Tour de Francis - get that idiot off the tele!

13

Comments

  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    ShockedSoShocked wrote:
    I haven't seen the one where he cries yet? Is it as cringy as I'm imagining it to be?

    What's he beeling at?

    "Wah, I got free stuff and paid to go on holiday!"

    How did this country ever win a war?
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • shockedsoshocked
    shockedsoshocked Posts: 4,021
    disgruntledgoat wrote:
    ShockedSoShocked wrote:
    I haven't seen the one where he cries yet? Is it as cringy as I'm imagining it to be?

    What's he beeling at?

    "Wah, I got free stuff and paid to go on holiday!"

    How did this country ever win a war?

    I think he was probably over tired.
    "A cyclist has nothing to lose but his chain"

    PTP Runner Up 2015
  • rdt
    rdt Posts: 869
    edited July 2012
    ShockedSoShocked wrote:
    I haven't seen the one where he cries yet? Is it as cringy as I'm imagining it to be?

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmN4OF_6qMU

    A quick scan of the mountain bits suggests borderline croaking @4:50-5:05 and more-so at 10:35-10:55.

    Hopefully Halfords' stores will offer an equivalent one of these as a memento of the occasion (3 Meg file):
    http://pigeonsnest.co.uk/stuff/photos/m ... a-doll.jpg

    (EDIT to change img to url)
  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    That Gazza crying doll thing is almost 3MB, I doubt if people reading this on a mobile device are going to find it popular ;)
  • rdt
    rdt Posts: 869
    dodgy wrote:
    That Gazza crying doll thing is almost 3MB, I doubt if people reading this on a mobile device are going to find it popular ;)

    Oops! I'm on fibre - didn't realize.
  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,102
    Oh, what a f*ck up, sorry guys: thought someone would have prodded me in the right direction - got the idiots a bit mixed up.
    Just watched the Tour de Francis - 2 things: what a lucky guy to get to do that, must have a well paid job to have a back up team and mechanic etc. Why does he keep crying all the time?
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • fluff.
    fluff. Posts: 771
    Reading the bcttt post back a page, the crying is from 'missing his family all the time' (3 or 4 days away, gosh) and because the production team did an x factor type number on him, and stuffed the phone in his face with his missus on, after climbing the Col de la Croix de Fer (or 'Quad De La Fleur' as he calls it).
  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,181
    pinarello001 wrote:
    Oh, what a f*ck up, sorry guys: thought someone would have prodded me in the right direction - got the idiots a bit mixed up.
    Just watched the Tour de Francis - 2 things: what a lucky guy to get to do that, must have a well paid job to have a back up team and mechanic etc. Why does he keep crying all the time?

    Back up car and everything were provided to him as part of the ads, seems to have just got lucky due to his name!
  • jonny_trousers
    jonny_trousers Posts: 3,588
    Pross wrote:
    pinarello001 wrote:
    Oh, what a f*ck up, sorry guys: thought someone would have prodded me in the right direction - got the idiots a bit mixed up.
    Just watched the Tour de Francis - 2 things: what a lucky guy to get to do that, must have a well paid job to have a back up team and mechanic etc. Why does he keep crying all the time?

    Back up car and everything were provided to him as part of the ads, seems to have just got lucky due to his name!

    He's not actually called Francis, you know.

    His real names Dave d'Italia
  • PKRAZOR
    PKRAZOR Posts: 89
    Whoever he is hes a f*ckin idiot. What annoys me is when he goes through that tunnel shouting "olly...olly..olly", what a c*ck. Thats something my 3 yr old would do going through the Dartford Tunnel.

    The French camera crew must have been scratching their heads going " zut aloor...ans ze British hope tu winz le Tour wiz tossiers like zis??.!"

    No wonder hes not riding a Boardman, Halfords MD probably took one look at him and thought " nah...were not having this cry baby muppet ruining our best selling bikes...stick him on Carrera."
  • ilovebigwig
    ilovebigwig Posts: 118
    Am I the only person who saw these adverts and thought, I wish someone had paid for me to do all that? I suspect not, which may explain the bitterness being shown on here.

    Obviously he is annoying but get over it.
  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    I actually know the guy who was first choice for this, I only found out yesterday. I remember about 3 or 4 months ago he told me that he'd missed a few emails from a TV production company, they'd been sent to an address he doesn't monitor that closely. Turns out they'd googled "Frank cyclist" and turned up his blog, by the time he'd replied, the company had found another cyclist called 'Francis' (as a surname) instead.

    It's Frank Kinlan by the way, author of popular Garmin Edge help site http://frank.kinlan.co.uk/ Missed opportunity, and Frank wouldn't have been sobbing half way up the Madeleine ;)
  • Cleat Eastwood
    Cleat Eastwood Posts: 7,508
    Jonny_Trousers wrote:
    He's not actually called Francis, you know.

    His real names Dave d'Italia

    :D:D:D

    hehe and he's on the dole....

    and on the next set of adverts you see him going to pick up his Giro.

    Smashing it wetherspoons at half ten. :D
    The dissenter is every human being at those moments of his life when he resigns
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  • tailwindhome
    tailwindhome Posts: 19,310
    You do know it's just an ad?
    “New York has the haircuts, London has the trousers, but Belfast has the reason!
  • graeme_s-2
    graeme_s-2 Posts: 3,382
    edited July 2012
    Slightly OT, but I'm reading Ned Boulting's "How Cav Won the Green Jersey: Short Dispatches from the 2011 Tour de France" at the moment, and last night I came across this little gem
    Ned Boulting wrote:
    After all, as Chris's increasingly irritating adverts on TV suggested, 'He didn't know what second place on the podium was for.' (Apart, that is, from the numerous times when he had to stand there looking up at Miguel Indurain, as we delighted in reminding him.)
    :D
    Nice to know it's not just us that find these ads infuriatingly annoying!
  • PBo
    PBo Posts: 2,493
    Cleat Eastwood wrote:
    Jonny_Trousers wrote:
    He's not actually called Francis, you know.

    His real names Dave d'Italia

    :D:D:D

    hehe and he's on the dole....

    and on the next set of adverts you see him going to pick up his Giro.

    Smashing it wetherspoons at half ten. :D

    for anyone jealous, plenty of time to get your name changed to "espana"!
  • mroli
    mroli Posts: 3,622
    PKRAZOR wrote:
    Whoever he is hes a f*ckin idiot. What annoys me is when he goes through that tunnel shouting "olly...olly..olly", what a c*ck. Thats something my 3 yr old would do going through the Dartford Tunnel.

    The French camera crew must have been scratching their heads going " zut aloor...ans ze British hope tu winz le Tour wiz tossiers like zis??.!"
    I think you'll probably find that he was shouting "Allez, Allez, Allez" as he went through the tunnel.

    In which case the French camera crew would have been scratching their heads going "shocking standard of language they teach in British schools".....

    I think people are being a bit harsh - I'm sure he's a very nice bloke and just suffered at the hands of the edit...
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  • Pross
    Pross Posts: 43,181
    mroli wrote:
    PKRAZOR wrote:
    Whoever he is hes a f*ckin idiot. What annoys me is when he goes through that tunnel shouting "olly...olly..olly", what a c*ck. Thats something my 3 yr old would do going through the Dartford Tunnel.

    The French camera crew must have been scratching their heads going " zut aloor...ans ze British hope tu winz le Tour wiz tossiers like zis??.!"
    I think you'll probably find that he was shouting "Allez, Allez, Allez" as he went through the tunnel.

    In which case the French camera crew would have been scratching their heads going "shocking standard of language they teach in British schools".....

    I think people are being a bit harsh - I'm sure he's a very nice bloke and just suffered at the hands of the edit...

    I assumed that too until I read his posts on that web forum posted above!
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    I've just had my first prolonged exposure to the guy.... I wish ill upon him.
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • BR 1979
    BR 1979 Posts: 296
    Ugly pedalling motion. Have you seen the "Cadence Cadence Cadence" one? Dreadful. He looks like a butcher's boy cycling with a basket of sausages.
  • disgruntledgoat
    disgruntledgoat Posts: 8,957
    Triathlete innit?
    "In many ways, my story was that of a raging, Christ-like figure who hauled himself off the cross, looked up at the Romans with blood in his eyes and said 'My turn, sock cookers'"

    @gietvangent
  • jonny_trousers
    jonny_trousers Posts: 3,588
    When I got home last night I was gasping for a cup of tea. Unfortunately I wasn't too careful when taking my cup from the cupboard... Smashed it :(

    To be fair, that lad's clearly got some upper body strength the way he actually manages to lift his Carrera off the ground.
  • Yellow Peril
    Yellow Peril Posts: 4,466
    Jonny_Trousers wrote:
    When I got home last night I was gasping for a cup of tea. Unfortunately I wasn't too careful when taking my cup from the cupboard... Smashed it :(

    To be fair, that lad's clearly got some upper body strength the way he actually manages to lift his Carrera off the ground.[/quote]

    I see what you're saying here. No coincidence that it is under the Croix de Fer
    @JaunePeril

    Winner of the Bike Radar Pro Race Wiggins Hour Prediction Competition
  • Teddy Westside
    Teddy Westside Posts: 221
    skylla wrote:
    He got paid: http://forum.bcttt.com/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=7340
    After what felt like 2 days of climbing I reached the summit I was shattered and overjoyed I gave a jester (which I’m sure won’t be repeated)to Madeline...

    No wonder he was knackered if he had a medieval clown on his bike with him! :roll:

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  • pinno
    pinno Posts: 52,102
    This week, I have been mostly smashing pedals...
    seanoconn - gruagach craic!
  • flange.
    flange. Posts: 38
    http://tourdedickhead.blogspot.co.uk/
  • dodgy
    dodgy Posts: 2,890
    At first I thought this advert might be backfiring against Halfords, but there are quite a few positive comments from people on Twitter, perhaps riders/potential riders that aren't 'serious' about cycling?

    Still annoys me.
  • Scrumple
    Scrumple Posts: 2,665
    From the length of this thread it has certainly worked - loads of exposure for Halfords.

    Despite what you feel about the store, publicity is always good as you'll not change the die hards' minds but will get into the heads of others.

    Gotta congratulate the ad team on this one - you lot are doing their work for them!
  • essjaydee
    essjaydee Posts: 917
    Sounds like a lot of jealous people, having a bitch and moan because they can :|

    I'm not the greatest fan of the ads, but then there's loads of others I dislike also. So what!

    Fair play to the guy for taking an opportunity that was given to him. I bloody well would have too 8)

    Don't see how you can possible judge a person from a short piece of film :!: It's the same as judging someone from what they are wearing or how they look.

    I thought the post on the bcttt forum appeared a pretty honest and factual account of his experience. Nothing wrong with that IMO.

    If you want to moan about something, let's talk about the weather :wink:
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  • fluff.
    fluff. Posts: 771
    Yes that weather thread would be awesome. I think it's perfectly valid to moan about bloody annoying adverts, that are only on during the TDF coverage, on a bike forum.

    I shall now go and smash things up and down that river.

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