Your first time

Ben6899

On TV. No precise memories, but we're talking Indurain and mid-90s.

Live. Stage 17 of TdF2011 - Gap to Pinerolo. We camped at Montgenevre on the French-Italian border.

mididoctors

consistently since 87

remember something as far back as the 70's on a highlight program on world of sport...

first live tour wasn't until 93 on the aubisque

yourpaceormine

Does anyone remember a sports programme on C4, usually early on Saturday mornings. had highlights of the odd sports carried by Eurosport? Source of none-TDF race TV in the days before I got satellite

Trans World Sport was it called?

Richmond Racer

yourpaceormine wrote:

Does anyone remember a sports programme on C4, usually early on Saturday mornings. had highlights of the odd sports carried by Eurosport? Source of none-TDF race TV in the days before I got satellite

Trans World Sport was it called?

yeah, that's it - bizarre stuff like canal jumping

chrisaonabike

The first road racing I ever watched live was last year's Olympic men's race as the peloton came through Twickenham.

The first road racing I ever watched on TV was the rest of the same race, 15 minutes later.

I then watched the women's the following day, also live and then on TV, and the rest, as they say, is history..

I might have seen some track cycling before that by accident, but I kid you not, I had literally not heard of either Lance Armstrong or Bradley Wiggins before last summer.

:shock: :oops: :oops: :oops:

knedlicky

ChrisAOnABike wrote:

I kid you not, I had literally not heard of ... Lance Armstrong ... before last summer.

"Some guys have all the luck, ..."

suspectdevice

Ben6899 wrote:

On TV. No precise memories, but we're talking Indurain and mid-90s.

Live. Stage 17 of TdF2011 - Gap to Pinerolo. We camped at Montgenevre on the French-Italian border.

Did you happen to see the guy dressed in the Union Jack spider-man suit????

We laughed all day at it, specially when the Gendarmes were chasing him.

agronomyman

First yesr I watched it was 1981 I think. Not sure of the stage but Hinault wasn't racing as he pulled out. Always loved the stage endings as Sean Kelly always won. Or should that be seemed to win.
Cycling was in my bones back then. Si glad that it is back there.

mike6

First TV would be the nightly fix of Ch 4 highlights.

First live was 2004, I think, on Col de Monte. It might have been the stage that George Hincappi was denied a stage win by a chase from team Armstrong.
Or I could be miles out, I have seen a lot of stages since and dates are not my strong suite.

iainf72

First TV was the 86 Tour - Followed the whole of the 87 race and pretty much consistant since then.

Seeing live cycling holds no attraction for me, so I went to see the 07 Prologue, but I'd not really bother unless it was right on my doorstep.

Ben6899

suspectdevice wrote:

Ben6899 wrote:

On TV. No precise memories, but we're talking Indurain and mid-90s.

Live. Stage 17 of TdF2011 - Gap to Pinerolo. We camped at Montgenevre on the French-Italian border.

Did you happen to see the guy dressed in the Union Jack spider-man suit????

We laughed all day at it, specially when the Gendarmes were chasing him.

Were you there live? Where was the bloke in the suit? We were on the approach to the tunnel, opposite the car park where our motorhome was parked, but unfortunately we didn't see him.

FJS

First TdF on TV I followed was 1988, because everyone in Holland did. I can remember Rooks winning at Alpe d'Huez, Van Poppel winning 4 stages, and the doping discussions around Delgado and Theunisse. Time penalties - innocent times.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=429nLMSYqCQ

The first live stage I saw was the year after, the final TT in Paris, 1989. I was 12 years old and for some reason had picked Fabio Parra as rider to support. I was more focussed on that than the yellow jersey battle, and standing on the side of the road is not always the best way to follow what is going on, so the whole Lemond - Fignon saga more or less passed me by. But, yes, one of the most historic stages in Tour de France history, and I was there. This is the photo of Fignon I took:

I took a full roll of film of photos of similar quality

The first race I can remember watching on TV with real interest in cycling was the 1990 Milan-San Remo, with that great Gianni Bugno solo ride
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-p0a6aQfn4I

Lanterne_Rogue

Half-watched the TdF in the mid-90s, but didn't really get into it until around 2000, and only really fell in love with it (instead of vegetating in front of it on a sofa during the school/university holidays) in 2003, when something about Hamilton's ride with a broken collarbone finally gave me a story that made it clear there was far more interesting things going on than the wait for the inevitable doping scandal. I found that story quite fascinating (still do, in fact) and was hooked. The only time my interest has waned slightly was in 2007, when I'd picked up on some of the noise around some kid from the Isle of Man and desperately wanted him to get a decent placing on a stage - once Cavendish abandoned I can remember the morbid picking away at the scab that was Rasmussen until he was yanked out of the race and I kind of switched off for the rest of that tour (can't remember watching the last few stages, certainly).

I guess by that scale, the 90s were teenage fumblings towards the knicker elastic, the first couple of years on the 2000s were heavy petting, and 2003 was when I finally went the whole way and let her defile me...

Rundfahrt

The first one I remember watching was the coverage of the 1984 Tour. Pretty sure I have not missed more then a handful of stages since then.

BR 1979

First time ever got interested was Fignon vs LeMond 1989.

Been a "fan" since 1998. Was working in an Italian restaurant near my mum's house and the owner and head waiter were mad keen cycling buffs.

(My interest only got wider than the Grand Tours in the last couple of years though. Up until then I'd only watched the Giro Vuelta and Tour. I think I regarded the Classics as somesort of massochistic sideshow. :oops: )

jasonbrim

TV: Some time in the 90s, not that I remember it fully. But I've followed cycling on TV since the early 2000s - leaving school and racing back home to catch as much as I could before the end. Nowadays I watch it online at work and then rush home for the decisive final kms - some things never change!

Live: Seen Le Tour 3 times: 2007 Stage 1 in England, and the final stages in 2011 and 2012 in Paris. 2011 was cool to see Cav win the green, but 2012 was something different entirely; so many Brits out it was unbelievable, and it is a day I will never forget! Saw all of the Olympic road and TT races as well

Future aims are to see some of the classics and the Giro. And to see the Vuelta if it ever heads south near Alicante again...(the Tour of Murcia is sadly not as good as it used to be either).