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Monday's Mailbag: The Tour of California

Published: Feb. 27, 2006

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

If TV coverage was poor, print was worse
Editor:
We've all been spoiled by OLN's Tour de France coverage, which seemed to take generations to achieve. We all remember CBS's coverage back in the 1980s, and watched it grow, like a child, into the fab’ coverage we get each July. ESPN did have a role during in the '90s, that, although it was frustrating, it was better, albeit slightly, than the CBS offering. I don't know all the details as to why ESPN got the Tour of California instead of OLN, but my sentiment is the same as many others: At least we got that — and better recording technology with which to capture it!

What gets my knickers in a bunch is the fact that there wasn't a single mention of the race in my local daily print media! I know that the Olympics was taking up a lot of print space (and rightly so), but just a little blurb in the "Fast Facts" section seemed to be too much to ask! Right from the gun, five Americans leading the race, and not a single mention in the same town as the legendary Manayunk Wall? All those guys in California now have either been, or aspire to be, at my little town's big race. A couple of them won the coveted stars and stripes jersey here, Hincapie and Rodriguez! I'll take the paltry ESPN2 show over the non-existent print coverage any day!

Erin Hinnov
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

You’re not alone, Erin. At USA Cycling headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado, the local newspaper ignored the prologue altogether, ran two Associated Press photos of stages, one wire brief, and results five deep after Sunday’s finale. It did, however, manage to have a reporter at the Citgo Bassmaster Classic in Kissimmee, Florida. — Editor

That woman with the mic’ knows a little bit about cycling
Editor:
In Bob Cullinan's letter about ESPN2's coverage of the Tour of California (See Friday’s Mailbag: "Coverage slapdash, commentary inane") he complained about "inane post-race questions from a woman who obviously knows nothing about either TV or cycling." Jessica Grieco was one of the best all-around female cyclists ever to compete for the United States. She won a handful of medals at the junior and senior world track championships and still holds American records for the 2km pursuit and 20km time trials. So I guess she knows a thing or two about cycling, and I thought she did a fine job on TV as well.

Brent Soderberg
Canton, Connecticut

Thanks to Casey Gibson, you can see both Jessica and our own Neal Rogers at work here. Meanwhile, look for another retired cyclist on TV come July. According to The Associated Press, Lance Armstrong will host the 14th annual ESPY Awards on July 16.—Editor

Thanks to all involved
Editor:
I have just been to the three stages of the Amgen Tour of California that were close to home and all I can say is, "Wow!" What a great event; what huge crowds; what awesome courses.

Thank you, Amgen; thank you, AEG; thank you Clif Bar and all of the other sponsors. Thank you, state of California, CHP, volunteers and everyone else involved in putting on this event! It was amazing, huge, great!

Yes, the TV coverage could be a lot better, but this is year one of the race. I'm excited with what we got and look forward to even more in the future. With reports of close to 1 million people out watching, clearly California likes this race, which can only mean better things (TV coverage included) in the future.

Again, thanks to all who made this happen, and please keep up the good work.

Tom Isaacson
Buellton, California

Next year, a mountaintop finish, please
Editor:
The Tour of California has been beautiful to watch and many parts have been exciting. The only major thing lacking is a decisive mountaintop finish. As I believe Levi Leipheimer predicted, the San Jose TT decided the race. As shown on the stage to Santa Barbara, the mountains don't serve any decisive purpose. Had Levi been climbing to the finish line, it would have been even more exciting.

As for ESPN2, I'm grateful to them for showing it and, based on Ms. Giovanni's letter, grateful to the Tour/Amgen, for buying the time. My only criticism is that ESPN2 keeps delaying the start by 15-20 minutes. They must know that psychos who get up at the wee hours to ride are most likely sleeping at 1 a.m., taping the show and watching it when possible. My recording of the San Jose TT ended with "and Dave Zabriske crosses the line with a new best time of . . ." Aaahh!

Thanks for your live coverage, as always.

Nicholas Stevens
Roseland, New Jersey

Better TV will help build interest
Editor:
For those of you that used to or still do work in journalism and continually want us to give ESPN some slack on the coverage of the Tour of California, give us a break on our criticism (see Friday’s Mailbag: "The pros speak").

If they wanted to give justice to their coverage all they had to do was contract the job out to a couple of Euro pros to show them how it's done. It's called leveraging your risk and "learning on the job." We do this in business all the time at least if we want to be successful. The fact is, ESPN doesn't care about second-rate coverage of cycling in the U.S. If they did, it wouldn't be televised at 1 a.m.

Several have mentioned that there isn't much interest in the ToC as there is in the Tour. Well, there's not going to be any interest if you have crappy coverage and show it at 1 a.m. Give me a break!

Cycling is still an 'inconvenience' to Americans. I wish I could get Eurosport!

John Kasunic
Denver, Colorado

Get over it
Editor:
Some friends and I went to the prologue, and couldn't wait to see the coverage on TV. Needless to say, I was pretty disappointed in what I saw. At first I was pretty frustrated because of what I'm used to in OLN Tour coverage, and the WCP race DVDs I have.

But, as the race started to move over the familiar roads my friends and I ride, I began to change my mind. It finally hit me that at least there is a race, one, and two, regardless of how bad pizza is, it’s still pizza. So regardless of how bad it’s been. (and it seems to have steadily gotten better), I'll watch it, record it and probably watch it again when I need a cycling fix or a way to pass the time on the trainer on the one or two days it might rain here in the San Francisco Bay area in the next few months,.

If you’re unhappy, get over it. The race organizers must have gotten the message by now, and are most likely taking the appropriate steps to improve the way the race will be shown on TV. Amgen has sunk a ton of dough into the title sponsorship, and I'm sure they will do whatever it takes to make sure they take the race to level of the one in Georgia to save their image and endear themselves to cyclists.

Al Painter
Mountain View, California

The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.