I like the back stories. To me, it puts a little human interest in what sometimes is boring. This applies to all sports watching for me.
Watching the women's race. Ugh, rain.
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I like the back stories. To me, it puts a little human interest in what sometimes is boring. This applies to all sports watching for me.
Watching the women's race. Ugh, rain.
I too love the back stories. I want to know what made this person into an athlete. It also inspired me to do even more in my pursuit of fitness.
I loved the USA story featured today in the road race. Not everyone is born an Olympic athlete! From wall street banker to Olympic cyclist. You go girl (Evelyn Stevens).
The womens road race was great. Hated the rain, and that Stevens didn't get up in that lead pack with Vos. Vos was SO strong for the whole 3.5 hours.
Great race.:D
Once again I am really annoyed that only certain U.S. time zones get the live feed from NBC and others get tape delay. Saw the women's cycling results posted on FB by my east coast friends before I saw the action on TV. :mad:
In today's electronic age I find it impossible not to know ahead of time. London is five hours ahead of us in the east and all of my phone news apps, twitter and facebook always have the results immediately when they happen.Quote:
Originally Posted by BikeDutchess
One more reason I'm so glad not to be in the social media loop!!Quote:
Originally Posted by lovelygamer
@lovelygamer - yes but NBC had been boasting about carrying the Olympic action "live" - if that had been true for all time zones, on-line news feeds etc wouldn't have mattered.
(I'll stop whining now! ;) )
I found it much more fun to watch than the mens race and I'm so glad my NBC feed showed the entire race! I was amazed there wasn't more crashing with how hard the rain was coming down. All of the repeated attacks and response from the peloton, the way the race thinned out the longer it went on, and finally the attack that broke away. I was sad to see the American drop from the pack, but what an awesome finish.Quote:
Originally Posted by lovelygamer
One of the announcers at one point said (I don't recall of which athlete, there are so many that were cross-discipline) "if she were a man, she would be famous." So true.
Putting that stuff on line seems like a great idea to me. I'll change the channel when those things come and hope I change it back in time to watch an actual event. I turn the Olympics on to watch the events not the stupid stories. Personally I don't think they need to send so many people over in the first place. They need 3 to 4 anchor people to be the inbetween to go to and from different events and that's it. Then they need all the individual sport announcers.Quote:
Originally Posted by pll
I loved the womens race today, amazing riding and even more so given the dreadful weather. Such an inspiration.
I was watching the "live" coverage on my laptop, but still ended up getting spoilers as the video dropped and restarted a few times and I stupidly updated twitter on my phone a few minutes before the end. Of course everyone watching on the tv already knew the ending.
I liked seeing all the spectators who watched the road races "for free."
Then, I remember that for the LA Olympics I got to do the same thing!
Just finished watching the women's road race. It took a lot of discipline to avoid looking at any cycling related web site (including this one)... loved the the outburst of emotion at the end. What crummy weather for a ride of any kind. Epic! Marianne Vos is a monster.
What a finish! I wish Evie Stevens had been on the podium, but it was still exciting. I can't imagine racing in that rain.
Lovely Gamer, Stevens did just start racing, but she was a star player on a couple of HS sports teams and comes from a very athletic family. DS told me his whole HS Facebook group was abuzz w/ pride today when we spoke.
I set up lists in twitter, including one for bike-related people, one for Formula 1 and one for "no spoilers." If I want to avoid knowing the outcome of a bike or F1 race, I only check the no spoilers list. (Cyclists and F1 drivers tend to be fans of each others' sports, so I have to avoid both for either type of race.)Quote:
Originally Posted by lovelygamer
And I just don't check facebook until I've seen the race.
It's not foolproof, but it generally works for me.
I really don't understand why there is no audience for women's cycling -- there's really no difference from the men's racing, so I would think anyone interested in one would also follow the other.
One thing I noticed in both races was that teammates wore the same jersey and shorts but did not necessarily use the same helmet and bike brands. I wonder how that worked. Maybe they're allowed to choose, and they tend to choose their pro sponsors?
They tend to use the bike and helmet of their pro teams. I believe it might be a sponsoring requirement, but I'm not 100% sure.Quote:
Originally Posted by ny biker
The women's race was exciting. Since the races are less than 150km, they are more aggressive and keep attacking. That's why Sean Kelly advocates for 120km stages in the grand tours, as opposed to stages with over 200km.
Oh that's right, her sister races too right? I think the story said her first race was with her sister. She's just too cute.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crankin
I was a bit confused keeping up with who was who in the road race. They didn't show enough pointers with the names on them for me and the riders didn't seem to wear the same outfit or helmet as their partners from the same country, or did they? Vos was aggressive the entire race, just amazing. This is my first women's road race I have watched-ever. I loved it!
I wonder if the biggest reason there weren't as many people for the women's road was was the weather.
Well they finally showed someone else's anthem. The French anthem for the men's 4X100 freestyle relay.
That women's road race was awesome! I don't understand why people wouldn't enjoy watching that either.
I bet so. I know I am a 'no rain' kind of girl. I'll cancel most anything if it involves me being in the rain.Quote:
Originally Posted by Koronin
The coverage was bad. I posted a link to an article in The Guardian where the BBC blames a company affiliated to the IOC for it. That company was blaming Twitter for the lack of information yesterday...Quote:
Originally Posted by lovelygamer
The teams wear the same jersey and shorts, but the teams are smaller. In races and stage races, you would see teams of 9. In the Olympics, the format is more restrictive in the number and the criteria to qualify. Great Britain, the US, the Netherlands had 4 women each in their team. Other teams had 3 (e.g. Brazil), 2 and even just 1. Sometimes sponsors require the riders to use their team bikes (or a bike provided by the sponsor), and it seems the same goes for helmets. Most national cycling federations are probably poor, so this works well for most countries. In the worlds, you will see the same.
I was looking through the pictures from yesterday and it seems most of the riders of Lululemon Specialized were using red helmets and the bright red bike: Evie Stevens (US), Ina Teutenberg (Germany), Clara Hughes (Canada), Emilia Fahlin (Sweden)... Ellen Van Dijk (Netherlands) was not -- she had a black S-Worlks.
and me on the East Coast. I recorded both men and women and thought the coverage was great, especially the womens. I never got to see a womens race before like this before. They just touched in spots on swimming but those parts were very short lived. I think they reshow them in the evening anyway. And this coverage was on a regular prime channel, not the NBC Sports that I would pay extra for.Quote:
Originally Posted by colby
So, Cadel has dropped out of the time trial, due to "fatigue."
Cancellara will ride despite his shoulder injury.
Armistead comments on the state of professional womens cycling:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/armi...sional-cycling
Maybe the home team winning the gold (and not in the mens race) will shine a bit of a light on the womens side of cycling. I'm not sure it'll change much, but maybe she'll have a bit of a voice.
Anyone watching the Women's Time Trial this AM?
I really want to see the track cycling (is that what it is called?)
K
Good morning! Yep, I was just watching on and off (while stretching after a run, while preparing breakfast).
SteepHill.tv is providing all the times and broadcasts for cycling thus far (even though their heading reads "road cycling"); I love their post race big pictures. Another good site to bookmark is CyclingFans.com
Im guessing one of those sites will list the track cycling events and link to the webcasts.
I missed both sets of time trials, hopefully will catch up later.
My husband and I are also both looking forward to the track cycling.
I was in London for the Opening Ceremony and men's race. It was exhilarating to watch the guys zoom by, but that's all I saw--twice, about 15 seconds! Saw much more of the BMW team cars than the racers. Loved the fans' spirit, literally cheering for everyone, but I'll take the TV anytime. Being in a hotel, I didn't have the opportunity for playback. I'll remember this when I get the bug to be a spectator at the TdF!
My father is a big Formula 1 fan and he feels the same way about watching races on TV vs in person. It can be fun to see the event live, but if you really want to *see* the race you're better off staying home.Quote:
Originally Posted by skinimini
I DVR'd both time trials and watched them last night. The thing with the thrones was weird. Big congrats to Olga Zabelinskaya -- based on how early she started, she obviously wasn't one of the favorites in the TT.
BTW I noticed that many of the women wore makeup during the race. I wonder if they usually do that, or if it was a nod to the TV cameras.
I felt bad for Fabian, but good for him for racing despite the shoulder injury.
In the LA Olympics I watched the road race and yah, it's just a zoom by. We were at least looking over a hill, so they climbed slowerly in front of us and then we could turn around and watch them zoom down the back of the hill. It was circuits too, so they went by a bunch of times.
For the TdF, my fantasy is to be on the route at a place with a TV to watch, and then run outside for the zoom past and then go back inside to watch the rest of the stage.
Just watched the recap of the TT races online, the womens race was pretty awesome. Zabelinskaya seemed surprised every time someone came through and she just kept sitting, and smiling. Very cool. Kristin Armstrong just dominated, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by ny biker
Bradley Wiggins, same boat, he just rocked that TT from start to end. Cool for Team GB to get their cycling medals on after what went wrong for them in the road race.
Haven't watched any Track Cycling, I'll have to watch some of the replays. I wish the primetime coverage covered some of the other sports that happened during the day, or that the other NBC channels would cover some other stuff in the evenings. Even a nice hour-long Olympic recap show like the tennis ones you can catch during big tennis matches. Sometimes I don't have time to fast forward through 4 hours of coverage, but I don't want to miss key parts.