Goodbye Eurosport...hello TNT

 

Many Cycling fans are fretting about the loss of Eurosport - which closed last week - the huge raft of sports they have shown transferring to TNT Sports.

 For 30 years Eurosport provided free coverage of cycling and other niche or marginal sports. Few want to pay the £30 a month demanded by TNT Sports. They wonder will TNT keep to their promise to continue showing our sport in depth.

Well, after a moment’s deliberation we have a taken a chance and signed the deal to pay for TNT. We decided we couldn’t do without the cycling and cross-country skiing coverage which Eurosport have provided so well for three decades and which ended at the end of February.

Sorry to lose Eurosport, which provided so much coverage of cycling. It was a dream for the cycling and cross-country skiing fan. We've got used to seeing in depth coverage of all the classics and the grand tours, and a lot of smaller races as well, not  to mention track, cyclo-cross and MTB.

Now it will cost £30 a month to watch on TNT.

We did, however, secure the special offer to receive TNT for ~£15.49 for seven months. After which it will increase to £30.99 a month.

And we get the Discovery Plus on the laptop, for £3.99 instead of six quid something…

Judging by the comments on social media a lot of people are unhappy to have to pay for something they have had free for so long!

We took the view that being carers looking after our ill daughter who has been housebound for nigh on 10 years - meaning we are mostly stuck indoors too -  TV is the only thing which keeps us from going stir crazy, even if we catch only bits of coverage. But we're lucky, sensory issues means she is denied even this. 

So cheerio British Eurosport and welcome to TNT. 

Broadcast history will record that Denmark’s Magnus Cort became the last winner of a race shown on Eurosport last Thursday, the O Gran Camino, with a timely sprint win.

That said, Eurosport will continue elsewhere in Europe. I read in The Guardian that Britain had a low viewing share compared to the Netherlands, France, Germany and Scandinavia, where skiing, handball, basketball and volleyball are among the major sports.

The worry is if cycling viewing figures drop, will TNT kick cycling off the screen!

Suppose there is always darts.

 

 

 

 

 

Booty and Colden, time trial heroes of the past

 

Two of Britain’s greatest time triallists of 70 years ago come to mind, Ray Booty and Frank Colden. This was prompted by social media chat recalling how Colden smashed the 100-mile record in 1962.

Both Colden and Booty are featured in Whitfield’s fine book “12 Champions” published in 2007.  The book launch turned into a memorable occasion for these elder statesmen of the sport, mingling with other champions also featured in the book.

For when they spotted each other across the crowded room, it was the first time they had met since Colden broke Booty’s record over 40 years before!

It was a like a reunion of two long lost brothers as the pair vigorously shook hands with exclamations of delight, before falling into deep conversation.

Whitfield described Colden’s story as the “most inspiring, enigmatic and puzzling of all the 12 champions”. Colden had, in secret, ridden 400 miles a week during a cold winter. “He came out of this winter block with supreme form and smashed national records and in 1962 swept the floor of the national championships.”

Then “disappeared” from competition, which led to speculation he had overdone it and was ill.

A member of the Farnborough and Camberley Wheelers, Colden won the national championship 100 mile TT on the hallowed Bath Road in what was then the earth shattering time of 3 hours 54 minutes 23 seconds, a national record.

But the measure of that result was in carving 4 minutes 5 seconds off Booty’s time of 3-58-28 set six years before, in 1956 which famously smashed the four hour barrier for the first time with the first 25mph ride for the distance.

In writing about Booty’s famous sub-four hour ride, Whitfield described it as one of the most iconic cycling records. He says that in many ways, Booty’s ride came from the golden era of time trialling before the days of heavy traffic when the great time triallists really were the stars of the domestic season.

I was a mere schoolboy when the “Boot”, as he was affectionately known,

 was at his prime and I wouldn’t take up cycling until the early sixties.  But I well remember Colden’s epic “100” which made the front page of Cycling, a magazine I would join in 1971.

During my time as reporter, I wrote a series featuring legendary UK riders.

One of them was Booty, and it was my great pleasure to meet him and his wife at their home near Derby.  Like many star riders, he had instant recall of his career.  

He rode for Ericcson Wheelers, which was a section of the works sports and social club

formed by Ericcson, the Swedish communications technology company he was employed by as an electrical engineer. The company were very supportive of staff with sporting ambitions.

A modest man, Booty always seemed taken aback by all the attention given his remarkable results, all achieved on 84-inch fixed wheel track bike, a much lower gear than many “testers” preferred.

He also rode the track, but not successfully, he told me.

However, besides his time trialling victories, he enjoyed national and international success in road racing.

He also enjoyed long distance cycle touring holidays abroad and as was the practice back then when not many owned a car, he would ride out to events the day before.

On the day before one his “100” victories, but not the record breaking one, he recalls how he and other  rivals relaxed in the cinema watching Kenneth More in war film “Reach for the Sky”.

When Booty broke the four-hour barrier for 100 miles in the Bath Road Club Classic in 1956, it made the national headlines, for this ranked alongside Roger Bannister's sub-four minute mile.

"Booty the incomparable, the incredible, the indomitable" ran the Daily Herald headline. It was the third competition record for the '100' by the tall, bespectacled 'Boot' as he was affectionately known. 

Booty's time of 3-58-28 gave him victory by over 11 minutes – a huge margin - and won him Cycling's gold medal offered to the first man to beat the magic four hours and average 25mph. And this latest epic was achieved riding a fixed gear of 84 inches.

Those he beat were left open-mouthed and astonished by the margin of his victory. Second was Stan Brittain, who had finished third in the 1955 Peace Race in Eastern Europe, then considered as tough as the Tour de France. Double Milk Race winner Bill Bradley was fifth fastest, while Alan Jackson, the Olympic bronze medallist at Melbourne was sixth; with future Giro d'Italia stage winner Vin Denson fourteenth.

Booty’s career also includes prestigious road race victories, including in1954 the Manx International road race. In 1958 he became Commonwealth Games road race champion at Cardiff.

But it is for his victories against the watch for which Booty will always be remembered. He dominated the sport of time trialling in the 1950s. In 1955 he became '100' champion at York, in 4-04-30, winning by over five minutes and taking two minutes one second of the record.

In 1956, he retained the title with another comp record, in 4-1-52. Then, the very next month, on August Bank Holiday Monday, he became famous for all time when he famously beat four hours.

The following month he broke the Road Records Association straight out 100 in 3 hours 28 minutes 40 seconds. The record stood for 34 years!

 

So quick did Van der Poel take the lead, TV commentators missed it

Happy New Year. We begin by recalling a wonderful slip-up made by Eurosport T V commentators covering the Besancon cyclo-cross in France on Christmas Eve. The race was won by World cyclo-cross champion Mattieu van der Poel of The Netherlands in his usual trade mark style. 

It was his fifth victory of the week! It was another dominant, faultless performance; a work of art on this trickiest of slippery courses. He confessed to feeling a little tired! Van der Poel beat Toon Aerts, second, and Niels Vandeputte, third, by handsome margins. 

When Van de Poel took the lead on the second lap there was no longer any doubt as to the outcome. Yet at the precise moment the champion attacked to take the lead - a moment we viewers had waited for with baited breath - both commentators missed it! 

You had to sympathise. I’ve made more than few embarrassing cock ups in my time. Still, I was open mouthed in astonishment t hat the commentators - who had been so informative until then – should miss the move. 

 Had some annoying person in production been blathering on in their ear piece? Now I don’t know their names, but they seem to know t heir cycling, and I hate to criticise them, because I wouldn’t be up to the task. 

Mattieu Van der Poel

So what happened? In that race we had delighted in watching how the big man stormed around the course. He ran and leapt over ramps others chose to bunny hop. Like most of the field he dismounted to run the sticky deep muddy sections, but remained in the saddle with his right leg out to scoot the bike along that 45-degree muddy slope, to prevent slippage. 

 Pure poetry in motion, that’s Van de Poel. The others were good to, but not in the same league. Van der Poel didn’t have the best of starts, from the second line on the grid with a dozen riders in front of him. 

The commentators were good at identifying the particular difficulties, such as pointing out that how at one turn there was the risk of sliding out if you chose the shortest line. This was- amply demonstrated by one rider who got all tangled up with his bike. 

 I listened as they explained how riders needed to play their cards right on this course which apparen ly differed to other recent courses in that this was extremely muddy and far more slippery. When it came to overtaking, for instance, they needed to be wary of putting power down in thick mud which could send the back wheel slithering right or left. 

So their attention to this detail made it all he more surprising when they missed the vital move which came just after a right turn on a not so muddy stretch. Van der Poel himself had been making it look so easy, but his body language told you he was clearly making a big effort. He would deftly correct any sudden slide to the left or the right, forcing his machine forward, wrestling with the handlebars to keep the front wheel on track, shoulders fighting forces intent on taking him into the fence by throwing himself right then left to keep upright.

 And then he deftly overtook Aerts in a flash! From there on he moved further and further ahead as the course switched right and left, up and over a bridge, down a lane blessedly smooth, before once again diving into oozing mud, made worse each lap, the ground churned up by 50 pairs of wheels and feet. 

Ah, but I get ahead of myself. H ow come the commentators missed the moment he t ook Aerts? It came as the second lap drew to a close after some 15 minutes of racing. At that point, Aerts was still in the lead. But within two minutes all that changed. Immediately behind Alerts was Van der Poel and t hen, a little further back. Vandeputte. All three were close up. All three riding like the wind, a perfect study of athleticism. 

 Suddenly, only Aerts and Van der Poel where in camera shot, as Vandeputte was distanced. On they went, left turn, right turn, dismounting to run up steps, making a slick bike change in the pits, Aerts in front, Van der Poel’s front wheel nosing closer.

 The last thing the commentator said of the live action before him on the screen was to comment on Van der Poel slapping his thigh to get some warmth into it. Seconds later Van der Poel suddenly moved up alongside Aerts, which was not remarked upon by either commentator. ~Van der Poel and Aerts were side by side. 

 At this point I was glued to the screen awaiting the next move, surely an imminent attack by one or the other of the two leaders? But our lead commentator must have taken his eye off the screen, for just before Van der Poel moved level, he chose to address viewers who had just joined the transmission. 

Had someone in production interfered and told him he needed to give a detailed account of race positions? Whatever, the commentator broke off to welcome viewers who had just joined the transmission. He told them Aerts was leading Van de r Poel and t hen he set about reading out all the names that were following, from fourth down to 20th place! 

 Our commentator was naming the guy trailing in sixth place when Van der Poel surged into th e lead at last. If you blinked y ou missed it. Both commenters missed it. One of them, surely, might have poked the other in the ribs? 

But hold on, maybe the woman commentator had been called away momentarily because she was silent. Anyway, her compatriot made no comment as the world champion took the lead from Aerts who was now second and Vandeputte still in third. 

Now I like to hear commentators wax lyrical at such moments, inject their own excitement, carry the moment. I want to hear them comment on the action, as you would when someone scores a goal. `And yet the move we were waiting and had expected for some time went completely unnoticed by our experts. 

I was reminded of a story a football sports colleague told me, about an England – Italy international at Wembley. 

 IT CONCERNED A DRINKS WAITER WHO HAD ENTERED THE PRESS AREA IN THE STANDS CARRYING A TRAY OF DRINKS. HE DROPPED THE LOT AND THE CRASH CAUSED EVERY REPORTERS’ HEAD TO SWIVEL ROUND TO SEE WHAT HAD HAPPENED. JUST AS THE GOAL WAS SCORED. SO NOT ONE MEMBER OF THE CREAM OF EUROPE’S PRESS SAW THE BALL GO IN! BUT THE WAITER DID. AND HE BECAME SURROUNDED BY A SCRUM OF SCRIBES QUIZZING HIM ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ON THE PITCH. 

Anyway, back to the defining moment in the ‘cross. Our commentator , for reasons best known to himself – perhaps he was under orders from the production staff in his ear piece – had chosen to fill us in with the position of the next 20 riders. 

 He’d got to about sixth when Van de Poel shot ahead and I fully expected him to break in and shout “Aha, there he goes, the champ has gone” or something of that order. 

But so taken was he with his list of numbers, nose buried in his notebook, he wasn’t to be distracted by the race winning move on the screen in front of him. No, instead he rabbited on with another 15 names and the time gaps. As if we cared at that point? 

Meanwhile, the television was showing the magnificent Van de Poel in total command of the race, at the front in the slippery conditions, powering to victory. 

And then, also rans dealt with, commentator r et urned o the present and focused on the screen. He began describing how Van de Poel was surging ahead without once giving away the fact that he had missed the vital move moments before which had put him the lead in the first place, the race defining moment. It was as if it never happened.