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Square Wheels

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The men's coverage wasn't very good if you didn't watch every stage.  Often, there was no discussion or ID of cyclists in the TV picture.  Who were they?  They kept mentioning the big names who weren't in the current picture!  If you hadn't been watching for at least a half hour, you didn't know if the peloton in the picture included the leaders or not.

It reminded me of an Eagle's football game I listened to on my car radio as I drove past Philly on day.

Donovan McNabb was the Eagle's QB and the announcers mentioned his name so often it was ridiculous: "McNabb hands off ... and there's a 5 yard gain up the middle."  They didn't even mention the ball carrier's name!  Finally, the Eagles went on defense and I thought I'd hear about other players, but the color guy broke in on the description of a play, "And let me say one more thing about McNabb..."

They'd show the peloton and mention a couple names, Pogacar especially, and say something like "He's in 2nd..." and I'd look and see someone with a yellow jersey and helmet.  That wasn't Pogacar.  Then they'd show a breakaway and mention Pogacar and a few others again.  But there were only two guys!

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11 hours ago, Square Wheels said:

Just finished 4 straight weeks of watching the TdF.  Finished the final stage of the women's just now.  Still have the podiums to watch tomorrow.

I think they did a great job with the women's, plenty of room for improvement, but way better than a single stage.

I felt like the TdF Femmes really showed off France in that smaller bit of the country.  Definitely a good race too, and I liked the competition for the young rider jersey as that seemed most competitive.  It is interesting to see 1) older women haven't had quite the same gut check the men's peloton has had (yet), and 2) how often "just took up the sport last year" or similar was mentioned.

The women's peloton needs a LOT of attention to get it anywhere near the level of quality as the men's peloton, and this bigger & better race will hopefully create the buzz and energy and INCENTIVES to get more women riding competitively.  Women's cross racing is relatively robust vs men's cross, but on the road, it still seems very thin.

I also am still challenged by women who get married and change their last names.  Luckily, the commentators will often use both their married name as well as their former last name when mentioning them, but damn it get's hard to remember if you've been hearing one name for years, and then BOOM new last name.

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4 hours ago, MickinMD said:

The men's coverage wasn't very good if you didn't watch every stage.  Often, there was no discussion or ID of cyclists in the TV picture.  Who were they?  They kept mentioning the big names who weren't in the current picture!  If you hadn't been watching for at least a half hour, you didn't know if the peloton in the picture included the leaders or not.

It reminded me of an Eagle's football game I listened to on my car radio as I drove past Philly on day.

Donovan McNabb was the Eagle's QB and the announcers mentioned his name so often it was ridiculous: "McNabb hands off ... and there's a 5 yard gain up the middle."  They didn't even mention the ball carrier's name!  Finally, the Eagles went on defense and I thought I'd hear about other players, but the color guy broke in on the description of a play, "And let me say one more thing about McNabb..."

They'd show the peloton and mention a couple names, Pogacar especially, and say something like "He's in 2nd..." and I'd look and see someone with a yellow jersey and helmet.  That wasn't Pogacar.  Then they'd show a breakaway and mention Pogacar and a few others again.  But there were only two guys!

My wife really didn’t care to watch but when she did watch was like you. OK  who’s that, wait that’s not the lead group???   Cycling is hard to follow for the casual fan & they do try to make heads & tails of it all but a casual fan is going to struggle.  

I guess like any sport if you don’t closely follow it it’s hard to make heads or tails of it.

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