Cycling – Page 4

Timeout Tuesday: GoPro Signs ‘Kelly F*cking Slater’ — Many More Hours of Video Consumption Ahead

June 5, 2012 by Paul Kapustka 1 Comment

Over the last year or so, we’ve noticed that when we’re out skiing it’s not uncommon to see more and more people with the little boxy GoPro camera mounted on their helmets. But news from last week of GoPro signing 11-time surfing champion Kelly Slater to its team of athletes speaks to a bigger agenda for the cool-cam company: Hell, it’s already on its way to becoming a new media powerhouse of its own.

You want social, user-contributed content? GoPro’s got that in spades, using user-submitted videos in its national broadcast commercials. Those home-spun efforts trail the professional athlete/professional production videos GoPro puts out on its own, usually with some cool new music to boot. The company also gives away a bunch of GoPro gear every day. Is this the new way to sports media or what? I mean, I like SportsCenter as much as the next guy, but I could lose hours watching stuff like this:

And a million and a half people so far have watched the GoPro video of Holly Beck diving alongside a whale shark, and probably not just because she’s wearing a bikini while doing so:

Oh yeah and GoPro also earlier this year signed snowboarder Shaun White to its team of cool athletes. This isn’t something that’s going to happen, it’s already here. Call Slater a late jumper on the bandwagon. But we’re looking forward to wasting plenty of time watching him on the waves.

Filed Under: Cycling, GoPro, Mobile sports pioneers, Outdoor Activities, Sharing Sports Media, Skiing, YouTube Tagged With: GoPro, Kelly Slater, Surfing

Webscorer Debuts Timing Apps to Save Plenty of Time at Races

May 29, 2012 by James Raia 1 Comment

Sports fans, coaches, event organizers, timing companies, publishers and even proud parents can now easily track sporting event results with a new a comprehensive platform that automates much of more complicated manual timing formats.

Webscorer Inc., based in Redmond, Wash., has introduced a platform that includes three integrated components, also usable separately: a race registration tool, a manual race timing app that runs on the iPad and iPhone, and a website that supports race results posting from the Webscorer timing app and other sources via an open interface.

Webscorer PRO is available as an in-app subscription from Webscorer FAN at the following rates on the iPhone and iPad versions for $9.99 for one week and $49.99 for one year. Webscorer Online Race Registration Service Webscorer has varying costs. Webscorer .TXT Results Posting Service is free.

“As a racer myself, I witnessed the difficulty race organizers were having in timing races and providing timely results to racers,” said Vesa Suomalainen, CEO of Webscorer. “With the emergence of the mobile Internet, we saw an opportunity to help modernize the pen & paper method still widely used in recreational racing today.”

Founded in July 2009, Webscorer began with a mission to make race timing easier, more affordable and to improve the quality & speed to get the results to racers.

The full Webscorer platform is available worldwide. Webscorer has identified 36 timing-sports that can benefit from its products.

For more information, visit www.webscorer.com as well as the company’s Facebook, YouTube pages and Twitter account (@webscorer).

Filed Under: Apps, Cycling, iPad, iPhone Tagged With: Apps, Cycling, iPhone, Races, Running, timing

The War of Words begins between ESPN and NBC Sports

May 17, 2012 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

ESPN has had an emerging rival in the all-sports all day broadcasting model in recent days with the rise of NBC Sports Network, and while the two have not had much to say about each other that may be changing.

According to USA Today the war of words began earlier this week when ESPN President John Skipper made some comments about rival NBC during ESPN’s upfront presentation that on the face of them did not seem to extreme, but that lit the fuse.

NBC shot back deriding ESPN’s quality and the value they deliver for the dollar they charge, ESPN shot back that more people use its mobile app than watch NBC, and so it goes. I expect that this will continue for some time, mostly at events such as the upfront presentations.

For those of you with a long memory you will recall the battles between ESPN and rival Fox when Fox was working on establishing itself as a 24/7 sports network. They sniped at each other; put their logos over all sorts of images to prevent rivals from using them and a host of other actions, many of them infantile.

Ah, the good old days. First they seemed to come to an understanding and ceased over use of their respective logos and refrained saying trite and petty things about each other and then finally Fox eventually threw in the towel and dropped its efforts, although rumors have recently come that it might be reexamining the idea.

While in some ways this current fight has no impact on sports fans, in other ways I believe that it will have a positive one. Competition is good for fans because hopefully it means the players involved will raise their game. I think that the rise of MLB’s network has made ESPN raise the level of Baseball Tonight, for instance.

One issue is that there is little overlap, ESPN has a large range of premium sports and NBC does not, although it does have the upcoming Olympics and a few other sports such as the NHL’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, which are seeing a strong resurgence in viewership. Other events such as the Volvo Ocean Race 2011-2012 and the Amgen Tour of California, while very good, just do not have the viewership of or the range of games that ESPN rolls out.

Filed Under: Baseball, Contests, Cycling, ESPN, Fox Sports, Live sports via mobile, NBC Sports, NFL, Sailing, Volvo Ocean Race Tagged With: ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports

Pro Cyclist Lucas Euser on the Mend, Connects to Fans via Social Media

May 16, 2012 by James Raia 1 Comment

Lucas Euser is in the midst of his second career as pro cyclist. Four years ago, at age 24, he advanced to the top level of the sport while racing for the Colorado-based Garmin-Slipstream team.

Unfortunately, tragedy struck. While training in Spain in 2009, Euser suffered two broken ribs and a shattered kneecap. The injuries placed his career in jeopardy.

But Euser, who’s competing this week in the Amgen Tour of California, returned to the sport in 2010 and is continuing his quest to return to the top levels of the sport. His recovery, which he discusses on Facebook and Twitter, is an inspiration to cycling enthusiasts and to those who’ve suffered through injuries.

“For me, social media is the future of the sport,” said Euser of Denver, Colo., who rides now for Team SpiderTech, the Canadian-based squad sponsored by therapeutic athletic tape. “It’s a way to connect people with our sport and the riders. We don’t have a stadium they can go to or an enclosed course where they can see the whole race.

Lucas Euser, left. Image © Brian Hoges/Velo Images

“But the team can do live updates and we can do individual, personal touches on top of that. We can endorse sponsors and we can speak our minds freely. Some people get in trouble for it and some people know how to control themselves.

“For me, it’s in a controlled manner. I’m usually doing it three or four times a week. I definitely add it to the top of my list that’s part of my job.”

Euser, a former stage winner at the Tour of Georgia, is a regular Twitter user and has a following on Facebook. But cycling fans not only follow the rider for his athletic skills, but also because of what he has overcome.

“I usually collect my thoughts after a stage in a race and then do two or three,” said Euser, who has a few thousand Twitter followers. “It’s one way to have a personal connection to people, right. To share your personal stories.

“I have a lot of people who come to me via social media and tell me about their knee problems and car accidents. I tell them what they can do this or they can do that.”

Guy Napert-Frenette, media relations director, says the team uses social media as “its main way to reach fans across the world.” Team directors use Blackberry smartphones on race days to update the team’s Twitter feed (@teamspidertech) with race developments.

The SpiderTech directors also use the team Facebook page for fan-based contests, such as “Guess the Gap.” The team also uses Flickr to share team images from races around the world.

Filed Under: Athlete to Follow, Cycling, Facebook, Twitter Tagged With: Cycling, SpiderTech, Steve Bauer, Tour of California

Texts, Twitter and Social Media Help CyclingNews.com Keep its Fans at the Front of the Pack

May 15, 2012 by James Raia 3 Comments

CyclingNews.com's Laura Weislo working hard at the Tour of California press room. Credit: James Raia.

Cycling fans are as passionate as any sport’s followers, and no one knows more about how following the sport has changed than Laura Weislo, the North America editor of CyclingNews.com.

Weislo is coordinating the site’s stage coverage of the Amgen Tour of California. The eight-day race, the largest in the United States, features 128 cyclists from 16 teams and riders who are Olympic medalists, Tour de France stage winners and world titlists.

In addition to daily in-depth articles on the race, CyclingNews.com, the world’s largest English language cycling site, is providing live text at least every five minutes from all of the eight stages. The seventh annual race, which began May 13 in Santa Rosa, will continue through its Los Angeles finish May 20.

The site also has a Facebook page with about 70,000 fans and an equally active Twitter following.

“Bike races now are completely different,” said Weislo, a former competitive swimmer and cyclist who joined the site in 2006. “We find that people are out there watching live streaming. They’re on Twitter on their computers. They’re looking at our live coverage. They are using that altogether and they’re having a conversation at the same time with all their followers or fans.”

At the Tour of California, CyclingNews.com has a reporter in the media caravan of the race and others who on the course reporting the news to editors who post the updates.

Weislo and other reporters and photographers contribute results, news and images shortly after each stage is complete and then additional details after conducting post-race interviews.

CyclingNews.com reports on the sport globally, but selects its live coverage depending upon an event’s anticipated popularity.

“When I started in 2006 we didn’t use social media,” said Weislo. “It was about a year or two in we realized we better get in on this Facebook thing. Now it’s really important to direct people to specific stories and other content, so they don’t have to check the web site all the time to see if there’s something new. We inform them, and it’s actually a pretty big driver of traffic to the website.”

CyclingNews.com live reports are not a new concept, but Weislo believes how cycling fans follow the sport has substantially changed in the past year.

“Everyone used to be sort of isolated,” Weislo explained. “There wasn’t really a way for people to converse about what was going. But now I have close to 3,000 Twitter followers. It makes it more interesting and I think it’s happened in the last year.

“I noticed last year that there was a little bit of that. But now we get people commenting about our live coverage. People get the information from us and then they correct each other on things that happen in the race. It does add to the conversation of what’s going on.”

Filed Under: Cycling, Facebook, Live sports via mobile, Tour de France, Twitter Tagged With: Amgen, Cycling, CyclingNews.com, Tour of California

Eye of Mine helps Athletes Record Activities With Video-cam Glasses

May 3, 2012 by Greg Quick Leave a Comment

I have met a number of athletes that use helmet cams to record all sorts of activities from sky diving to bungee jumping to off-road cycling, but they can be bulky. A company called Eye of Mine has a video solution for the average weekend warrior or the more professionally inclined.

While the company has a number of offerings the one that tweaked my interest was its Eye-ViewHD720, a pair of polarized sunglasses that have a built in HD camera as well. The camera is between the two lenses above the nose-piece and so small that you might not notice it the first time you look at the glasses.

With the center situated camera what you are looking at is what is recorded; giving you more control over the video than if it the camera is located on top of your head. A good video of what it is capable of is located here.

It shots at 30 frames per second and the camera kit includes the glasses with camera and a USB cable. It requires a microSD card as well, which is not included in the basic $199 kit but can be purchased from the company in its more expensive offerings.

There are of course a number of options for cameras to record activities starting with a basic smartphone to a wide variety of helmet and portable cams on the market now. This one just seems to meet an amateur’s needs quite nicely.

In addition you could easily film your child’s sporting or theatrical activities without being one of those parents that is always getting in the way to get the best camera angle. If your career as an athlete fails you can always be a spy.

Filed Under: Apps, Cycling, Live sports via mobile, Startup

Webscorer Debuts Timing Apps to Save Plenty of Time at Races

The War of Words begins between ESPN and NBC Sports

Pro Cyclist Lucas Euser on the Mend, Connects to Fans via Social Media

Texts, Twitter and Social Media Help CyclingNews.com Keep its Fans at the Front of the Pack

Eye of Mine helps Athletes Record Activities With Video-cam Glasses

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