Tour de France Femmes (avec Zwift) (et avec spoilers)

[Peter Salt]

Soooo.... Can you put a bet on the number of punctures tomorrow?

 

[Dogtrousers]

I'm actually feeling pretty angry!

I wanted to catch up with the first 3 stages so I just went on Eurosport to watch them On Demand... A poxy 10 minutes for stage 1, 17 minutes for stage 2. I haven't watched stage 3 yet.

Stage 2 'highlights' apparently were the crashes, especially that horrible crash which they played over, but then they skipped virtually all of the racing.

The edits were so clumsy that nearly all of them took place in a commentator's mid-sentence. You want to talk about the race? Sorry, no time for that, let's quickly skip 10 km! Can we skip 20 km next time?

Oh, here comes the sprint. Well, at least that was good.

Phew we squeezed it all into less than 18 minutes! Do you think anybody will notice that we were just going through the motions...?

Exciting milliseconds of the next stage coming soon!

I quite agree and I don't understand it. It's a streaming platform so why cut it so short? (I'm talking about the GCN+ highlights I presume these are the same as Eurosport on demand)

Yesterday I caught the last 10 mins or so live. I could tell there were chasing groups everywhere delayed by the crashes (including Uttrup). I thought the highlights would explain what was had been going on, but no.

Todays was just as bad. You get the last 5k, that's it.

 

[mjr]

I quite agree and I don't understand it. It's a streaming platform so why cut it so short? (I'm talking about the GCN+ highlights I presume these are the same as Eurosport on demand)

Well, that's odd. The Eurosport broadcast highlights on E1 have been an hour and shown a few key sections of race to explain it, with the » symbol animation for big jumps. Not much preamble and no podium, GC or interviews, but they've been in the news bulletin straight after so far. It's been broadcast on time, too, unusually for E1. So not as good as a men's GT but similar to what E1 do for smaller races.

 

[ColinJ]

Well, that's odd. The Eurosport broadcast highlights on E1 have been an hour and shown a few key sections of race to explain it, with the » symbol animation for big jumps. Not much preamble and no podium, GC or interviews, but they've been in the news bulletin straight after so far. It's been broadcast on time, too, unusually for E1. So not as good as a men's GT but similar to what E1 do for smaller races.

Not ON DEMAND though. If I want to pretend that it is a TV channel - yes. I want to watch at times that suit ME though, not Eurosport!

The men's TdF On Demand gave multiple options including the whole day coverage and the full-length highlights shows.

 

[mjr]

Not ON DEMAND though. If I want to pretend that it is a TV channel - yes. I want to watch at times that suit ME though, not Eurosport!

The men's TdF On Demand gave multiple options including the whole day coverage and the full-length highlights shows.

If you had Eurosport TV channel, there are digital video recorders that let you watch at any later time that suits, on any screen with a compatible app.

 

[ColinJ]

If you had Eurosport TV channel

I don't!

I can live without recording it if they would just let me stream the original content later when I like. I don't understand why it is not always made possible, unless there is some weird rights issue.

The other annoyance is that I forgot to do my annual 'save money on Eurosport sub by cancelling and resubbing later' thing. I usually get it for £20-£30 but my sub went out today for £40 without me realising that it was going to happen.

 

[matticus]

Has anyone tried TIZ cycling for streams/highlights?
[yes, you can shout at me about (copy)rights infringments etc ... ]

 

[Dogtrousers]

Well, that's odd. The Eurosport broadcast highlights on E1 have been an hour and shown a few key sections of race to explain it, with the » symbol animation for big jumps. Not much preamble and no podium, GC or interviews, but they've been in the news bulletin straight after so far. It's been broadcast on time, too, unusually for E1. So not as good as a men's GT but similar to what E1 do for smaller races.

I now know I should have recorded the Eurosport highlights cos the highlights on GCN were really quite pants. And I find that really puzzling. Why go to the trouble of making a really short highlights? Are they trying to compete with the youtubers who do short-attention-span videos maybe?

 

[T4tomo]

I don't!

I can live without recording it if they would just let me stream the original content later when I like. I don't understand why it is not always made possible, unless there is some weird rights issue.

The other annoyance is that I forgot to do my annual 'save money on Eurosport sub by cancelling and resubbing later' thing. I usually get it for £20-£30 but my sub went out today for £40 without me realising that it was going to happen.

I had discovery plus sub rather than eurosport direct sub and there are all the hour highlight shows plus the 30 minute "breakaway" chats on there too? i.e.

so its not a rights issue as it all same ownership, just different platform - can you use eurosport login for D+

 

[Peter Salt]

Haven't seen anything about non-starters ahead of stage 4.

Still keeping my fingers crossed for Kasia's stage win but the pragmatic in me feels that SD Worx will want to bounce back with Kopecky or Moolman. Possible fight with AVV if she recovered from her illness? That said, punctures/mechanicals can completely flip the pack.

 

[Dogtrousers]

Maybe I was being an idiot and accidentally selected "crap highlights". Such things have been known to happen.

 

[Peter Salt]

Ooooh, all kicking off on the last gravel bit. Good entertainment if you're the one watching - not so much if you're racing

 

[Donger]

Really looking forward to the Saturday stage in the Vosges mountains. I stayed in Luttenbach-pres-Munster in 2018 and was lucky enough to get four bike rides in, taking in various parts of the route of a stage from the 2014 Tour de France. On Saturday, the TdF Femmes is covering many of the same climbs as I did back then ..... the Col du petit Ballon, the Col du Platzerwasel, the Markstein and the Grand Ballon. I think it is a shame that since 2014 the TdF seems to have become obsessed with the Planche des Belles Filles to the almost complete exclusion of all these other lovely climbs in the vicinity and the great views to be had...... over the vignoble d'Alsace and the Rhine valley from the Petit Ballon, views of the distant Alps from the Grand Ballon and surrounding views across the Vosges all along the beautiful Route des Cretes. I can thoroughly recommend the area for a cycling holiday and I'm looking forward to seeing it again on Saturday. I shall feel every pedal turn on those cat 1 climbs!

 

[Mike_P]

What a clown in the UAE car. Hope Garcia is okay and odds on someone bring thrown out aka the motorcyclists last week.

 

[Dogtrousers]

What a clown in the UAE car. Hope Garcia is okay and odds on someone bring thrown out aka the motorcyclists last week.

Was it entirely his fault? I thought she cut across a bit sharpish. But I've not seen a zillion replays so I'm probably wrong.

Anyway I hope she's OK