Many ungrateful people cried and moaned about your coverage. I am just happy for the coverage I got. Thanks and hope to see it again next year.

Yep, I too cringed at the so-called "enhanced" prime time coverage and the constant commercials, but this morning I got back from my morning ride, turned on OLN and was going into my TdF withdrawal. I got so used to three weeks of daily coverage. :cryin: NFW that ESPN would have done that.

Just look at CBS' annual ritual where they provided their "coverage" yesterday where they condensed the TdF into one hour. :mad2:

Bravo to Phil, Paul, Bobke ("god dayy-umm") and, I hate to say it, Trautwig.

Let's just hope that next year -- two years after Lance's retirement -- we get daily coverage of the TdF from Versus.

Yes, thank you OLN for the Tour coverage as well as Cyclism Sundays. Looking forward to next year.

Deek

yeah...lot's of complainers as always, but I for one was grateful to have 5 hr. mountain stages covered nearly end to end (and with a PVR/TiVo, them' nasty commercials go away!). Trautwig was better this year...he's learning I guess... :- )

Mike

I thought the coverage was good. I thought it was a great sign that Versus, or OLN or whatever the hell they are calling themselves will be coving live the Tour of California. That is 7 months away so I am impressed that they made that commitment now. Here is to the hope of the continuation of covering the spring classics as well!

I agree: thanks for the coverage. I had the DVR set for every morning. (I like troutwig and roll, but they don't need to be doing the "play by play") I hope phil and paul are back next year ---and let's not forget they (versus) will be doing the tour of california as well:thumbsup:

Imagine, if you will, watching TV2 or Eurosport- with virtually no commercials, no cyclism, etc...


Imagine everyone at work talking about the TdF over lunch, the jersey races, etc.

OLN covers the TdF like it is NASCAR or something.

Imagine, if you will, watching TV2 or Eurosport- with virtually no commercials, no cyclism, etc...

Have to go to Europe for those channels...


Imagine everyone at work talking about the TdF over lunch, the jersey races, etc.

Have to go to Europe for that too. Coincidence? Not likely.

Thanks for the coverage OLN, or Versus or Vs. or whatever you will become!

I was looking all over limewire to see if anyone copied that special 4 minutes of commercial break coverage. That was the most spontaneous and funny commentary I've heard on TV. The crash and the "day-um" was so real. I loved it. If anyone has copied that to an mpeg file. let me know. Thanks.

No kidding! I wish that they would just do the entire Tour that way. That was perfect!

No kidding! I wish that they would just do the entire Tour that way. That was perfect!


Yes, a big thanks is deserved. I couldnt stomach the "enhanced Primetime coverage" but loved the job Paul and Phil did first thing in the morning. Those two are classic.

Great job, OLN. Hopefully it continues on with the name change.

Agreed. I really enjoyed the coverage this year. I too have a bit of a void now that the Tour is over and I can't look forward to watching the stage in the evenings after the kids have gone to bed.

I am so happy that an American network has at least given me the chance to watch the Tour and some other races and certainly hope that Vs. will keep up the tradition.

Loved the coverage. And OLN seemed to get much higher transmission quality this year, too. A pleasure.

I agree with the poster above who wrote about going through withdrawl today -- I did too.

I certainly found some things to complain about regarding OLN's coverage over the past three weeks, but nothing that comes close to the euphoria of being able to sit down and watch gobs of action every day. I'm not as "experienced" as some of you guys out there -- I only started watching cycling in the Indurain era -- but I certainly remember the dark days of lame, weekend-only coverage. Me no likey.

Frankly I'm amazed at the commitment that OLN has made to cycling, and I am d@mn happy it will continue for at least another year. I know the world works on money -- and that means shoehorning in plenty of commercials and building an audience by gearing a portion of the coverage to newbies. That's OK, I was a newbie too once upon a time. As long as I still get what I want -- lots of coverage by two, very experienced announcers -- I'm willing to share.

Having said this, there's always room for improvement. A few small suggestions, OLN, for next year:

1. Save some production dollars by having fewer on-air talent -- you really don't need 6-7 people to cover a bike race -- not even the Tour-day-France. Wack everyone but Phil, Paul and Bob. Frankly the rest of those guys were embarrasing. Bob can be embarrasing too, but at least he's got a personality. The rest of those guys were stiffer than me on Viagra.

2. It's okay to tell the sponsors to shoot more than one commercial for a three week broadcast. I know, you shouldn't have to tell them -- they all employ ad agencies. Nevertheless I doubt there's a serious viewer out there who isn't ready to puke after the constant repetition of the same 5-6 commercials.

3. I assume the only reason why you have "the trout" and Bob calling the evening broadcast is in case Phil and Paul hold out for too much money some day, and you need a team to fill their shoes. Do us all a favor -- pay Phil and Paul the extra cash from the savings I suggested above!

4. Please stop forcing Phil to read voice-overs for PBR bull riding -- its just wrong!

Thank You OLN!!!!!!!

We may be a bunch of cry babies at times (commercials :cryin: Al Troutfish :cryin: PBR :cryin: ) but we'd be cryin' even harder if we had to rely on CBS for our cycling fix.....

In the words of Oliver Twist: "Please sir, I want some more!"

Thank you very very very very much, OLN!!!

Big thanks to OLN for an entertaining past 3 weeks! I'm anxious to see if the new VS. will still air outdoor shows, but I'm probably in the minority here on this board for worrying about that. Oh well, there's still the great redneck Outdoor Channel to give me my fix for the hunting shows!

Imagine, if you will, watching TV2 or Eurosport- with virtually no commercials, no cyclism, etc...


Imagine everyone at work talking about the TdF over lunch, the jersey races, etc.

OLN covers the TdF like it is NASCAR or something.

Well at least they cover it!:) Just my opinion, but let's not put nascar and the tour in the same argument:D





4. Please stop forcing Phil to read voice-overs for PBR bull riding -- its just wrong!


Absolutly agree! I thought i was the only one who shook his head everytime that happened. Although this year it seemed to be less than last year!

thank you OLN ( and Tivo!) I was camping during the final 3 stages, so I have to give props to cyclingnews for their feeds on my phone.

I would like to add my thanks for the OLN coverage to those thanks already given. I, too, am going through Tour withdrawals. It is amazing how, for three weeks, a race can become an integral part of your schedule, even when its taking place halfway around the world.

Please continue the coverage and Cyclism Sundays...

Yep, Thanks!

I Tivo'd the live show every morning and watched every minute when I got home from work at night. Al and Bob do a great job in the booth and Phil and Paul do an outstanding job on the play by play. Looking forward to next year!

Just 5 minutes of CBS's weekend show was enough to have me on my knees thanking OLN for providing the hours of daily coverage. CBS is still using that same formula from the John Tesh/Yanni days in the 80's!!

As bad as that old CBS coverage was, it shined over the p-poor job ABC did when they got the franchise in 1989 . . . with Al Trautwig as "the anchor" and Pierre Sallinger as resident "expert".

17 years on, Al is a positive presence in the booth in my opinion. I can't envision any other mainstream "on-air personality" doing half as good a job. I wouldn't mind having Kirstin Gum back tho' . . .

Although I Tivo'd the daily live coverage, I'd watch the "enhanced coverage" that was airing as I got home from work. Other than stage 17 they always used Phil and Paul's call for the finishing action and I'd rather hear a different set of voices blathering on endlessly in the boring mid stage bits.

Frankie doesn't seem to add much although if you catch the Floyd interviews over on Velonews (after stages 16 and 17) he offered up the meatiest questions and consequently got the meatiest responses. Maybe OLN needs to utilize him slightly differently?

Robbie Ventura . . . I found him really irritating to begin with but he improved as time went by.

Craig Hummer . . . no opinion, I just wanted to type hummer.

Did I mention I miss Kirstin?

Yep, I too thank OLN (And I suspect I will be thanking Versus next year) for their coverage.

Their is little coverage on bicycle racing. But thats because their is a small portion of the population that want to see it. If it were not for Armstrong, I suspect we would not be seeing as much coverage as we do now... and Landis made a most interesting race. Good job!

Thanks!

Sinclair

that everyone here might not be sending an email of thanks directly to OLN....

Just in case...

http://www.olntv.com/