Cyclo-cross weather in Bibleburg today. Well, not quite — so far it’s merely blustery and cool, not soggy and muddy. But the day ain’t over yet.
I rolled over to Monument Valley Park and did a leisurely hour of ’cross, dodging dog-walkers, joggers and spectators at a kiddie soccer match, then rolled home to start my shift in the VeloBarrel. Imagine my surprise when the promised live video coverage from today’s U.S. Gran Prix of Cyclocross race did not eventuate. As we speak I’m staring at the online equivalent of a test pattern and a smattering of snarky comments from pissed-off would-be viewers.
I’m reluctant to be harshly critical of the gang at CyclingDirt.org, having recently watched Herself prep feverishly for a streaming videocast of a meeting and knowing next to nothing about the technology and procedures involved.
Still, damn. I’m glad I’m not selling ads for these folks. This is like telling everyone about this really cool party you’re throwing but giving them the wrong address.
Mad Blog Media 
Ooops! We caught the streaming video of today’s Giro d’Italia presentation live from a gorgeous opera house in Torino. I know the TOUR is the big deal and all but I’d argue the 2010 Corsa Rosa was by far the most interesting of the Grand Tours this year. The 2011 route looks to be pretty tough, perhaps tougher than it’s French counterpart this time? We’re always looking to see if the Giro will intersect with our routes in Campania, Umbria or Le Marche but so far no luck. They DO ride on lots of the roads we enjoy later though, this year including some we have on our Vineyards to the Sea tour as well as our Legendary Climbs EAST along with the queen stage (tappone in Italiano) over the unpaved final 8 kms of Colle delle Finestre, which is a feature of our Legendary Climbs WEST itinerary.
On another note I’ve noticed there are more than a few folks looking for DVD coverage of the 2010 Giro d’Italia and it doesn’t seem to be available through the usual sources, either in the US or UK. I’m thinking about trying to pick up some extra copies of the excellent RAI TRADE/RCS Hall of Fame disc set (which has English commentary!)while we’re in Italy next month. They’re cheap enough at around $20 so if anyone’s interested in having one (and has a player that will play out-of-region discs) let me know and I’ll try to bring one back for you. We’ll charge the actual cost plus shipping, which you can take care of via our handy Paypal link once we have copies to send out.
Hey, Larry … yeah, I’d pretty much rather watch any race other than the Tour, which is a monumental clusterfuck. I like individual stages — Ventoux, L’Alpe d’Huez, and so on — but it’s gotten to be like Lombardi football. Get a lead and defend it, don’t take any chances, yadda yadda yadda. It pays the bills, but I don’t get all weak in the knees over it anymore.
Give me the Giro and the Vuelta any day. Or a spring classic. Paris-Roubaix, of course, is the gold standard.
I was just looking at pictures from this year’s battle on the Strade Bianche, Stage 7. Evans and Vino were just awesome. Epic! What a death march, except nobody died (well, maybe Sastre’s hopes and dreams died).
Then the Tour had the cobblestones and everyone cried, especially Frank Schleck. “You can’t have cobbles in the Tour! It’s too dangerous. The Tour can’t be decided by luck. Waaaaah!!!!” Cry babies.
I like the Giro better.
There was whining (whinging in British English)about the white roads in the Giro, but not from ex-MTB’r Cadel Evans! Vino complained as did a few others. Here’s the link to my blog post of that epic day –
http://cycleitalia.blogspot.com/2010/05/saturday-in-hell-or-heaven.html
I wish we could be there to see Colle delle Finestre in-person in 2011 but we’ll be far away, down in Campania choking down some gen-u-wine mozzarella di bufala and the Aglianico wine that goes well with it! It’s a tough job but someone has to do it!
I’m at the USGP in Louisville. It was fast and dusty, with some crazy run ups that Barry Wicks and several others were RIDING. Trebon and Johnson got a gap and Johnson finally put him away. Your boy with the video was literally tangled up in wires trying to set up a camera that was on a friggin’ wire. We have wireless these days, eh? You think that’s gonna fly putting it across the course? Any chance that a couple thousand drunk cyclocrossers and ubiquitous hipsters gawkers might get tripped up and pull over your cameras? It was pathetic. He was trying to do this about an hour before the women’s race started….
Darren: What’s the saying–If one fails to plan, one is planning to fail?
Patrick: What about sending out an army of kind-of-sober ‘cross fans with handheld video cameras on tripods (instruct the videographers to be very still and don’t talk), then download the vids so viewers can log on and see them whenever? Oh, wait. That’s YouTube.
Gents, nothing beats the World Cup coverage, especially some clown making a cat’s-cradle out of cables in Kaintucky. It has flat spoiled me for any other online video.
You get to see the whole course — God only knows how many cameras they have out there — and you don’t even need to speak Argle-Bargle to get an idea of what’s going on because they’re so good about flashing textual updates on the screen about who’s leading, the gaps, composition of the chase group, and so on.