Red Bull Romaniacs

[Danger]

For those that don't read the Herald you missed this.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/motorsport...ectid=10656087

Just about every sport I've been involved in has been the same, a minority sport and everyone complains about too little coverage and until someone gets off their butt instead of complaining about it and does something about supplying the media with something they can use it ain't gonna change. Heck does MTB racing even exist these days? We used to have epic races little more than 10 years ago covering 45-70km of single track in Riverhead or in Woodhill or the Valley of Doom (mean uphill climbs and decents). Then powers that be decided that we should have more spectator friendly races so we ended up doing short 3-5 circuits of the same course. Killed the sport in my opinion for the rider, made the races boring for the participants and guess what, MTB is not a good spectator sport so they should cater for the rider not the spectator. Don't even know if there are still MTB races happening these days, never hear anything about Aucklands MTB scene, although I often hear Marco Renalli on Sports Talk reporting on races they have in the Wellington area. Thats a case of someone getting on the phone and calling and getting some coverage letting people know that there are people participating in these sports. We used to have about 3 MTB races a month through different clubs or organisations in the Auckland area, can't remember hearing anything for ten years so don't know if anything is happening these days with MTB or not. I guess not, but if someone did call Sports Talk and raised awareness of any races perhaps someone listening might think, heck I might be keen to give that a go, and the sport might pick up some new participants and grow.

Never hear anyone call up Sports Talk about enduro or off road races in New Zealand or around the world, except perhaps the Tarawera 100. Over the last few years I have heard the Kings, Josh Coppins, Ben Townley (only a couple of weeks ago), Katherine Prumm all on Sports Talk promoting themselves and MX. These people are being pro active and are great for their sponsors generally. My understanding is that participant numbers in enduros are on the decline.

Most people have little than a passing interest in minority sports unless they are involved in the sport themselves. But it sure helps raise awareness that there are people participating in these sports if one person in the sport picks up the phone and talks to someone in the media or submits a story occasionally. Takes very little effort really but most Kiwi's would rather moan that no one is doing it rather than take the initiative and do it themselves.

[ovisopa]

Hello guys, in the rally days I couldn't promote my photos and videos on forums I was almost all the day on the mountain after the riders, now I have some more time to show the videos and photos to others

To see all the links to photo albums (7 different photo albums) and videos (12 so far, more to come..) check out this link :

Red Bull Romaniacs 2010 Photos and Videos

We had a bad weather, it rained almost every day, this pic is made in the Prolog race ...


I still have to edit some more videos, made in Day 1 and Day 2, after I'll upload them I'll be back and let you know.

Congrats to Chirs !!!

[warewolf]

Rugby is NZ's national sport... logic doesn't enter in to it. Look at the waste of time the premier national evening news broadcast (cough, cough) yesterday spent on some rugby players tossing gumboots... a 10 minute segment in the middle of the news hour. Surely there was something to cover that was actually newsworthy, as opposed to what was basically entertainment fit for wimmins gossip rags. Where's the incisive journalism expected from the state broadcaster?!

There's another reason pointy-ball sports are over-represented in the media. Decades ago now the media barons in this part of the world picked a languishing minority sport they could buy then promote in their own media, in order to sell more of their own media. Football (aka soccer) is such a huge world-wide sport they couldn't afford to buy in. This is why there are more ppl in Australasia playing football every weekend than the pointy-ball versions, yet it gets poor media coverage. In Aussie they say more ppl play soccer on Sunday than go to church! The media is not necessarily showing the most popular sport - just the one the media wants ppl to see.

However if you want to play the media game, look to those same media barons. Who brought us one-day cricket? Media baron trying to make the game more appealing to the watchers so he could make more money. All sports are under pressure to appeal to spectators who are the revenue stream; it's the way of the world. Short intense forms get the media coverage because media is about the watcher not the player eg stadium supercross versus outdoor motocross. I've always thought Romaniacs was a half-decent attempt to be the SX of enduro, as it were - good on them.

I'd like to see the media spend less time pandering to rugby, and more time covering everything/anything else. But as has been noted, it's up to everything else to do their own PR. However, having been involved with the media on the odd occasion, I know how little they rate everything else. You'd think a world champ or at least winner of an international competition would pull some serious weight, but apparently not.

I guess in this information age, as local journalism deteriorates and the lines between TV/traditional broadcasting and the internet/digital media are blurred, one can at least access specifically what you want to see via the internet. Thankfully.

/rant

[Danger]

Haters you lot.!!
Chris had an pre Romaniacs interview on the Red Bull show last night for about 5-10 minutes. Was bloody good.

I saw this over the weekend and its been repeated several times, a bloody good watch.

Personally I like the pointy ball codes, NRL in particular and I watch most games over the weekend and most of the Rugby League associated programs.
As for the SX, I've got half of this season still on My Sky unwatched, as I usually fall asleep watching it. The reason the SX is popular as far as two wheeled coverage is concerned is because its cheaper to cover than outdoor MX with few cameras needed. I find that the highlights of the World MXGP's that are on TV most weekends this time of year is enough for me rather than four 40 min motos, although I would like to see some AMA outdoors. Watching one bike riding through the woods does nothing for me even though I am interested in the results of our top riders.
I would rather spend time riding my own bikes than watching others ride theirs, I seldom spectate at events unless its the very top riders that I want to see like at the International MX in Taupo a few years back or the ISDE we had. However the arm wrestle and athleticism that is Rugby League I find interesting, as well as the excellent Tour de France we get at this time of year (after week one anyway and once the riders get into the mountains).

Each to their own.