OLN's program directors are retarded.

Josh

So, as I'm sitting at work yesterday, eagerly anticipating
the TTT last night. I shut off my radio and listen to MP3. I
don't read any emails from cycling friends. I stay away from
OLN.com and the other tour sites. I tell my wife not to tell
me what happened during the stage.

All I wanted to do was sit down and watch for myself during
the re-broadcast.

So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready for
the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a promo for
today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the crashes and
Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do you have to be?
Right in the middle of the broadcast they show the end!

All I could think of was the Seinfeld where Jerry spends all
day avoiding people to watch the Yankees game and Kramer
spoils it.

Good thing I rode this morning or I'd be in a FOUL mood.

Josh.

S O R N I

Josh wrote:
> So, as I'm sitting at work yesterday, eagerly anticipating
> the TTT last night. I shut off my radio and listen to MP3.
> I don't read any emails from cycling friends. I stay away
> from OLN.com and the other tour sites. I tell my wife not
> to tell me what happened during the stage.
>
> All I wanted to do was sit down and watch for myself
> during the re-broadcast.
>
> So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
> for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
> promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
> crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
> you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast they
> show the end!

Truly lame. I hope you wrote 'em!

> All I could think of was the Seinfeld where Jerry spends
> all day avoiding people to watch the Yankees game and
> Kramer spoils it.

Kramer wreck something? No way!

> Good thing I rode this morning or I'd be in a FOUL mood.

We can tell

I did a half-day (mountain bike) ride Saturday, so was
determined to not know the results of the Prologue. Avoided
newsgroup threads, averted eyes from sports headlines, etc.
Never occurred to me that OLN could blow it during the re-
broadcast! (They didn't for that one, AFAIK.)

What ticked me off was that San Diego's Time-Warner was
showing friggin' INFOMERCIALS during the live coverage
starting at 5:30 AM local time, switching to OLN at 7:00. I
and /many/ others bitched, and sure enough they've gone live
now for the rest of the Tour. (Still wondering about
weekends when CBS has its lame 1-hour highlight show; last
year they bumped OLN all day for it!)

Bill "hairy legs still" S.

G.T.

S o r n i wrote:
> Josh wrote:
>
>>So, as I'm sitting at work yesterday, eagerly anticipating
>>the TTT last night. I shut off my radio and listen to MP3.
>>I don't read any emails from cycling friends. I stay away
>>from OLN.com and the other tour sites. I tell my wife not
>>to tell me what happened during the stage.
>>
>>All I wanted to do was sit down and watch for myself
>>during the re-broadcast.
>>
>>So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
>>for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
>>promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
>>crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
>>you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast they
>>show the end!
>
>
> Truly lame. I hope you wrote 'em!
>
>
>>All I could think of was the Seinfeld where Jerry spends
>>all day avoiding people to watch the Yankees game and
>>Kramer spoils it.
>
>
> Kramer wreck something? No way!
>
>
>>Good thing I rode this morning or I'd be in a FOUL mood.
>
>
> We can tell
>
> I did a half-day (mountain bike) ride Saturday, so was
> determined to not know the results of the Prologue.
> Avoided newsgroup threads, averted eyes from sports
> headlines, etc. Never occurred to me that OLN could
> blow it during the re-broadcast! (They didn't for that
> one, AFAIK.)
>
> What ticked me off was that San Diego's Time-Warner was
> showing friggin' INFOMERCIALS during the live coverage
> starting at 5:30 AM local time, switching to OLN at 7:00.
> I and /many/ others bitched, and sure enough they've gone
> live now for the rest of the Tour. (Still wondering about
> weekends when CBS has its lame 1-hour highlight show; last
> year they bumped OLN all day for it!)
>

At least you guys have OLN. A little sympathy here, please?

Greg

--
Destroy your safe and happy lives Before it is too late The
battles we fought were long and hard Just not to be consumed
by rock'n'roll

Monique Y. Muda

On 2004-07-08, G.T. penned:
>
> At least you guys have OLN. A little sympathy here,
> please?
>

Awww.

*hug*

At least your hubby isn't waking you up early with the
glorious sounds of Tour Day France! Tour Day France! coming
from the TV.

--
monique

Shawn Curry

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
> On 2004-07-08, G.T. penned:
>
>>At least you guys have OLN. A little sympathy here,
>>please?
>>
>
>
> Awww.
>
> *hug*
>
> At least your hubby isn't waking you up early with the
> glorious sounds of Tour Day France! Tour Day France!
> coming from the TV.
>
So Bob Roll's still at OLN?

Monique Y. Muda

On 2004-07-08, Shawn Curry penned:
> Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
>>
>> At least your hubby isn't waking you up early with the
>> glorious sounds of Tour Day France! Tour Day France!
>> coming from the TV.
>>
> So Bob Roll's still at OLN?

Indeed.

To be honest, though, I don't recall him doing that so much
anymore. At least, they're not playing those obnoxious ads
with him trying to "learn" to say it properly.

(I'm pretty sure it's all just a gimmick, anyway; how could
he possibly not be able to pronounce that one syllable after
years of racing?)

--
monique

S O R N I

Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
> On 2004-07-08, Shawn Curry penned:
>> Monique Y. Mudama wrote:
>>>
>>> At least your hubby isn't waking you up early with the
>>> glorious sounds of Tour Day France! Tour Day France!
>>> coming from the TV.
>>>
>> So Bob Roll's still at OLN?
>
> Indeed.
>
> To be honest, though, I don't recall him doing that so
> much anymore. At least, they're not playing those
> obnoxious ads with him trying to "learn" to say it
> properly.
>
> (I'm pretty sure it's all just a gimmick, anyway; how
> could he possibly not be able to pronounce that one
> syllable after years of racing?)

Especially when he nails all the crazy rider and town names
pretty well.

Bill "methinks he's just stubborn" S.

John Harlow

> So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
> for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
> promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
> crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
> you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast they
> show the end!

It sounds like OLN showed the only things which could
possibly be interesting about it.

Please explain to me what could possibly be exciting about
watching people road ride on TV?

Mattb

John Harlow wrote:
>> So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
>> for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
>> promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
>> crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
>> you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast they
>> show the end!
>
>
> It sounds like OLN showed the only things which could
> possibly be interesting about it.
>
> Please explain to me what could possibly be exciting about
> watching people road ride on TV?

It's (obviously) not for everyone. I had no interest in it
until I was forced to watch with my family a few times.
After learning a little more about all the chess-like
tactics it became more interesting. Combined with the
amazing (IMO) level of athleticism and occasional
carnage/near miss incident, it makes for an interesting
watch. I also want to pump the ratings in hopes that cycling
will grow in popularity and more MTB events would be
broadcast. I'd find those even more interesting.

Matt

Josh

"John Harlow" <sirsausage@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:2vednYTre_QjDnDdRVn-uw@comcast.com...
> > So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
> > for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
> > promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
> > crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
> > you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast
> > they show the end!
>
>
> It sounds like OLN showed the only things which could
> possibly be interesting about it.
>
> Please explain to me what could possibly be exciting about
> watching people road ride on TV?
>

The general stages are somewhat boring, and can be
summarized by a quick recap. The TTT and ITT are exciting
because they are fast, brutal examples of athleticism and
often contain much carnage. The tour as a whole is
interesting in the fact that much strategy is used/required
to win and the fact that many teams are not there with the
intent to win, the Tour offers other titles as well, green
jersey, polka dot jersey, etc.

Try it, you'll like it.

Kamus Of Kadizh

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 12:48:33 -0600, MattB wrote:

>> Please explain to me what could possibly be exciting
>> about watching people road ride on TV?
>
> It's (obviously) not for everyone. I had no interest in it
> until I was forced to watch with my family a few times.
> After learning a little more about all the chess-like
> tactics it became more interesting. Combined with the
> amazing (IMO) level of athleticism and occasional
> carnage/near miss incident, it makes for an interesting
> watch. I also want to pump the ratings in hopes that
> cycling will grow in popularity and more MTB events would
> be broadcast. I'd find those even more interesting.

That and watching a team at work is like watching a ballet
company. USP TT was phenomenal - compared to T-Mobile, who
were all over the place, USP was perfect.

And during the fast flat stages, there is much excitement in
the weather, crashes, tactics, etc.

And when you get to the mountains, it's all tension, all the
way. The joy of victory, the agony of defeat.... Anything
can happen. The best can crash, a la Beloki last year....

--Kamus

Bomba

On Thu, 08 Jul 2004 08:43:39 -0700, G.T. wrote:

> At least you guys have OLN. A little sympathy here,
> please?

Pfft. At least your tv programs are in English. Well, I say
English...

G.T.

John Harlow wrote:
>>So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
>>for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
>>promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
>>crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
>>you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast they
>>show the end!
>
>
>
> It sounds like OLN showed the only things which could
> possibly be interesting about it.
>
> Please explain to me what could possibly be exciting about
> watching people road ride on TV?
>

Because if you're into the tactics it's the most exciting
sport on TV.

Greg

--
Destroy your safe and happy lives Before it is too late The
battles we fought were long and hard Just not to be consumed
by rock'n'roll

G.T.

Josh wrote:

> "John Harlow" <sirsausage@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:2vednYTre_QjDnDdRVn-uw@comcast.com...
>
>>>So at 9 pm I get home, turn on the tube, and get ready
>>>for the action. What do I see? Some idiots idea of a
>>>promo for today's stage, clips of the TTT, the rain, the
>>>crashes and Lance donning the yellow jersey. How dumb do
>>>you have to be? Right in the middle of the broadcast they
>>>show the end!
>>
>>
>>It sounds like OLN showed the only things which could
>>possibly be interesting about it.
>>
>>Please explain to me what could possibly be exciting about
>>watching people road ride on TV?
>>
>
>
> The general stages are somewhat boring, and can be
> summarized by a quick recap. The TTT and ITT are exciting
> because they are fast, brutal examples of athleticism and
> often contain much carnage.

Carnage is much rarer in time trials. And individual TTs
have none of the compelling tactics that even the most
boring road stage has, a moving pack goes much faster
than an individual. Did you just start watching the Tour
this year?

Greg

--
Destroy your safe and happy lives Before it is too late The
battles we fought were long and hard Just not to be consumed
by rock'n'roll