Looking back at the Morgul Bismark

Submitted by Kris Thompson on

News Item: 

10 Comments

agreed

Submitted by Comptonius (not verified) on

I agree that cycling coverage on TV has gone downhill in the last 5 years or so. While the volume of coverage has dramatically increased the quality of the sotry has gone away. There appears to be an obsession with "live" coverage. I do like seeing the finish of a race live but when the networks join for the last hour of a race you typically have missed the drama that has occurred earlier on to setup the current race situation. I would love to see them take the first hour or so of a two hour broadcast and recap the highlights of the race, then join the last hour live.

funny thing is that the

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

funny thing is that the networks seem to do that for triathlons. i am in now way a triathlete, but love watching the xterra and ironman coverage. they have in depth profiles of amateurs (human interest stories) as well as pros and keep tabs on them as the race progresses. WAY more exciting than watching 100 guys ride in a pack along the road hearing Paul and Phil go through the same material over and over and over. And don't get me wrong, I LOVE Paul and Phil. I don't think they're given much to work with.

I've almost found watching the giro coverage in Italian more exciting if only that I can try to figure what they're saying while watching!

Paul and Phil's schtick is

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on

Paul and Phil's schtick is really getting old, but I'd rather see continuous race feed than amateur competitor vignettes. Unless the footage is of an attack or other important race event, I'm not really watching actively anyhow...sort of like a baseball game playing on a bar TV.

Although they've improved a tiny bit from previous years, nobody cares about "a certain Lance Armstrong" anymore.

While I'm on my soapbox - and this is more a criticism of the channel than Paul/Phil, drop the 'TOTALLY EPIC/CYCLISM' BS with sweaty, slow-motion, thousand yard stares from anonymous cyclists. Or at least limit the melodrama to once per 30 minutes rather than transition to spin-bike advertising (it has incline and decline!).

The Voice

Submitted by Kublai (not verified) on

For those commenting about coverage, the voice of the 1988 piece was Peter Rogot. He was a Denver sportscaster who LOVED cycling. He was hired by ESPN a couple years later and had a heart attack just days before he was to go on the air with them. A tragic loss.