If you were watching the men’s elite race at the UCI Road World Championships yesterday, you’ll have been one of the millions of TV viewers worldwide who were left frustrated when the TV feed disappeared with just 4 kilometres remaining – but now, footage posted online that was shot from a helicopter shows you what you missed.
When the pictures were lost, the 267.5-kilometre race was finely poised, with France’s Julian Alaphilippe riding away from fellow attacker Gianni Moscon of Italy (subsequently disqualified for taking an extended tow from his team car after a crash).
With no images from motorbikes or helicopters, the TV picture cut to the fixed cameras within the final kilometre, with viewers having to wait for three minutes or so for the riders to emerge and see who would battle it out for the win – just like being there in person was an observation several people made on Twitter.
The missing four minutes or so ahead of the sprint to the line, where Peter Sagan of Slovakia beat Norway’s Alexander Kristoff to take the race for an unprecedented third time in a row remained a blank until helicopter footage emerged yesterday evening.
Final 4 km, shot from heli. #Bergen2017pic.twitter.com/WPoMxqhHX2
— CyclingHub (@CyclingHubTV) September 24, 2017
Olav Sandnes, head of host broadcaster TV2, said: “It’s incredibly sad, and we’re really sorry. Fortunately we got the last kilometre, but before that we should have received signals from a very exciting attack.”
http://www.tv2.no/sport/9384804/
He explained that the problem was a power cut on the city’s Mount Fløyen, where a TV mast is located.
“We are very disappointed about it,” he continued. “I feel that our production has worked excellently throughout the World Championship. We’ve had amazing pictures from Bergen.
“We are clearly sorry that we do not succeed with the whole race. We kept going until there were three minutes left, but then we blew up. We’re very sorry.”

9 thoughts on “Video: The missing TV footage of the final kilometres of the Road World Championships – from above”
Frustrating but it shouldn’t
Frustrating but it shouldn’t overshadow a truly fantastic week of racing. Innsbruck and Yorkshire have really got their work cut out to match Bergen.
I found the images from the
I found the images from the first static camera quite exciting. It was like actually standing on the corner with the anticipation building of when the first riders would appear… here is a motorbike is a rider following? no… here’s another motor bike…. and so on until eventually a rider appears and you wonder who it is.
iso2000 wrote:
Agree, made me wonder how other races could benefit from this, less is more, even if it was unplanned.
Agree with the previous posts
Agree with the previous posts, I was on the edge of my seat screaming at the tv
Enjoyed that aerial footage too-thanks- dunno whether it was the lack of Carlton or the music i was listening too as I watched it but the last few km of that race were a thing of beauty, amazing the power Sagan can throw down after 260km of cruising in the peloton.
reminiscent of the tour to la
reminiscent of the tour to la Plagne 1987 – half expected Stephen Roche to pop up there at the end
Interesting that the cameras
Interesting that the cameras don’t carry storage cards for recording (except this particular helicopter).
I always wonder why they
I always wonder why they bother with a microphone on the helicopter cameras.
Great race though!
wellsprop wrote:
I’m sure I read somewhere that the helicopter “mic” is just a sound effect they play so there is no dead air. (or did I dream that?)
You can see here that Sagan
You can see here that Sagan is actually doing a hell of a lot of work. He’s a genius.