Wow, I get hat you guys are saying about the rocky roads website.......unbelieveable
New Freecaster DH series
- Thread starter iRider
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I still maintain that the RockyRoads content is written by someone in a content mill in India or China scanning other outlets. I think it's fair to assume that the complete lack of coherence and insight supports it.
when i think rocky road, i think sloth from the goonies. which explains those articles REAAALLLLLYYY well.
I really like what I'm hearing regarding the series. Great courses, Freecaster coverage, UCI cat2 for Saturdays "Amateur" race, big money. How can this not be awesome? Bold move and perfect timing to launce a series of this type. I hope all the big teams make the decision to follow it. With 20 saved spots a lot of fast (and tired) guys will be trying to qualify for the final 30. I wonder if they'll televise the race on Saturday or the Sunday qualifying one. I can't wait for next season now !!!
Thanks Freecaster, thanks a lot !
Thanks Freecaster, thanks a lot !
have they said what venues will be a part of the series? is this a euro only thing?
I think Frecaster said something on PB about finals in Canada and the possibility of a USA race. Lot's of rumors to be sure.
Which website/s did they steal those Whitely, MS and Griffths quotes from?
That bicycling.com article is dated the 12th October, the Rockyroads.net article is dated 8th October, so unless rockyroads can see into the future I doubt they copied anything from www.bicycling.com
Not sure why everyone is looking for a battle between Rockyroads and Freecaster, there is no relationship between rockyroads sponsoring the World Cup Series and Freecaster not being able to afford the rights to broadcast the World Cup series. I'm not saying that's what you're doing here Lee but Rockyroads may have some questionable journalism but they have put down a substantial amount of money to help the future of our sport at the higest level. The guys behind Rockyroads love bike racing, it's as pure and simple as that and they put their money where their mouth was and have become the sponsor of our series. I can't see what's wrong with that.
In addition, I remember vividly not so long ago when the Freecaster feed would always crash and people would come on here and slate Freecaster and talk about how **** it was etc.... then pay per view came in and everyone was up in arms about how they would never pay for such **** quality service etc... Now Freecaster can't afford the rights to broadcast the World cup and everyone thinks Ray is a Saint and would love to pay big bucks to watch any DH live. Crazy, fickle people involved in this sport!
Basically the UCI see that DH is growing and that the rights to broadcast the footage that they pay to produce, (remember Freecaster just broadcast they never produced the footage from World cups), is now worth more then 3 years ago so they want to get a better return on their investment then Ray at Freecaster can offer. What's wrong with that? The UCI actually care about DH wheter you think so or not people. It may not look like but they actually do. New re-brand of the series coming, all they need to do is get more involved with the teams.
And to make things even worse, Ray from Freecaster takes the Nissan European cup organised by X-Free and turns it into DH1, a hypothetical series claiming to offer big money but with not enough sponsors behind it to actually back up the claims of prize-money etc... I hope Ray can pull it off but non of the big teams are gonna get involved if Ray can't pull in the sponsors. I just hope he pulls it off and if he doesn't he doesn't sink the current Euro cup series that he is trying to evolve.
Akula_7: Umm in what capacity is UCI "producing" the World Cup? So you are saying that UCI has a "TV Broadcast department" with a director and budget for cameras, filming crew, etc...?
Nigga please. Firstly I must admit that I am in absolutely no know about the Freecaster arangement. BUT on the grounds of knowledge I already possess, I speculate that somebody (Ray?), does all the heavy lifting and then UCI just comes along and says... OOOO I like, I'll take it.
Nobody disputed that RockyRoads guys like cycle racing. But there are strong indices that they mostly like Maratoh, XC and Road racing, while being completely and abso****inglutely clueless about gravity events.
So would you kindly take your astroturfing mug to some other forum? (Like gayroadies.com?).
Nigga please. Firstly I must admit that I am in absolutely no know about the Freecaster arangement. BUT on the grounds of knowledge I already possess, I speculate that somebody (Ray?), does all the heavy lifting and then UCI just comes along and says... OOOO I like, I'll take it.
Nobody disputed that RockyRoads guys like cycle racing. But there are strong indices that they mostly like Maratoh, XC and Road racing, while being completely and abso****inglutely clueless about gravity events.
So would you kindly take your astroturfing mug to some other forum? (Like gayroadies.com?).
What I meant was the UCI pay a company called SMARAGD Media (German company I think), to film every world cup round, they set up the cameras, cables, satelite connection etc.. This was the case for every World cup this year, except World Champs where Swiss Romandy TV did the production.
So Freecaster work with SMARAGD to broadcast the feed. It is not Freecasters cameras etc...
So Freecaster work with SMARAGD to broadcast the feed. It is not Freecasters cameras etc...
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And if you read my post correctly little man, you will see that I said the UCI PAY to have the feed produced, I never said they produced it.
Smaragd does indeed do all the production work for the uci. Switching, cameras, running cable, providing operators and grips etc. Freecaster provided the internet feed from the downlink, as well as the commentary.
Appreciate your post Akula. It seems like a lot of this mudslinging since this thing blew up is just fueled by speculation and opinion.
DaveTrump, can you answer his question in post #88?
DaveTrump, can you answer his question in post #88?
The interview with Dulieu makes it sound like his is primarily concerned with his business:
---
MB.com: That 15-race series doesn’t leave much room for iXS, Pro GRT, and a list of other events, does it?
Dulieu: Sure but that’s not my call. I can’t solve all issues, I need to look after my business and take into account the request of the teams and they want a pro series next to the World Cup.
---
Can't blame the guy for trying to keep his business alive, but if his motive is monetary, then he's not really any better than the UCI trying to make the books balance for coverage costs.
I do think he is responding to what he thinks DH needs, while UCI is only making it more difficult. It's going to be interesting to see how this pans out.
Dulieu originally stated that he needs 100,000 facebook fans to get started...he's at 9,000 presently - maybe he needs to talk to RR about getting his hit count up!
"The UCI recognizes the iXS European Downhill Cup as the Official UCI European Series."
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/uci-launches-official-2012-european-series-cooperation-ixs.html
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/uci-launches-official-2012-european-series-cooperation-ixs.html
I'm so confused.
What does "Official UCI European Series" mean? How is it different from last year, just UCI points?
So both DH1/Nissan series and iXS will be 100% UCI races. The Euros have two UCI series to pick from. And the USA doesn't have any?
Looks like it's all kicking off over there...
And race promoters are striving to get UCI accreditation for their race series, which is opposite from public (internet) opinion...
What does "Official UCI European Series" mean? How is it different from last year, just UCI points?
So both DH1/Nissan series and iXS will be 100% UCI races. The Euros have two UCI series to pick from. And the USA doesn't have any?
Looks like it's all kicking off over there...
And race promoters are striving to get UCI accreditation for their race series, which is opposite from public (internet) opinion...
it would appear that way. we do have a few races with Cat 1 and 2 point but not a whole series
so who says the DH1 series is all Euro?
Akula,
Have you seen a cleared check from RockyRoads, to the UCI?
And you are pretty delusional about thinking the UCI cares about DH. Hell, they could give 2 sh!ts about BMX and that discipline is in their holy grail of....
cue the church organs...
OLYMPICS!!!!!
I think its safe to say this about the UCI:
-MTBing and BMX are an expense
-Road Cycling is income
Until that MTB/BMX thing turns from black to red on the balance sheet, nothing will change, no matter whose balls they are fondling right now. I think there is some forward momentum with getting Will Ockelton in house at UCI, but the odds are against him, Melanie, etc...
Perhaps not worse than the odds are for Ray though, who has the best intentions, but is now starting to get some pushback from some in the industry. Everyone always crying about solutions, then solutions are made present, and people cry even more...I don't understand this sport.
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@akula 7 I suggest you read this http://www.nsmb.com/4709-dh1-is-coming-in-2012/ As to the Nissan European Cup it will no longer serve as the base for DH1 as we are trying to have at least two races in North America and are working more and more with former world cup organisers to set-up credible and popular races that pros will love to ride again.
^ so want to see an event in whistler. make it so!
latest plan is two events in Canada, one in the USA, 3 in Europe ... but we have an issue as our US and one of our canadian dates as they now clash with iXS ... but as they are not European events thus I hope that iXS organisers and the UCI will accept our dates ...
I suppose that's what I ment by "care" the fact that the UCI still put time and effort into the organisation, marketing and lets use the term loosely "managevenment, even though 1. it operates at a lose at the World cup level and 2. It isn't Olympic. I'm not saying that they are in love with DH but they do spend money on the employment of staff to run the DH/MTB side of things etc..
Like you say though the industry needs to help itself! Hopefully this re-brand of the World Cup goes good and they find some addtional sponsors to "compliment" Rocky Roads
I hope DH1 works out Ray, I'll be there with bells and whistles on trying to qualify for Sunday's races if it does. I'm just on here trying to set a few folk straight that think the UCI are pure evil, that RockyRoads sabotaged Freecaster and that DH1 is the second coming of christ!
The comment that the UCI lose money on MTB has been mentioned a couple of times now. Surely, if this is the case, your options, as whoever it is at the UCI responsible for such things are:
1) Invest in it and manage it accordingly so that you return a profit.
2) Give up on it and let someone else take over, if they are so far inclined.
I'm sure the UCI would argue they've been pursuing option 1 for a while now, yet they've still failed to return a profit. So you'd think it was time for option 2. It seems the DH1 organisation are interested in taking it on, yet you have to admit, it seems, from the outside, like the UCI are going out of their way to make life difficult for them.
Am I making things too simple? Are these kind of people simply incapable of passing up an opportunity for dick-swinging and chest-thumping when the opportunity presents itself?
1) Invest in it and manage it accordingly so that you return a profit.
2) Give up on it and let someone else take over, if they are so far inclined.
I'm sure the UCI would argue they've been pursuing option 1 for a while now, yet they've still failed to return a profit. So you'd think it was time for option 2. It seems the DH1 organisation are interested in taking it on, yet you have to admit, it seems, from the outside, like the UCI are going out of their way to make life difficult for them.
Am I making things too simple? Are these kind of people simply incapable of passing up an opportunity for dick-swinging and chest-thumping when the opportunity presents itself?
@Akula 7. UCI si doing a greta job for cycling as a sport and what they lack in attention to detail in some discipline they make up for the greater good of cycling and through longevity. Rockyroads is a new sponsor and is no competition nor threat to Freecaster. They showed up when our contract naturally ended and people got confused as a lot of facts about RR have been questioned (ps. DH1 has more fans in 1 week than RR has had over all their lifetime despite 220.000 daily uniques). Finally I'm disappointed that you don't see DH1 as the second coming of christ ;-)
^ is it possible to have 2 christs?
-Aaron Gwin and
-DH1
?
-Aaron Gwin and
-DH1
?
So just kinda skimmed through this, but what I got is that anyone can try to qualify for the sunday main? No "uci" points needed to even race the event? Just show up and give 'er
http://dirt.mpora.com/news/uci-launches-official-2012-european-series-cooperation-ixs.html
interesting new development. Is this a move from the UCI and the iXS organizers to crowd out DH1? Is it simply staking their claim? Is this why Ray announced 3 North American stops and 3 Euro stops rather than 6-7 in Europe?
Man next year is going to be a mess. I stil can't believe I won't be able to watch the World Cups live anymore. I'd gotten quite used to it over the past 3 years... (or is it 4?). I know there is still a window for others to submit a bid for the broadcast rights, but I just don't see it happening. I guess I'm just a pessimist.
:depressed:
interesting new development. Is this a move from the UCI and the iXS organizers to crowd out DH1? Is it simply staking their claim? Is this why Ray announced 3 North American stops and 3 Euro stops rather than 6-7 in Europe?
Man next year is going to be a mess. I stil can't believe I won't be able to watch the World Cups live anymore. I'd gotten quite used to it over the past 3 years... (or is it 4?). I know there is still a window for others to submit a bid for the broadcast rights, but I just don't see it happening. I guess I'm just a pessimist.
:depressed:
I'm not 100% sure about the format, but this is what I gather:
Saturday: Open registration, UCI Class 2 race, 200+ racers, 30 qualify for Sunday small final, not sure if top 20 protected pros compete, if they do they are cruising since they are protected?
Sunday: Small final for top 30, 10 qualify for Sunday Final not sure about UCI accreditation, not sure if top 20 protected pros compete.
Sunday: Final, top 20 protected pros + 10 qualifiers from small final, not sure about UCI accreditation, big purse.
I could be way off...
When you'll be able to watch DH1 and you won't be able to watch the WC, the WC will quickly not matter anymore.
And this is precisely why I don't think the UCI will let that happen. I'm guessing there will be live coverage, one way or another...
THIS is exactly what the UCI should be (and probably is) concerned about.