Okay, so yesterday's LIVE coverage of Stage 2 of Amgen's Tour of California was less than stellar - I've seen many negative remarks about Versus and AToC's organization called "amateurs" by the cycling community wanting to watch the race - United States and Internationally. Before I try to organize the jumble of random thoughts on this running around in my brain, let's state the absolute reason there was no coverage until the finish line.
I am also a pilot, so I can speak to what the problem was - motorcycles following the race need to send the signal from their camera to an aircraft of some kind - mostly helicopters overhead and they also usually then relay the signal to a fixed wing aircraft - higher - that relays the signal to be broadcast. Actually a complicated little procedure all to give us LIVE coverage.
Okay, so that said - the problem for Stage 2 coverage was the weather (and "NO" to the person who disparingly wrote, more or less ... you can't tell me that California weather is worse than Giro and we have coverage of the Giro ... no, not worse - different.) Giro's stage yesterday ran along the coast, with no mountains -- AToC's stage was up and over.
The Federal Aviation Administration has rules all pilots must follow and one of them is that you cannot fly into KNOWN icing conditions (without all sorts of ubber expensive deicing equipment on the aircraft) -- at 10,000 feet over Stage 2 ... there was KNOWN icing conditions -- THUS no TV coverage for we poor little cycling slugs on the ground.
So for AToC's Stage 3 (and I haven't checked weather for today's stage - yet!) running along the coast ... if it is rainy and cloudy -- we will more in likely have TV coverage because the same set of FAA rules apply, but the conditions for flying will be absolutely different - yet somewhat like yesterday's Giro stage.
So, no AToC and Versus are not to blame for no TV coverage for us yesterday -- blame the FAA! Even at blaming the FAA, they are not being mean to "us" but the rules are set in place to keep pilots from killing themselves -- and we all know that sometimes pilots "pull" "stupid pilots tricks" and kill themselves and their plane, anyway.
Okay (again) that being said - if you haven't ever been to a race LIVE, when you have the opportunity to go -- brace yourself. Unless you go park yourself at the finish line by the big screen TVs ... what you saw yesterday is about what you see (unless it is a time trial, criterium or the race ends in several circuits). You can see the riders "start" ... then they are gone; jump in the car and if you are lucky you can beat them up the road a bit ... see them wiz by; and if you are lucky again you can jump in your car (and pray not to get stopped in traffic) and maybe catch them at the finish line (or you can park in one place and see them wiz by once) -- following a live race live ... is tough - fun, yes BUT tough!!!
We cycling fans have really been spoiled rotten in the last several years with the coming of age of being able to watch races online and on TV --- remember before that all we had were race tickers (and I remember being so ubber excited when I found my first race ticker!) ... but before that, in the way back age :-) you got to read about the races in "next months" cycling magazines.
So "buck up" accept Versus did their best - know that AToC is a fabulous race with fabulous race organizers ... and did you hear that race officials from the Tour Down Under are actually visting AToC this year to learn from AToC ... things like rolling road closures ... sorry I drift --- anyway, it is human nature to complain ... but some complaining so went into blaming that my brain had to get "it" out!!!
Have a fabulous cycling day all my buddies -- I mean where else but online and on TV could we today "watch" the Giro from Italy and Amgen's Tour of California from the comfort of our office, home ... or wherever you choose to view them today!
No comments:
Post a Comment