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TDF Coverage
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On a recent Stages podcast, Armstrong admitted that he had to google "green jersey" in order to figure out how the points were awarded. While that made me feel slightly better about my lack of understanding, it only underscores how lost most casual viewers must be. Better television coverage would go a long way to keep people engaged. They could start with some simple graphics showing the basics. When showing a group of riders, they should indicate whether it's the peloton, a lead group, or a chase group. The speed at which they are riding should always be displayed. You could even color code the displayed speed so we know if the group is losing ground or gaining ground. And here's a big one: they need a better way to show how the riders in the lead group are closing the time gap. It's never clear to me if anyone in the lead group is a threat to the yellow jersey. A few stages ago Froome actually lost the jersey mid-stage only to regain it at the end. I don't think viewers fully appreciated that at the time. They need a way to graphically show that during the race.
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Re: TDF Coverage [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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Celerius wrote:
On a recent Stages podcast, Armstrong admitted that he had to google "green jersey" in order to figure out how the points were awarded. While that made me feel slightly better about my lack of understanding, it only underscores how lost most casual viewers must be. Better television coverage would go a long way to keep people engaged. They could start with some simple graphics showing the basics. When showing a group of riders, they should indicate whether it's the peloton, a lead group, or a chase group. The speed at which they are riding should always be displayed. You could even color code the displayed speed so we know if the group is losing ground or gaining ground. And here's a big one: they need a better way to show how the riders in the lead group are closing the time gap. It's never clear to me if anyone in the lead group is a threat to the yellow jersey. A few stages ago Froome actually lost the jersey mid-stage only to regain it at the end. I don't think viewers fully appreciated that at the time. They need a way to graphically show that during the race.
I've got no complaints (besides the Taylor Phinney pablum....). It's been a great race to watch.

Like many sports, there is a learning curve to following the competition within a grand tour bike race. However, once understood, you'll see that most all the things you mention have been adequately covered.

IMO, the coverage of the Tour has been exemplary...airborne and road camera work, commentary, graphics, stats, behind-the-scenes stories, individual race strategies, etc.
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Re: TDF Coverage [Brushman] [ In reply to ]
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+1 on the Taylor Phinney bits....I can't explain it, but they're creepy to me...


"one eye doubles my eyesight, so things don't look half bad" John Hiatt
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Re: TDF Coverage [Brushman] [ In reply to ]
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Brushman wrote:
Celerius wrote:
On a recent Stages podcast, Armstrong admitted that he had to google "green jersey" in order to figure out how the points were awarded. While that made me feel slightly better about my lack of understanding, it only underscores how lost most casual viewers must be. Better television coverage would go a long way to keep people engaged. They could start with some simple graphics showing the basics. When showing a group of riders, they should indicate whether it's the peloton, a lead group, or a chase group. The speed at which they are riding should always be displayed. You could even color code the displayed speed so we know if the group is losing ground or gaining ground. And here's a big one: they need a better way to show how the riders in the lead group are closing the time gap. It's never clear to me if anyone in the lead group is a threat to the yellow jersey. A few stages ago Froome actually lost the jersey mid-stage only to regain it at the end. I don't think viewers fully appreciated that at the time. They need a way to graphically show that during the race.

I've got no complaints (besides the Taylor Phinney pablum....). It's been a great race to watch.

Like many sports, there is a learning curve to following the competition within a grand tour bike race. However, once understood, you'll see that most all the things you mention have been adequately covered.

IMO, the coverage of the Tour has been exemplary...airborne and road camera work, commentary, graphics, stats, behind-the-scenes stories, individual race strategies, etc.


I think you are watching different Tour...or concentrating on nice views too much...

totally agree with OP.

How many times this season camera goes off the front in the final moments of the stage to show some "favorite" names of camera man... WTF?

Similar when Kwiatkowski was doing his last 2km in Strade Bianche I almost got heart attack when they start showing 10th place back...again WTF?

All the Contador and Quintana air time in TdF is pointless at this stage, they are not going to win...

ASO is stuck in 1950s where guy on motorcycle draws time on the chalkboard and shows it to the break...It is a bloody joke..., today's technology allows on so much more, it could actually make relatively boring cycling sport, very exiting. With all the gadgets and cameras that athletes wear possibilities are endless....But, no lets use chalkboard to display time...
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Re: TDF Coverage [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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I have NBC Sport Gold and stream the international feed with Keenan and McEwen and they do a pretty good job of explaining things in some detail. The basic pictures are the same but I think they stick with some graphics that NBC Sports skips for their own. There is a near constant graphic of the time gaps between groups and a frequent, but not continuous, graphic of the distance between groups. Keenan and McEwen do not have a full blown chart up of the various jersey scoring tables but they generally give viewers a pretty good idea of what is going on on the road in those races. All and all, this if the first year i likely with go the entire Tour without viewing the regular NBC Sports coverage or hearing Phil and Paul and I'm not missing any of it.


I do agree that most casual viewers are in it for the scenery and higher level drama when it appears but don't underestimate that, it draws a lot of viewers. Nothing wrong with that though, the scenery is great and the drama, when it comes, is pretty good. (FWIW, Keenan and McEwen get the same briefs on the castles and churches as all other media gets and the video is the same. They dutifully read off the descriptions but their hearts are not always in it which I find endearing).
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Re: TDF Coverage [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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I don't know, I've never watched the TDF before. Picked up this year's race about mid way. Was a little confused about all the different jerseys and such at first, but I figured it all out pretty quick. There's a lot of data on the screen at any point in time. Yes, there's more they could be showing, but how much is too much to absorb? They show distance-to-go and speed of the leader, as well as the gaps to the various groups along with head-counts and some info on who important is in what group. The gaps seem to be updated several times a minute; if you're interested to know if one group is closing on or falling behind another, you concentrate on the gaps. When there's a significant split in the GC contenders, they show "virtual standings" every so often. I think the coverage has been pretty good, number of commercials notwithstanding. And I image the coverage rights fees are pretty expensive, so I don't even begrudge the commercials that much.

"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"
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Re: TDF Coverage [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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On a recent Stages podcast, Armstrong admitted that he had to google "green jersey" in order to figure out how the points were awarded. While that made me feel slightly better about my lack of understanding, it only underscores how lost most casual viewers must be. Better television coverage would go a long way to keep people engaged. They could start with some simple graphics showing the basics. When showing a group of riders, they should indicate whether it's the peloton, a lead group, or a chase group. The speed at which they are riding should always be displayed. You could even color code the displayed speed so we know if the group is losing ground or gaining ground. And here's a big one: they need a better way to show how the riders in the lead group are closing the time gap. It's never clear to me if anyone in the lead group is a threat to the yellow jersey. A few stages ago Froome actually lost the jersey mid-stage only to regain it at the end. I don't think viewers fully appreciated that at the time. They need a way to graphically show that during the race.


Both this year, and historically, ALL of this has been gone over in the coverage that I have been watching. Perhaps not a HUGE amount of time has been spent on it, but the basics of a lot of what you had mentioned there are gone over, reasonably well.


This year because of other commitments, I've not been able to watch a great deal of the Grand Boucle. Our cable provider had it on a channel that's not part of our basic package, so I was watching mostly on the legal stream that the good folks at Gran Fondo Guide had up on their site - http://www.granfondoguide.com/

On the the stream on the Gran Fondo guide site, a great deal of what you were asking about was on display right on the screen - Speed, distance to go in stage, distance to next point of significance (Mtn Top or Sprint Bonus Point etc . .) time-gaps from leaders to chasers to various groups, to the peleton, the "virtual jersey" situation on the road, etc . . . From time to time - power-data from certain riders was on display. To be honest, it seemed like an overwhelming amount of information all jammed on the screen - and the announcers were taking there time to explain the many nuances of bike racing.


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: TDF Coverage [Celerius] [ In reply to ]
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I think the NBC coverage spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the basics. Eurosport on the other hand just assumes you understand it since you're watching it.

I'd add it doesn't help that Liggett is often confused or mistaken about what is going on and who is who (he finally seems to be able to get Barguil and Bardet straight), often Sherwin corrects him but not always. And they spend an awful lot of time speculating on what they think is going to happen, going to Jens, Bob, Christian, etc. multiple times during the stage rather than just calling the race as it unfolds.
Last edited by: ThisIsIt: Jul 20, 17 13:25
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Re: TDF Coverage [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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I think the NBC coverage spends an inordinate amount of time explaining the basics. Eurosport on the other hand just assumes you understand it since you're watching it.


Good summary. In part it explains the great abyss or divide between North America, and really a good part of rest of the world when it comes to cycling.

It's hard for North Americans to understand this but after Soccer ( another sport that's hard for North Americans to grasp - but that's changing) - which is the undisputed #1 sport in almost all countries around the world, the #2 sport in many countries, that get's great press coverage, that has large fan and follower numbers is . . cycling!!

In North America, unless it's Lance Armstrong, the good and the bad of Lance, cycling is WAY off the radar screen!


Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog
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Re: TDF Coverage [ThisIsIt] [ In reply to ]
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ThisIsIt wrote:
I'd add it doesn't help that Liggett is often confused or mistaken about what is going on and who is who.

Ditto this. I can't count the number of time's I've heard him say "Richie Froome" over the last couple of years.

I also rather enjoy the Eurosport commentary when compared to the NBC coverage.
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Re: TDF Coverage [mgreer] [ In reply to ]
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mgreer wrote:
ThisIsIt wrote:
I'd add it doesn't help that Liggett is often confused or mistaken about what is going on and who is who.


Ditto this. I can't count the number of time's I've heard him say "Richie Froome" over the last couple of years.

I also rather enjoy the Eurosport commentary when compared to the NBC coverage.

Phil mostly made his name as a talk over guy for highlights videos back in the day before the internet and before cycling was on TV and you had to get videos to see bike races. And he's good at that, even today when they did the recap of the women's race he was in his element. He sounds great talking over highlights clips. He's not very good at calling a race live and filling air time, but he was sort of grandfathered into that role.
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