I’m kinda 50/50 on the format.
Interviews with the riders (like the one they had with Melisa) are pretty good, as long as they are meaningful and not just cheesy Sarah Sturm-style.
But imagine every TDF stage highlights video telling you about the legacy of the race and whatnot. Silly. I’ll be happy if they cut that crap out.
I agree that we don’t need a recap of what Leadville’s history is. At this point, I’ve heard the story at least a dozen times going back years.
Since they have some fresh faces every year, I like to learn a little bit about them. I think the way tied in Melissa’s story into the episode was brilliant.
As for the race coverage, I’d hope for the majority of the video be made up of that.
I see it like I see the Olympics at this point. I don’t need the Leadville backstory or course overview. And for god’s sake, I really don’t need much in the way of interviews with the riders unless it is finish line interviews about what happened out there. Treat it like a sport, I want to see as much of the racing as possible. Save the story lines and all that for the big year end videos. Recaps don’t need it. That said, I appreciate how well they make these look given the super fast turnaround and there were some really cool new camera shots in this one. So obviously skilled filmmakers. But I just want to watch the race, if we could.
I agree on the need to cover more of the race. I’m not sure if the lack of race coverage is an intentional choice to prioritize the stories or not, but it is a tough course to cover multiple riders and extended shots of the solo leaders pedaling by themselves probably isn’t great TV for the bulk of viewers. Also, I’m assuming a big reason for so much “non-race” coverage is that they pull that together in the weeks/days leading up and then cobble together the race day footage and stick that in last minute to get something out quick. Anyways, I like their new approach of releasing the videos right after the race, but wish it was more content on the actual race.
It would be nice if there was a live feed / coverage from the helicopter on race day. They already pay for the helicopter and are filming, would be nice to see it!
Cape Epic is able to put ebikes with gopros into the main groups and follow along. And they have helicopter coverage as well. If Lifetime can do the helicopter, they could easily have people embedded on a course like Leadville. I would literally watch handlebar footage from riders with no commentary or anything.
They already do that with folks on ebikes following the riders. I think the struggle for live feed is that the cell service is pretty terrible on most of the course. Even in places where you have good tower coverage, the local network seems so overwhelmed that weekend that it can be tough to even send a text at times.
True, Cape Epic must not be as remote as Leadville is. Good point.
The cell service in Leadville is not very good. I can attest to that after the Silver Rush 50. Even in town it’s not great. If you are on Harrison Street it’s okay but as soon as you get out of town on the trails it’s next to nothing.
I don’t even need live coverage. If they recorded the race on motos or e-bikes and then posted the footage days later, I would watch the crap out of that on the trainer all winter.
100%
I agree with you.
I wonder if the reason they’re taking this approach is two-fold?
I’m not sure if there’s enough other efforts associated with the GP to support getting people new to the sport to the videos, but I could see how they might expect this.
It would be awesome for them to post the raw race footage as well - that would be great for trainer rides, etc.
Regarding the backstory… it speeds up the editing process for quick turn around. This is fine before then they take and plug in the race footage. It’s how they get the quick turnaround.
It would be nice to see more of a complete race recap and footage, even if that came later. But that of course comes with more $$$