Archives
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Sunday, April 8, 2007
Below is a guide
to live coverage of the 2007 Tour of Flanders
The future of online race
coverage?
The Adobe Tour Tracker
Amgen Tour of California
(click image to enlarge)
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Your input is wanted
You follow the races online all year long. Via
cyclingfans.com , you've seen
many different solutions for online race coverage, including live
television video and audio streaming, live radio, live dynamic graphics,
SRM telemetry, GPS tracking and live tickers.
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If you followed the Amgen Tour of California
online, then you are familar with Adobe's Tour
Tracker , an application that was built in just four weeks.
Adobe, a leader in the software industry with products such
as Acrobat/Reader, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver and Flash,
is thinking about taking its Tour Tracker solution beyond the Tour
of California to other races. To that end, Adobe
contacted cyclingfans.com asking if we'd solicit your feedback about
their Tour Tracker . We are only happy to help out.
So what did you like about the Adobe Tour Tracker?
What did you NOT like about it? What would you like
to see changed? Features you'd like to see added? When
you sit down to follow a race, wherever that may be, what is most
important to you? This is your chance to perhaps have an impact
on how bike race coverage will be offered in the future.
You can click the image above for a refresher on
the general interface for the Adobe Tour Tracker. You can
also launch the Tour Tracker itself by clicking
here
.
Please send your thoughts to the editor
here
and we will forward them to our contact at Adobe.
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Notes:
- Don't forget: The
Tour of the Basque Country starts tomorrow, Monday,
and runs through Saturday. Will Alberto "The Accountant" Contador
get yet another win for Discovery Channel?
Eurosport will be covering this race live.
- Thanks to those of you who have already written in to offer
your thoughts on the Adobe Tour Tracker used during the Amgen
Tour of California . Excellent comments and ideas! It
is clear from our communication with Adobe that they very much want to
improve their software for future races. The Adobe developer is
a cyclist himself. If you haven't sent in feedback, you can still
do so if you are so inclined.
- If you hear the audio but do not see video when you click
on the English-language Eurosport live video stream
, try clicking the Full Screen button once the Eurosport page
is open. Alternatively, you can select one of the other Eurosport
live video streams, mute the sound in your media player, and play the
English-language live audio stream separately.
- As of 13:00 CET (7am U.S. Eastern), some Eurosport video
streams have gone live.
- The Eurosport audio streams have gone live.
- Our next update here will be at around 13:00 CET (7am U.S.
Eastern). Stay tuned...
- At this time, the Eurosport ticker says there will
be a live video stream starting at 11:00 CET (5am
U.S. Eastern). We believe that to be in error; elsewhere, a start
time of 13:00 CET (7am U.S. Eastern) is given and that seems more likely.
- This morning's L'EQUIPE, the French sports
daily that is occasionally useful for something other than wrapping
fish, unsurprisingly rates Tom Boonen as its only 3-star
favorite for today's race. Ballan, Cancellara and Pozzato
are the two-star favorites. Bettini, Van Petegem, Hoste, Freire,
O'Grady and Nuyens get one star.
- Be sure to reload this page occasionally during the race
for the latest live race coverage links and information.
Photo: Pete Geyer
- Welcome to today's live coverage
guide for the 2007 Ronde van Vlaanderen (or Tour of Flanders,
or Tour des Flandres in French).
- What's the fastest
way to see photos from today's race? Check out
the Yahoo photo gallery link in our
Live Guide. AP/AFP photographers will sometimes send in
photos from the road mid-race.
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Live video streaming:
(English)
(Spanish)
(Italian)
Live audio streaming:
Live tickers:
News and photos:
(cycling news)
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Copyright
© 2007 www.cyclingfans.com
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Saturday, April 7, 2007
Cycling on TV flash: The
inaugural
U.S. Open Cycling Championships
are on NBC Sports in the U.S. today, from 2:30pm
to about 5pm U.S. Eastern. It's snowing on the race course!
2007 Tour of Flanders Live Coverage, Sunday
The 91st Ronde van Vlaanderen(Tour of Flanders)
is tomorrow, Sunday, kicking off one of the most anticipated
weeks on the professional cycling calendar. ( Gent-Wevelgem
is on Wednesday and Paris-Roubaix is next Sunday....not
to mention the Tour of the Basque Country stage race which
begins Monday, April 9). For some riders and cycling fans, this
is the biggest week in cycling of the year.
Can Tom Boonen win his third straight Ronde van
Vlaanderen? His Quick Step-Innergetic team is
certainly the team to beat, bringing, in addition to team leader
Boonen, World Champion Paolo Bettini , Steven de Jongh,
two-time winner and former rival Peter Van Petegem ,
Kevin Van Impe, Gert Steegmans, Sébastien Rosseler, and Kevin
Hulsmans. Going up against the Quick Step powerhouse will be,
among others, 2004 and 2006 runner-up Leif Hoste (now riding
for Predictor-Lotto after transferring from Discovery Channel),
Stuart O'Grady and Fabian Cancellara of
Team CSC, Nick Nuyens of Cofidis, Thor Hushovd
of Credit Agricole, Philippe Gilbert of Française
des Jeux, Roger Hammond of T-Mobile, 2007 Three Days
of de Panne winner Alessandro Ballan of Lampre-Fondital,
Filippo Pozzato and Luca Paolini of Liquigas,
Erik Zabel of Team Milram, Oscar Freire
, Michael Boogerd, Joost Posthuma, Leon Van Bon and Juan Antonio
Flecha of Rabobank, Stijn Devolder and
Vladimir Gusev of Discovery Channel, and 2004 Ronde winner
Steffen Wesemann of Team Wiesenhof-Felt.
Discovery Channel, who had both Hoste and George Hincapie
on the Flanders podium in 2006, will have to rely on
Devolder and Gusev this year as Hoste left the team and Hincapie
is recovering from injury. ( Viatcheslav Ekimov is retired
and will be in the team car as one of the directeurs sportifs.)
Tour of Flanders live coverage on the internet
No fewer than four Eurosport websites announce
live video streaming for the Tour of Flanders. (Thanks,
Bernie!) According to schedules, separate live audio streams
may begin as early as 11:00 CET (5am U.S. Eastern). Some
live tickers are announced as beginning as early as
09:45 CET (3:45am U.S. Eastern). We will of course have the
live coverage links for you tomorrow.
If you are in the U.S., Versus (OLN) has same-day
coverage of this race. Check our Versus schedule
link and your local listings for broadcast times.
U.S. Open Cycling Championships on today, on NBC Sports
Today's inaugural
U.S. Open Cycling Championships
will be broadcast (not live) on NBC Sports. Click
here
for local listings. (Thanks, Mike Kunnecke of
www.geekonabike.com
.)
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Below is a guide to
live coverage of the 2007 Three Days of de Panne
Notes:
- Bike racing is of course a sport of suffering but
this, from the Babel Fish translation of today's sportwereld.be
ticker, takes things to a new level: "Leif leaped about has bitten
to pieces itself on the time of Stijn Devolder". That has to hurt.
- The sportwereld.be ticker lists at the bottom the
top ten placed riders after this morning's stage, thus the final
10 riders that will depart this afternoon's time trial.
Bert Roesems of Belgium, currently 5th overall, is one of
the top time trialists in that group; he was 5th in the 2006 de Panne
time trial. Alessandro Ballan , currently in 2nd overall,
finished the 2006 time trial in 25th place 42 seconds behind Roesems.
Joost Posthuma (Holland), who didn't compete in this
event in 2006, can also time trial.
- USPS/Discovery Channel have owned the Three
Days of de Panne the past three years with George Hincapie
winning in 2004, Stijn Devolder in 2005
and Leif "Leaped About" Hoste" in 2006.
Viatcheslav Ekimov won in 2000 (and 1996 as well). Alas,
the Discovery Channel 2007 Belgium campaign has been decimated by injury
(Hincapie), transfer (Hoste) and retirement (Ekimov).
- The decisive time trial is now underway.
- We should have a live ticker dedicated to fun Babel
Fish and Google rider name translations. Among our favorites
so far: "The Accountant" (Contador), "Windy" (Ventoso) and today....."leaped
about" (2006 de Panne winner Hoste), as in Leif "Leaped About" Hoste.
- Three Days of De Panne concludes today with
two stages: a 119km stage in the morning and a decisive 11km individual
time trial stage in the afternoon. The morning stage begins
at 09:00 CET (3am U.S. Eastern) and the afternoon time trial at 14:30
CET (8:30am U.S. Eastern).
- Daniele Bennati of Lampre-Fondital won yesterday's
stage two ahead of Graeme Brown (Rabobank) and Tomas
Vaitkus (Discovery Channel). Luca Paolini
of Liquigas remains race leader heading into today's
final two stages .
- Welcome to today's live coverage guide for
Stages 3 and 4 of the 2007 Three Days of De Panne
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2007
Three Days of De Panne
April 3-5
Start List
(.pdf)
Live tickers:
News and photos:
(cycling news)
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Copyright
© 2007 www.cyclingfans.com
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Wednesday, April 4, 2007
Notes:
- Luca Paolini of Liquigas won yesterday's
stage one and thus is race leader. Alessandro Ballan
of Lampre-Fondital is in second in the same time as Paolini and
Kevin Hulsmans of Quickstep - Innergetic is third,
11 seconds back.
- Welcome to today's live coverage guide for
Stage 2 of the 2007 Three Days of De Panne
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2007
Three Days of De Panne
April 3-5
Start List
(.pdf)
Live tickers:
News and photos:
(cycling news)
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Copyright
© 2007 www.cyclingfans.com
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Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Notes:
- As some of you have discovered, the sportwereld.be
ticker has been kicking and screaming over being Babel
Fish translated . We think we have a solution that
works now. But if you have problems with that ticker, you
can access the original one in Dutch
here
. (Thanks, Jack and Yonathan!)
- Welcome to today's live coverage guide for Stage
1 of the 2007 Three Days of De Panne. (Known
in Belgium as KBC - Driedaagse De Panne- Koksijde and in
France as Trois Jours de la Panne .)
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2007
Three Days of De Panne
April 3-5
Start List
(.pdf)
Live tickers:
News and photos:
(cycling news)
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Copyright
© 2007 www.cyclingfans.com
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