Why are you watching?

[rune1107]

Something I've always wondered on about, is why so many of us tend to watch hours of stages where we are 99% sure that nothing is going to happen. I do it myself, but I just thought it would be interesting to hear why you guys do it, or how many just tend to turn on the TV with an hour left of the stage. Is it for the commentary? Because not many channels have very interesting commentators. So to formulate a question: What keeps the TV turned on, on a nice long flat stage, on a hot summer day?

 

[RedheadDane]

Just because. Sometimes nothing happens, then I'll just do other things with the race on in the background.

 

[tobydawq]

Something I've always wondered on about, is why so many of us tend to watch hours of stages where we are 99% sure that nothing is going to happen. I do it myself, but I just thought it would be interesting to hear why you guys do it, or how many just tend to turn on the TV with an hour left of the stage. Is it for the commentary? Because not many channels have very interesting commentators. So to formulate a question: What keeps the TV turned on, on a nice long flat stage, on a hot summer day?

If I'm home and there's cycling on a channel, I turn the TV on and leave the sound on (depending on the commentator). I don't watch it as much as I used to, though.

But I like hearing Thomas Bay, Brian Holm or Rolf Sørensen blabbing about stuff in the background. If René Wenzel comments, I don't like it.

In that case, I often find a stream from French, Italian or Spanish TV and then the afternoon is turned into a language learning lesson. Cycling has taught me quite a lot in that department. Next up: Flemish.

 

[sprints n stones]

I sit down with a ton of paperwork I have to get through and the race keeps my mind engaged enough to get through it. The Tour de France is different though I definitely get slightly hypnotised watching the scenery and the peloton just rolling through it, and then realise I've sat there for 4 hours and nothings really happened.

 

[Koronin]

If I'm home and a race is on, I'll put it on the TV. However, if I'm home the TV is on, just mean I'm actually watching or paying that much attention to it. I'll be doing other things like looking over work for the next day, getting stuff together for work (I'm a vendor/merchansider), or even doing chores or cleaning. Although I have recently started writing articles for a cycling publication for their website (not this one, as a I know one of the editors/publishers and he asked me to write articles occassionally). However, a pan flat stage I'm very unlikely to watch or pay much attention to.

 

[Cance > TheRest]

Because it's an addiction, a routine. Something to look forward to when life appears meaningless in every other aspect.

 

[42x16ss]

Fuente De 2012

 

[the delgados]

I'm pretty sure someone started a similar thread a while back, but here goes:
Do not watch a flat stage race before the 10 km to go mark. Unless you are looking to purchase real estate in the area, do not watch. You risk alienating loved ones.
Stage races have become so predictable that there is no need to tune in before the final ascent of a mountain top finish. We can go even further by saying don't tune in until there are three km's remaining. The race is that predictable.
Classics are a different story. I love watching Paris-Roubaix from 100 km's before the finish.

 

[Gigs_98]

Because when I'm not watching everything happens so I try to turn on when everything happens but when I do nothing happen until I turn off again...you understand? It's complicated to be me

 

[rune1107]

Because when I'm not watching everything happens so I try to turn on when everything happens but when I do nothing happen until I turn off again...you understand? It's complicated to be me

Gigs you're excused :lol:

 

[Koronin]

Re:

I'm pretty sure someone started a similar thread a while back, but here goes:
Do not watch a flat stage race before the 10 km to go mark. Unless you are looking to purchase real estate in the area, do not watch. You risk alienating loved ones.
Stage races have become so predictable that there is no need to tune in before the final ascent of a mountain top finish. We can go even further by saying don't tune in until there are three km's remaining. The race is that predictable.
Classics are a different story. I love watching Paris-Roubaix from 100 km's before the finish.

Or you are married to someone who gets "homesick" for a different country in my husband's case it's Spain. He spent about 3 years total there when he was in the Air Force and not only wants to go back but wants to retire there. So races in Spain, even flat stages (if they managed to find one) end up being watched. (Yes we are hoping to retire there.)

 

[ColonelKidneyBeans]

Depends of the race, i'm blessed with the fact that a good deal of my friends are also cycling fans, so the classics and the weekend mountain stage are a good occasion to get together and drink a few beers/have a chat while watching the race, some good memories there, during the 2012 WC we were so loud during the last kilometers that the neighbours came to ask if everything was right. Same during 2016 Roubaix. :lol:
When i have the occasion to watch a stage during the week, i watch the last two hours while doing a recuperation session on my home trainer, so even if not much is happening i have done something a little bit productive.

 

[JosephK]

Re:

Because it's an addiction, a routine. Something to look forward to when life appears meaningless in every other aspect.

Exactly! The existential malaise is always there, waiting, even when (or especially when) the authorities show up at one's apartment to advise one of a pending arraignment, even though there is no immediate incarceration, no court date is assigned, and the exact nature of the charges remains unclear. (We see that malaise and angst are sometimes one and the same.) In such situations, cycling proves a welcome distraction!

 

[macbindle]

Because I know that I'll fall off to sleep on the sofa, lured into slumber by the soft soporific lilt of Sean Kelly's commentary.

And when, in the final few kilometres Sean is in a rage of adrenaline fuelled excitement I will be gently raised back into consciousness by the almost imperceptible change in his intonation.

 

[JosephK]

Re:

Because I know that I'll fall off to sleep on the sofa, lured into slumber by the soft soporific lilt of Sean Kelly's commentary.

And when, in the final few kilometres Sean is in a rage of adrenaline fuelled excitement I will be gently raised back into consciousness by the almost imperceptible change in his intonation.

Aye. If only Carlton Kirby could muster up some enthusiasm for those finishing stretches.

 

[RedheadDane]

Because when I'm not watching everything happens so I try to turn on when everything happens but when I do nothing happen until I turn off again...you understand? It's complicated to be me

I'm pretty sure there is a rule somewhere that you're actually not allowed to watch.

 

[Koronin]

At least some pros watch when they aren't racing. Valverde has said that he enjoys watching races, but if a stage is too boring he'll fall asleep fairly quickly. He's also said he doesn't know how fans can actually watch boring stages as they are boring enough when you're participating in them.

 

[SHAD0W93]

I started watching cycling in '09 and watched the full stages of '09, '10, and '11 Tour because I was so enthralled by it. In '11 I started watching and seeing results of other races as well as reading this forum. During commercial breaks I would just play a game. From '12 on I always have work in the morning so can only watch the middle before going to work and than the end after.

Now i try watching as much as I can, but usually only the highlight videos or last couple kilometers and just read through the racing page to see what happened.

 

[SKSemtex]

I usually watch the races on my second screen while I a working on the main one. This is at least the plan. It almost always turns on watching and doing nothing, especially in the races where Sagan is racing.

It is pity that cycling still does not use all the chances that modern era allows. People love stats and fans can get so many stats, that each stage, no matter how boring it is, can turn to historic or cycling lesson. Each town, each climb has his history, each rider has his history, maximum speed, maximum output, heart rate, ascend times, descend times, stage current standing, time differences, race standing, virtual yellow ......... For some of you who like to watch on TV it can be disturbing but it should be up to each viewer which information he wants to see.
In some races, we are glad that we have the time differences between leading group and peloton. Even those ones are in the most of the time not very accurate. And that is what I call boring. They should definitely start to use some GPS chips at least.

I am pretty sure that each race could be changed to a perfect documentary or travel advertisement showing main local attraction, average hotel prices, opportunities for recreational cycling etc. Of course only if you want, if you want to see just racing you just do not use these interactions.

 

[DFA123]

Like others, if I'm at home I just often put the TV on in the background with low volume while doing something else. Even for some long dull stages. I can check every few minutes and the commentators will alert you if anything dramatic is happening. It's just an alternative to having the radio on in that respect I guess. And then its easy to start paying more attention when (if) the action heats up.

 

[Carols]

I just play it in the background for the first 100km or so and if the voices get excited I watch . Like right now, I'm surfing on the computer and it's playing.....

 

[SafeBet]

Sometimes the landscape itself is worth hours of watching.
Add that 1% chance something big happens 100 km from the finish and you have me hooked for the whole stage.

 

[mariposa]

Re:

Fuente De 2012

+1.
I was fortunate enough to be at the finish. Some friends went shopping instead as they thought it would be a boring stage!
Contador was brilliant that day but I think that some people forget how close Valverde was to him at the finish. Purito was also pure class on the podium considering what had happened.

 

[Pantani_lives]

In the late nineties I could watch the preview of a Tour stage, the full stage, writing down who was in the break, which helpers were working etc. Then the post-race programs as well.

Nowadays I usually check who's in the break, skip half an hour, check the situation, skip half an hour, until I watch the final.

 

[spiritualride]

It's a great sport to download and watch later, having it on in the background during the boring parts and being able to skip around up to the point of importance. Watching live it's not as good unless it's a spring classic or last kilometers of a GT stage