Consider yourselves lucky, in Canada we have the Australian commentators who are way worse. They pump up any ozzie rider constantly before returning to the "Big Sky conspiracy" conversation which bores me to death. Any time anything interesting comes into view it's fairly obvious they are just reading from wikipedia. The wife and i started a drinking game where we took a shot every time they mentioned Michael Mathews...we had to give up before alcohol poisoning set in.

Bring back Phil and Paul...please.

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is there anyplace to watch the past stages via an archive or something?
i've been traveling a ton the fist half of the month and have seen next to nothing. i wouldn't mind going back and watching a few stages.
thanks.

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ΜΟΛΩΝ-ΛΑΒΕ
we're doomed

Try YouTube, the Classics and cyclocross races are put on there pretty much same day.

On other forums, I've seen some complaints about the camera angles. NBC doesn't have control over that, so I'm not bothered with it. I can even handle Phil and Paul, as annoying as they are (and even Jens can be annoying in the commentator role).

What is infuriating me is the amount of commercials. NBC has always been awful for this during the TdF, but this year is without precedent in how awful it is. I've timed it out on some stages and found that there will be 4 minutes of actual coverage followed by 5-6 of commercials; 6 minutes of coverage followed by 6 of commercials, some of that "coverage" being cutting to the booth to watch the commentators rather than just hearing them over top of the coverage. I think next year is time for me to look for alternative options like a VPN with a Euro feed or a paid streaming service.

I DVR it so I can fast forward through the commercials. I swear sometimes they do a commercial break, come back for less than 30 seconds and go to another commercial.

Sounds like NFL coverage.

Touchdown. Commercial. Extra Point. Commercial. Kickoff. Commercial.

And I am not even exaggerating.

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How does Danny Hart sit down with balls that big?

Kids bought me NBC sports Gold subscription for fathers day. Stream it on the Roku, COMMERCIAL FREE!!!!. It is fantastic. Robbie McEwen and another bloke do the commentating. Very enjoyable experience.

Guess your family doesn't love you ;)

I do the same. Sometimes it feels like I can't put the remote down to take a drink because even if I do it when coverage first starts it's back to another commercial by the time my hand is off the remote. The last hour commercial-free is nice, though. I believe there's an app that streams commercial free and streams additional races, so I'm going to look into the cost of that for next year, especially if it includes the big spring classics.



quote ThisIsIt]I DVR it so I can fast forward through the commercials. I swear sometimes they do a commercial break, come back for less than 30 seconds and go to another commercial.[/quote]

you missed all of the spring classics if they bought it for you that late...

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Pactimo brand ambassador, ask me about promo codes

I hear you, but it doesn't bother me very much. They do cover the end of the stages "commercial free" and they seem to show most of the significant action that takes place during the first hours of the stage. I'm sure I'm like a lot of people in that I have it on as background noise during the slow bits. I'll look up if something happens in the race or when Paul is pointing out a cool chateau.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

Not so fast there......

Good stage today and boy, did the Alpes look gorgeous! I so need to get back there. Tomorrow should be fun. And it's nice to see TN guy Nate Brown in his first Tour.

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clm
Nashville, TN
https://twitter.com/ironclm | http://ironclm.typepad.com

Oops.

At least now Greipel might have a chance on Sunday.

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"Human existence is based upon two pillars: Compassion and knowledge. Compassion without knowledge is ineffective; Knowledge without compassion is inhuman." Victor Weisskopf.

anyone see the leaf legs one of the riders posted today ..nasty

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sometimes

Yes! Let's bring back Al Trautwig and Kirsten Gum!

Leaf legs?

ha ha, thanks for that. I'm only guessing, but veins popping out on the riders legs, only asking for confirmation. Too lazy to google.

http://www.bbc.com/...orld-europe-40653943

It seems like they tend to clump a bunch of commercial breaks together so they are able to do longer extended coverage later in the stage. They have to get X number of ads per hour, so you might get the 15 mins of ads, but then you might get longer stretches of coverage later.

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Slowguy

(insert pithy phrase here...)

Not sure where you live, but that could get you quite drunk before 10 in the morning.

Truth be told, they started the tradition last year so I was able to watch starting last year. It was so great I asked for it again this year. The spring classics, Tour down under, Tour de Suisse etc are all there makes for great viewing.