The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.

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ToC on TV: The pros speak

Give ESPN2 a break
Editor:
Let's give ESPN2 a little break on the coverage of the Amgen Tour of California. As a producer and bike racer myself, I have to agree the first-day camera work, talent and directing was at times capable of inducing seasickness. However, the technical aspects of the show are improving each day.

Just like a bike team, the production team members need to get their legs underneath them day-to-day, review their work and try to make improvements the next day. The Tour de France production team has worked together for years and the race itself is coordinated with TV in mind from the beginning. The California race and coverage will evolve over the next few days and hopefully the next five years.

One reason bicycle racing receives very little TV coverage is the technical aspect of covering a fast-moving event that spans 80-150 miles; it's not like NASCAR or football where you work in a closed arena or where you can predict points of interest play after play.

Imagine the difficulty of simply standing up on the back of a motorcycle surging and moving through a caravan of bikes and support vehicles while you're holding a 24 pound video camera on your shoulder and looking through a viewfinder with one eye while the technical director is screaming in your earpiece to zoom,pan or whatever. Talk about a puke-fest! Now add the technical aspect of beaming that signal back to the production truck and the commentators.

It could be worse; there could be no coverage at all.

Robert Starling
Las Vegas, Nevada

Coverage slapdash, commentary inane
Editor:
As a devoted Bay Area cyclist, and someone who worked in TV sports for 20 years, I have a unique perspective on the first few days of coverage of the Tour of California on ESPN2.

The actual event, in San Francisco, Sausalito and Santa Rosa, was spectacular. Some of the world's best cyclists, riding on some of the most breathtaking scenery on the planet, should make for a great TV show, yes?

Sadly, no.

The coverage of the prologue looks like it was slapped together at the 11th hour. The producers chose not to show us the one and only crash in SF, but they spent countless wasted minutes following some of the early riders ... guys who could not possibly contend for the lead.

Then, when it came time for Levi Leipheimer's ride, they chose to ignore the middle part of his sub-five-minute effort. Why? By the time the show aired, they knew who were the contenders. I'm baffled as to why they blew it so badly.

Instead, we get inane post-race questions from a woman who obviously knows nothing about either TV or cycling. It's a credit to Levi that he didn't just laugh at her idiotic statements.

The following day was a chance for the TV production team to redeem themselves. But they blew it again. The same clueless woman gave us worthless interviews with the big-name cyclists in the pre-race coverage. Okay, we saw the neutral start in Sausalito, but the next time we saw the riders, they were already halfway to the finish, past the twists and turns up Mt. Tamalpais, past the spectacular scenery along the Pacific Ocean, past the sprint at Pt. Reyes. The TV audience missed seeing the most inspiring sections of the stage.

While I'm a big fan of Paul Sherwen, he seems to be much more comfortable in the "color" announcer role, instead of the lead announcer seat that he's in for this race. And Bob Roll — well — he's Bob Roll.

A race of this stature deserves much better. Let's hope they get it right next year.

Bob Cullinan
San Rafael, California

Coverage is pay-to-play
Editor:
As a veteran of broadcast journalism, I thought readers would be interested to know that the Tour of California paid ESPN2 for the time slot to broadcast a daily summary show, which is created by a production company hired by the tour, not ESPN. ESPN2 can only broadcast the show it is given. In most deals, each entity (in this case ESPN2 and TofC) is given a certain number of commercial slots.

Maggie Giovanni
Chicago, Illinois

Shaky camera work shows it’s done on the fly
Editor:
I just got through complaining to someone about ESPN2's coverage of the Amgen Tour of California, then went online to Wednesday's mailbag and discovered, thankfully, that I don't gripe alone. I could tell from the prologue that we were in trouble. Unbelievably shaky handheld from what often looks like one motorcycle camera on the race route. Minimal graphics to help us understand the gaps and who the riders are, how many kilometers remain, etc., etc. I watched the end of Stage 2 today on my DVR and saw pretty much the whole final kilometer from the back of the lead group. Sure, as they rounded the bend the director cut from the motorcycle camera to a fixed camera at the finish line, but what about the preceding 900 meters? There was a lot of stuff happening there.

It's not like we haven't this lack of commitment before. I started watching race coverage back when Greg LeMond was Cyril Guimard’s premium domestique, when race coverage on TV meant a condensed Saturday afternoon version of the previous week’s stages narrated by John Tesh. (Yeah, that John Tesh.)

Is this where we're headed?

I'm a cyclist but I've also worked in television for over 15 years and now teach it at a large university. If you want to do this right, you've got to dedicate the kind of resources that tell the whole story. That's what I teach my students. ESPN2 obviously elected to do this on the fly, and cycling devotees pay the price for it.

George Bagley
Orlando, Florida

And now, the viewers chime in

Be appreciative and hope for better days
Editor:
I agree that the TV coverage of the Tour of California is not the best. I would love to see daily live coverage of the Tour of California just like the Tour de France but I just don't think that that is a viable option. There just isn't as much interest in the Tour of California at this point as there is in the Tour de France.

I've been a cycling fan since the early 1980s. I remember when the world's biggest race, the Tour, was only covered in a short recap show every weekend. This was even when Greg LeMond was winning. So, I have to be thankful that there is an hour's worth of TV time on every day during a first-year race.

I just have to hope that they people in charge of programming at ESPN2 are not reading the mailbag on VeloNews.com about the TV coverage of the Tour of California. If I were them and I read letters from true cycling fans to the editors of a cycling magazine that are so scathing of the TV coverage, I would think twice about sticking my neck out to cover a cycling race.

Hopefully, the ratings will be high enough this year to make the execs think that covering the Tour of California was worthwhile, and ESPN2 will cover more races in the future.

Bryan Vickery
Birmingham, Alabama

Terrible coverage, but no Lance jabber
Editor:
As if having to wait until 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. isn't bad enough, you have to sit through the cameramen of the "Blair Witch Project." All I have to say is, terrible coverage yet again, but at least I don't have to hear about Lance Armstrong for an hour.

Bryan Smith
Mocksville, North Carolina

Not great, but better than nothing
Editor:
ESPN2's nightly coverage is rough and very amateurish. But having lived through the mid-1980s "Wide World of Sports" era of five to 10 minutes of Tour de France coverage on weekends, buried somewhere in a three-hour program full of auto racing and bowling, it seems to me that we are living in a golden age of cycling coverage.

While the coverage is not great, I still enjoy seeing the race. And give it time — this race is going to grow and coverage will improve. I am just psyched we have something!

Dave Campbell
Newport, Oregon

No, it’s horrendous
Editor:
ESPN2’s coverage is horrendous! A few thousand bicyclists ride to the top of the Sierra Road climb, paint the street with all the big names, fly the flags and create one huge welcoming party —and ESPN 2 goes to commercial right before the riders reach the top.

Upon returning to coverage we see the riders descending the back side of the biggest decisive climb in the race. Not one rider was filmed riding though the massive crowd. Unbelievable.

Bill Wood
Pleasanton, California

It makes February easier to bear
Editor:
Yes, we don't get much, and it's not great, but if not for ESPN we would have none. It's nice to see and hear Bob and Phil calling a race early in the season while we’re waiting for spring riding here on the East Coast.

Lenny Sullivan
Methuen, Massachusetts

Thank ESPN and maybe coverage will improve
Editor:
I thought about writing a letter to VeloNews complaining about ESPN2's coverage of the Tour of California, but then I realized the simple truth — we should be thankful for any coverage at all!

If everyone who stays up to watch or TiVo the race would write a letter to ESPN thanking them for the coverage, no matter how poor it may be, they might realize there is a market for more cycling on TV, and better coverage will follow.

Geoff Milanovich
Menlo Park, California

Cycling gene and whining gene intertwined?
Editor:
Television coverage of cycling can always improve. I am personally grateful for the ESPN2 coverage and have had no trouble reading the schedule and setting my DVR correctly, then enjoying the show during breakfast.

To read the letters I’d swear the cycling gene and whining gene are inextricably linked. Broadcasting, like publishing, is a for-profit business and we appear to be a small audience, so we need to make ourselves look bigger, pay a small fee for exclusive broadcasts, or continue to fast-forward through the commercials and enjoy the show.

Phil Black
Kansas City

ESPN shows what makes money, sonny
Editor:
You've got to be kidding me? Bashing the coverage of a race in it's first year, confirmed less than a year ago with no projection of ratings, in a country that still considers cycling a nuisance more than a sport?

World Series Poker is on because the ratings are good, even better than, yes, cycling. And like it or not, ESPN is in the business to make money, not satisfying the whining population of Lycra-clad snobs that secretly wish to retain cycling as a fringe sport while keeping the freds, toolbags, and "What Would Lance Do?" crowd from participating.

I've enjoyed sitting here in the frozen tundra of southern Colorado viewing a race, in February, taking place on the roads I used to ride and love throughout California. So what if it's for a mere 40 minutes? The last time you saw ESPN coverage of a bike race in the month of February was when? Until one of you annoying TV critics can finance your own production company, network channel, gyro-stabilized cameras, satellite feeds, helicopters and "American Idol"-like commentators with product placements to avoid commercial breaks, we have ESPN and Velonews.com to thank for the coverage.

In lieu of the tiresome commentary about how ESPN should run its business, take the Governator up on his commercials and plan to visit California next year, ride the course, take your own damn camera, drop some of your own coin and join the crowds along the way. The coverage will improve if the race makes businesses money — sponsors, local corporations, small businesses, and yes, cable companies.

And by the way, the best place to view a race is in the pack or off the front. The season starts January 1 in California so arrive a little early.

James Doyle
Alamosa, Colorado

Coverage is a step in right direction
Editor:
Some people just can't be pleased. ESPN's coverage of cycling in previous years consisted of a "SportsCenter" anchor mispronouncing a rider's name as the credits were rolling. Now we have a full hour of coverage every night called by the same announcers from the Tour de France and all I hear is "it's on too late" and "the camera is too shaky." Waah! Get a TiVo. Take a Dramamine.

I for one think the coverage is good and it is a step in the right direction for American cycling. Stage 1 followed the Gonzaga game. Talk about a potential viewing audience!

Scott Leland
Reno, Nevada

And the final word . . .
Editor:
At least we can take solace in one thing: Al Trautwig is occupied in Torino.

Bill Jankowski
Mystic, Connecticut

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The Mailbag is a regular feature on VeloNews.com. If you have a comment, an opinion or observation regarding anything you have seen in cycling, in VeloNews magazine or on VeloNews.com, write to WebLetters@InsideInc.com. Please include your full name and home town. Letters may be edited for length and clarity.