Tour de Georgia 2008 Stage 1: What A Finish!

By which I mean, of course, the women's race at today's Boston Marathon. I would say it about today's opening stage in Georgia, if WCSN hadn't lost the picture a few hundred meters from the finish! It was sketchy coverage all day long, so to not even get the payoff of seeing anyone cross the line was pretty sad. I hope it was opening-day glitches, because I'll be a lot more agitated if it's like this for the TTT or Brasstown Bald. They didn't have a lot to work with, I'll give them that, but the commentary was kind of a snooze too. Nathan O'Neill is a great bike rider, and that was a very sweet story about meeting his wife, but let's hear about the race at hand! In the bits we did get to see, it was great to see Chris Horner in that little break, and Dave Zabriskie leading the charge through another section.

Similar problems with Amstel Gold on Sunday. Cycling.tv's free coverage was at such a low bitrate you couldn't tell who was who, it was hardly worth it. Then Eurosport came on, which had lovely video, though it froze occasionally and the audio was choppy. So, I got to see it, but never got enough in the rhythm to get a good sense of the day. I get spoiled by those days when there's clear live video for the whole race, I want it every time! I repeat my praise for Sean Kelly though, love his commentary. Phil & Paul are in the hall of fame, to be sure, but Phil is getting dotty and they're both a little too excitable, and the competition between them gets in the way sometimes. (I know, sacrilege to criticize such icons, but it is done with all due respect and affection.)

I'll give in to the relentless Versus marketing machine and mention Lance in the Marathon. Thankfully they didn't show much of him during the elite race, keeping the focus correctly on the actual contenders. But of course when that was over we got full-on Lance-cam until he finished. And why does he get his own banner? First guy named Lance Armstrong to cross the line? At least he seemed appropriately confused by it. And appeared to be without entourage during the race, getting his own water this time. I mean, if you're gonna do it, do it like everyone else, right? Al Trautwig was his usual fawning self, trying to spin Lance's time so it seemed better than it was (not that it was bad to begin with, which kind of made it even more embarrassing). Heaven help me, but he needs to have a beer with Murphy and Dugard some time.