Giro d'Italia 2023 Giro d'Italia, Stage 19: Longarone – Tre Cime di Lavaredo 183 km (Friday, May 26th)

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Dec 23, 2019
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IIRC RCS said pre-race that their goal was for the Giro to become as much like Tour de Romandie as possible. Need to add a few more time trial stages and clean up all these wins by the breakaway but they're getting there.
 
Mar 31, 2015
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Yeah I don't buy this. They would probably get told off if they like mercilessly trashed the whole peloton and called them names or whatever but there's a lot of room between that and shameless hagiography. Plenty of commentators have been critical before and they weren't thrown in jail or anything. It's a choice commentators like Hatch make.
It's a an editorial choice producers make, not so much Hatch. Eurosport and Discovery want to grow pretty desperately, and cycling is their flagship sport in the UK. Need cycling to be exciting every single stage, especially in events like the Giro, to get people interested, so they end up faking it. It's just the reality of TV revenues.

In Belgium/Italy/Spain/France etc it's a different story, as cycling is established/mainstream and more of a revenue generator. In the UK Eurosport have to advertise via the actual race coverage being exciting to a non-viewer.
 
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Mar 31, 2015
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Of course but 30 seconds isn’t ground breaking, if he was really strong he could have put the race to bed
I don't think he really had it in him, and probably backs himself tomorrow. He was in wheel-following mode, which is more understandable. Trouble is that Roglic also probably trusts himself tomorrow, and so does Almeida.

The top three here really, really lack variety in profiles. I think that has not helped the race at all (and to be honest, would not have been helped by Remco either). There's no Quintana or Dumoulin, with Nibali or a Froome in the mix. It's just decent climber, better time triallist, grinder. When you have three riders with overlapping strengths (and similarly conservative mindsets) it creates a terrible race.
 
Sep 20, 2017
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It's a an editorial choice producers make, not so much Hatch. Eurosport and Discovery want to grow pretty desperately, and cycling is their flagship sport in the UK. Need cycling to be exciting every single stage, especially in events like the Giro, to get people interested, so they end up faking it. It's just the reality of TV revenues.

In Belgium/Italy/Spain/France etc it's a different story, as cycling is established/mainstream and more of a revenue generator. In the UK Eurosport have to advertise via the actual race coverage being exciting to a non-viewer.
Here's the issue with that - if this Giro is the first GT you're tuning into in your life, the race is obviously boring and yet the commentators are hyping it up as being really exciting, then surely you'd conclude that this is what cycling is always like, thereby that it simply isn't the sport for you and therefore don't watch in the future? Seems like a strategy that would backfire.

Then again my first GT was the 2009 Tour and yet here I am, spending far too much of my past three weeks watching and posting about a truly abysmal Giro...
 
I don't think he really had it in him, and probably backs himself tomorrow. He was in wheel-following mode, which is more understandable. Trouble is that Roglic also probably trusts himself tomorrow, and so does Almeida.

The top three here really, really lack variety in profiles. I think that has not helped the race at all (and to be honest, would not have been helped by Remco either). There's no Quintana or Dumoulin, with Nibali or a Froome in the mix. It's just decent climber, better time triallist, grinder. When you have three riders with overlapping strengths (and similarly conservative mindsets) it creates a terrible race.
Indeed the distance between those 3 riders is enough to give all 3 of them some confidence in tomorrow. If the differences were larger they might have tried more to be in a better position for tomorrow.
 
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Jul 22, 2010
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Yeah I don't buy this. They would probably get told off if they like mercilessly trashed the whole peloton and called them names or whatever but there's a lot of room between that and shameless hagiography. Plenty of commentators have been critical before and they weren't thrown in jail or anything. It's a choice commentators like Hatch make.
is it an anglo thing? A 'business' thing?
A relatively conservative rider, but he was never talked up the way Roglic was.
That's cuz they didn't have internets back then
 
Mar 31, 2015
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Here's the issue with that - if this Giro is the first GT you're tuning into in your life, the race is obviously boring and yet the commentators are hyping it up as being really exciting, then surely you'd conclude that this is what cycling is always like, thereby that it simply isn't the sport for you and therefore don't watch in the future? Seems like a strategy that would backfire.

Then again my first GT was the 2009 Tour and yet here I am, spending far too much of my past three weeks watching and posting about a truly abysmal Giro...
But what if the GT is the first you're tuning into, and they're telling you it's terrible and all these top riders don't race like they used to. Would you ever tune in again?

You retain more viewers if Hatch is able to convince you cycling is exciting because you watch the last 5km of this stage. I agree, as a fan, but also I'm not sure you should ever advertise your product as boring in the hope that they believe you that next year it'll be better. You lie and say it's fantastic, in the hope they don't know better.
 
Mar 31, 2015
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is it an anglo thing? A 'business' thing?

That's cuz they didn't have internets back then
It is a 100% a business thing. Not sure if it's solely anglo bc business or bc cycling isn't massive in the UK, but it is definitely a business choice.
 
Jul 22, 2010
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It's a an editorial choice producers make, not so much Hatch. Eurosport and Discovery want to grow pretty desperately, and cycling is their flagship sport in the UK. Need cycling to be exciting every single stage, especially in events like the Giro, to get people interested, so they end up faking it. It's just the reality of TV revenues.

In Belgium/Italy/Spain/France etc it's a different story, as cycling is established/mainstream and more of a revenue generator. In the UK Eurosport have to advertise via the actual race coverage being exciting to a non-viewer.
lol, yep.
Do we expect Hatch to say: "Tune in tomorrow.................. but only for the exciting final 400 metres!!"
 
Sep 20, 2017
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But what if the GT is the first you're tuning into, and they're telling you it's terrible and all these top riders don't race like they used to. Would you ever tune in again?

You retain more viewers if Hatch is able to convince you cycling is exciting because you watch the last 5km of this stage. I agree, as a fan, but also I'm not sure you should ever advertise your product as boring in the hope that they believe you that next year it'll be better. You lie and say it's fantastic, in the hope they don't know better.
It's not a binary choice between those two options. There is a lot of space between advertising the race as really boring and what Hatch was doing today. They should aim for the middle ground, IMO.

Now admittedly this race has been so bad that you'd struggle to retain viewers no matter what you do, but that's no reason to completely abandon all sense of realism and honesty.
 
Dec 6, 2012
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Sky bossing the Tour -> fun Giro, mostly.
Pog & Bees bossing the Tours -> strange, ugly, low quality Giro (with Sky winning, mostly)
 
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Aug 3, 2015
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If you're acting as if Thomas is more entertaining than Roglic then you're probably just mad that Roglic is popular.
Nah bruh, Im not acting like that at all. We all know Thomas is a dull rider, but lots of peeps are acting as if Roglic is some offensive powerhouse, a no risk no glory rider, when in reality he's relying on his biggest strength right now which is being an explosive climber.

Thats who he is, and largely has been for most of his career.
 
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That's cuz they didn't have internets back then
Common, he isn't that old :) (just checked to be sure :p)

If you're acting as if Thomas is more entertaining than Roglic then you're probably just mad that Roglic is popular.
I think he is saying that Thomas is a dull rider we deserved for expecting more in this Giro. (e.g. the dullest rider possible). But i could be wrong in that interpretation.
 
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