|
Archives |
Saturday, March 18, 2006
Friday, March 17, 2006 2006 Milan-Sanremo tomorrow (Saturday) The 97th edition of Milan-Sanremo, the first major classic on the calendar, is tomorrow. Last year's edition saw a breakthrough win for sprinter Alessandro Petacchi, ahead of Danilo Hondo and Thor Hushovd. Tom Boonen finished 8th that day but went on to win nothing less than the Tour of Flanders, Paris-Roubaix and the World Championships in 2005. Petacchi, Zabel, Boonen, Bettini, Freire, Hushovd, McEwen, Van Heeswijk, Davis. A whopping 294km. (!) Should be a great race. We'll have the links to live coverage Saturday morning. Tuesday, March 14, 2006 Final stage today of Tirreno-Adriatico, live audio available Note: With the 2006 Paris-Nice in the history books, Eurosport has taken over live coverage of Tirreno-Adriatico from Eurosport 2, which means live web audio is available. The broadcast is scheduled to begin at about 15:15 CET (9:15am U.S. EST) Note: We've added a link to a T-A live ticker in German. (Thanks, Markus!) Note: RAI Sport should have taped video playback of today's final stage of T-A at around 17:00 CET (11am U.S. EST). Link at left. Current race live coverage:
Monday, March 13, 2006 
Paris-Nice 2006: the peloton arrives in Nice
(photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer) Upon arriving in Nice yesterday, everyone involved in the "race to the sun" found what they were looking for: plenty of sun. Two-time winner Alexandre Vinokourov, not competing in Paris-Nice this year but who lives and trains in Nice, stopped by to encourage his teammates, particularly Andrey Kashechkin, winner of the stage into Cannes on Saturday. And Floyd Landis of the Phonak team wrapped up the overall victory, becoming only the second-ever American to win this race after Bobby Julich's breakthrough win last year. 
Tour de France contender and two-time Paris-Nice winner Alexandre Vinokourov stopped by in Nice on the final day of the race. With the retirement of Lance Armstrong, "Vino" has big plans for July. (photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer) 
180 degree panorama shot near the finish line in Cannes on Saturday. Stage winner, Andrey Kashechkin (Liberty Seguros-Wurth), in the scene at right, reaches the 150m to go marker. (Cyclingfans.com has been producing ultra high-resolution photographic panoramas, up to 360 degrees in some cases, at mythic cycling locations including Mont Ventoux, Alpe d'Huez, the Galibier pass, Cannes, Nice and the Champs Elysees. More on that to come.) Next update: Monday, March 13
Thursday, March 9, 2006 Below are guides to live
web coverage of Paris-Nice and Tirreno-Adriatico
Paris-Nice
Landis takes control in stage 3 
Floyd Landis nears the top of the climb in Sunday's
prologue
(photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer) Note: Cyclingnews say they will finally join in with a live ticker for the final 4 stages of Paris-Nice. Does the media talk too much about doping in cycling? 
That was one of many questions asked this week of a panel of journalists at a conference in Paris about journalism and doping. We were there and we spoke with Pierre Ballester, co-author, with David Walsh, of the controversial 2004 book, "L.A. Confidentiel: Les secrets de Lance Armstrong," that contains allegations, without offering proof, of doping by the 7-time Tour de France champion. We asked Ballester if the book was going to appear in English. (At last count, at least 14 publishers had turned it down.) Ballester told us they are trying to land a publisher in the U.S. but no one will touch the book unless $2 million is put aside up front to deal with any potential lawsuits. As it is, Ballester, Walsh and the French publisher will attempt to defend themselves against charges of libel next fall. Ballester told us they have an October court date. Ballester did not sound overly confident that a U.S. publisher for the book would be found, but said "We are working on it." We also asked Ballester why they originally denied that key witness Emma O'Reilly was paid for giving them her version of events. He replied, "Did we deny it?" Yes, you did, certainly Walsh did. ("Le Mensonge Walsh"?) Ballester explained that such payments are common in the U.K but not in France. We'll have much more regarding our conversation with Ballester, as well as the conference generally, a bit later. Live this week in addition to Paris-Nice (below):
Wednesday, March 8, 2006 Note: Today is the start of Tirreno-Adriatico RAI Sport will be showing a televised replay of stage one of Tirreno-Adriatico today at around 19:20 CET (1:20pm U.S. EST) A link to RAI Sport's video streaming has been added to the "Live coverage quick links" at left. RAI Sport is also showing Paris-Nice this week, live. (see below) RAI Sport replays of Paris-Nice stage 3 should air later around 00:15 CET (6:15pm U.S. EST) and 05:45 CET (11:45pm U.S. EST)
Tuesday, March 7, 2006
Monday, March 6, 2006 
Bobby Julich (CSC) nears the top of the climb on his way to winning yesterday's Paris-Nice prologue (photo Copyright © 2006 Pete Geyer) Note: We hope to have a first set of 2006 Paris-Nice photos later today. Note: *** Live video flash *** RAI Sport, who you may recall provided live streaming video during last year's Giro d'Italia, has coverage of Paris-Nice available on the web too! We've added the link in our Live Guide below...
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Thursday, March 2, 2006 Coverage for Paris-Nice (the "Race to the sun" ) Paris-Nice begins on Sunday and depending where you are, there are a variety of options for following the race on TV or online. In the U.S., OLN TV will be showing same-day coverage of the prologue (this Sunday) and the final day (the following Sunday). In Europe, Eurosport will be providing daily live television coverage of Paris-Nice. This means that there will be live streaming audio feeds of the race, a nice option particularly for those without Eurosport via cable or satellite and who are able to follow along online. (see links at left under "Live coverage quick links") Remember, if you get fired from your job for following a race online it is not our fault. (Eurosport's cycling coverage this season looks pretty much like last year's schedule, with about 80% coverage of the ProTour. Some races not covered, such as the Dauphine Libere, look to be offered online via Cycling.TV. Eurosport 2 will be showing Tirreno-Adriatico, among other races.) In France, France 2/3 will provide live coverage of the weekend stages of Paris-Nice, with commentary by Thierry Adam and Bernard Thevenet. France 4 (TNT) will take over for the weekday live coverage with commentary by Rodrigo Beekens. France's Eurosport daily live coverage features commentary by Jean-Francois Bernard and Patrick Chasse, with Jacky Durand and Richard Virenque joining in for the final weekend. Cycling fans in France are indeed spoiled with such options for this race. If you will be following along on the internet, we recommend you test out the Eurosport live audio stream(s) for your preferred language(s) before Sunday (we have links above left for channels in English, German, French, Spanish and Russian), to make sure you give yourself enough time to work out any potential browser or other issues. Last year, people reported problems using Firefox and recommended using Internet Explorer for Eurosport audio streams. You will also want to be sure you have the latest version of Windows Media Player , available for PCs and Macintosh. Our "Live coverage quick links" section (upper left) gives you quick access anytime to video and audio streams. Since Eurosport, for example, occasionally changes their links, we'll regularly verify them and update as necessary. We will also be adding links to other streams for cycling races. Starting Sunday, we'll of course have links to live tickers as well. We'll also have 1 or 2 photographers at Sunday's prologue. Tuesday, February 28, 2006 2006 Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia starts tomorrow, L'Equipe is 60 The 2006 Vuelta Ciclista a Murcia (Tour de Murcie) starts tomorrow (Wednesday) in Spain and runs through March 5. Alejandro Valverde, Damiano Cunego, Alexandre Vinokourov, Manuel Beltran, Iban Mayo, Denis Menchov and Michael Rasmussen are among those expected on the start line. Joining Beltran for Discovery Channel are Fumyuki Beppu, Benoit Joachim, Trent Lowe, Jason McCartney, Gennady Mikhaylov, Pavel Padrnos and Max Van Heeswijk. French sports daily L'Equipe is celebrating its 60th birthday today After many weeks promoting the event, L'Equipe today is celebrating its 60th birthday. Today's edition of the newspaper includes a 14-page supplement for the occasion, with a two-page reproduction of the very first issue on February 28, 1946. To further entice potential buyers, each copy of today's L'Equipe is distributed with one of four collector buttons featuring a mini page one reproduction. A promotional media blitz began early this morning with L'Equipe's editorial director Claude Droussent as guest on popular radio host Nagui's program on RTL. What was the first topic discussed live as part of L'Equipe's 60th birthday celebration? 60 years of sports and what do they talk about first? The Lance Armstrong doping allegations. When asked where things stood with the allegations, Droussent said they were waiting for the results of the independent investigation. (Waiting to do what, yet another round of slamming Armstrong?) The radio host then played Sheryl Crow's "All I Wanna Do" which he interrupted mid-song by crying out "She's no longer with the yellow jersey...waaaaaaah". He then compared Crow's talent unfavorably to Edith Piaf and they moved on to something else. Whatever. Droussent later appeared as a special guest on......L'Equipe TV, which he oversees along with the newspaper and web site. This evening he's back on RTL radio, again to celebrate L'Equipe's 60 years, as was L'Equipe's publication director, Christophe Chenut. Get well soon, Sheryl. |
|
