Cycling on Fanfare

May 12, 2016 7:56 AM

So, I created a Cycling Club as a trial balloon just to see if anyone is interested in talking about pro racing of any kind (no motorized doping though!). You can find it here. I know there have been decent comment totals on Blue posts in the past concerning racing, but if it fizzles out NBD.

The Giro is currently happening (they're sweating up a mountain on Eurosport right now!) so I was considering perhaps a single post or alternatively weekly posts for a Grand Tour (daily seems insane). Let me know if you are interested! As noted in my club description, I just watch Worldtour stuff (and I really love the Classics season, which has passed) but I'm open to posts on any kind of racing.

posted by selfnoise (9 comments total)

I usually only care for the Classics, and unfortunately, Eurosport has blocked it's main channel on my Cable provider free browser-accessible IPTV service because of their own service, so it's a bit hard for me to follow the grand tours.
posted by lmfsilva at 1:35 PM on May 13, 2016

I'm all over this, and a single post per race/tour is probably best. I do have a problem that here I have to wait until nighttime to view the stages, so a per-tour post would likely put spoilers in Recent Activity, which might be a bummer.
posted by rhizome at 1:53 PM on May 13, 2016

Ok, so about ten people have joined so far, which seems quite decent. Thanks for joining all! I'm going to try to make a post for the Giro if anyone wants to chat about the remainder of the race (which still seems wide open in terms of the GC, so why not). It doesn't seem like it will be possible to do it on the main page since there isn't a really decent IMDB hook. Perhaps eventually the powers that be will sort it out so that's not necessary.

I plan on doing this as a trial run, essentially assuming that this summer's Tour de France will garner more widespread attention on the site.

Also, I added some events on the calendar for the biggest races. If there's another race you are looking forward to, please add it!
posted by selfnoise at 9:34 AM on May 14, 2016

Looks good! I may add Paris-Tours if I'm still hanging in there.
posted by rhizome at 5:39 PM on May 14, 2016

I'm in! I'm not sure what countries it is available in, and I suspect the US is not one, but Eurosport Player is £7/month and they've improved the app so it now works with Chromecast and seems a bit less buggy - it's a good option for anyone who doesn't have Eurosport via cable/satellite.
posted by penguinliz at 2:18 PM on May 17, 2016

As a watcher who would rather read cyclingnews recaps than listen to Phil and Paul chatter on and on for the benefit of US fans, I would totally pay $10/mo for Eurosport during the season, but alas, not available in the US.
posted by rhizome at 4:41 PM on May 18, 2016

So the Giro is now in the record books. Thanks to all who participated in the thread! The next race that will definitely have a thread is, of course, the TdF, but if there's interest in races in the interim (the Dauphin for example) please do consider posting a thread.

With the TdF thread I will probably post it a week or so in advance, partially because I will not be around for the first few stages... will be in Canada on vacation.
posted by selfnoise at 8:57 AM on May 30, 2016

Isn't the TdF starting in Canada this year? :P
posted by rhizome at 11:37 AM on May 30, 2016

Is anyone planning a TdF thread or shall I get started? And does anyone fancy a Mefi fantasy TdF league? I've got a team going on Velogames, so I could set up a league over there if there is interest.
posted by penguinliz at 7:10 AM on June 29, 2016