How To Watch The Giro In The USA

The race is currently on the first real climb. It's not steep enough to sort out the race but in about an hour we should have an idea of who the real players are going to be. Here in the good 'il US of A, we don't have proper sports coverage, in spite of about 10,000 TV stations to choose from. If you have cable, Versus has some coverage of the race. But if you want full real time live coverage, you'll have to use the net.

Cycling.tv seems to have partnered with Versus and has live coverage. You have to pay for a subscription, which I might. So far, I haven't checked it out yet. But if they do this for all the big races the 24 bucks will be well worth it. In years prior, I paid for basic cable, basically, just to see a few bike races. Cycling.tv would be much more effient.

I usually begin my mornings by linking to the live Italian broadcast:

Rai Media

The fills the house with Italian audio, which gives it a nice ambiance even though I can barely figure out what's happening. It's also live video. Today I was greeted by views of the Amalfi Coast. Beautiful.

Also, if you've missed the stage live, Rai sport provides other coverage. And you can always check Ultimo Chilometro for the end of each stage. Oh, the they've change the song this year! I like the new one fine but it's just not the same as Il Grande Giro! I want the old one back.

Eurosport has live audio in English but, so far, it hasn't been working. I'm sure they'll fix it. To find it, go here:

Eurosport Cycling

Once the coffee is ready, I sit down and read the live coverage on Cyclingnews to catch up. They always have other insight and funny tidbits. So I''ll always read their coverage even if I'm watching a race live.

Cyclingnews

Velonews also has live commentary and can provide different insight. The downside to their live coverage is that it goes down as soon as the race is over and the winner will be revealed in the headline. If you're watching after the fact and want suspense, use Cyclingnews.

Velonews

There's also now a site that sorts through all the links n' such. It's basically a whole site that constantly updates the contents of this blog entry. If one of my links isn't working, try this site and they will sort out the problem.

Cyclingfan

The attacks have started. Gotta get back to the race....