What did you think of "The Cycle Show"?

Thought the 2nd was pretty good, although a bit of a background piece on Eddy would have been good. Hopefully they will be able to include that sort of thing when they move to an hour for the show.

Just reading thru some of the comments had me laughing my man breasts off.

The show was pretty dire but it has promise.

Needs to be more selective about who they interview on the couch. Obree & Mansell? Didn't work. One is a mad a march hare and the other is terminally dull. The Wilf Lunn lookie-likie, mentioned by a few commenter's, (for those under 40 that's the nutty professor guy off the BBC kids show for the deaf 'Vision On'), whom I understand invented the mountain bike. No not Wilf Lunn...the lookie-likie. Oh forget it. He was rubbish anyway. No not Wilf the Yank was rubbish.

Show 2 was much better and so I remain hopeful.

but other wise pleased as even if it is a bit wet, it will evolve and improve im sure

i think it needs to be longer and have a few bike features or race / rider history. maybe do a feature on some greats like steve peat, jason mccroy, faustino coppi, wiggins etc. maybe like gadget show of old, have informed people testing helmets or wheels etc. utilise the format

Just watched it on the itvplayer. Really badly edited version on that, with the ads in the middle of a sentence and the show cutting off early at the end.

Definitely much better than last week, especially wrt the sound. If it is going up to 1 hour later in the run then that sounds like a positive - as long as it doesn't result in lots of padding which would be almost as bad as the current rushed nature of it.

There was clearly a lot of unused material so they might like to consider putting "full-length" versions of some of the reports or interviews online. For example the report on the megavalanche was entertaining enough but I wasn't bothered about seeing much more, while I might click into the full length version of the Merckx interview. Others might feel the exact opposite.

The bit on bike sizing was reasonable as was the downhill MTB race item. But trying to suggest Gary Kemp is uber-trendy is a bit of a stretch of the imagination. He was - 30 years ago. The interview with Eddie Mercx came across as really amateurish. I think the presenters are part of the problem.

The second episode did seem to be an improvement on the first, but that's not difficult. I still can't see how they can deal with the breadth of cycling disciplines they are purporting to cover in only 30 minutes in anything other than a superficial way, although I read somewhere that it is going to be 60 mins long from episode 4. If true, it might develop into something good.

Seems they listened (imho).

Less background noise. Intro's to the people on the show with either pics or captions.

Smoother transitions from one peice to another.

Yes, a work in progress and who'd not love to see an hour long show but as I said before, just happy to see bikes on tv.

I thought the features were ok but the links, and the chat on the couch, were a bit cringe-inducing. Obree was under-used - his comment after the Box Hill feature was quite illuminating, and the show could have done with more of that. Not a bad start for a show trying to cater for all cyclists though.

And Nigel Mansell is a dick.

It wasn't great but just pleased that there's actually a cycling show on ! Hopefully it'll improve, probably needs to be an hour if they're going to do the sofa chat stuff as well. I like Fisher, Obree and Mansell, but the three of them together was toe curling

I was tremendously excited to hear of this new programme and its trailing throughout the tour de France only served to heighten this excitement. I spoke to many during the Tour who were really starting to get into the event and seemed to spend much of it explaining how things worked and what was happening for this army of new fans to this great sport. So it was difficult to imagine a better time to launch this new series. So how did it go?

The biggest problem for me was the length. I see countless programmes that are stretched out painfully over one hour where as you enter a commercial break you have a lengthy foretaste of what is to come followed by an equally lengthy reprise after the ad break. This programme would easily have filled an hour and perhaps allowed a little time to educate some newer and younger fans. Graeme Obree's heroic exploits were in the mid 90s and could have been explained with a brief vt biography. The same is also true of Gary Fischer. These two visionaries, notwithstanding their eccentricities, seemed to be struggling to get a word in over the hubbub behind and presumably some producer pointing to his wrist as they attempted to cram everything in.

Cycling is enjoying its greatest growth for decades on the back of olympic and tour success and people just getting out on to the road. Could ITV not release another half hour for this show? Having seen some of the other offerings on ITV4 I would venture yes.

A long overdue effort but let's seize the opportunity and make this the must see offering it could be

Dull, disappointing and amateurish. Was there anything in it that a cyclist wouldn't already know?

A complete turn-off for non cyclists, like my wife. It just confirmed her opinion of cyclists as boring obsessives

The Brad Wiggins prog is still on ITV Player for another three weeks (although there are some technical issues at the moment)

http://t.co/e5oXzDT6

If that link doesn't work, try going to ITV Player direct or youtube

http://youtu.be/syqLaLR73Vc

Hi All,
I thought it was a little 'magoo' however, for a first stab at least it was cycling on TV.... I think that once the market researchers study the forums they will be able to make it more focused on what is really wanted - an attempt that gets my support.

Anyway, did anyone see the programme just before it? I thought that was a positive slot and in some cases a really frank account of Wiggo's rise. I think he has done great considering the presssures that were highlighted in the programme. If you missed it then it's well worth searching for.

Regards,

Trikeman.

Gary Fisher?

I thought that was Wilf from Vision On

Watched half of it last night - don't understand why they've gone for allowing that much ambient noise. The Box Hill feature was pretty annoying as they mentioned cyclists of [cough] mixed abilities (Wouter Sybrandy?) but didn't even introduce them by name.

Frustrated that there wasn't any time or inclination to explain what Graham Obree was doing with his land speed attempt, showed nothing of the mechanics of his bike (other than wobbly head shot) Wilf from Vision On obvioulsy didn't give a shit who he was and knew nothing about him. It perpetuated the myth that Obree is an eccentric pottering oaf who has no knowledge of engineering.

Probably won't be upset if I miss the next seven and a half episodes...

I didn't have great expectations, and wasn't disappointed in that respect - which isn't saying much. I mean a 30 min ute slot with the usual ads means that the actual content once the start, end have got involved means that the it is about 20 minutes.

It felt rushed - clearly the content needs to link up for more references - like I'd never heard of Mansell's stuff before and it wasn't that well explained. Every item was just a taster - I mean the cycle checks - I'd be expecting the checks to include not just brakes and tyres but also handlebars, wheels firmly fixed, etc. The ride around Box Hill was OK. I would have a closer view of Obree's bike. As already said, no real introduction for people - especially Gary Fisher. Most people wouldn't know him from Adam.

They';ve just got to settle into it, and please don't try to do too much variety in each 20 minute programme. Less spread more depth - get the spread across the whole series.

Me and Mrs Didds were fairly underwhelmed too. I did think that when they advertised the show as "all cycling for all cyclists" etc that whilst it was a laudable attempt to not just have a roadie show for roadies, or a all-britches-and-camelbaks for MTBers etc, that they may end up spreading themselves very thinly as a result, but fair goes on them for trying. They are also in the difficult position of being all things to all men... which to a degree the TdF commentary has to be too... it has to encompass those new top cycling without any ideas, those that have been doing it their entire lives (possibly still without any ideas!)... then to cover commuting areas but also keep the track heads happy.

As for last night, I thought it was pretty cheesy, fairly hokey. Coming from a cycling cafe was an attempt to keep it matey and a connection with the activity, but there were clear sound problems for whoever was stuck on the right hand end of the seating (from a viewers' perspective). Top marks for the commuting but.. but the advice was useless. "Keep away from trucks". Very helpful I am sure when cycling in a busy city. It did get mentioned in passing, but a better _emphasis_ might have been "don't get up the inside of trucks and stay in a primary position in heavy traffic". I appreciate they don;t want to post negative impressions, and that is laudable too, but the safe cycling piece was fairly unhelpful (with Bikeability instructor's hat on there

Oh - and Gary Fisher was a nightmare. I thought Obree was gonna chin him at one stage when Fisher prodded him for about the 5th time!

didds

Just watched it and it was pretty rubbish.

Mansell was stupid, bad at acting and had little intelligent input.

Fisher was crazy, and took the whole of cycling into the realm of disrepute.

Obree was classy, but his project was washed over, along with his achievements.

Why can't there be a proper cycling show for people who already cycle, that just seemed to be jumping on Wiggo's success and the populisation of cycling in general.

They need to take it more seriously.

I can't help but think that road.cc could've made a much better program, with product reviews, rides, sportive footage, racing, fitness advice and something funny.

Shall we try and make a half hour film?

My voice sounds rubbish on camera, but I;ll take some cool videos!

Too much ad-hocish waffling on the couch. Doesn't work when the show is so short! Also, some non-TV people aren't good at the short & sweet sound-bites that are needed for that format.

Obree, for one, would have been better served up in a separate report, with a structured and edited interview. They could have given a proper introduction too! A lot of people won't know have known who Obree is and what he's done.

Ditto for Fisher - he at least got a brief introduction as the father of mountain biking (I didn't know that).

Finally, the patronising helmet promotion was annoying. Some of their reportage at least showed some normal cyclists, going around in normal clothes. However, anyone working for the show appears to be required to toe the "Cycling: Danger! Fear!" line when it comes to their apparel - which I think is terribly damaging. Even the sequence with the guy in the business clothes on the fold-up in the city has a helmet. Then they had Mansell deliver a, presumably pre-arranged, little sermon about wearing helmets.

Overall: Good to see a general cycling programme on TV! Good first effort, though some tweaks still need to be made (and no doubt will be).

I never thought I would see a Cycling Magazine programme on mainstream TV. It has rough edges, but it is here, and could help to encourage more people out on their bikes, which can only be a good thing, cant it?

Watched and tbh just pleased to see cycling on tv. If it makes people give it a go then, to me, that's a good thing. You won't please everyone obviously so here I am, my feet are up and sitting back waiting for everyone on the couple of cycling forums I use to rip it apart, etc.

Oh well, popcorn anyone?

I set it to record, but ITV and Cycling do not go together, so I know what I expect