La Course

[pll]

I was able to catch the last 3 laps on ITV4. For some unknown reason, NBC moved its coverage of La Course to its Universal Sports arm, which is not carried by Comcast. I am simply sick of it: Comcast stopped carrying Universal and Universal asks you to call Comcast, which is absurd.

SteepHill.TV has links to the highlights here: http://www.steephill.tv/tour-de-france/ (scroll down -- listed after the stage 21 highlights and clips). You may want to check out the "Hola" extension to Chrome.

If you care to watch some good women's racing, the Giro Rosa stages are in youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/girdon2009/videos

Someone posts the daily 1 hour show from RAI 2. Narration is in Italian and the coverage not nearly as refined as that of a grand tour, but one can follow the race. After a while, you start understanding some Italian words to boot.

[ny biker]

I was able to catch the last 3 laps on ITV4. For some unknown reason, NBC moved its coverage of La Course to its Universal Sports arm, which is not carried by Comcast. I am simply sick of it: Comcast stopped carrying Universal and Universal asks you to call Comcast, which is absurd.

The people that run Universal decided to change the type of cable channel that they were, which resulted in them being dropped from many cable systems. I think they expected viewers to call their cable companies and demand that Universal be added back into their channel lineup, and ultimately Universal would make more money as a result. I had the impression that Universal was not actually owned by Comcast/NBC.

I assume NBC did not cover La Course on any of their other channels because they were already struggling to cover all the events that they were contracted to cover yesterday (they've had to show F1 races and qualy on CNBC in order to show them live during the TdF, and did not show Friday practice live like they usually do), and they figured that a woman's bike race would not give them higher ratings/more revenue than the shows that are typically on the other non-sports channels that they own.

[Irulan]

NBC was able to insert 2 minutes into the Tour coverage.... big whoop. I would think they could have added just a little more. It's obvious they had cameras there as they have some footage of it.

[pll]

NBC was able to insert 2 minutes into the Tour coverage.... big whoop. I would think they could have added just a little more. It's obvious they had cameras there as they have some footage of it.

Evidently, it is more important to follow the men posing for pictures and chatting while they leisurely roll to Paris, because that is high quality competition.

One a more positive note, I loved the SBS video clip where they interview several of the Aussie riders. They were all still super excited at the end of the race.

[Irulan]

I just wanted to see the podium boys kissing the winners.

[pll]

I have not found any videos of the podium ceremony but there is a cool one, from a camera mounted on Marianne Vos's bike: http://www.raboliv.com/video?videoId=66088

[azfiddle]

I was pretty disappointed as well. By the time I woke up on Sunday morning (5 am MST) it was already over anyway It should have been covered and included in the nbcsports package for the TDF.

If you have not gotten a chance to watch the movie "Half the Road" about the disparity in men's and women's cycling - it is now available on iTunes. I attended the premiere here in Tucson with the film maker and a few of the women who are featured in the movie. Within 5 days of the first showing, they announced La Course. It is just a first step however.

[rebeccaC]

I have not found any videos of the podium ceremony but there is a cool one, from a camera mounted on Marianne Vos's bike: http://www.raboliv.com/video?videoId=66088

That was a great sprint on the inside while dodging those barrier legs

For some photos.... a good one of Vos crossing the finish line.....but no podium boys

[pll]

Yep, they are an NBC affiliate. According to their site: "Universal Sports is a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, LP." Their logo incorporates the NBC one. But anyway, Comcast does not care what its customers think, so asking customers to call is pointless. Why they do not sell access online is beyond me. They did it one year, for the Giro, and I was a happy camper.

NBC should have covered La Course as part of their app, which included complete stages (more than 5 hours of coverage each day).