Le Tour de France (1 Viewer)

[Chu Gai]

Bravo to Mr. Armstrong. What an inspiration for people who have cancer and other ailments. If some of the class would rub off on the spectators then we'd have a miracle.

 

[Mary M S]

First off, congratulations to Lance Armstrong who has topped the records of 5 men all of whom reached 5-time win status at Tour de France in its 101 year history. A great achievement for a man who faced 50/50 odds of survival 8 years ago.

But what the heck was OLN THINKING. No coverage at all of this historic moment? What kind of a sports coverage team are they? Instead we get to watch only close up coverage of the men who crossed in the first pack during today’s stage win. Not arguing showing the finishers at today’s line, this coverage is important, as today’s stage is indeed a win which any rider covets.
….. But not a single camera left at/on the finish line or overhead to pinprick-document Armstrong crossing the finish line by OLN? I did not even hear Basso’s name mentioned the last 50k.

I only watched the entire after-race recap of OLN’s footage up to the Podium awards today, hopefully at some point they managed to come up with a pic of Lance Armstrong crossing the line.

I cannot believe after watching OLN’s coverage for almost 2000 miles that there was not even an attempt at a close up of the top-three overall (Armstrong, Kloden, and Basso) timed riders crossing the line. During the time I watched OLN did not rewind and attempt to circle out and denote a single replay shot of the TdF overall winners at the end line moment. Should they not have had one camera assigned to Lance for todays entire stage, with his starting over-all time advantage and add the fact a win today by Lance Armstrong would be a race history breaker!
I am aware this frame would have been under whelming and anti climatic since the top three riders were buried in the pack necessitating pointing out individuals either by laser in a long group shot or some talented up close zooming footwork.
But is not that THE moment which should be captured and viewed immediately and at least marginally displayed upon conclusion of the TdF?!!!!
I would never leave coverage of a historic record breaking achievement in OLN’s hands again.

 

[Chris]

Yeah, I thought OLN butchered the finish, when their announcers openly said "we don't have a picture of Lance, since he wasn't first in the stage"

But you KNEW AT THE BEGINNING he didn't need to win the stage. And you knew he would win the tour. And that was the story.. but couldn't get even a standup photographer or someone with a steadycam to get some shots?

 

[Lew Crippen]

OLN just has to use the coverage provided(as do all telecasters).

Phil and Paul watch the monitors and listen to 'race radio' to get information not provided by pictures.

 

[Jay H]

OLN is not the filmers of the Tour... OLN has Phil and Paul at the finish line of each stage providing color commentary. The coverage is done by some European (French?) agency and I'm not sure how much say OLN has in covering it. Many times during the tour, you'll hear Phil or Paul saying that they only can comment on what they see on the camera. Of course, they have access, like Lew says, to race radio, and I think Paul does some radio commentary too, in addition to the OLN stuff (you can sometimes pick up Paul's voice in Phil's mic during some of the commercial break before the commercial breaks out).

Congratulations Lance AND the US Postal boys for another great tour. I wonder if Floyd will remain with USPS and there is talk about the Posties tring to resign Levi again in the off season.

Tyler in '05!!!!

Jay

 

[MarkHastings]

The coverage is done by some European (French?) agency and I'm not sure how much say OLN has in covering it.

If you really want to know, I can try to find out. I'll see if I can get some answers tomorrow.

 

[Jay H]

Cool... I always thought those guys carrying those cameras on those motorcycles are talented.

I'd like to ask them why does everything happen during the commercial breaks? Breakaways, crashes, catches, etc.. Never fails!

jay

 

[Mary M S]

I recall my vitriol in the last post. And humbly apologize to OLN. They attempted to remedy the lack of footage last night when I watched the last 12 miles of the race during rebroadcast.
Before and after each commercial break was a very short pic of Lance (labeled by them) apparently rolling leisurely across the finish line. Additionally the very quick pic of the champagne glass etc.
You would think that there would be an American camera crew on hand glued to Armstrong. Whose footage can at some point be accessed and viewed. Did not spot anything like that however on the 10 o’clock last night.
What intrigues me, as much about super-sport top-of -class coverage is the attitude of the players involved. On something like this particular years TdF. I really wanted the payoff of Lances body language/face during moment’s just prior/during/and following him as he thinks about this win for a few min. after crossing the line. Also the sometimes-mixed emotions displayed (in this case- Kloden, and Basso) by close finishers as they cross the line at the end of this ordeal.
To me the man behind the athlete is infinitely more interesting than just the record, I feel higher interest in the motivations (as can be known) and reactions, than the actual accomplishments. I thought with the record involved I’d get a plethora of that kind of footage.
My regrets I hammered OLN and congrats to Mr Lance Armstrong and the incredible team effort of US Postal, which prob factored highly in LA's win. (will he go for seven, regardless his comments now? Seven is a lucky number. )

 

[Malcolm R]

Same thing happens in Nascar. Everytime they come back from a commercial, either there's a new leader, or the race is under caution, or one of the big names blew an engine, or Tony Stewart is throwing a tantrum over something inconsequential and spinning people into the wall.

 

[MarkHastings]

Mary, all of the live video coverage for OLN comes out of the studio I work for. I was just speaking to the man in charge and he informed me that OLN has nothing to do with the footage being shot. He said it is a French company that does the footage. He also said that in the past 5 years, they have never really showed much footage of the winner.
Another OLN worker said they were trying to get the French to get another camera at the finish line (since it would be an historic event), but they had problems and he just threw his hands in the air. We jokingly said it was probably due to the French hating Americans
They said they have some footage of it, but it wasn't shown on tv. Go figure.

 

[Jim_F]

Stunning. Incredible-and that just describes his CA survival. Lance and the Posties (or the Discies or whatever they'll be next year) were in total control. Basso was the only wheelsucker that could even hang, and without that USPS draft, he withered on The Alpe.

I seriously wondered if Lance could win the 6th. Now a 7th seems entirely possible.

 

[Mary M S]

Mark, thanks for bothering to inquire!
He also said that in the past 5 years, they have never really showed much footage of the winner.
Since Armstrong keeps winning?
As their countrywoman Marguerite Duras once said,
“You have to be very fond of [French] men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of them to love them. Otherwise they're simply unbearable.”
…and kudo’s to OLN for doing the best job for footage available.
Basso was the only wheelsucker that could even hang
For some reason Basso caught my eye this year, he’s what 26?. Looking very, very good if he keeps it up.
I loved his grin. If Armstrong goes for a Seventh, he may need to watch out for him if the Italian improves incrementally each season.

 

[Jay H]

I think Basso is 25, either way, he's a strong rider in the hills. He does need to work more on his time trialing if he wants to be a contender. I'd love to See Damiano Cunego ride the TdF, he kicked butt in the Giro this year. He's another young one though too.

Next the they are implementing something called the "Pro Tour" I think they are forceing the team to ride each of the three majors. I don't think it means each rider has to ride the three majors, but the top UCI teams need to field a team there. I read a blurb about it a couple months ago but didn't really read all the rules....

Other than the three major tours, I wish OLN would start showing more of the spring classics live and or without this delay. And what happened to mountain biking? They show almost none of the X-C or downhill riding.

They spend way too much time with bullriding? What's up with that???

Jay