lastplacebrad Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 Caught the tail end of WTC outdoor lastnight on Eurosport 2 at 5:30 ,so keep your eyes peeled !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
montesa3566 Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 Next program Wednesday 18/05/05 @ 17.30 showing Spain for a whole 30 minutes Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 A whole 30 minutes eh... That will be 5 - 10 minutes of woffle about the area the trial is being staged in, another few minutes on rider profiles, 5 minutes of adverts for abdominal stretch machines and sixties and seventies 'hits' and finally, if we're really lucky, about 10 minutes total running time of the actual trial. Cynical I know and we should be grateful for any coverage, but they could do so much better. As you probably guessed, the standard of their coverage in the past really p*sses me off. Better this year maybe...? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jools Posted May 12, 2005 Report Share Posted May 12, 2005 A whole 30 minutes eh... That will be 5 - 10 minutes of woffle about the area the trial is being staged in, another few minutes on rider profiles, 5 minutes of adverts for abdominal stretch machines and sixties and seventies 'hits' and finally, if we're really lucky, about 10 minutes total running time of the actual trial.Cynical I know and we should be grateful for any coverage, but they could do so much better. As you probably guessed, the standard of their coverage in the past really p*sses me off. Better this year maybe...? Iz right! Men and Motors used to show the outdoors for an hour. How many times do they show that Sixties hits advert & its like 5 minutes long They run late to with boxing usually so the trial will be on around mid-night! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 Did anyone catch it? Got home from work in time so watched it but what a big yawn. Sections were hardly original, all the same, just hop hop hop from one rock to another and slam up the occasional big one. Skilled riding without question but is that really the future of trials at world level. It was like an indoor outside - maybe that was that the intention, to give the home riders an advantage. Whatever happened to natural sections with big climbs, cambers, roots, etc. Surely they can do better than that. Let's hope Japan do - assuming we get to see it on good old Eurosport Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subira Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 Watched the last 15 mins - can't say it was at all exciting, maybe you had to be there ? It didn't work for TV if that was the objective. Even Eurosport has moved it to a 'graveyard' slot, on a little utilised channel. They know that the Show Jumping, Wrestling and Golf will get better ratings, hence the schedule. Advertisers are hardly going to be falling over themselves for the ad break after today. I am sure Motegi will be up to scratch, both from a WTC and a TV perspective. A bit of Japanese moisture normally sorts the men from the boys ! As I have mentioned before, the FIM needs to look very closely at where the WTC is going to be in five years time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
the artist formerly known as ish Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 Interesting point Subira, where will it be in five years time? Looking at the recent topics there seems to be more interest in the old bikes and events, than modern world trials, the pictures of those riders back in the eighties are ones of them doing pivot turns in rocks and mud, pictures of today's events are all of riders at the top of some mega step with the front wheel in the air, in fact I think they try too much to get that top of the step shot instead of more interesting shots like the one Andy got of Jarvis in the SSDT this year. Should it be one man and one machine only on the course, if people are required to catch then is that part of the section too hard, do sections need to be dangerous to take marks of the best riders, and closing any attempt by all but a few. Not that it makes any difference to what I do, but is world trials loosing touch with reality of the base sport, and people no longer relate to it as the same sport they do, I once could watch world rounds and think I would have a crack at riding that section, now I think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neonsurge Posted May 18, 2005 Report Share Posted May 18, 2005 (edited) But there's a problem here I think. In order for trials to grow as a global sport it needs money and in the modern world that means TV. Huge steps and jumps make a good spectacle and therefore good TV. Riders edging over slippery tree roots and up and down muddy hillsides in the pouring rain not only is unlikely to catch the imagination of the casual viewer but also causes logistical nightmares for any production company brave enough to attempt to capture anything approaching representative footage. TV producers like short, visually impressive sections, preferably close together and in a controlled environment. Indoor trials in other words and in that sense I don't believe that the organisers of the Tarragona round can be criticised for laying the event out in the way that they did. I know I'm stating the bleedin' obvious here (but bear with me, I'm going somewhere with this), I think we'd all agree that real trials take place over predominantly natural obstacles with sections varied enough to test a riders' capabilities to the full. Unpredictable surfaces and sections that change throughout the course of an event test not just raw riding skill but also their ability to read the terrain and adjust their approach accordingly from lap to lap. The problem is, these type of sections aren't usually as impressive to watch from a casual spectator's perspective and in order to provide this kind of a challenge, organisers invariably need to cover a lot of ground. Which makes TV coverage difficult and expensive... Why not combine the strengths of both indoor and outdoor events? Not just the kind of thing that we already have in the WTC with a couple of indoor-style sections at the end of the lap near the start and finish but a proper Kickstart-style fusion of natural and man-made obstacles. This would allow natural obstacles that in themselves don't present much of a challenge to be augmented and extended with artificial elements. This would allow the event to be more compact and more accessible to everyone involved. I'll take me pills now. Edited May 18, 2005 by neonsurge Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shercool Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 I thought the sections at the Spanish round looked crap on Eurosport, they all looked just the same. I was talking to Heather Ellwood (Richards mum) and they were there, she said once you had seen one section you had seen them all, pretty much a waste of time, the Spanish riders seemed to like it though !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam Posted May 20, 2005 Report Share Posted May 20, 2005 can't say it was at all exciting, maybe you had to be there ? It wasn't that exciting being there either, easily the worst World Round I've ever been to! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kinky boots Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 >> Whatever happened to natural sections with big climbs, cambers, roots, etc. I guess another problem is that TV tends to 'flatten out' severity of slopes and sizes of obstacles. I know when I've been to British Champ rounds and taken video, then watched it back at home it looks far easier than it did to the naked eye. And when I've taken the camera out to film me and my mates riding, when we play it back it looks like we're riding up kerbs and over lollipop sticks instead of the MASSIVE 3 foot steps and HUGE 18 inch logs that we normally manage. So, without those spectacular hops and steps, the TV viewing for the non-trials educated audience would be somewhat dull. Even the indoor TV coverage doesn't do justice... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Anyone remember the success of Junior Kick-Start with Peter Purvis? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boofont Posted May 31, 2005 Report Share Posted May 31, 2005 Anyone remember the success of Junior Kick-Start with Peter Purvis? Kick Start... Whats that then?... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spud Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 A TV series that I think Steve Colley and Steve Saunders rode in the mid 80's. I was very young at the time, but remember it fondly as a top program to watch. It had good prime time ratings and ran to a second series - purely trials. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
boofont Posted June 1, 2005 Report Share Posted June 1, 2005 A TV series that I think Steve Colley and Steve Saunders rode in the mid 80's. I was very young at the time, but remember it fondly as a top program to watch. It had good prime time ratings and ran to a second series - purely trials. Ho Ho! I gotcha, I was just kidding with you, I knew what it was! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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