I don’t know if he wins sea otter, but he’s still got to be the overwhelming favorite for the overall. He could probably win leadville on a fat bike. Unbound is unpredictable and he had a poor result (for him) there last year. Crusher is out, but it was out last year also due to fires. And he still won the series by over 20 points. Agree that that losing the Rad is a negative, but he’s likely going to be a heavy favorite at Little Sugar. And most of these events have a lot of unpredictability to them. Keegan is much luckier than most with flats and wrecks, but when you are that lucky that often, it’s not luck… I do hope the series is more competitive this year, I’m just not holding my breath. I think Beers has the best shot at making a run, big motor but maybe not as strong on race tactics.
The local gravel race in NC already did that joke last week.
What’s everyone opinion on the Sea Otter race recap video? I found it to be quite a letdown compared to years past. Most of the video was a zoomed out helicopter video with commentators who seemed to know very little about the racers or calling a bike race.
In my opinion the “Call of a Lifetime” series is primarily responsible for a lot of the hype these race/athletes have gained over the past few years. If this is the coverage moving forward, I don’t see it being interesting to the non die hard audience for much longer.
That seems to be the majority opinion. I happen to like seeing more racing and less “story” personally so I kinda liked the change. Obviously it was less cinematic and all that, but those videos had started to become stale and all the same to me as well. And I never really liked how they made Sofia seem terrible in that first season. I’ve listened to her on many podcasts and other things since then and she seems like a really nice person. It was similar to the Netflix tour doc making it seem like there was friction between Jonas and Wout when there never was. I don’t need reality show drama, just want to see what happened at the races.
I have to agree here…how many times can they have Keegan on, basically saying the same things for 3-4 years?
I will admit they could have done a good sized segment on the new names this year and how that has the potential to shake things up, however. That seems like a missed opportunity.
But I was OK with more race footage…but holy hell, get better announcers.
I do agree, the coverage does a better job covering the race overall and the stories could be seen as unnecessary to some viewers.
I’m a big enough fan of bike racing that I too am satisfied with just a full race coverage with commentators but I’m guessing a lot of interest in the LGP would be people who normally don’t watch bike racing.
For example my wife has little interest in bike racing but has really become a fan of the Call of a Lifetime videos and follows the athletes outside of the videos but the last recap video was pretty dry. Gravel racing is not the most exciting discipline and without some backstory it’s just going to be a recap of a 10 hour race with a few groups of racers riding through Kansas.
The video format definitely went from one extreme to another. From a “touchy/feely” format largely focused on the athletes and backstories to very dry race coverage. As much as I was hoping for more race coverage this year, I honestly didn’t care for the new format. Part of that was that the production felt a little amateurish and gave very little insight into what was really going on with the race. It’s a tough format to cover unless you have a fleet of SUV’s and helicopters, so I’m not sure what the answer is there. I actually liked the instagram live feeds better than the post race production in a lot of ways. It was rough also, but at least it gave some taste of what’s going on with the race in real time. I like that they are trying new things, maybe something that mixes the prior format with the new one will be where they eventually land.
I liked this video better than years past. As others have said - you can only listen to the same folks in interviews so much. I like watching race replays and thought they did a decent job with what video they had.
Yup, I think this is a fair assessment. I, too, wanted more race coverage, so I am relatively happy with that, but the production and content (i.e. commentary) can definitely be improved. Bill Ellison is not a good TV commentator, Tim Johnson is, at best, acceptable as an analyst and I have no idea what value Lauren Hall brings to the equation.
I just wish they would incorporate an event on the east coast!
I think they are still missing the mark. Both formats are way too long and do a poor job actually highlighting the race and giving a sense for the action, tactics, etc. This may get at an inherent flaw with these types of long, attritional races with no teams which is that they are just fundamentally not that interesting.
The most interesting way to watch them is from inside the race. When Payson posted some videos last year from inside the front group at Midsouth and Chequamegon, those were awesome. If you watch Justin McQuerry’s footage from the start of Sea Otter, it’s very compelling because they drop into the course after a quick climb and it’s pure chaos. It was a sketchy descent that isn’t overly wide and dust makes visibility tough and the group is just strung out and guys are on the edge of crashing constantly. That’s how you get the perspective of what the speed is really like and how hard it is to stay on wheels, but you don’t see that from a helicopter. There are a few guys that do videos for all the races and I find them pretty entertaining as long as they’re “in the race”. Drew Dillman’s footage at SO wasn’t overly useful because he was dropped fast and then rode a lot solo. That isn’t much fun to watch. They need camera people on e-bikes like Cape Epic uses. Just make sure you have one of those on the top 2 or 3 groups for each gender the whole time. Regardless, I’m happy they’re putting out anything.
Agree to a point with some of the tactical stuff, but there is also a side that is much more interesting than traditional road racing in my opinion. They typically play out much more like a classics race, but with even more carnage. Usually a lot of selective course features. The races typically get ripped apart early and often, some form of a a break-away almost always wins (even if it’s a “pack” of 10), and there are lots of heroic solo and small group attacks. I’m not saying it’s a great spectator sport compared to something like XCO, it’s still a multi-hour bike race and people struggle to focus on anything longer than 30 seconds these days.
+1 on this. Some of the in-race footage from Unbound last year was crazy intense.
Lifetime has them at most of the big events and you could see them at Sea Otter in some of the footage. But I never saw a feed from them. Really, the best content I saw from Lifetime was from the side-by-sides that were doing live instagram feeds. It wasn’t great and it’s a terrible format to try to follow what’s going on, but at least it gave some feel for the racing. I want to see attacks, people clawing back on, etc. Doing it from e-bikes, motos, etc. seems like the way. Helicopter shots are great, but lifetime is probably blowing half their production budget on a single Heli that is trying to cover multiple races with groups all over the course. To be fair, it’s a tough format to cover and it’s not like they are pulling in millions in sponsor $'s for their coverage.