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July 14, 2003
Heresy: CBS's Tour de France Coverage
The 100th year of the Tour de France (1903-2003) kicked off in Paris July 5th and it is historical not only because it's the biggest, baddest, oldest bicycle race in the world, but Lance Armstrong (a Texas superhuman) is poised to join four other riders (Jacques Anquetil, Eddy Merckx, Bernard Hinault and Miguel Indurain) as a 5-time winner and maybe become one of the greatest bicycle racers of all time.
As a former bicycle racer, the Outdoor Life Network has been a breath of fresh air with live coverage of each stage and expanded programming in the evenings with lots of good inside scoop, knowledgable announcers and very little fluff. My TiVo has been working overtime.
Stage 8 from Sallanches to L'Alpe d'Huez had all the makings of an utter bloodbath if such a thing is possible in cycling. It was early in the Tour, very few riders had broken, it was very long (219 km) and it was punishing. L'Alpe d'Huez has been the scene of many epic cycling battles and it's 13.8 km at a mind-blowing 8% grade came at the end of a day that had already seen the riders drag themselves over the 1566 meter Col du Télégraphe and the 2645 meter Col du Galibier. It was a powderkeg. There would be 500,000 raving maniac cycling fans lining the slopes of Alpe d'Huez! I was dying to see this race.
But CBS had other plans. There is an agreement somewhere that CBS (who used to try to cover the Tour in years past) gets a go at it for old time's sake on Sundays. This is akin to George Foreman deciding to take off his grilling apron and lace on the gloves again. CBS weighed in with a one hour (yes, a whole hour) of Sunday afternoon coverage that might have included two minutes of racing. The rest of the time was spent on human interest stories, history, pageantry and lots of commercials. It was a monster waste of time that made me wait the whole day to see the actual race on OLN. CBS, you suck.
But what a race it was! I think it is the best bicycle race I have ever seen. My wife, not even a former racer, was yelling, screaming, jumping up and down and was holding me personally responsible for Lance not totally decimating the competition. "Why is he letting that guy get ahead of him!!!!!!" I would have given a month's salary to have been on those slopes near the finish line to hear the roars as Armstrong, Beloki, Hamilton, Ullrich, Mayo and Vinokourov tried to break each other's legs and wills. It just doesn't get any better than that. Mayo ended up winning the stage, but Armstrong held off his main rivals to take 3rd and the yellow jersey. Hopefully he will keep it until the Tour ends in Paris on July 27th.
If you like cycling or just think you might, don't miss the Tour this year. Unless you decide to watch it on CBS.
Posted by Mitch in Popular Media
Comments
I'm glad to hear that you get OLN. Unfotunately, TW doesn't carry that channel in Cincinnati. Bummer! Missed the whole Louis Vitton Cup as well! Curse you TW! BTW, Beloki just dropped out due to the spill he took today.
Posted by: Ken at July 14, 2003 10:06 PM
It's been so long since I had cable I can't even remember the pain any more. :-)
The aftermath of Beloki's crash was actually pretty gross. He was bleeding badly and the microphones were picking up his screams. The worst part of it was that some French doofus was standing 3 feet away from him with his 4 year old on his shoulders! Look honey, that's a femur. Ooooooo!
Posted by: Mitch at July 15, 2003 7:35 AM
I discovered the OLN coverage last year and I've been addicted ever since. This year has been very exciting with a lot of crashes and surprises. It's been a brutal race thus far and I can't stop watching it.
I need a TIVO!
Posted by: mashby at July 15, 2003 9:04 PM