Carlton Kirby

cervelo73

Another year, another Vuelta rendered unwatchable thanks to the endless inanity of Carlton Kirby. And this year not even the sanctuary of ITV4 to fall back on. How can someone so widely reviled by the cycling community retain the confidence of the bosses at Eurosport? Especially now when there are so many better alternatives. Hatch, Lloyd, Stephens, Backstedt. Come on Eurosport, it’s enough already, “For goodness sake” as we are repeatedly reminded.

daniel_b

cervelo73 said:

Another year, another Vuelta rendered unwatchable thanks to the endless inanity of Carlton Kirby. And this year not even the sanctuary of ITV4 to fall back on. How can someone so widely reviled by the cycling community retain the confidence of the bosses at Eurosport? Especially now when there are so many better alternatives. Hatch, Lloyd, Stephens, Backstedt. Come on Eurosport, it’s enough already, “For goodness sake” as we are repeatedly reminded.

Agreed, my heart sank when I heard his dulcit tones, but then I thought maybe they were rotating commentating talent alongside ck, but it seems we have 100% ck, wall to wall, no respite.

I've gone off Stephens a bit, he made a few howlers at the Olympics.

Blythe would be awesome.

rick_chasey

Shout out to the cycling podcast who have NordVPN sponsoring their Vuelta podcast. 😉😉😉

Can recommend

stage_hunter

He excelled himself today at the finish. Jakobson hit the front, what 50m from the line. Instead he says it’s between Modolo (long pulled off) and Cort (who was never in the front two). It’s just words with him. Doesn’t matter if they’re relevant.

kingstongraham

stage_hunter said:

He excelled himself today at the finish. Jakobson hit the front, what 50m from the line. Instead he says it’s between Modolo (long pulled off) and Cort (who was never in the front two). It’s just words with him. Doesn’t matter if they’re relevant.

Was quite special. Just as Jakobsen hit the front - "It's between Modolo and Magnus Cort - on the throw Demare's going to get there is he?"

Pross

I gave up after 20 minutes today.

bm5

Can we appeal for a substitute for some stages ?

daniel_b

kingstongraham said:

stage_hunter said:

He excelled himself today at the finish. Jakobson hit the front, what 50m from the line. Instead he says it’s between Modolo (long pulled off) and Cort (who was never in the front two). It’s just words with him. Doesn’t matter if they’re relevant.

Was quite special. Just as Jakobsen hit the front - "It's between Modolo and Magnus Cort - on the throw Demare's going to get there is he?"

It's quite phenomenal isn't it, I half wonder if he is pranking us all with the standard of delivery.

It was really quite bearable during the tour where it was an hour of ck at a time.

poweredbyidris

daniel_b said:

kingstongraham said:

stage_hunter said:

He excelled himself today at the finish. Jakobson hit the front, what 50m from the line. Instead he says it’s between Modolo (long pulled off) and Cort (who was never in the front two). It’s just words with him. Doesn’t matter if they’re relevant.

Was quite special. Just as Jakobsen hit the front - "It's between Modolo and Magnus Cort - on the throw Demare's going to get there is he?"

It's quite phenomenal isn't it, I half wonder if he is pranking us all with the standard of delivery.

It was really quite bearable during the tour where it was an hour of ck at a time.

Quite - I actually enjoyed the days where Hatch did the final stint. CK calling the break, then a bit of nonsense in the mid-afternoon lull was quite enjoyable. Helped that he had two co-commentators too, rather than him just bullying Kelly into silence

daniel_b

poweredbyidris said:

daniel_b said:

kingstongraham said:

stage_hunter said:

He excelled himself today at the finish. Jakobson hit the front, what 50m from the line. Instead he says it’s between Modolo (long pulled off) and Cort (who was never in the front two). It’s just words with him. Doesn’t matter if they’re relevant.

Was quite special. Just as Jakobsen hit the front - "It's between Modolo and Magnus Cort - on the throw Demare's going to get there is he?"

It's quite phenomenal isn't it, I half wonder if he is pranking us all with the standard of delivery.

It was really quite bearable during the tour where it was an hour of ck at a time.

Quite - I actually enjoyed the days where Hatch did the final stint. CK calling the break, then a bit of nonsense in the mid-afternoon lull was quite enjoyable. Helped that he had two co-commentators too, rather than him just bullying Kelly into silence

Agreed - Magnus is good, but he alone cannot counter ck effectively enough.

The Giro team was the best commentary I have ever heard, Hatch, Blythe, Lloyd and Kelly - so enjoyable and natural, real knowledgable passionate fans.

Which means they started with the best for the Giro, the Tour was a step down, and the Vuelta is rock bottom

They could easily port ck onto another sport somewhere, and even give that Jez chap (Hunt?) a go on one of these grand tours - what I heard of him I quite liked.

salsiccia1

I do have some sympathy with CK on these sprint finishes, mind. The director switches from fixed camera to fixed camera in the finish without it being clear how far it is to the finish, and the angle of the actual finish line camera seems to be much too low to read the finish clearly. Add that to some unfamiliar riders in the trains, and the messy sprints, and it's difficult to clearly see what's happening.

I think CK is pretty good in the quiet times, filling the time with good-natured nonsense. He struggles a bit with hectic finishes though, all the above being said.

daniel_b

Tour of Norway.

Been and then backed up by stephens, discussing Hayters Olympic silver medal WITH Matt Walls in the........
Omnium.

It's surely their job to keep up with these results, or maybe even just spend 2 minutes checking before the race?

I'd expect a far higher level of accuracy.

And if you don't have that, don't mention it at all, stay WELL away from the subject.

In other news, thank frick we had blythe on today at the vuelta, and up until Saturday I gather, nothing like long enough, but a bit of intelligent sparky lively pun free commentary is such a relief from the ck drudgery / torment

ibr17xvii

I don't get the hate for CK if I'm honest, I've watched the full stage today & he doesn't bother me at all. Yeah he can ramble on & talk some absolute nonsense at times but as he rightly pointed out today he was the only one on air for the whole thing, everyone else got a break.

I like all the different commentators / summarisers but the only thing that does irritate me is how often Magnus says "definitely". Every time they come to him he always has "definitely" in the sentence.

Which definitely annoys me.

webboo

I thought Carlton worked quite well with Adam Blyth today, he was often making himself the butt of his jokes and giving Adam the lead to offer his cycling knowledge.

kingstongraham

webboo said:

I thought Carlton worked quite well with Adam Blyth today, he was often making himself the butt of his jokes and giving Adam the lead to offer his cycling knowledge.

Agreed, apart from not knowing what was going on in the race, he did OK today.

lesfirth

I can not stand him. I have to switch the sound off. There should be a caption on screen to indicate who is commentating. Then I would know when it was OK to switch the sound back on.
I think he must get a bonus related to the number of words he speaks. The rubbish he speaks is relentless.

Pross

kingstongraham said:

webboo said:

I thought Carlton worked quite well with Adam Blyth today, he was often making himself the butt of his jokes and giving Adam the lead to offer his cycling knowledge.

Agreed, apart from not knowing what was going on in the race, he did OK today.

I have some sympathy for him on this race, I'm probably watching on a longer screen and struggling to know what's happening. Thing is he's the same on every race.

The verbal diarrhea that is inexcusable at any time but it seems there are people who like that sort of thing.

DeVlaeminck

Funny one today when they were talking about Langkawi one year.

Adam Blythe jokes that he thinks he finished 2nd or 3rd overall - Carlton not picking up on Adam's humour replies he remembers that - to which Adam has to confess he was joking making Carlton's BS obvious.

Pross

Watched the final 11km and my head was hurting by the end. It was just a constant stream of words from CK, he'd eventually hand over to Kelly for a few seconds as he had literally talked himself out of breath. It's not like there was even much happening for him to talk about other than an obsession with how narrow the road was (it was at least 8 riders wide albeit the kerbs were a bit high in places).

Possibly the hardest bit of commentary I've ever heard in any sport

Lanterne_Rogue

Hate to say it, but I'm missing CK on the Le Mans coverage this year. It's not the same without his clubable - in both senses - bonhomie.

It's also downright weird when a car gets utterly t-boned whilst parked sideways across the track, and the only reaction is "oh, that's odd". Pretty sure Kirby would have said something more appropriate, or at least used the sort of volume, for the situation at hand.

womack

Is it just me, but I can't see what all the fuss is about over this Orla bird. Not particularly good looking, skin looks a bit blotchy and not very interesting.

Don't get the love in myself.

mrb123

womack said:

Is it just me, but I can't see what all the fuss is about over this Orla bird. Not particularly good looking, skin looks a bit blotchy and not very interesting.

Don't get the love in myself.

Maybe she just seems like a nice person?

kingstongraham

She's good at her job.

RichN95.

womack said:

Is it just me, but I can't see what all the fuss is about over this Orla bird. Not particularly good looking, skin looks a bit blotchy and not very interesting.

Don't get the love in myself.

She's a TV presenter, not a pornstar

Pross

womack said:

Is it just me, but I can't see what all the fuss is about over this Orla bird. Not particularly good looking, skin looks a bit blotchy and not very interesting.

Don't get the love in myself.

Don't worry, it's perfectly OK for you to prefer Blythe. These are more accepting times

Pross

Lanterne_Rogue said:

Hate to say it, but I'm missing CK on the Le Mans coverage this year. It's not the same without his clubable - in both senses - bonhomie.

It's also downright weird when a car gets utterly t-boned whilst parked sideways across the track, and the only reaction is "oh, that's odd". Pretty sure Kirby would have said something more appropriate, or at least used the sort of volume, for the situation at hand.

Wish more Le Mans fans had demanded him for coverage.

bm5

Blythe and Boulting covering TOB for itv4. Seems like an odd pairing, different personalities.

andyp

womack said:

Is it just me, but I can't see what all the fuss is about over this Orla bird. Not particularly good looking, skin looks a bit blotchy and not very interesting.

Don't get the love in myself.

I didn't realise you had internet access in the stone age.

ddraver

bobmcstuff

Obvious troll is obvious