Cycling coverage on Eurosport

penfold83

I just got back into cycling a couple of months back after spending about 10 years being oblivious to the sport.

Just wondering what races to Eurosport provide live coverage for these days. Is it just the Monument Classics and the Grand Tours, or are we likely to see races like the Tour Down Under (for obvious reasons), Paris-Nice, the Dauphiné etc.?

Cheers

Penfold

Raam

Usually the coverage is good. The Giro seems to get bumped a bit once the stupid tennis starts.

TinyExplosions

Eurosport have the rights to all UCI and ASO events, so should show at least highlights... justin.tv tends to be pretty good with streaming coverage online (it got me through the TdF this year!)

Chips Lovell

Eurosport isn't bad at all, with the three grand tours, most of the classics and a few of the shorter stage races such as Paris Nice thrown in. They are prone to unexpected changes in programming though, which means sometimes the cycling is cut a bit short. The messed up big time on a few stages of the Giro, but on the whole you never missed the good bits.

For pre-season stuff like the Tour Down Under and the lower profile European races, you'll find them online. I subscribe to Cycling.tv, which has a great range of races but can be a bit of a nightmare sometimes for quality of service. You'll find a few free streams online as well.

L'Enfer du Nord

In the last ten years David Duffield has been taking more of a back seat, seems to have been religated to the studio for the Tour de France. I think this is a good thing other may disagree. I think Sean Kelly despite his reputation for reticence is actually a really good comentator. I've heard about reserved people being more out going in their second language, he's almost Effusive in these interviews (in french):

http://www.wat.tv/video/sean-kelly-bbk7_a1a7_.html (talking about racing against Eddy Merckx)

http://www.wat.tv/video/jean-francois-bernard-sean-kelly-hp2p_a1a7_.html (with J-F Bernard)

Chips Lovell

L'Enfer du Nord wrote: »

In the last ten years David Duffield has been taking more of a back seat, seems to have been religated to the studio for the Tour de France. I think this is a good thing other may disagree.

A commentator's microphone is a dangerous thing in Duffield's hands. The further he's kept away from it, the better.

L'Enfer du Nord wrote: »

I think Sean Kelly despite his reputation for reticence is actually a really good comentator.

I've a lot of time for Kelly. Sure, he isn't the most charismatic commentator, but he's usually spot on and never indulges in the BS you usually get. I think's he's gotten more relaxed too in the past year or two. He was very wooden for a while.

Raam

I like when they have Magnus on.

Chips Lovell

Raam wrote: »

I like when they have Big Magnus on.

Fixed that for you.

Every freaking time. "And look, there's Big Magnus Backstedt out the back".

L'Enfer du Nord

el tonto wrote: »

A commentator's microphone is a dangerous thing in Duffield's hands. The further he's kept away from it, the better.

Duffield tainted the whole Indurain era for my ears with his constant mis-reading of the race.

Raam

el tonto wrote: »

Fixed that for you.

Every freaking time. "And look, there's Big Magnus Backstedt out the back".

Well, he IS big. Probably has good feet too.

penexpers

el tonto wrote: »

The messed up big time on a few stages of the Giro, but on the whole you never missed the good bits.

Just to clarify, when the tennis took over from the Giro, the Giro was bumped to Eurosport 2, which NTL customers don't have but Sky customers do.

TinyExplosions

Raam wrote: »

Well, he IS big. Probably has good feet too.

Caroline_Ie's a good mate of his, she'll tell you

Chips Lovell

penexpers wrote: »

Just to clarify, when the tennis took over from the Giro, the Giro was bumped to Eurosport 2, which NTL customers don't have but Sky customers do.

It was more the night they advertised the Giro and put on poker instead I was thinking of.

Funkyzeit

Be warned if you do use Sky Plus to tape several programs before and after the cycling is due....

el tonto wrote: »

A commentator's microphone is a dangerous thing in Duffield's hands. The further he's kept away from it, the better.

Blasphemy !! "Stone him" (Actually tbh he's brutal these days but a pure Legend)

Thumbs up at the ToI

TinyExplosions

He does love us!

L'Enfer du Nord

TinyExplosions wrote: »

He does love us!

I knew mention of Duffield would arouse strong emotions, who is that other giant? The American who compares at the finish line for the Tour of Ireland.
I could be wrong but I’d swear that my first contact with him (Duffield) was as a small boy watching Kellogg’s sponsored crit in Dublin c. 1985. Definitely remember some English guy giving annoying commentary over a PA. Not that I’m trying to sour relations between our two countries but I seem to remember reading in Paul Kimmage’s book that there was some conflict between the U.K. based riders and the Irish Riders during these races in Cork and Dublin. Can’t remember the details, but despite being vastly outnumbered the Irish won out.

cyclopath2001

L'Enfer du Nord wrote: »

I knew mention of Duffield would arouse strong emotions, who is that other giant? The American who compares at the finish line for the Tour of Ireland.

The American is Dave Towell.

Raam

cyclopath2001 wrote: »

The American is Dave Towell.

Most annoying announcer, ever.

smithslist

Raam wrote: »

Most annoying announcer, ever.

+1

penfold83

Cheers for the replies lads.

I've taken a look over at cycling.tv and I must admit I'm very tempted. They seem to carry a lot of races. However, what races do the show that Eurosport don't? Will I be wasting 100 dollars signing up when I might see most of the cycling.tv races on Eurosport anyway?

Bear in mind I don't have Sky so I don't have Eurosport 2...

Thanks

Chips Lovell

penfold83 wrote: »

I'However, what races do the show that Eurosport don't? Will I be wasting 100 dollars signing up when I might see most of the cycling.tv races on Eurosport anyway?

Anything Eurosport shows, they can't, at least in Europe. Off the top of my head, they had Het Volk, Kuurne-Brussells-Kuurne, Vuelta Pais Vasco, Gent Wevelgem, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone, Tour of Romandie amongst others last year.

penfold83

they had Het Volk, Kuurne-Brussells-Kuurne, Vuelta Pais Vasco, Gent Wevelgem, Amstel Gold, Fleche Wallone, Tour of Romandie amongst others last year

Who's they? Eurosport or cyclingtv? I'm confusing myself now. Is the cyclingtv coverage actually live or is it only available "re-live" after the race is over?

Chips Lovell

penfold83 wrote: »

Who's they? Eurosport or cyclingtv? I'm confusing myself now. Is the cyclingtv coverage actually live or is it only available "re-live" after the race is over?

"They" are cycling.tv. Their coverage is live, but you can also see it after the race is over too.

penfold83

It's beginning to sound like a pretty good deal. Do you subscribe to cycling.tv yourself Tonto? If so, to what package? Would you recommend it?

Chips Lovell

penfold83 wrote: »

It's beginning to sound like a pretty good deal. Do you subscribe to cycling.tv yourself Tonto? If so, to what package? Would you recommend it?

I've subscribed for the past two years. I get the premium one since the other ones are really only of interest if you're in North America.

I'm reasonably happy with it. The selection of races is great (and they tend to carry more than is advertised with the packages, which only list the big ones) but the technical side is a bit of a let down at times. There were difficulties at some stages last year with logging on and sometimes the stream dropped.