''Cycling on ESPN'' is the de facto name for broadcasts of multiple-stage bicycle races airing on the ESPN cable television network.

Overview

ESPN was the exclusive American cable television outlet for the annual Tour de France event from

1992 File:1992 Events Collage V1.png, From left, clockwise: 1992 Los Angeles riots, Riots break out across Los Angeles, California after the Police brutality, police beating of Rodney King; El Al Flight 1862 crashes into a residential apartment buildi ...

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

. ESPN also broadcast the Tour DuPont race throughout the entirety of its existence from 1989 to 1996. ESPN also provided coverage of the 1988

Coors International Bicycle Classic The Coors International Bicycle Classic (1980–1988) was a stage race sponsored by the Coors Brewing Company. Coors was the race's second sponsor; the first, Celestial Seasonings, named the race after its premium tea Red Zinger, which began in 1 ...

, the 1989 World Professional Cycling Championships from Chambéry, France, the 1990 US Pro Cycling Championships in Philadelphia, and the 1996 U.S. Olympic Cycling Team Trials.

Tour de France coverage

From

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

1991 File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phil ...

, ESPN only provided three one-hour long highlight specials for each race. Meanwhile, ESPN's sister network, ABC had only provided coverage that recapped the previous week's action on their Saturday afternoon anthology series, '' Wide World of Sports'' also since 1989. Come

, ESPN announced that they would devote at least 16 hours to covering the Tour the France. All in all, it would be the most comprehensive coverage that an American television network devoted to the Tour de France up until that time. ESPN would air each stage on a same-day

delay Delay (from Latin: dilatio) may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Delay 1968'', a 1981 album by German experimental rock band Can * ''The Delay'', a 2012 Uruguayan film People * B. H. DeLay (1891–1923), American aviator and acto ...

during the afternoon for the next 22 days. Instead of producing the broadcasts themselves from the ground up, ESPN relied on France's world feed. In

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, ESPN and ABC would be supplanted by the

Outdoor Life Network OLN (formerly Outdoor Life Network) is a Canadian English-language Category A specialty channel. OLN primarily broadcasts factual-based and adventure-related reality programming aimed at male audiences. OLN is wholly owned by Rogers Sports & ...

in broadcasting the Tour de France.

Commentators

* David Chauner *

Brian Drebber Brian Drebber (July 27, 1950 – August 23, 2018) was an American sports commentator who was employed by the television network Speed before his death in August 2018. Career Drebber was born in Guam, Mariana Islands. Since 1978, he was a p ...

* Adrian Karsten - Karsten was known in the cycling community for his 'side-line' style reporting while anchoring during ESPN's broadcasts of the Tour de France. Karsten hosted the Tour de France from

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

through

—more than any other American host. * Phil Liggett * Lon McEachern * Al Meltzer *Peter Rogot * Paul Sherwen * Barry Tompkins

References

External links

* {{Cycling on United States television ESPN ESPN original programming ESPN2 original programming 1988 American television series debuts 2000 American television series endings 1980s American television series 1990s American television series 2000s American television series Sports telecast series American sports television series

Overview

Tour de France coverage

Commentators

See also

References

External links