[Closed] Love road cycling, but not interested in watching it.

I'll watch a bike race on tv but given the choice I'll be out riding not watching someone else do it.

I find it boring to watch bar the last few miles. However I also find ridng on the road boring.
I play squash at a decent level but god almighty its dull to watch.

highlights shows are good, I think - a day distilled into an hour or so

Depends on the stage. The Stelvio stage of the Giro this year was brilliant to watch unfold.

Same for me and surfing, love doing it but watching videos etc is like watching paint dry, Step into Liquid is the only film I have watched all the way through.

I enjoy just dipping in and out of things like the Tour couldn't sit down and watch an entire stage.

I love watching the TDF as well as my wife and I think the coverage is really good. The highlight shows are very well made and generally well commentated and pack all the good stuff in. However I've tried watching coverage of other races and I am not sure if it's the commentators or the editing or production but they just seem a bit dull. Need to keep trying and finding the more interesting race coverage really.

Have no interest in watching the racing, but do enjoy the scenery. I make sure the tv is on mute

Actually, I reckon there's good potential for a Sean Kelly drinking game regardless of the racing

My OH watches it constantly, I like it on tv mainly for the scenery. I do like watching races live but mainly because we tend to ride there and work out a route that hits the race route via some scenic stuff, or ride along the race route before the race comes through. Plus it's an excuse for holidays in different places. So I like it, but not for the sport as such.

TBH I'm the same about any sport. I might dip in and out occasionally but I don't get the fascination with watching folk compete.

I don' watch road racing either. Don't find it exciting, engaging or anything else. Just get bored and turn it off.

Several of my mates though are really into it and know about all the people in all the teams, all the stats etc.

I couldn't tell you any of the 'famous names', apart from perhaps Wiggins, Froome & erm, Armstrong.....

I don't think you are alone no.

I'm quite happy to go riding in the mornings then lay on the sofa watching a race (Tours or Monuments) but I'll not stay in or revolve my day around races.
I have the classics in my book that I watch, normally record and watch later on or following day, some stages of the GT's I record if I think I can't watch them live. On the whole though I too am not a fan of stats gathering, Watts outputs and gear ratios bore the living daylights out of me, I do like the more personal elements to the stats though. More an insite to the rider and his outlook rather than what kits he's riding.

FWiW I missed most of this years Giro, now normally this is my favorite race of the season, but for some reason this year I chose to ride my bike rather than watch the racing.

8)

More than happy to sit poolside in Spain with Spanish commentary and watch a stage unfold while sinking a few beers, lad even had cheek to say to the wife "are you going to let him watch that all day" cheeky git!! he was happy to lie on a lounger for 8 hours toasting himself!!

I love watching the TDF as well as my wife

and robdob that must be true love 😉

She didn't play ,but my Gran loved to watch snooker and darts. 😉

Watch occassionally, once in a blue moon. Like it when I catch the last 3 or 4 miles of a race. Otherwise not fussed. Not enough going on to hold interest.

Looking forward to Perico trying to pronounce Buttertubs and Blubberhouses on the Spanish coverage.

Do enjoy it but don't have the luxury of being able to spend hours watching a bike race these days (kids, work, etc.) Like to watch it while sat on the turbo/rollers though, undemanding viewing for many of the races. Having said that, if it's sport and on the telly, there isn't much I wouldn't watch.

I don't race and only do a bit of road riding but the tour is pretty much the only sporting event that I'll choose to watch, don't even watch many mtb vids, the 5min youtube stuff ashton/macaskill/akrigg etc put out I can manage but nowt longer normally - and I love MTBing. so quite why I'll watch hours of TdF I'm not sure. (highlights atleast, more of the full coverage if I have time)

that said I normally only start watching in the second week once they hit some proper hills.

Highlights shows are about the limit of my attention and available time and I do enjoy them. I don't race on the road though. Maybe I would have a different attitude to watching it if I did.
2 schools of thought here. 1 - watching is a poor substitute for doing it. 2 - watching the elite of your sport is a great inspiration as well as entertainment.

enjoy road riding, tend to Sky+ all the highlights but usually skim through to the last 10k and watch the endings !

I follow Pro cycling quite heavily via various podcasts, internet sites, and printed media. I'll watch 6 hours of some obscure mid-week semi classic in March, but I rarely watch a tour stage.

I like watching the mountain stages of the big tours, or the classics.
as long as I can have a beer whilst watching it.

sky+ at 6-12x speed makes for great viewing, then normal speed when you see something happening

TDF on TV is awesome. Waiting at the side of a road for hours to experience 25 seconds of colour and wooshing sounds ultra dull..

I like watching the GTs and classics, although I wouldn't sacrifice a day to the telly except for special occasions (we'll be having a BBQ on the Grand Depart, for example). I lucked into watching the Stelvio stage this year, and that was fantastic from start to finish, but not every stage has that much interest for me.

Actually, I reckon there's good potential for a Sean Kelly drinking game regardless of the racing

as above, big key mountain stages e.g. with froomey going off pedalling like billy the whizz,
Also like the last few miles of the big sprint stages, seeing if Cav can get lined up to be deployed.

Circuit races and stuff like the Tour Series, dull as hell for me (though womens tour was good, probably because of the short stages)...

Downhill MTB would be a better spectacle and I reckon quite popular, in a 'I'd never do it but it looks fun' kind of way for most of the public, much like ski-sunday.

EDIT- and yeah, if I do go up to watch the tour in yorks, I'll be taking a good book to bide most of the time.

I love watching the grand tours on telly.

I also like test match cricket, make of that what you will

Can quite easily watch a days climbing stage, other wise usually highlights or the last 40 minutes live.
Probably wouldn't bother with a TT stage exccept to see the last few finishers.

Can see the comparison with test cricket - a basic understaiding of strategies/tactics really enhances the viewing 🙂

highlights shows are good, I think - a day distilled into an hour or so

That does work better IMO I like watching the breaks on a mountain stage or maybe just a sprint or the last few riders on a TT but watching a whole day of other people riding? Nah...

The tour series coverage is quite good in that respect, short and sweet, its basically made for TV high paced and with the intermediate Sprints in there to keep things lively it makes good viewing, its not an endurance event like a grand tour obviously but the format suits TV broadcast far better.

I watch highlights of men’s racing but couldn’t watch a full stage unless I was on the rollers/turbo. I will watch all of what limited coverage of women’s racing there is because I get to race with (against) a lot of those women so it makes it more interesting and or I’m on TV too 🙂

More interested in taking part in any kind of sport than watching it.

I like the scenery and for a bit of escapism. Occasionally the racing is worth a watch too.

I love watching road racing! Especially the Grand Tours and some of the Classics. I'll happily sit watching live coverage of the TDF all day.
I also love watching cyclocross and XC racing, but find watching DH racing pretty boring.

Go figure. 😉

(I don't include criteriums / city-centre racing in the above. There has to be some challenging terrain. Don't like track racing either, pretty much for that reason.)

Actually, I reckon there's good potential for a Sean Kelly drinking game regardless of the racing

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I'd add drink if he talks without being prompted by his co commentator or if he says someone is doing an "unbelievable performance". And most definitely drink if someone is said to have great bike handling skills because they were a former mountain biker!

Heathen.

Last year I watched it live on Eurosport. Then watched the evening highlights on ITV4. Then listened to the Bespoke and Velocast podcasts, and read Inner Ring.

For balance, I hate football.

I wonder how long it took the huge crowds gathered to watch sir bradley doing his olympic TT stuff in Richmond upon Thames couple of years back to realise that watching TT's is soooo boring

but I do like watching motorcycle racing on TV including the IoM TT

[quote=Dickyboy ]I wonder how long it took the huge crowds gathered to watch sir bradley doing his olympic TT stuff in Richmond upon Thames couple of years back to realise that watching TT's is soooo boring

To be fair, if you're stood at the side of the road it's actually more interesting watching a TT than a road stage where the peleton comes flying past in one big bunch with nothing much happening (IMHO). Clearly watching on TV is a different matter, but stood at the side of the road has so little to do with the excitement of the racing - even on a mountain stage, unless you happen to be stood at just the right point to see an attack, one bloke chasing another bloke up the hill isn't actually so different from seeing one bloke riding a TT followed by another bloke riding a TT.

Love it but can understand why some find it boring or difficult to get into. Can be sat for hours with nothing much going on other than some nice scenery and a bit of chit chat.

I don't mind the highlights shows or fast-forwarding through live footage I've recorded when I'm short on time to catch up, but much prefer to have it on in the background and watching the day unfold while I'm pottering around or reading.

Then of course there's the odd break or split which threatens to turn the GC on its head.

Looking forward to the last few days of the Tour, booked some time off work to get a ride in each morning followed by an afternoon chilling and drinking 🙂

I certainly wouldn’t want to sit through the whole of a stage very often the exception being some of the mountain stages in the tour, but often watch the last hour. There has been some great racing recently though, the Dauphine and Tour of Switzerland were full of attacking riding with the race going down to the wire, possibly due to Sky not being able to turn it into a precision which bodes well for the tour.

I've been to a few stages of the ToB and I'm going to watch stage 3 of the tour ,To be honest I like nosing around the stages before they start looking at the bikes etc. I also watched the Pearl Izumi Edinburgh stage in Edinburgh last month which was actually really good as It was a short circuit. I've been to the WC at Fort William a few times and whilst It's a good spectator sport I couldn't go and watch it all the time.
Strangely Freeride is one thing I cant really watch as all the sections in Roam etc whilst technically brilliant just get very boring very quickly. As others have said though the mountain stages of a grand tour are great to watch just for the scenery.

oddly I love watching road racing on TV but would hate to do it!

I like to watch the big climbing stages and the highlights of the sprint days in the grand tours. No interest at all in the lesser races though. A friend of mine once offered to lend me his TDF DVD collection .. But if you know who won there's no point watching them as far as I'm concerned.
Christmas time I always seem to get books on cycling bought for me. I can never imagine being bored enough to even attempt to read them.