I couldn’t expect more, and I’d be happy with less. Other than Stage 8, when I could never get it to load, it has been flawless. For whatever reason, I couldn’t get Stage 8 to work, no matter which browser I used, or how many times I refreshed.

I’m assuming they’re getting video from a shared feed and don’t have any control over the images they get so that would exonerate them of the overzealous use of Lance imagery.

Going forward, it would be nice to have a higher res stream. Really though, they have performed well beyond my expectations (which were admittedly low- thanks CTV).

Pros:

*Free! (Although I would pay and used to pay to be a member when they were WCSN)
*Works flawlessly for me on Mac and Windows (since the change to Flash)
*Acceptable commentating on the online version
*No obtrusive ads. The ads they do have don’t bother me. (CTV ads are horrible and we pay to watch!)

Cons:

*Spoilers everywhere on the site.
*No Anthony & Brian
*Although acceptable as is, I much prefer 2 commentators because the one guy gets monotonous after awhile
*Takes too long for the Video on Demand to be posted (4-5 hours is a bit much)

I am especially unhappy about the spoilers. This has been a big issue with US for a long time. I have complained about it numerous times (even emailed their customer service) but they don’t sem to care. Luckily I kept that URL of a video list without spoilers. I can’t find it on the actually site navigation.

US puts spoilers up for every sport. I don’t get why they do that.

Free: that’s big. If CTV dissapeared and Universal took over cycling coverage I wouldn’t miss a thing. Free is a deal maker and covers any difficiencies IMO.

Commentary- Acceptable. No, it’s not Anthony and Brian or that guy who was the CTV commentator during last year’s Vuelta but he’s acceptable. I’d rather have two commentators too.

Accessibility- As Cyclingrish said above, it’s so much easier to access than CTV.

The Lance focus? Seriously, that;‘s a very minor issue. Just wait till the Tour and you’ll se what an over focus on Lance is. Most of us don’t care or need the Lance coverage but face it, he’s bigger than Cycling and not only in this country.

Spoilers- That sounds like a fixable problem- hopefully. They might not fix it though.

TV- Unfortunately I have DISH and don’t get Universal on TV. Bummer.

i couldn’t get the online (at work) version to work until later in the week but now it’s good.

i’ve really, really been pleased with the tv coverage – as i said in my earlier post and to reiterate a point above, it has way fewer features (and repeats and more repeats of those) than vs. the cameras stay on the riders.

my wish list? more on the tv coverage – start earlier, give more than 2 hrs a day and go live.

Owing to work and the like, I’ve been watching recorded footage from Universal’s 9am PST broadcast in the evenings.

This means at least two things. Sadly, I can’t hang out with/lurk among the PdC crowd in the AM lest I be spoilt. I also can’t browse other sites for “live updates” that would provide more locative and time information on the riders across the course.

I do love the focus on the racing, but think they might have more features and filler if they’d had more time to prep for the broadcasts. They have dialed up the Versus-like bumper the last couple of days.

The commentators are solid, but don’t always communicate the narrative thread of the race – this is most disappointing at the end of each stage. They do say that we’re coming up on the exciting conclusion, but this is not the same thing as communicating that excitement as they announce. You can chalk this up as another “No Anthony & Brian” or “No Paul and Phil”.

One thing that sticks out to me, is the lack of onscreen information. You get the occasional head of course, and now the gaps, but I find myself not knowing exactly what’s up more often than I do on, say, Versus. The team time trial coverage seemed particularly rugged in this regard.

All that aside, you can’t beat free. Especially when it’s pretty good.

I’m sure somebody’s just trying to be clever and show all of the latest headlines, but it really ruins it to have the day’s results shown to you before you can watch the day’s stage.

-Greg

clearly they have been watching universal sports as well, and Universal, I thank you very much for the great on-line and TV coverage.

Has anyone used the Giro Plus service (http://giroplus.universalsports.com/)? I would consider paying the $3 for a stage just to support Universal if I had a better internet connection.

someone that knows cycling would help.

On the live coverage, US stays with the podium even if the commenting stops. Very nice (as opposed to ToC tour tracker where we usually got Frankie and that other guy talking for some extended period of time and then signing off with no podiums.) It’s probably a race organization difference (i.e., nice, fast podiums), but it’s a treat regardless.

I work with video all day, so I am sensitive to MPEG compression quality.

What’s shown on TV is very poor. I understand reduced bit rate for the internet, but there is no excuse for such crappy quality on TV.

Perhaps this is what they are getting from RAI, but I still don’t like it. :)

then can you please make sure that (where possible) your online rights include Canada and not just the US, as you have for the Giro? Because no broadcaster in Canada seems interested in any cycling other than the Tour (other than CBC showing Worlds highlights 2-3 weeks later a few years ago), and at this time it isn’t possible to get Universal Sports TV coverage here (unless one lives near the border and near a large US city likely to be able to receive the free-to-air signals – I highly doubt the CRTC = regulatory body is going to let any Canadian cable or satellite provider carry Universal Sports TV as the Canadian sports networks would protest vehemently about their potential lost revenue). So, online is likely to be our only option and hopefully we don’t get forgotten. thanks.

is exponentially better than his replacement