Australian Coverage of Cycling...disgraceful

[Timmy-loves-Rabo]

I am disgusted to watch the news and listen to the media to not see hardly anything of Cadel Evans' mighty effort to take the yellow jersey. It is not good enough to have hardly any coverage of this amazing feat cadel has done. He also crashed early in the stage so to be hurt and be in that position is a special effort.

It also seems odd that Mike Tomolaris, Phil Anderson, and John Trevorrow hardly gave Cadel any credit and canned him for not being good enough. Yes the guy was in a bit of trouble but he had a nasty crash. When LA comes in the bull**** starts of how brave Lance was from his 3 crashes when there was only two. I think their needs to be some seriosu review of tomalaris' place as host as he mumbles and makes so many mistakes. He also seems to have something out for Cadel also.

the minimal media coverage of cycling is nothing new. He still gets a fair bit. If you are wanting a front cover story or woteva, good luck, cause that wont happen here. Especially when he claims the jersey on the night world cup final, which is much much bigger then a rider claiming a yellow jersey - which he has done before - on stage 8. (((I don't think evans is all that popular either -- I have a friend whom has no idea about cycling, but randomly (not too random, I was talking about cycling) said to me the other day he thinks evans is a tool. It's been mentioned before he comes of as an a$s in the media.))) and the fact that Melbourne is AFL all the way...

so yeah this is nothing, and shouldn't be a shock.
As for the sbs panel comment's... they weren't even that bad, you are just being over sensitive. And what ever they say negative, it doesn't even out the man crush paul and phil have on evans. It makes me wanna hurl.

Moral of thread: ACF needs to harden up.

 

[auscyclefan94]

the minimal media coverage of cycling is nothing new. He still gets a fair bit. If you are wanting a front cover story or woteva, good luck, cause that wont happen here. Especially when he claims the jersey on the night world cup final, which is much much bigger then a rider claiming a yellow jersey - which he has done before - on stage 8. (((I don't think evans is all that popular either -- I have a friend whom has no idea about cycling, but randomly (not too random, I was talking about cycling) said to me the other day he thinks evans is a tool. It's been mentioned before he comes of as an a$s in the media.))) and the fact that Melbourne is AFL all the way...

so yeah this is nothing, and shouldn't be a shock.
As for the sbs panel comment's... they weren't even that bad, you are just being over sensitive. And what ever they say negative, it doesn't even out the man crush paul and phil have on evans. It makes me wanna hurl.

Moral of thread: ACF needs to harden up.

Paul and Phil don't even have a man crush as they did not even mention him at all in the final climb. I know it is a footy state but I am just saying it is a shame that he doesn't get enough coverage for the acheivement. No wonder your friend thinks that as you think that also because of your strong dislike of him. Mark Webber got the back page of the Sun and he won a Grand Prix race which he had already won 5 times. Yellow jersey is far more prestigious imho.

 

[auscyclefan94]

Nothing to do with what is popular in Australia or amount of live coverage as firstly F1 was on the back page of the paper and the numbers of viewers and spectators to the Melb Grand Prix are diminishing and secondly if they have 3 and a half hours of coverage, more "fawning" could be needed.

 

[53 x 11]

somedays I really wonder if I watch the same races as ACF. Evans was mentioned plenty of times.

However I will concede that most of those times it was "Evans is under pressure" "that attack has put Evans right to the back" "Evans is hurting".

 

[auscyclefan94]

somedays I really wonder if I watch the same races as ACF. Evans was mentioned plenty of times.

However I will concede that most of those times it was "Evans is under pressure" "that attack has put Evans right to the back" "Evans is hurting".

At the end, quite a few people have said that he was not mentioned overly much at the end. ONly seems to mention Cadel's team not being there when Andy Schleeck did not have many numbers on the climb and only Astana, rabo and Liqui had more than 1 rider. That was another point of the inconsistency of the post stage commentary.

 

[Martin318is]

Paul and Phil .... they did not even mention him at all in the final climb. .

Utter, utter garbage ACF.

 

[53 x 11]

Jesus Christ ACF!

You piss and moan about there not being enough Aus based commentary and then you complain about the Aus commentary team talking about the Australian rider and not the Lux rider on a Danish team. What do you want?

Evans lack of team is a topical point as it was the reason he joined BMC in the first place.

 

[badboyberty]

Do we want more focus on Aussie riders in the commentary?

we missed...

"Evans looks likes he's totally cracked in the finale"

"Rogers was the weakest of the top ten, barely able to hold Rodriguez's wheel"

"Lloyd climbing with Armstrong"

Let's wait till the Aussie climbers are riding well till we ask for more focus to be placed on their performances.

And Tomalaris and P&P are easy to deal with, somewhere on your remote you'll find a button marked as "mute", try it, works brilliantly.

 

[craig1985]

Eurosport (Australia) doesnt have the Tour this year

I know, but you can't go wrong for the other races.

 

[Broken Spoke]

Ya know what, I'd prefer no commentators at all!

I remember a few years ago, for a good 20 or so mins, there was no commentary feed and all we had was the camera mics picking up the sounds on the road - it gave a beautiful ambiance

In the words of the great Darryl Kerrigan, "How's the serenity?"

Good commentators understand that you don't need to talk constantly - particularly on TV. You know, a picture tells a thousand words, so don't try to keep up. I'll probably get ridiculed by some for saying it, but I think Mr Benaud is a good example of how it should be done.

 

[The Barb]

In the words of the great Darryl Kerrigan, "How's the serenity?"

Good commentators understand that you don't need to talk constantly - particularly on TV. You know, a picture tells a thousand words, so don't try to keep up. I'll probably get ridiculed by some for saying it, but I think Mr Benaud is a good example of how it should be done.

Benaud is not what he once was, but you are absolutely right.

I heard the story told of one time he was commentating in England and literally didn't say a word for about ten minutes. Then someone hit a perfect cover drive to the boundary and he simply said ... "Bingo" ... then didn't say anything for about another ten minutes. Brilliant.

 

[M Sport]

I am disgusted to watch the news and listen to the media to not see hardly anything of Cadel Evans' mighty effort to take the yellow jersey. It is not good enough to have hardly any coverage of this amazing feat cadel has done. He also crashed early in the stage so to be hurt and be in that position is a special effort.

It also seems odd that Mike Tomolaris, Phil Anderson, and John Trevorrow hardly gave Cadel any credit and canned him for not being good enough. Yes the guy was in a bit of trouble but he had a nasty crash. When LA comes in the bull**** starts of how brave Lance was from his 3 crashes when there was only two. I think their needs to be some seriosu review of tomalaris' place as host as he mumbles and makes so many mistakes. He also seems to have something out for Cadel also.

Most of what you have written is untrue, Cadel was in the headlines with video of the online editions of SMH and The Age, plus 7 news that night, and all over the radio. That despite there also being a World Cup final on and Webber winning the British GP. Whatever you personally think of those two sports that fact is they are both bigger than cycling.

Your incessant whining about the way Cadel gets treated by the media is tiresome, he brings a lot of it on himself. Good rider no doubt, but he is one weird cat.

 

[LukeSchmid]

I think the coverage of the tour in Adelaide has been quite good. I have not seen or heard a news service which has not talked about Cadel Evans being in yellow. There has also been coverage of Simon Gerrans withdrawal today. Mike Tomalaris is apparently doing doing a segament every morning on a commerical breakfast program although I have not heard it yet, not quite when I can listen.

Cadel Evans was mentioned quite a few times on the climb during the coverage - sometimes in quite a positive way. The one rider who didn't get a mention at all was Moriabito who did help Evans on the climb. Phil made a comment when Hincapie was dropped from the group early on that Evans would now be by himself. Ballan still in the leading group as well as Moriabito at that stage.

 

[Garry Allen]

could be the 1980s when coverage of the tdf was buried in the results 5 pages into the sports section. When Phil Anderson leading the race and finally winning the white jersey received barely any coverage at all. Or the 90s when coverage of cycling was about selection problems in the track cycling team and only happened in the lead up to the Commonwealth Games or the Olympic Games. Or 2000 when channel 7 cut away from the Olympic road race when Jan Ullrich made his bid for the win on the final lap to a basketball game. Or when some track cyclist was busted for doping.
Cadel Evans was on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald today. And I don't like the fanboism of Mike Tomalaris or Paul Sherwen or Phil Liggett. But we get 4 hours of live coverage of the tour every night. With updates on SBS1 and SBS2.
I love it.

 

[leftover pie]

In the words of the great Darryl Kerrigan, "How's the serenity?"

Good commentators understand that you don't need to talk constantly - particularly on TV. You know, a picture tells a thousand words, so don't try to keep up. I'll probably get ridiculed by some for saying it, but I think Mr Benaud is a good example of how it should be done.

i'd love to hear richie doing the cycling,

"welcome back viewers to stage twooo of the toooo-ur de france, today we have twooo category twooo climbs and let me tell you i'm just a little bit excited"

 

[Saddlesaw]

i'd love to hear richie doing the cycling,

"welcome back viewers to stage twooo of the toooo-ur de france, today we have twooo category twooo climbs and let me tell you i'm just a little bit excited"

What a great thought......Richie commentating

" .....supurb descending that..............."

now Bill Lawry on the other hand would be a different story......

" He's GONE .....Pi$$ Off...tell your story walking Armstrong......"

Maybe the 12 Man could release a CD at Christmas for all the Aussie cycling fans - would be hilarious

 

[Broken Spoke]

i'd love to hear richie doing the cycling,

"welcome back viewers to stage twooo of the toooo-ur de france, today we have twooo category twooo climbs and let me tell you i'm just a little bit excited"

Too good.

 

[leftover pie]

now Bill Lawry on the other hand would be a different story......

" He's GONE .....Pi$$ Off...tell your story walking Armstrong......"

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

Maybe the 12 Man could release a CD at Christmas for all the Aussie cycling fans - would be hilarious

i'd buy it

 

[The Falcon]

funny stuff guys....12th man take on cycling would be a real winner. 2010 TdF would be such great material too.

anyway, like the vast majority here i agree that we have very little to whinge about really. While i might whinge about P&P and that muppet Tomalaris, the fact is that we get nightly 3+hrs of free to air live coverage. There arent too many countries with that. The profile of cycling is just so much higher than 10-20 years ago there is no comparison.

 

[Broken Spoke]

Ahem, back on topic...

I think we actually get it pretty good in terms of coverage and as others have hinted, we're stuffed if the big commercials ever get a sniff at the broadcast rights. The coverage of last year's Cronulla International by 9 was hilariously idiotic.

I reckon the local media have learned that it's a long race and the fact they they are not trumpeting this as the ultimate cycling triumph shows, ironically, a little more respect to Cadel. Why? Because I think they're holding back a bit thinking there's a chance he might actually pull off the win.

Would saturation coverage make you happier? Hmm, you know what's it's like when you find a really nice pub/restaurant/winery only to have it turn up on some commercial network promo show? The next week it's full of ignorant obnoxious nobs who think they know everything cos they saw a 9 minute piece on Getaway. You want that for cycling? Now that would be disgraceful.

 

[the big ring]

Huh? SBS coverage rocks. I'm a Cadel fanboi but couldn't care less if mainstream news don't spend all evening raving about him. Big deal.

I think the thing you need to understand, ACF, is that your average Joe does not understand the Tour concepts as easily as we do.

If Webber wins a GP, that's it, he's won. Very simple to understand.
If Robbie loses $1.5M , that's it, he loses it. Very painful and simple to understand.

If Cadel wears the yellow jersey, what does it mean?
Has he won? No.
Is the race over? No.
When does it end? In 2 week's time.
Has Cadel or for that matter any other Aussie worn yellow before, or is this new? Yep, Cadel and lots of others, nothing really new here.

If anything, I'd rather it flew under the radar and they all went nuts if he wears yellow into Paris.

 

[mickkk]

In Victoria, apart from SBS the TV and radio coverage has been abysmal.

I really think in Australias case, the media has had enough of le Tour. It was really amped up a few years ago in support of Cadel, only to be let down by drug scandals.

It is as if the media has said its just not worth the effort, if we give it mass coverage, we are just supporting doping in sport.

 

[leftover pie]

In Victoria, apart from SBS the TV and radio coverage has been abysmal. .

I think your expectations are unrealistic, SBS has exclusive rights to show the race and is building it's schedule around it, so you won't see anything other than a quick report on the other stations.

take wimbledon for example, did you see more than just highlights of that on rival networks? it was consigned to inner backpages of the newspaper and high profile coverage on the network which had the rights, ie channel 9.

 

[Galic Ho]

Paul and Phil don't even have a man crush as they did not even mention him at all in the final climb. I know it is a footy state but I am just saying it is a shame that he doesn't get enough coverage for the acheivement. No wonder your friend thinks that as you think that also because of your strong dislike of him. Mark Webber got the back page of the Sun and he won a Grand Prix race which he had already won 5 times. Yellow jersey is far more prestigious imho.

Please get your facts right and don't just sprout random bits of info that you believe to be true.

Mark Webber has never won any Grand Prix more than once. Ever. His first win was last year. Thus, he cannot possibly have won a race 5 times. There is only one F1 driver racing who can lay claim to having won any one event 5 times. Michael Schumacher and he has won quite a few races multiple times.

If that wasn't what you were doing then please have the courtesy of checking your grammar. Webber is in with a very strong chance of winning the F1 drivers championship. He has been denied wins in the two previous rounds. Add in both of those with his wins so far and he'd have had 5 on the trot. He deserves his time in the sun.

You did not whinge like this when Evans had the Maglia Rosa and received even less coverage, At least this time the stage and GT was on free to air tv for people to watch.

As for the commentary. Phil Anderson was being neutral and balanced, just as a journalist should. Tomalaris was an erratic nutcase. I hope he leaves some time soon. He is woeful. That other clown is also a disgrace. By his commentary it is quite clear AS already has the Tour won. What a douchebag. I don't give a flying F#%K what history you have in the sport, when commentating you have to keep it real. That man was a BS artist. An amateur imitating a master of exaggeration. Or maybe he was just giddy in front of the camera. Either way I hope I don't have to hear his half-arsed race analysis in tandem with Tomo again. They missed all the obvious points and exaggerated the ones that meant little.

Anyone want to know why Tomo appears to not like Cadel? Remember the "Don't touch me" ***** slap from 2008? That was Tomo poking Cadel. SBS never advertised that one of their employees initiated that YouTube classic hit, Fortunately some people down under certainly heard about it and have no qualms reminding people what really happened.

 

[Archibald]

I think the thing you need to understand, ACF, is that your average Joe does not understand the Tour concepts as easily as we do.

nail on the head there...

my three housemates are all getting home for the 7pm highlights show on ITV4 here and it's almost become TDF:101. All are Aussies and all had no idea of how the race itself works, nor any idea about the green, polka-dot and white jersey competitions. This is depsite them watching it for years on SBS and enjoying it then as well.
All 3 have said that they're finding it utterly fascinating now that they have more of an idea about what's going on. So much so, they're now seriously suggesting the hiring of a campervan to go follow it next year.

I couldn't be happier with that idea!!