Everything SKO...

L'Etape du Tour

I'm in Argeles-Gazost in the foothills of the Pyranees at the moment.

I'm doing this on Sunday: http://www.rapha.cc/index.php?page=490

I'm actually feeling good. They'll be 8,500 other riders on the day. It could get messy.

Tailwind Sports shuts down

You're probably thinking, so what, who cares?

Tailwind Sports is the management company behind Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team -- one of the most successful cycling teams ever. Of course it's Lance Armstrong's team, he was their star rider and he owns 50% of Tailwind Sports.

Today they announced they are disbanding. That's sad news. Maybe now the riders, teams and organizers will get a grip and understand the fundamental threat that exists at the top level of the sport. Otherwise pro-cycling will be on about the same level as handball, in terms of popularity, in a few years time.

Google Maps Tour Mashup

As always, my good friend Michael Kuhlmann has his finger on the pulse.

Today he made me buy him lunch yet again but he turned me on to this great Tour de France Google Maps mashup. Great to have running while you watch the Tour on OLN.

Why IPTV still has a long way to go... a very long way

First of all a correction. In my earlier post I said that cycling.tv would be covering the Tour of California live. I was wrong about that. In fact you can watch the event on the official website here.

The website is an absolutely excellent marriage of new technology with a live event. Satellite images courtesy of Yahoo!, still images posted onto Flickr plus GPS tracking of the event provided by Garmin. Having said all of this, many of these components didn't work today as they had some technical problems. I can only imagine the extremely complex logistical issues involved with putting on a live event like this. Kudos to the team for even trying.

My issue is not with this hugely ambitious undertaking but with the IPTV feed. It just isn't up to the job.

Despite Joost and YouTube and all the coverage over at GigaOm/NewYeeVee it still seems way too early to get a reliable live video feed over IP at any level of quality or consistency that is worth watching.

That is, unless, you are willing to pay for it. By limiting the number of streams the quality will be much better so the paying viewer will be happy. People who aren't paying for it won't get pissed off about poor quality.

So please, someone, anyone just ask for my money. I dare you. Charge me for a service. Tell me I can't have it for free because free isn't really that good is it? I want to pay for it... really!

Of course if you live in the US and you have cable you don't have to worry about this issue. If you have *paid* for Versus (OLN) you can watch it every evening. Sounds like a business model that just might survive a little longer.

Technorati Tags:
Cycling, Tour of California, TV

Tour of California

The Tour of California starts tomorrow and if you're a cycling fan the chances are you're not going to be able to watch it -- and more importantly, many of the Spring Classics -- on TV.

If you want to watch any of this stuff then I recommend you head over to cycling.tv and sign up for a premium account. Be forewarned that the website is pretty ugly and it's not great if you're on a Mac but persevere. They're trying hard and doing a good job with limited resources.

Technorati Tags:
Cycling, Tour of California, TV

Discovery Channel pulls out

This won't be big news to anyone who follows pro-cycling but The Discovery Channel has pulled out of its sponsorship with Lance Armstrong's team. I say Lance Armstrong's team as pro-cycing teams are actually owned by management groups which in turn sell the right to name the team to a primary sponsor. In this case Lance Armstrong owns 50% of Tailwind Sports.

So they will be looking for a new primary sponsor for the 2008 season. I was thinking, what an opportunity for a high-tech or e-commerce company with global reach or ambitions.

Here are a few I thought of, feel free to add your own:

Microsoft
Apple
Dell
eBay/Paypal/Skype
Cisco/Linksys
Google

Technorati Tags:
Cycling, Lance Armstrong, Discovery

Predictions for 2007...

'Tis the season for silly predictions so I thought I would add mine.

Technology
1. Mobile operators won't change this year. Why should they? They have a cash cow and until they are forced by competition they won't do anything. Things that will force them to change are the services from companies like JAJAH (I work for JAJAH) and Truphone.

2. Dual-Mode handsets will proliferate but nobody will be able to use them because everyone is still looking at this issue from a technical perspective. What I mean is that until the industry begins to coordinate and cooperate nothing much will happen. You might have a Nokia E61 with Truphone running on it but that's pretty much useless if you walk into a hotspot and Truphone doesn't have a roaming/authentication agreement with the hotspot operator. The strength of GSM is all in the roaming framework. Until this is replicated in the SIP/Wi-Fi world we won't really see the sheer disruptive power of this service combination. I'm not expecting it in 2007. As a result item 1 above will remain true.

3. Because of item #2 Femtocells might get a look in. Many people have been talking about these but I have to state for the record that it was my good friend Michael Kuhlmann who first touted such an idea about 3-4 years ago. I won't disclose the full details of his idea but it would make a lovely complement to JAJAH's service.

4. Some entity will make a move on Research in Motion. It could be Private Equity and it could be Nokia but this is a great company and it's turning into a nice little cash-generating beast and I think with the Pearl they are onto something.

5. Apple will announce the... integrated home entertainment system. You might have thought I was going to say iPhone but although I'm in the wireless world I don't really care that much about it. It doesn't ease any pain I have. I'm actually quite happy with the innovative products that Nokia keeps bringing to the market. What I want, no *need*, is an integrated home entertainment system. The full shabang. Internet access, TV, movies, photos, music... all from the one box and all with one remote. I have to be able to use this thing without taking a 3 year degree. There is only one company that can do it -- Apple. It should be called the Fuji.

The World
1. Bush! I have no hope whatsoever for the man. This year means that it's one year closer to the next presidential election. I'm not sure who said this but it remains true: "...the US Presidency is just too important to only allow Americans to vote. We all need to get a vote this time around."

2. Gordon Brown becomes the UK Prime Minister and announces a troop withdrawal from Iraq. Otherwise he doesn't stand much of a chance in the next UK elections.

3. Warmest year on record yet again? What d'ya think? Global warming, is it for real? What a bloody stupid question that is. Of course it's for real. I guess it won't be until Miami is under six feet of water that people will seriously start recycling their Pellegrino bottles. Do you think Al Gore will run?

4. Valverde wins the Tour in 2007 and Man. U win the Champions League.

5. I'll actually get my kitchen reno finished ;-)