SBS Australia Coverage of the 2009 TDF vote here Good or Bad?

[craig1985]

And it's Sergio Paulinho, not Paulinhi, since when did he go from being Portugese to Italian?

 

[TrudyTas]

I think it's great that SBS are in recent years covering more cycling, but my wish list is:
1. Tommy the Tortoise wouldn't shout into the microphone and make such bloopers
2. We could see live the beginning of each stage - watching the guys trying to form a breakaway can be as exciting as the end of a stage
3. They wouldn't go to a commercial break at a crucial time (eg the beginning of the Verbier climb)
4. P&P could find some new anecdotes
5. More live coverage of other races ...

 

[dsut4392]

Coverage is great to have, kudos to SBS. Lived in England last year, and very little was free to air (though I was working anyway so couldn't follow weekdays) had to go to France to watch from the roadside to get my fix on the final stages!
They do need to work out how to schedule the ads better, so far they have gone to ad breaks on each of he mountain stages at obviously critical points, and missed the key moves of the overall contenders as a result.
P***ed off at them moving it to SBS2 - hello guys, the TDF folowers have been a massive loyal audience to you for a decade, and you throw us to the dogs for cricket??. Surely all the lard-arsed cricket watchers already have home cinemas with digital set top boxes anyway, just stick the cricket on SBS2. We don't like cricket, oh no, we hate it and think it's stupid.

Don't know why so many are ripping into poor Mike Tomalaris, comments of his like "he's extremely intelligent you know, he reads BOOKS" (about Cadel Evans) have me rolling around laughing.

 

[Seth Bullock]

Rupert Guinness is a very big name in cycling journalism, having published multiple books on the subject, and been one of the top cycling journo's in Australia since the early 80s, including winning the Walkley for his writing.
In fact, Rupert is one of the acknowledgements in one of the Le Tour books I've just finished reading (published in '91).
Personally I love the SBS Tour coverage, especially seeing as this year we in Perth get the same coverage as everyone else in Australia, and NOT the 1-1.5 hours a day we got the last couple of years (i.e. starting at the same time - 10pm/10:30pm as the East).
Yeah, Mike can ask some silly questions, and even after all these years of visiting France he still has the most shocking answers.
I'm also a huge fan of both Phil and Paul, despite the "suitcase of courage" type comments, and the LA worship, but I suspect that this is to cater for the American audience that is also getting the same coverage that we get on SBS.
I've been watching the coverage on SBS since the first tour we got here - '91 I think - and it's just incredible how far we've come. I suspect that in the next few years we'll start getting more live races, including the Giro and the Vuelta, especially now that SBS have realised they can use the 2nd channel for more than just foreign news programmes.
Neil

+ 10. The coverage is light years ahead from what it used to be. Lets hope we can get some more cycling - Giro, Vuelta, classics etc.

 

[iceman2321]

Just tonight...

Tomalaris "Here is the presentation for the most aggresive rider - Duque, the Italian"....I mean COME ON, he's been in the break all day, he's COLUMBIAN!

I don't mind Tomalaris' comments at the end of every stage, but the guy seriously needs to relax and calm down. He gets too worked up and then loses the plot. if he would gain some composure, I'm sure he would do a lot better.

-Iceman

 

[Grater]

Biggest mistake was from Phil.

Renshaw leading Cav out.

At that time Renshaw was probably just starting his descent or still climbing. It was Martin! They even said Martin was there earlier but then when push came to shove he made another key mistake!

 

[craig1985]

Tomalaris "Here is the presentation for the most aggresive rider - Duque, the Italian"....I mean COME ON, he's been in the break all day, he's COLUMBIAN!

I don't mind Tomalaris' comments at the end of every stage, but the guy seriously needs to relax and calm down. He gets too worked up and then loses the plot. if he would gain some composure, I'm sure he would do a lot better.

-Iceman

After a feature on Matt Lloyd, Mike Tomalaris said he thought Lloyd had potential as a GT GC rider and to which Matt Keenan shot him down and said more like he had potential to win a stage in the GT's but never for the overall.

I lol'd.

 

[Polka Dot Punter]

The coverage is pretty mediocre. Comes on at 10pm yet no coverage of the stage until 10:40. The number of interviews that you have to sit through is ridiculous. I didn't even watch last night's stage because they showed too many interviews and I gave up waiting.

 

[53 x 11]

Ok, some mistakes I can deal with. In the modern peloton everyone looks the same, but Phil is constantly contradicting himself. Other comments are a bit bizarre such as “the peloton looks like a giant maggot on this road”. Granted Paul did try and correct him by suggesting that it looked like a “piece of old spaghetti” but Phil continued to talk about maggots.

I like the idea of Roy and HG doing a couple of stages, they would say stupid things but at least they would make me as frigin angry.

 

[idiotic]

What a pack of whiners!

Coverage is GREAT - not perfect, but what do you want, Sterlo, Fatty and the Chief?

 

[groverjones]

What a pack of whiners!

Coverage is GREAT - not perfect, but what do you want, Sterlo, Fatty and the Chief?

Hear, hear!
I put Roy and HG up with your list as well..

 

[badboyberty]

The coverage is pretty mediocre. Comes on at 10pm yet no coverage of the stage until 10:40. The number of interviews that you have to sit through is ridiculous. I didn't even watch last night's stage because they showed too many interviews and I gave up waiting.

Interviews before the race would be OK, before the race... While the action is actually happening, I want to see cyclists, not Mike Tomalaris. Maybe if they could do some sort of split screen deal during the flat stages I could live with it.

I also wish they'd officially separate Gabriel's bit from the actual coverage. Maybe 5:30pm every night of the tour Gabriel can have half an hour to cook something that involves 3kgs of cheese and half a tonne of butter. That way he can have enough time to actually cook something, and I can ignore it totally.