Cyclocosm - Pro Cycling Blog » Video Coverage

How The Race Was Won – Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stages 5-9

cosmo — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:09:51 +0000

They certainly have end-loaded this year’s Giro. After nine days (don’t forget to check out stages 1 through 4), lots of probing GC moves, lots of rain, lots of heads-up racing—which is what I think you want out of the early going in a Grand Tour. I could perhaps stand to see a few more sprint stages, but being entirely honest, those guys get enough chances to win already, don’t they?

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

Anyway, I’m on pins-and-needles for Tuesday’s hilltop throw-down. Hoping Ryder can steal back some time while the Top 10 watch each other, but it might also be nice to see Evans or Gesink throw a punch or two.

How The Race Was Won – Giro d’Italia 2013 – Stages 1-4

cosmo — Mon, 13 May 2013 12:07:25 +0000

I’ve had a pretty good run with HTRWW this spring, but last Tuesday, a few things went wrong. A perfect storm, if you will. The still-buggy result is this Lost Episode—scheduled to go live last Wednesday, offered now (along with stages 5 through 9) because it’s a rest day and you’ve got nothing to do until Tour of California this evening.

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

How The Race Was Won – Tour of Romandie 2013

cosmo — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:37:32 +0000

A hilly stage race that—were it not for some lousy weather—might not have even had a hilltop finish. Still, the tight time gaps lead to some hard chasing and interesting sprints, and a renewed appreciation on the part of yours truly for the skills of Gianni Meersman.

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

The race was also a bit of a blow for the Sky-is-Doping storyline. Yes, the team controlled the racing, but they didn’t dominate it, relying more heavily on sprinters’ teams and Movistar toward the end of the event, and coming apart almost completely on the final hilly stage.

Yes, Froome still won, but in the decisive moments he had to do it himself, and at least pulled faces like he was earning it with the effort. And while most top talents can hard-nose it through six stages in April, it’s unlikely to be a winning strategy over three weeks in July.

How The Race Was Won – Liege-Bastogne-Liege 2013

cosmo — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 11:12:34 +0000

Coming into this Sunday, there were a lot of big squads without a classics win, and only one classic left on the table. One came good with some spectacular teamwork and and cool-as-a-cucumber riding.

Also featured—more electronic shifting follies, some road blocking, an arm sling, over-aggressive spectators and a gigantic panda costume. What’s not to like?

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

How The Race Was Won – Amstel Gold 2013

cosmo — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 12:24:54 +0000

Did a course tweak just work out? Certainly the race-winning move employed the aggression and pluck that had been missing from the (successful) attacks in previous editions. And the cast of characters battling at the front brought some new names and new faces to the fore.

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

Also, I could have spent all day riffing on the technical errors in the race video production—bad or absent time checks, cameras missing important attacks, and a 5 minute gap in the production feed covered sloppily by 60fps replays—which, honestly, were of such irrelevant things that I wondered a if the producers had ever seen a bike race before.

But I didn’t do that—the race was too good to short-change.

How The Race Was Won – Tour of Flanders 2013

cosmo — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:30:57 +0000

Don’t want to come across as too unimpressed with the new course, but the gaps between the hills are such that it plays out a lot like a cobbled Amstel Gold—mercifully, without the finishing climb so riders feel at least slightly motivated make a move rather than wait for the inevitable selection.

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

Only Lotto really contested the pre-race storyline, and did a pretty nice job of it, putting their lieutenants in control of the break all day, and giving their trump card more than a fair shot against the two most impressive riders of the season so far.

Oh, and yes—I really did make a Pikachu of Flanders flag.

How The Race Was Won – Gent-Wevelgem 2013

cosmo — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:40:47 +0000

Echelons, a tremendously long break, inopportune flats and tumbles—it’s beginning to look a lot more like spring, despite the stubbornly wintery conditions in Northern Europe right now.

[click for iPad/iPhone/download]

Definitely a mixed bag for the favorites going into the Monuments next week: two abandons—one intentional, one not—a breakthrough win, and active, aggressive races for a bunch of potential spoilers. We’ll see who scoops up the Cadbury Eggs when the chips are down next Sunday.

How The Race Was Won – Milan-San Remo 2013

cosmo — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 13:07:58 +0000

So, after some brief site downtime this week (I’m posting this on 3/22/13, but back-dating for the purposes of continuity, Cyclocosm is back—as is HTRWW. Still have a few fixes to make on the HTRWW Podcast feed, but we’ll get there.

How The Race Was Won – Milan-Sanremo 2013 from Cosmo Catalano on Vimeo.

[right click for iPad/iPhone/download]

How The Race Was Won – Paris-Nice 2013

cosmo — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:52:31 +0000

Chris Horner thinks it’s the lesser of the two spring stage races this season, but I’m not going to let that deter me (mostly because of P-N’s convenient weekend finishing date). There were at least two interesting sprints, some intersting tactical riding in muck weather, and the usual mayhem that makes bike racing fun.

[right click for iPad/iPhone/download]

(There’s a page that has *all* the How The Race Was Won videos — have you told your friends, family, and coworkers about it yet?)

I’m not sure if I’ve made it clear before, but creating HTRWWs for stage races is no fun. There’s too much to cover, and I have to talk too fast, and there is a lot of progress-bar-slogging on the production side. You could, I suppose, attempt it every day, but that’s the sort of thing that would qualify as a full-time job.

But fear not—the relative frustration of producing this has gotten me in the proper mood for some good-old-fashioned ranting. Stay tuned.

How The Race Was Won – Strade Bianche 2013

cosmo — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 13:28:28 +0000

(Fun FACT: did you know you there’s a page where you can scroll through all of the How The Race Was Won videos?)

There are times when it’s frustrating being on the other side of the world. A little trouble with the video (codecs, transcoding, slow capper upload speed) held up the Strade Bianche HTRWW by about 24 hours. Which is still pretty fast, all things considered.

[right-click to download]

I will shamefacedly concede that the delay did allow GCN to get a Strade Bianche “race report” video posted before I did. You should check out both videos, of course—with the advantage of actually being there they get a great look at the condition and feel of the gravel roads involved.