Pro Cycling Live - will contain spoilers

Events
3291

Flanders.

About as exciting as Suzuka :yawning_face:

4 Likes
3292

Yawn ..!!

1 Like
3293

At least he waited until 30km to go :rofl:

3 Likes
3294

giphy

6 Likes
3295

Jokes.

Not funny.

1 Like
3296

He should do it in tweed, on a bone-shaker. Proper classic.

:smiling_cat_with_heart_eyes:

1 Like
3297

P-R by text is not as enjoyable as watching it on tv
:roll_eyes:

5 Likes
3298

Oops!

3299

What a shame for Pedersen, looks like he was in great form and a change from the two main suspects.

4 Likes
3300

Yeah. Annoying race really.
Shame the winner was the “luckiest” one of the day.

(Brackets for irony. So back off)

2 Likes
3301

That said PR has always involved mechanical fortune; probably even more so when they rode on skinny tyres?

Whilst Pog has a long way to match Merckx on the all-time list, he is really rather dominant across all disciplines right now. Something Lance could never match.

3 Likes
3302

I guess most already know this, but how depressing:

The men’s Tour de France will be broadcast live on ITV4 and online on ITVX, with highlights also aired each evening of the men’s race at 8pm. However 2025 will be the final year of free-to-air live coverage of WorldTour level cycling on ITV. No other channel has stepped up to fill that position and TNT Sports has bought the exclusive rights to show the Tour until 2030.

As of March 2025, freeview channel Quest will broadcast race highlights from the Grand Tours. In addition, ‘The Ultimate Cycling Show’, hosted by Orla Chennaoui and Adam Blythe, will begin airing at the end of February and will discuss the week’s news in pro cycling.

2 Likes
3303

I think in the past they rode a lot more specialist kit for P-R. Now the manufacturers want to show that you can do it on the standard kit :man_shrugging:

They always used to use tubs, so if they punctured they could still roll on a bit with them. Tubeless tyres don’t seem to do so well when fully deflated and are likely to roll off the rim completely.

I think there’s a certain amount of making your own luck in P-R. If you ride the crown of the road it’s a bit rougher, but you’re less likely to puncture than if you are riding the edges.

3 Likes
3304

I think may still produce Tubulars specially for the cobbled classics; certainly some riders were still using them when they’d generally moved to clinchers.

3305

It’ll be interesting to watch.

Cycling is funny, because there is a large affluent audience although that doesn’t necessarily translate into spending (as per this thread, with a largely middle class contribution). Cyclists also like to be different, and Eurosport fed into that self view.

TNT must think they can capture new subscribers, though.

I already have TNT sports, and it’s ridiculously similar to Eurosport without the feel good hipster factor.

3 Likes
3306

Is the cycling coverage on TNT not just the same stuff that was on Eurosport previously?

3307

Similar, not sure it’s exactly the same.

Slight rebranding of the studio, and a couple of new faces (not many, though).

Seems to be slightly more ‘professional’ than Eurosport too.

That said might just be me looking for changes.

1 Like
3308

I hadn’t considered that TNT bought cycling with a hope to monetise it, just that it came with a deal they had done to take over Eurosport in the UK.

If they were serious about making money from cyclists, they would surely offer a stripped back subscription that takes out the football and whatever else pays the day to day bills and offer it stand-alone. It is ironic that subscription on demand was supposed to offer the viewer the chance to pay for only what they want to watch, instead you seem to have to pay for everything even if you don’t want it.

3 Likes
3309

I think they’d need clearer demographic segregation for that, eg all footballers hate cycling, all cyclers hate footballing.

At least the way tv is done now, I suppose algorithmic pricing could revolutionise that


2 Likes
3310

I can’t remember where I saw it, but there was a back of the fag packet calculation that they’d need to sell very few subscriptions to cycling fans to make up for the money that they were previously getting from Eurosport as part of the basic Sky package.

Obviously that’s not going to help anyone looking to get their team sponsored by a UK company if no one in the UK is watching :man_shrugging:

1 Like