I really liked that Keegan actually seemed pretty pumped about the discussions in the cool, laid back way Keegan is. To the point where Alexey said he didn’t plan to do one after Levi’s, but Keegan wanted to.
Keegan seems naturally to be a person to not say a lot, which makes him not seem super into interviews. Not that he was a chatty Kathy here, but seeing how he was actually looking forward to them and wanting to do an additional discussion was pretty cool.
Regarding Hannah’s tire. Anyone know what she was running and what her Scott is rated for? With a new bike sponsor this year - tire rubbing like that is not a good look…
Well, could be the $ and general sponsorship support she receives vs other offers she had.
Rubbing that severe is a pretty elementary mistake.. you’d think, knowing it’s rated for 45’s, that she would probably over obsess about what she could properly fit.
first and second place were on a Crux that fits a 47mm tire, so the Scott with clearance for only 45mm you wouldn’t think it would make much difference, I don’t wanna be harsh or unfair but Hanna looks like the female pro version of DJ, a lot of marginal gains and equipment obsessive talk and no real result to show for. type of rider that’s always in the best shape ever before the race and a “not really how I expected” after the race. I feel bummed for her not getting the results, but part of me think she should stop talking to much about getting QOMs with the new bike and go try to figure out what she needs to do better
She’s literally won Leadville before. Among other solid placings in LTGP events and some XCM World Cups. This seems like a super unfair characterization after she happened to have a bad race.
Pretty harsh on both of them from my perspective. Both have finished top 10 in the Grand Prix. You sound like the people saying WVA is washed up because he didn’t make the podium last weekend. The Grand Prix isn’t exactly the pinnacle of cycling, but everyone in that field is a legit bike racer. Many pro bike racers go their entire career without ever seeing a podium, still have my respect.
Finally got around to finishing the Sea Otter LTGP video.
I have watched the previous seasons twice (spread out, lots of time spent on the trainer..)
It almost seems like they have a new video production company/director. Assume these are also different commentators? The best way I could describe the video would be sporadic/disjointed. Despite having more ‘race coverage’, which I think everyone enjoys, I felt there was very little actual substance in the coverage of the racers.
I wonder what type of constructive feedback they’ve received. I haven’t looked at the YouTube comments.
Definitely their worst production. It was more of just showing a highlight video as opposed to telling a story. Last year I felt like I was watching mini movies and I actually watched the episodes more than once during longer indoor sessions. 15min into this video I was like…not watching this again.
I watched Finsty’s video from Ocean Weasel last night….looks like they did not do any interviews and promo shots normally used in the videos until they got out there, so perhaps future recaps will have more of the behind-the-scenes stuff.
Ted King put out a decent race recap video. Not one of the best I’ve seen but better than a lot. I enjoy the race recap videos that have the voice and stat overlays, but also have some long segments of just race footage and good tunes. Joe Goettl and VC Cylist do great at this. Enjoyable when on the trainer.
Did LT finally get smart and ditch the stupid front number plates? Watching the GCN video I noticed they all had seat tube number and pinned jersey numbers.
Yes, they’ve completely butchered what was a great thing.
I hope these are in accompaniment to more in depth behind the scenes type videos because this is a shell of what made them great. I used to recommend them to everyone that rides…now I barely want to watch it on the trainer.
While I was watching Levi’s GranFondo live today for 3 hrs on the trainer, I wrapped up right around the same time it was over.
In the live feed comments, I mentioned how great the live coverage was and wish LTGP had 10% of this coverage. Someone mentioned their great videos, and I said they were amazing, but Sea Otter was terrible.
To my amazement, Michelle Duffy (assuming the same Michelle Duffy that’s a head honcho over LTGP) responded to my feedback with the comment below. I told her to check out the TrainerRoad forum for constructive feedback. Either way - was neat she acknowledged my disappointment..
Was just listening to the Groadio podcast and it seems that BCC and not Cold Collaborative were doing the videos this year for LTGP. Some of that decision was based on the work that BCC did for the live broadcast of Garmin Gravel Worlds last year.
So that helps explain the change in direction for the videos vs. previous years.
I watched that also after winding down from a long ride today. And saw Michelle commenting throughout the coverage. Exciting racing and decent coverage. I’m a little surprised it’s the same production company, but I also don’t think it’s a fair apples to apples comparison. The mostly road format for Levi’s probably makes it a lot easier to provide meaningful race updates (and they still struggled quite a bit with time splits and who was where on the road). And for me, the really big difference is expectations of live coverage vs. post-race coverage. If you are doing something live on an obviously limited budget, it’s a lower expectations bar. Even with lots of mistakes and confusion during today’s coverage, I still like live race coverage and you had a good feel for the race at times (watching people suffer, attacking, bridging gaps, etc.). But if you are going to do a post-race production recapping the race, it needs to be fairly buttoned up and can’t feel confused and disjointed. And while I thought last year’s LIfetime format needed more focus on the racing, I think the new format needs to include some level of storytelling and also provide a feel for the events and venues. I’m definitely biased as an amateur who participates in many of the Lifetime events, but not getting into the “vibe” of the events in these videos seems like a miss for me.
Outside of the lifetime highlights I thought “the cooldown” with Keegan and Alexey was fantastic. I really digged the chairs in a parking lot vibe! And on that matter the Alexey inside scoop on his personal channel was pretty great too.
