southerndownhill.com - Forum

Just reflecting on further success by Great Britain at the world champs and their ever increasing stash of medals and getting incensed by people who aren't aware walking round saying Britains poo at everything.  I know that the fort bill worlds was on terrestrial tele last year but i'm just wondering when our sports tv producers are gona wake up and smell the java and give mountain biking the coverage it deserves on tv given that Britain has world class athletes in every discipline of the sport.  And as for the opinion of it not being a great spectator sport in terms of a tv audience that must be tosh really, who can say 4x and downhill isn't exciting to watch - even if you don't do it yourself its always amazing to see top sportsmen and women hanging it out on the limit whatever sport it is.  If ski sunday can pull a big audience surely mtbing can do the same on terrestrial tv, probably with a similar format with background on the sport, freeriding and race action.  It would certainly liven up a wet sunday for me.

So come on bbc, show the country that there is someone british, winning races other than lewis hamilton and increase the exposure of the sport, which in turn would surely lead to more world beaters!!

I'll just get down off my soap box now.

^^ Word!

There's not enough interest in the sport to justify the great expense that comes with broadcasting downhill (multiple cameras needed, in tricky locations). :-\

The coverage on freecaster is a decent alternative as long as the streaming is good for you, but the commentary will probably make your ears bleed. ;)

i vote we create a petition full of handwritten signatures and get it into the bbc!


ooohhh even better idea!
some of you may well remember the gee atherton downhill street race on topgear against captain slow.

i vote we try and sweet talk some pro's into doing it again.

that could get our sport out into the open more from the millions of topgear viewers ;)

i know lets get a group of elite downhillers to storm the BBC studio and....... oh ye we would
need it to be on a hill...... dow!
J

can you not read! ::)
firstly it was in lisbon(ithink) and it was a downhill street race. both taking different routes to the destination. have a look at youtube.

and secondly i didnt say anything along the lines of them storming the bbc...
but to be fair i didnt make myself clear on the last bit.

what i was saying was to sweet talk a pro into agreeing to do it. then sweet talking the bbc into doing it by email of handwritten letter.

Sam

Top Gear, 4x4 review.
Bala

Start at the top, pretty rough and twisty firetracks to get down.
Against Donny or Gee who live nearby...

I see what you mean about the Ski Sunday bit.

There are parallels, DH racing in both sports and you have Snowboard X.

Also, mountain biking is more accesible for the majority of people.

thats exactly what im talking about.

theres also another place where they could film.
australia....
this wasnt on topgear but there was a race between sam hill and a subaru imprezza rally car.
so they could have another 4x4 test on there against sam hill or the likes off....
also from season the steve smith segment would be good as theres a track there for car and person ;)

Sam

Top Gear tend to perfer the continent (or america) unless its something outstanding like the GTR.

But lets face it guys, Top Gears done bikes, why would they want to do it again? From the BBC's view, they'll want something original, but if they've used bikes already, surely the *majority* of the audience wouldn't be that interested??

Just a guess...

By the way I'm not slating anyone here, as I fully agree the sport and all of its disciplines need greater coverage, it's just we need to do something different and original to get the mass media onboard. Also, try looking from a non-mtb'ers point - skiing is faster, steeper, bigger crashes, and more people ski/board than mtb, so of course the media is going to jump on that as more of the public have an interest in it

Just some points to discuss!

in reference to britain not winning anything.. sam pilgrim won qashqai london.. lance mcdermott won qashqai overall, lance mcdermot won king of dirt and sam pilgrim won avoriaz slopestyle all just this year

I see your point but at the same time I think the bbc would be pleasantly surprised by the audience it would pull in.

Yes they would have to incur high costs to travel to the races but as for the cost of filming I don't really see the problem, there must be filming being done so pay the rights and edit our commentary over the top.  For example the grand prix isn't filmed by ITV, they're just there to commentate on what the director shows so maybe theres some way of doing it like that.

Then again I'm no channel director so I'm only making ill educated suggestions about how it could be done, I just find it really frustrating, the tour has full coverage - albeit on itv4 which not everyones got - and headlines in the news so why not mtb, a mention of our triumphs on the news would be a start at least.

I can just imagine a dad being pestered by his kids for a bike after eating their roasts open mouthed at the sight of hill drifting turns and gee and others ripping it up. After all its seeing these inspirational feats that sparks the imagination of eager youngsters. Bring it on i say.

thats the point we're making

I think, because with some clever camera work and what not, showing the real side to dh, its something they havn't covered.
They did the lisbon street race, and then the bmx race. Thats two bike races in similar settings...

Muddy, rough, jumpy, slippery dh i something new, its what joe public havn't seen...

I think the majority would be very impressed, and eyes open a bit wider to be fair.

It would be nice to see more TV coverage I suppose... but with pinkbike, freecaster, mtbcuts etc I watch as much riding as I want to already. Inspiring new people is all very well but why do we need it, we ride already?

I understand that more longer term focus on a sport *could* lead to more funding for trails etc but I think a) we already have a lot of good stuff, all things considered and b) skating and bmxing gets a lot of coverage already but I don't see a huge amount of council/government/sports council funding for new parks etc going on. 

Feel free to correct me if I'm talking shoite.

Rachael Atherton won young sports personality of the year(or something like that)

It's about inspiring those to take up the sport, giving them a push if they're thinking about it AND it's about taking those who already do it and inspiring them further, maybe those who've never raced but always thought about it for example.  Saying we don't need it coz theres already good stuff is kind of complacent, it's not enough, it's never enough!!

Correct me if im wrong, but the is the footage on freecaster/mtb cut is the same(asin cameras/quality) as the footage broadcast on the bbc from the world champs just the freecaster versions quality is reduced due to streaming... so couldnt that footage be used for tv???.....edit somone pretty much already said that.

 

Well its kinda perspective, skiing doesnt look half as fast as it is due to the lack of points to judge distance on a white snowy mountain. mountainbikers on the otherhand are weaving through trees launching off rocks etc which makes it look much faster than the atuall speed in mph's, steepness is kind of similar, that and the fact that downhill has a much bigger draw in the fact its to a non mtber so extreem in the terain were riding over and the size of the jumps etc. Iv had allot of comments from non-mtbers iv shown dh videos to. As for crashes, no way, we have trees to hit, rocks to break ourselves on etc. iv shown a crash section (vermont i think in earthed 1) to a group of non mtbers and they thought it was great...if somone thinks a kid going over the bars over a 1 brick jump on youve been framed is funny(or an oooooooh moment  :P) think about a pro falling 20foot onto a pile of rocks at 30mph.
skiing has been around for longer...thats why ski sunday exists(or whatever it is now), that and the fact that more people do whats closer to what they see the pros doing, where as there are less mtber's at the extreem end of the sport, having said that...nearly everyone owns a bike, and allot of people own a mountain bike which realy puts a huge audience to this and would do great things for the sport and maby even for the country, i mean the government is trying to get more people off their asses why not motivate them to get into the sport, maby not downhill, but it will motivate people just to get out on the family trails and singletracks.

well said  ;)

the BBC would broadcast it but they just seem too tied up in mainstream sports like football and tennis which in my opinion are totally s**t! Ive asked my dad who works for them to broadcast stuff on DH but no luck yet. They did a short section on Nathan Vials a couple of weeks back actually.

maybe the BBC are just too much of a bunch of prudes to want to broadcast such a savage sport... just an idea. But I do see it as a joke they broadcast Ski Sunday downhill and not mountain bike downhill, for every argument that can be bought up for them not broadcasting there's loads of valid arguments for them showing it... should make a petition! :)

we should all pose as average joes and write in to the bbc after seeing fort bill on the adventure show and how we want to see more of this very interesting sport.

just and idea  ::)

Quote (Something like that)
Thats a very funny post which proves a point, If us (people into downhill) didnt know about that, then how would joe public ??would thay even care... I think not

Am I right in saying that Ski Sunday is only on in the winter months? I've caught it a few times but I'm no regular.

They could easily apply the same set up to a MTB orientated programme.
Ideally it would be coverage of 8 world cups, 1 world champs, and possibly the national champs. And thats just the competitive side of DH and 4X, let alone XC, Qashqai stuff, regional events, and reports on various resorts etc.

I think that all we need is a few very good, detailed letters to be sent to the top dogs at the BBC, ITV or whatever, and just get some feedback from them.
They need to know how bloody good our nation is at this sport! I don't know the exact numbers for the viewing on MTBcut and Freecaster, but someone said them in a previous thread and they weren't small. And they are bound to just be the 'solid' fans of the sport, because no one who's not familiar with our sport is going to bother/be aware watching online.

maybe the bbc wouldnt want to put mtb on mainstream tv because the money in mountainbiking isnt very high.

the football/tennis/ski sponsers are more than capable of paying out huge amounts of money...where as mountainbike sponsors dont have the same amounts of money that the bbc will be interested in.

Gashqai was actualy on mainstream tv, however it was about 5-10 minutes long which is a measly amount ::)


we need to get the bbc's attention really badly, but we dont want to make ourselves look desperate to get onto the tv.


i personaly think it would be a good idea asking peaty or gee atherton or rachel atherton and the likes off if theyde be willing to have a race downhill against one of the Topgear team. if one of them agree then mail the topgear crew and say that wed like to prove how we can beat anyone down a hill!

would be great coverage because of the millions of viewers that watch topgear...

Topgear have done the MTB thing though.  :-\
So I'm doubtful they will do it again. But the TG team did lose to the bikes so maybe...  ;)

Yeah its on for the peak of the ski race season and they've tried to broaden the appeal with travelogues, snowboarding and getting muppet celebs to do a slalom course under coaching from graham bell.  I really don't see why the same sort of appraoch/format can be adopted for an mtb prog across the peak of the season.  If it costs then fit two world cups into each programme and do features on freeride/roam/ride guide type stuff and slopestyle events, info on bikes and kit, advice for people getting into the sport with twenty mins of race highlights towards the end just like ski sunday does now - which by the way i think is an inferior format to the extensive race coverage they used to do, although it is nice to see snowboarding on there now. 
It seems like an obvious progression to me to continue that timeslot into the summer with an mtb format, seems like a no-brainer.  I'm sure people like warner and peops that work in magazines would be more than happy to present/commentate. If coverage doesn't start somewhere then the sport is just gona stay where it is now, i mean for gods sake its something british people are very good at whether its xc 4x dh and slopestyle, theres plenty to cover and get people informed.
Maybe channel 4 maybe more viable given the alternative nature of the sport, thety used to show high 5 (remember that? class programme) and la tour before they sold out to itv.  Even though its nice to see some stuff on top gear and things like that theres no longevity in it.

Actually, the more I think of it, the more I reckon there would be a lot of people who would watch mtb coverage.

Presumably most of the ski sunday audience are people who take an annual/occasional skiing holiday, which I guess is significant. And when they go they aren't likely to be racing or doing slalom but they still like watching it.

Likewise, you only have to go to a trail centre e.g. cannock to see how many people/families go on regular XC rides. Which far dwarfs those who ride DH or 4X etc, but you would think they would still be interested in watching pro riders racing DH or whatever. No doubt if the BBC ever did cover mtb properly there would have to be a fair bit of XC stuff though.

The thing is:

Skiing - anything shown is accessible to most who do it.

XC (which is what most do) - makes for fairly boring viewing.

DH - makes for interesting viewing yes, but is hardly showcasing the sport at it's most accessible level.

As for money thats of no interest to the BBC.

A lot of assumptions are being made that just because someone has seen a dvd that they would want to watch DH week after week. Remember that DVD's are extensively edited to cut out the boring crap which to be fair is the majority of a DH course. After that you have patchy coverage with little or no idea whats actually going on due to lack of coverage. Couple that with maybe a half hour slot in Grandstand at some awkward time of the morning for a sport percieved as inaccessible (all that money and skill required, whoa, not for me) and the appeal will quickly slip.

I'd say if you want to get DH onto telly then you have to start young. What about starting a trail riding club for kids in your local woods? Getting a qualified mechanic (or a few on tour) to do evening maintenance classes for kids after school. Pushing for more schools to do cycling proficiency classes and offer to then do advanced off road handling classes? Offering the same for adults, intead of stupid expensive office nights out why not a day on bikes? An office charity event doing X laps of here or Y runs down there. All possible but the point is WE need to do the work ourselves.

All of these could then be used as a platform to promote mountain biking in the local and regional press as well as TV programs such as Blue Peter and stuff. It might not be DH but it's a beginning. Follow ups could then draw attention to our sporting accolades and generate the actual genuine interest in the sport itself that would justify mass media coverage.

can i just say, that the facts havent changed in the last month, or the month before that that this exact topic comes up.
yes its annoying that theres no DH on the tele, but the fact is its a minority sport. whining about it on a forum it isnt going to change. mind you emailing the bbc doesnt work either - you just get the standard response telling you to go on the 606 which no one ever looks at.

ed

thats the point, hence the reason we need to show these naive bbc lot that we have a great sport which is great fun for anyone.

i often hear people saying "britain never wins anything anymore"....i often respond with, "well then watch mountainbiking and im sure youl be plesently suprised to know that we have top class riders in all aspects of mountainbiking"

and another things thats anoying is bmx is an olympic sport....what about mountainbiking?

absolutely and i'm not just on about dh, i want all aspects of mtb in one programme