Twitter @ the Tour of California

Think what you will about Twitter (what Social Media dreams are made of or the marginalia of the blogosphere), but its impact is ever more apparent at the Tour of California. Carlton Reid said it best

“Twitter is amazing! I’m in UK but at times I’m better informed than race commentators. They need to hook into Twitter.”

In the car driving back from an early season race in Oregon, I read Johan Bruyneel’s in-the-team-car postings as the raced finished.

During the USPro Road Race Championships in Greenville last year, I rode in the Mavic Car with Josh Boggs and live blogged (I wasn’t using Twitter at the time) from my iPhone. I was in the back, holding onto the oh-shit bar and a set of wheels. Mark from Cyclingnews was in the front. While I moblogged, Mark listened to race radio and alternated between typing and calling it in on two phones.

What struck me then was the old and new school and here I was, doing it for the hell of it, ad-hoc blog style while here was a journalist, making his money.

I talked about the old and new media later with Brook Watts legendary race promoter and he recalled how back in the day races were called in with satellite phones. Presumably before then it was radios, morse code, and teletypes.

The audience will judge if all of these racers, fans, and amateur race reports are more valuable than coverage from Road Bike Action, Bicycling, Velonews, or Cyclingnews. While that’s being determined, follow along

Twitter

In no particular order

Next I’d like to see Garmin add a Twitter text box on their GPS unit and racers can report right from the race.

Photo Credit photogjoe.

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