Universal Sports to carry the Giro – Update

The Official Word from Universal Sports.  Also, they are trying to put the heat on Direct tv.  If you are so inclined, call them  1-800-Directv.  Here is the press release:

UNIVERSAL SPORTS ANNOUNCES MULTI-YEAR DEAL TO BROADCAST GIRO D’ITALIA

 

TV and LIVE Online Coverage Starts Tomorrow

 

 Agreement Coincides with the Event’s 100^th Anniversary and Lance Armstrong’s Italian Giro Debut

 

LOS ANGELES – May 8, 2009 – Universal Sports announced a multi-year deal today to broadcast the Giro d’Italia as the race celebrates its 100^th anniversary, starting tomorrow. Lance Armstrong will make his debut in this race as he returns from his retirement.  Coverage of the race begins with a team time trial on Saturday, May 9, from Lido di Venezia on the Universal Sports Network and live online, all broadcast times available at UniversalSports.com.

 

Universal Sports continues to solidify its commitment to broadcast top cycling events with the multi-year broadcast agreement. As part of the deal, Universal Sports will provide television and online coverage, including archived video and television re-airs, for the 2009–2012 Giro d’Italia races.  Previous to this agreement, the race was available on a limited basis on the Versus network, and through pay-per-view on Cycling.TV. In addition to the Giro, Universal Sports has had a long-term agreement with the International Cycling Union (UCI) to broadcast world cups and world championships in Road, Track, Cyclo-cross, Mountain and BMX, as well as the Tour of Basque Country, Tour of Missouri, Tour of Georgia and the Deutschland Tour.

 

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSAL SPORTS:  Universal Sports, available in 45 million homes, will present same-day coverage of the 2009 Giro d’Italia, with nightly re-airs at 9 p.m. ET and 11 p.m. ET. The Universal Sports broadcast team consists of Steve Schlanger and former professional cyclist Todd Gogulski, with Scott Ogle on the ground in Italy.

 

Date                 Events                                                                        Time (all times ET)

May 9             Lido di Venezia                                                        12 p.m.

May 10           Jesolo to Trieste                                                       12 p.m.

May 11           Grado to Valdobbiadene                                        12 p.m.

May 12           Padova to San Martino di Castrozza                    12 p.m.

May 13           San Martino di Castrozza to Alpe di Siusi           12 p.m.

May 14           Bressanone to Mayrhofen                                                 12 p.m.

May 15           Innsbruck to Chiavenna                                         12 p.m.

May 16           Morbegno to Bergamo                                            12 p.m.

May 17           Milano                                                                        12 p.m.

May 18           Rest day       

May 19           Cuneo → Pinerolo                                                  12 p.m.

May 20           Torino to Arenzano                                                  12 p.m.

May 21           Sestri Levante to Riomaggiore                              12 p.m.

May 22           Lido di Camaiore to Firenze                                   12 p.m.

May 23           Campi Bisenzio to San Luca (Bologna)              12 p.m.

May 24           Forlì to Faenza                                                         12 p.m.

May 25           Pergola to Monte Petrano                                      12 p.m.

May 26           Rest day       

May 27           Chieti to Blockhaus                                                             12 p.m.

May 28           Sulmona to Benevento                                           12 p.m.

May 29           Avellino to Monte Vesuvius                                   12 p.m.

May 30           Napoli to Anagni                                                      12 p.m.

May 31           Roma                                                                         12 p.m.

 

COVERAGE ON UNIVERSALSPORTS.COM:  UniversalSports.com will provide exclusive, live coverage of the entire Giro d’Italia, starting with the Stage 1 team time trial at 8:30 a.m. ET. Each race will be streamed live at 8:30 a.m. – 12 p.m. ET. Complete schedule, as well as full-length videos, highlights, stage maps, photos and breaking news available at UniversalSports.com/cycling.

 

ABOUT THE RACE:  The Giro d’Italia is one of the three major, multi-week European professional cycling stage races, along with the Tour de France and Vuelta a España (Tour of Spain). The Giro consists of 21 stages, including six stages held in the mountains. The Giro will conclude at the Colosseum in Rome on May 31.

 

Alberto Contador was the winner of the Giro in 2008 and only the fifth rider to win all three grand tours of cycling, but will not defend his title this year.  Italian Ivan Basso won the 2006 race and is returning after a two-year doping ban.

 

ABOUT UNIVERSAL SPORTS: Universal Sports, a partnership between NBC Sports and InterMedia Partners, serves as the preeminent multiplatform destination for Olympic-related and lifestyle sports programming available on television and online. Universal Sports is a 24-hour television channel available in 45 million television households in markets including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Seattle, Las Vegas, Indianapolis, Reno and Omaha. Major world championship and Olympic qualifying events found on Universal Sports range from track and field, skiing, swimming, gymnastics, marathons and cycling, to volleyball, rowing, triathlon, fencing, speed skating and martial arts. UniversalSports.com delivers an immersive experience via live and on-demand competition coverage, interaction with top athletes through blogs and in-depth access to Olympic sports news and information year round. For more information on the availability of the Universal Sports 24-hour television channel, please visit UniversalSports.com

It looks like Versus is bucking cycling

Back in 1999, I quit my cable and joined Dish network for one reason and one reason only.  They had The Outdoor Life Network.  Back then, the Outdoor Life Network was the only port of call for European cycling in the US.  I made the change in May just in time for the Giro d’Italia.  I had to endure complaints from my family about satellite companies not providing the local feed of the Weather Channel.  To me, it was an easy sacrifice.  No “Local on the 8s” but the voices of Phil and Paul were now in my house.  Later when I switched to Direct TV, I made sure OLN was in the lineup.

In September of 2006, Comcast, the parent renamed OLN, Versus.  Versus also acquired the rights to the NHL.  That was fine.  I never saw hockey as compition to cycling.  What was increasingly supplanting cycling from the Versus lineup was Bull Riding.  

Cycling now had become the red-headed step child of the Comcast Sports family.  Neglected.  Not allowed to grow and achieve its full potential.  You heard me call for a Cycling channel but with Comcast’s vice like grip on Grand Tour and Pro Tour rights, that could not happen.  So I turned to Broadband and Cycling.tv.

Cycling.tv brought the whole cycling world directly into my home (or office if you need to know the truth). Versus had all kinds of rights to the Grand Tours but was able to partner with Cycling.tv to bring them to the Internet.  I was satisfied, if not happy with the arrangement.

For the first time in a long time, there is a little light at the end of the tunnel.  NBC and it’s Universal Sports Channel has acquired the rights to the Giro d’Italia.  No fanfare, I was just sent the below email from Universal Sports yesterday at 4:44pm.

 

Just a heads up we will be broadcasting the Giro d’Italia starting Saturday!!! Sorry for the late notice we just found out we got the rights.  I will have more details and information shortly. 

All LIVE on-line and just a slight delay on TV ( I believe all races will start at 12 on TV)! 

Cycling Channel: http://www.universalsports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=23000&KEY=&SPID=13044&SPSID=105618 

With that, my world began to change.  Could we finally get a cycling channel?  Could we grow within a sports loving, nurturing company?  The smell of athletic competition has replaced the smell of Bull dung.

Unfortunately, it seems that there is some collateral damage.  It looks like Cycling.tv lost the Versus Giro feed and will go dark tomorrow morning.  In fact, it looks like all the Italian races organized by RCS are now off the Internet.  This includes Milan-Sanremo, the Giro di Lombardia and Tirreno Adriatico.

I do not have confirmation from Universal how they intend to broadcast the Giro over the Internet or if they will work out a deal with Cycling.tv.  Looking at their site, I don’t see the infrastructure for Internet broadcasting.  This is important to me because, I am back to where I was in 1999.  My provider does not carry Universal Sports. Curse you Direct TV!

Unlike 1999, I don’t have an easy solution.  I’m told by Verizon that FiOS service is still a few weeks away.  Ironically, my other option is, get this, Comcast.  Yes, Comcast carries Universal Sports. If this is for the greater good, I’ll need to figure out a work around until Verizon gets their wondrous fiber to my end of the street.

Oops I did it again

Well, it looks like our Boy Scout has gotten himself into trouble again.  Tyler Hamilton has retired after testing positive for the steroid DHEA.  My first thought was confirmation that the Boy Scout image I believed for so many years was actually a ruse.  Then I read his reason for the mishap.

Mr. Hamilton says he took an over the counter herbal supplement that contained the banned substance.  Then he let us know about his family history, his grandmother’s suicide.  Take the family history combined with the way his life has gone sideways since his 2004 Olympic gold medal and you have a good story.  I actually found myself nodding in belief.  Then I thought.

“Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.”

I waited to post until I read a post from Dan over at Rant Your Head Off.  Dan has forgotten more about doping than I’ll ever know.  Dan quite literally wrote the book on doping in sports. What I do know is DHEA is pretty fay up the steroid cascade.  A building block that can be used if you are not on the straight and narrow.  If you are not a Boy Scout.  

So for now, I will not buy into the Hamilton saga.  I find it hard to Believe.  If true, I find it disgraceful to use family tragedy to build sympathy for cheating.  So to avoid the downward spiral that thinking about Tyler can cause, I’ll take a pass and focus on today’s Amstel Gold race.

Cyclist Village closes doors

Today, I received the following email from the website Cyclist Village:

Dear Member,

We regret to inform you that Cyclist Village will be closing down effective immediately. We appreciate your support and participation and wish you all the best.
Regards,
Cyclist Village

Originally started under the title Broadband Racer, Cyclist Village tried to expand the social networking world into cycling.  Blogs, video posts from professional riders as well as fans, Cyclist Village found that while popular, social networking sites have trouble finding a viable business model.

God’s Speed Cyclist Village.

Begin cycling’s greatest week

Koppenberg Climb, Tour of Flanders Sportive 2006

Break out the black armbands. The Governor is not calling.

Cue Mozart’s Requiem

Imagine you were a die hard football fan living in Canton OH, or a baseball fan living in Cooperstown, NY.  What would you do if you heard the hall of fame was leaving your home town and no one cared enough to stop it.  That’s how I feel today.

The US Bicycle hall of fame is leaving my home town of Somerville, NJ.  Sources here say it is 90% certain that it will head for Greensboro North Carolina.  Either way, I feel like my heart just got ripped out.  

Ever since my children were born, we had a tradition of attending the oldest bicycle race in the US, The Tour of Somerville.  Part of the day included a stop at the Hall of Fame.  I would walk my kids around looking at all the memorabilia in the building.  When my daughter was 6 years old she pointed at the framed rainbow jersey and squealed “Mario Cippollini!”  

We would make a donation walk right out onto Main Street to watch the action.  The Hall had to move from that storefront.  A victim of progress that claimed the all the stores in the vicinity.  In its place a new modern shopping hub would provide the Hall of Fame it’s proper place.  In fact, there was even talk of a velodrome.  Sadly, the builder became a victim too.  One of endless lawsuits with the town and ultimately the economy.  For the past two years, the shopping center sits behind yellow tape an empty shell.

The Hall suffered from an out of sight out of mind syndrome and funding slowed to a trickle.  That’s when the bids went out for a new home.  Several NJ towns stepped up and made, in my opinion, half hearted attempts to save this piece of NJ history.  The state refused to step in and that was that.

I’ll still go to the Tour of Somerville until that becomes the Tour of Somewhere Else.  Now all I have of NJ is the highest US taxes, highest US unemployment, and the Turnpike.

Ouch

Crash of Lance Armstrong in Vuelta Castilla y Leon

Yes, While places like Facebook and Twitter get all the press, the leader in the Web 2.0/user media space continues to be YouTube

Lance to have surgery

In a testament to the immediacy of social media, Lance Armstrong announced via Twitter that his fracture was not a clean break and he is forced to undergo the knife at 7am this morning (Austin time)

1. Good morning. Ready to get this over with. “Higs” (my manager) will update when it’s over and keep y’all updated.(Approx 8am this morning Eastern Time)

    

2. At home finally. Whew. Long coupla days. Surgery at 7am tomorrow.(Approx 1am last night Eastern Time)

    

3. Getting a CT scan now.(Approx 11pm last night Eastern Time)

    

4. At the doc’s office. I guess it wasn’t such a “clean” fracture after all. Bummer.(Approx 11pm last night Eastern Time)

    

5. Back in austin. Headed to the doctor’s office.(Approx 9pm last night Eastern Time)
6. Back in the good ol’ U S of A. (Approx 6pm last night Eastern Time)

Reuters and the AP can’t match this kind of coverage.  This shows that a silly application like Twitter can have tremendous implications as a real-time news source.  Who would have thought.

UPDATE: 9:49am Eastern 

About to head in. See y’all in a few. Livestrong.

 

Lance ready for surgery from Lance Armstrong via twitpic.

Lance injured in a crash

Well I’m sorry to disappoint those who thought Lance was some sort of immortal.  I mean, he beat cancer then won 7 Tours de France without touching asphalt, or even suffering a inopportune flat.  In 2003, he lost over 12 pounds of water becoming dehydrated.  Even dehydrated, be beat all but one rider.  He also beat them all by the time the race hit Paris.

Lest you think his feats were confined to the bike.  He ignighted a world wide phenomenon by wearing a simple yellow bracelet.  And to cap it off, Lance regained his fertility and in expecting a child in June.  Surely he is not like us.  The laws of nature do not apply.

One law apparently does.  The laws of physics.  Specifically gravity.  Today, Lance showed us that he is, in fact, human. In today’s Vuelta Castilla y Leon, Lance engaged in a battle with gravity.  This time, gravity won.  It also seems that his bones do break as he may have broken his collarbone.

What does this mean?  Well in typical Lance fashion, he may come out on top.  I believe he started the season focusing on the Giro.  He was setting himself up for a selfless role helping Alberto Contador win the Tour.  Most folks feel Alberto is the better rider.

When Contador blew up at Paris-Nice, Lance must have seen the door open to being The Boss of the Tour once again.  But one problem remained.  How to back out of the Giro.  

Now no one would fault him if he came to the Giro in less than peak form.  Injuries always force a rider to readjust their calendar.  So this may delay peak form from May-June until July.  How unfortunate.

Winter hiatus is over

“Hey, let’s be careful out there”  Sgt. Phil Esterhaus Hill Street Blues 1981

 - Montagues vs. Capulets

 - Hatfields vs. McCoys

 - Army vs. Navy

 - Road Cyclists vs. Motorists

Every winter, the long standing feud goes dormant.  Road cyclists become few and far between.  During that time, the roads are dominated by cars.  As the days get longer and the weather warmer, you start seeing the return of two-wheeled, human-powered vehicles onto the roads.  While the swallows return to Capistrano are welcome, road cyclists are not given the same embrace.  In fact, the treatment is closer to that of the Canade Goose, that a swallow.

Winter, as measured by the lack of cyclists, is around 4 – 5 months in duration.  This is long enough for the average driver to reclaim dominance on the roads and forget what it is like to live in harmony with other road riding creatures.  Then the first few cyclists return and dormant aggressive feelings start to return. 

From a cyclist’s point of view, the first few rides are not ones that are remembered for fluidity and gracefulness.  After months on the trainer, the balance is less than perfect.  Combine that with the poor conditions of the road along with left over sand from previous snows and you have a cyclist who may be a little less predictable by a motorist than normal. 

Over the past few days, I’ve already had a season worth of close calls.  Most are due to simple preoccupation with all the issues of the world and not seeing the lycra clad rider in front.  That I can live with.  We need to retrain our brains to place cyclists onto the radar screen along with deer and other non-automobiles that may occupy asphalt.  It’s the agressive, “You do not belong here attitude”  that is already in full swing.  Hard honks, speeding up to pass in order to take a hard right in front of my wheel, passing so close I can feel the side view mirror on the hairs of my arm.  These are a little over the top. 

This morning after another encounter, I came home to Good Morning America on the TV.  The show was running a weekly segment where you use three words to make a statement about yourself or what you believe.  You express yourself with a video.  I will use a picture to share three words with you.  I’ve added a fourth at the bottom.

Please