They're off.
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Sport
TdeF 2014
(37 posts)-
Posted 10 years ago #
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I am liking the placename and landmarks in French on the tv, L'abbaye St Marie etc
Posted 10 years ago # -
Last minute a bit too exciting...
Highlights 7:00 ITV4
Posted 10 years ago # -
Don't click if you don't want to know before the highlights show -
Posted 10 years ago # -
I was on Buttertubs. There was a fantastic atmosphere and we even saw some cyclists, including a 42 yr old zooming up. Standout life experience
Posted 10 years ago # -
"
Race Radio (@TheRaceRadio)
05/07/2014 22:14
.@MarkCavendish on the crash “It was my fault. I’ll personally apologize to Simon Gerrans as soon as I get the chance""
Posted 10 years ago # -
Cav out.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Yes, it's a terrible shame. His own doing, by the looks of it. To crash out on home turf, in his mother's home town: well words can't describe how that must feel. Quite apart from the pain of a dislocated shoulder.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Yesterday on cray was effing braw!!!!!!
Posted 10 years ago # -
I ended up on Cray too. Drove over with 4 clubmates, parked just off the A59 on the way up to Gargrave and rode up from there. Ended up watching from a few yards past the KOM point.
Fantastic atmosphere on the roads all the way through, not spoiled by a few dafties neglecting to shoulder check before setting off/changing lane/dawdling across the road. Far less threatening than the inattentive drivers we usually have to deal with on rides in any case!
Highlights:
-Getting cheered up the climbs by the massive crowds.
-The general atmosphere and the large amounts of good-natured banter.
-The many, many kids of assorted sizes who were all, without fail, riding absolutely on the rivet, to the extent that quite a few parents appeared to be working hard to keep up, great to see.
-Roadside chat with a Police Scotland motorbike officer who was clearly having at least as good a time as those of us not being paid to be there.
-Very fine pint of cool pale ale when we finally rode past a pub that wasn't bursting at the seams. Barman reported they'd served 160 people in half an hour at the peak earlier in the day.Surprising things:
- The ludicrously large number of vehicles in the 'caravan'.
- The "tour-makers" - not sure what they were meant to be doing but all I actually saw them do was walk about in large , glaikit groups 6-abreast on a road that thousands of people were trying to cycle up.Posted 10 years ago # -
Well if anyone thought that cycling in the uk was a minority sport with a limited following, a reported 2.5 million spectators should convince otherwise! :-o
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-28179818Posted 10 years ago # -
Smudge has a very good point. I went onto BBC Sport website earlier today and tried to spot cycling in the menu bar at the top of the screen...
Football : Formula 1 : Cricket : Rugby U : Rugby L : Tennis : Golf : Athletics
I think the BBC is suffering from ostrich syndrome. I appreciate there is a difference between participating in an everyday activity and spectating in a related sport, but I find it most odd that cycling is not yet given day to day 'recognition' by the BBC.
Especially since it's been Team GB's best success over the last few years. Still relegated to the sat/cable sports channels, by and large.
Posted 10 years ago # -
@Snowy - I did the same yesterday and it was there! Just went back to check the now, to make sure I hadn't dreamt it, but there it is, albeit at the end, but there nonetheless. I must have checked after you and they added it at some point during the day.
Posted 10 years ago # -
There was a hint in the Breakfast news today that the Beeb has woken up to the popularity of cycling but I fully expect them to forget and start yapping on about off-season football gossip.
Posted 10 years ago # -
It doesn't appear to be there this morning.
It must be a contender for the UK's largest live viewing audience ever. I guess there more money in Formula 1 though so it retains it's place in the top bar.
When you consider the size of the publicity caravan and the number of support vehicles I do sometime wonder if the TdF is less about bike racing and more about promotion.
Posted 10 years ago # -
TdF costs a FORTUNE as does pretty much everything else these days. At least it's workings are slightly less abhorrent than fifa.
I guess this means that sponsorship is at the fore!
Posted 10 years ago # -
Hmm.
I'm thinking that the BBC are showing a different menu depending upon whether you're in the UK or not. I had not realised this was the case (until now). So one can therefore assume that the BBC feel cycling is a bigger draw from viewers outside of the UK? And apparently only the UK viewers care about Rugby League.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"So one can therefore assume that the BBC feel cycling is a bigger draw from viewers outside of the UK?"
i would have thought they would have stats to back that up if it is the case, and base their design / menu items on that. BBC are usually pretty spot on with their websites
Posted 10 years ago # -
"BBC are usually pretty spot on with their websites"
Except that it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they don't 'flag' cycling fewer people will click...
Posted 10 years ago # -
TdF is a little different from most spectator sports in that the spectators don't pay. So the publicity caravan is forgivable and was quite fun actually - French products mixed in with Yorkshire tea and a dose of health insurance. Not your ITV fare.
Posted 10 years ago # -
"Except that it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they don't 'flag' cycling fewer people will click..."
Perhaps, but you could say that for any of the 'other' sports. The BBC is not there to 'promote' any activity. It's just a content provider, and if you provide content usually you take an evidence based approach as to what to put on your pages and where, and you make sure that your 'target' audience knows how to get to the content they may wish to view. << The BBC is about as good as anyone at *that*, to the degree that most content providers now follow the BBC formula, even down to layout.
The TdF is a 'big' story just now, and lots of people are interested so it is sitting pretty much smack bang in centre of front page just now. Next week no one will be interested again, except maybe us...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Meanwhile in Austria, one of the "British" "rejects" is doing well:
Posted 10 years ago # -
Froome's out - didn't get as far as starting the cobbles...
Posted 10 years ago # -
Not good news.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Serves Sky right for having no plan b, though
Posted 10 years ago # -
On the bright side, presumably its now Froome v Quintana at la Vuelta
Posted 10 years ago # -
"On the bright side, presumably its now Froome v Quintana at la Vuelta"
Yep, Wiggins may end up double p*ssed if he had his eye on that....
Posted 10 years ago # -
I predict a scaphoid fracture for Froomey. They are notoriously hard to identify even with an x-ray. Often it takes days before an x-ray will show the fracture, for some reason.
Posted 10 years ago # -
Serves Sky right for having no plan b, though
Porte's the plan B. IMO, he's a serious contender.
(I'm thinking back to his Paris-Nice win last year.)
Posted 10 years ago # -
Yep, Wiggins may end up double p*ssed if he had his eye on that....
I don't think he ever had his eye on winning it - he was talking about using it as training ahead of the Worlds time trial (although, given the way he seems to change his mind depending on whom he spoke to last, who knows what his goal will be by then?). But you're right, if Froome's in the team, the likelihood of Wiggins being in it is sharply reduced.
Loved that stage yesterday. It's just the sort of chaos a good grand tour needs. Now there's going to have be some attacking riding in the mountains.
Posted 10 years ago #
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