I want to ride my bicycle

Man I wish there was better coverage of cycling in this country. Don’t get me wrong, SBS do a great job with the Tour de France. They also covered the Tour Down Under this year (and presumably will again next year, especially if Lance Armstrong really does kick his comeback off at that event). In addition, we got Paris-Roubaix and highlights of the Vuelta a Espana, along with excellent coverage of the cycling events in the Olympics.

That’s not too bad. But it could be a lot better. For a start, we could do with highlights of the Giro d’Italia and a few more criteriums and classics like the Dauphine Libere and Liege-Bastogne-Liege. On top of that, would it kill them to provide even minimal coverage of the World Championships?

Look, I know that broadcasting rights cost money and there probably really isn’t enough sponsorship money in the country to pay for all of that. All I’m saying is I’d watch it. I’d watch it all, and I’d be sympathetic towards any sponsor that ensured I was able to enjoy the coverage.

Instead I’m left late at night, bouncing around the interweb trying to find live video streams or, at the very least, reasonably up to date comment threads. It’s very frustrating. Especially when you can see pretty much any other sport in the world live on free to air or cable. Why is it so hard to get decent cycling coverage? Why?

It’s just not right.

~ by wrothful on September 28, 2008.