, "the race to the sun", is a professional cycling stage race starting March 7th. This year the start will take place in Montfort l'Amaury

Criterium International: March 28, 5-6p ET
Race organiser Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO) has announced that the 2010 Criterium International - the two-day "mini Tour de France" - will take place on the island of Corsica in 2010. The race has been held in Charleville-Mézières, in the French Ardennes, since 2001. German Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank) has won the last three editions of the race.

Paris Roubaix: April 11, Time TBD
Paris-Roubaix is one of the oldest cycle races of the professional road cycling calendar. First run in 1896, there are 28 cobbles sections included in the race, three of them considered to be of maximum difficulty.

Fleche Wallone: April 25, 4:30-5p ET
The Flèche Wallonne is an international cycling race of one day, a classic, which takes place in Belgium during the spring. This race is part of the Pro-Tour program

Liege Bastogne Liege: April 25, 5-6p ET
Liege-Bastogne-Liege is the last major spring classic. First held in 1882, Liege Bastogne Liege is known as the 'La Doyenne" because it is the oldest classic on the cycling calendar. It is one of the most prestigious and exacting events of the season. The out and back race through the Belgian Ardennes countryside is one of the most difficult races because it tests every rider's endurance and ability to race over a series of high gradient hills. Legendary climbs such as the Cote de Wanne, Saint Roche, Stockeu and la Redoute force the riders to dig deep.

Tour de Romandie: May 2, 5-7p ET
The Tour de Romandie is a stage race which is part of the UCI ProTour. It runs in the old Romandie region, in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. It began in 1947, to coincide with the 50-year celebration of the Swiss Cycling.

Tour of California: May 16-23, Times TBD
The largest cycling event in America, the 2010 Amgen Tour of California is a Tour de France-style cycling road race, presented by AEG, that challenges the world's top professional cycling teams to compete along a demanding course from May 16-23.

Dauphine Libere: June 6, 4-6p ET & June 13, 3-5p ET
The week-long competition will start in eastern France and finish in Sallanches. A stage finish in Grenoble is planned for Friday, June 11, with a mountaintop finish taking place on L'Alpe the next day

Tour of Philadelphia: June 6, 1:30-3p ET
Philadelphia International Championship is the annual bicycle race held in the city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is described as "America's top international cycling classic, and one of the richest and most prestigious one day races outside of Europe."

Tour de Suisse: June 6 & 13, Times TBD

Tour de France: July 3-25, LIVE AM Broadcasts. TimesTBD

Paris Tours: October 10, 5-6pm ET


----------



## ukbloke (Sep 1, 2007)

scottie said:


> I'm hoping Versus will be back on Directv soon as well. I called and complained and was given a $60 credit on my bill but I want Versus back.
> 
> Here is what we stand to miss:


I'll give DirecTV a call too. Missing the TdU or the Qatar/Oman Tours is no big deal for me, but if it gets to March and there's still no cycling I am going to be pretty unhappy. Perhaps I will call AT&T to see what their uverse roll out plan is in my area.

From the poll results it looks like cable is clearly the leader for televised coverage, and then just as many supplement with universalsports.com and other on-line viewing outlets. There appear to be a few brave souls still using cycling.tv. One look at their on-line support forums was enough to scare me away from giving them any money.


----------



## Lagavulin12 (Sep 3, 2009)

FWIW, I was on the road during much of last years TdF. I watched coverage everyday on versus.com (I think I paid $10us for the entire tour). A couple of days poor internet caused some problems but most days coverage and video were good. Biggest issue was that for the first part of each days race it was just one person (Robbie V I think) giving a very dry monologue over the live video. Not as enjoyable as the full team, but still worth it.

PS, hadn't heard of steephill before. Thanks for the heads up.


----------



## Sablotny (Aug 15, 2002)

Resurrecting this thread for 2013 because, WTF - MSR is on and for once, through the vacillations of the various satellite providers I've had through the years, we get both NBCSPorts (old versus) and Universal Sports - and MSR is on neither. No cycling up on my to do list. Milan Sanremo is showing on BeInSport, which DTV wants another $50 a month for. What are others doing to get their fix these days - stream from the interwebs? Can we blame Tygart for this lack of coverage? I'm ticked - looks to be a good season and I don't want to miss it.


----------



## PixelPaul (Oct 8, 2004)

I was able to watch part of MSR from one of the video links on steephill.tv bike travelogue and cycling live video. Seems as if they all used Flash, which will not work on an iPad. DOes anyone know of any live feeds that are iPad friendly?


----------

