Carlton Kirby

Pross

takethehighroad said:

Had to turn him off today at about 15k to go as he said "roundabouts" about 5 times in 1 sentence

It was the first thing he started talking about when he came back for the final stint. He has an obsession with them. The weird thing is that they are usually easier to negotiate than if it was a simple priority junction for a 90 degree turn.

poweredbyidris

Just watched the finish again on GCN having watched live on ITV

Not once in the final 1km did Kirby mention MvdP as he was too busy jumping from cliche to cliche.

That’s cheerleading, not commentary

Dorset_Boy

poweredbyidris said:

Just watched the finish again on GCN having watched live on ITV

Not once in the final 1km did Kirby mention MvdP as he was too busy jumping from cliche to cliche.

That’s cheerleading, not commentary

I think he nearly ejaculated when his pick for the day, Groenewegen came up to the front.
Utterly ruins an exciting finish.

Dorset_Boy

Some leadout from MvdP
I though Wout bottled it as the gap was still there despite the barriers being out of alignment. Understandable given he has other roles to play (baby permitting)

takethehighroad

Dorset_Boy said:

poweredbyidris said:

Just watched the finish again on GCN having watched live on ITV

Not once in the final 1km did Kirby mention MvdP as he was too busy jumping from cliche to cliche.

That’s cheerleading, not commentary

I think he nearly ejaculated when his pick for the day, Groenewegen came up to the front.
Utterly ruins an exciting finish.

By contrast, ITV were on Cav watch. Which I understand, but it did detract from what was happening.

They managed to call the MVDP leadout tho

poweredbyidris

Dorset_Boy said:

poweredbyidris said:

Just watched the finish again on GCN having watched live on ITV

Not once in the final 1km did Kirby mention MvdP as he was too busy jumping from cliche to cliche.

That’s cheerleading, not commentary

I think he nearly ejaculated when his pick for the day, Groenewegen came up to the front.
Utterly ruins an exciting finish.

He has a Pavlovian response to shout 'IT'S TIME TO GO' as soon as the 1st move is made inside the final km. Never identifies the rider.

pinno

There was a relentless succession of roundabouts in the finale though.
Do you not mention them at all? The roundabouts flattened spheres shaped the lead outs, so they had an effect on the outcome.

More interesting was that they were all 'guided'. Did that lead to an even higher pace as teams had to try and be at the front as the peloton squeezed through? Because it was a very fast run in.

rick_chasey

Genuinely can't believe a someone who claims to be a cycling fan is defending it. Not least as all the beef you have with other commentators your boy does, but much worse!

pinno

rick_chasey said:

Genuinely can't believe a someone who claims to be a cycling fan is defending it. Not least as all the beef you have with other commentators your boy does, but much worse!

Everyone is jumping on the bash Kirby bandwagon, so I am just playing devils advocate. Besides, a lot of us here are long enough in the tooth to make our own minds up with what's happening on screen and i'll take Kirby over Hatch hyperbole any day of the week.
No one will win this argument as it's entirely subjective.
I don't know how old you are but I had the pleasure of David Duffield for years.

In bold; uncalled for. Please leave personal insults out of it.

rick_chasey

pinno said:

rick_chasey said:

Genuinely can't believe a someone who claims to be a cycling fan is defending it. Not least as all the beef you have with other commentators your boy does, but much worse!

Everyone is jumping on the bash Kirby bandwagon, so I am just playing devils advocate. Besides, a lot of us here are long enough in the tooth to make our own minds up with what's happening on screen and i'll take Kirby over Hatch hyperbole any day of the week.
No one will win this argument as it's entirely subjective.
I don't know how old you are but I had the pleasure of David Duffield for years.

In bold; uncalled for. Please leave personal insults out of it.

But kirby does 10x more hyperbole than Hatch; and most of the time it's not even accurate!

Am just old enough to remember Duffers; I gave up and watched the channel 4 highlights (genuinely).

pinno

...

rick_chasey

pinno said:

Duffers was on ES, Ligget was on C4.

Leaves are green, the sky is blue?

pinno

rick_chasey said:

pinno said:

Duffers was on ES, Ligget was on C4.

Leaves are green, the sky is blue?

Bollox on my part. Trying to juggle.

rick_chasey

I just don't understand the complaints with Hatch when Kirby does the same but more extreme.

If it was something specific to Hatch it'd sort of make sense to me even if I fundamnetally disagreed with it.

I also am genuinely surprised that the high level of inaccuracy doesn't boil your p!ss.

Calling someone attacking when they're moving up in the bunch, multiple times, should do the head in of any fan, surely.

blazing_saddles

pinno said:

rick_chasey said:

Genuinely can't believe a someone who claims to be a cycling fan is defending it. Not least as all the beef you have with other commentators your boy does, but much worse!

Everyone is jumping on the bash Kirby bandwagon, so I am just playing devils advocate. Besides, a lot of us here are long enough in the tooth to make our own minds up with what's happening on screen and i'll take Kirby over Hatch hyperbole any day of the week.
No one will win this argument as it's entirely subjective.
I don't know how old you are but I had the pleasure of David Duffield for years.

In bold; uncalled for. Please leave personal insults out of it.

To be fair, if you were posting on the CN forum, you would hold the majority viewpoint. A lot of them dislike Hatch and think Kirby is great.
I admit that I scratch my head as to how and why this is so, but during the Tour I don't have an issue, as there is usually an alternative option.
Yesterday, as soon as Kirby returned for the finishing 45kms, I switched from the Eurosport player to a combination of ITV and S4C, as their ad breaks didn't coincide.
(although Boulting is now doing his utmost to raise his level of hysteria to an irritatingly similar level)

pinno

Hatch is prone to the same level of faux pas - like when Healy attacked in the Giro with 3.8km's to go. He went in hyper mode and said that Healy was distancing himself and McNulty was visibly stuck to his wheel.
Another very similar thing happened and he described the rider as going "...2... 3 maybe 4 lengths clear..." I could hardly see daylight between them yet that was '...going to be the moment'.

As I have said, this is subjective and no one is going to win the argument.
British commentators are however less partisan.
I watched the GCN+ documentary on Nibali and the Italian commentators went nuts in a race where Nibali 'did it for Italy'. Even though it wasn't the world's.

rick_chasey

pinno said:

British commentators are however less partisan.

Belgians didn't mention Cav once yesterday, FYI.

Pross

The change in pace in commentary when Kirby took over from Hatch just now was nearly painful on the ears. Hatch had been chatting sedately which matched the 'racing' then Kirby comes in all guns blazing as though we're approaching the finish line.

takethehighroad

rick_chasey said:

pinno said:

British commentators are however less partisan.

Belgians didn't mention Cav once yesterday, FYI.

Has been very noticeable (and understandable) the amount of mentions of Cab on the British coverage

takethehighroad

FYI I noticed Kirby pronounce the Danish champions name in the Danish way earlier

One in the eye for the AG2R not Ah Jay Deux Air people

davidof

So that's nearly 10 years everyone has been fed up with Kirby and Hatch.

gethinceri

Not everyone.

rick_chasey

takethehighroad said:

rick_chasey said:

pinno said:

British commentators are however less partisan.

Belgians didn't mention Cav once yesterday, FYI.

Has been very noticeable (and understandable) the amount of mentions of Cab on the British coverage

Should add their boys are duking it out for the win so there is also Belgian partisanship which is 100% a thing on their coverage

sherer

really good call from Adam Blythe yesterday. I was the spring and thought Cav was so confident slowed down early, Adam worked out it was gear slipping straight away that meant he missed out on the win

pinno

Stage 10 - (Hatch bollox) '...was a day for the ages...' and he chucked in a heap pf sentiment, hyperbole and billed it as epic and waffled on about the Worlds in October and other races to come and the lone breakaway rider gets caught after talking him up. Nauseating.

I'm going to put a sticker on my top tube a la Voigt 'Shut up Hatch'.

andyrr

pinno said:

Stage 10 - (Hatch bollox) '...was a day for the ages...' and he chucked in a heap pf sentiment, hyperbole and billed it as epic and waffled on about the Worlds in October and other races to come and the lone breakaway rider gets caught after talking him up. Nauseating.

I'm going to put a sticker on my top tube a la Voigt 'Shut up Hatch'.

Whatever floats your boat.

Pross

pinno said:

Stage 10 - (Hatch bollox) '...was a day for the ages...' and he chucked in a heap pf sentiment, hyperbole and billed it as epic and waffled on about the Worlds in October and other races to come and the lone breakaway rider gets caught after talking him up. Nauseating.

I'm going to put a sticker on my top tube a la Voigt 'Shut up Hatch'.

I commented in the spoiler thread as we’ve apparently had two of the ‘great Tour de France stages’ in the last 3 days. It is pretty annoying but in comparison to listening to the incessant white noise coming from Kirby during his stints it is a minor annoyance.

The other thing I’ve noticed with Hatch is that his northern accent, that he used to hide, is getting stronger and stronger. Not sure if this is because he’s working alongside others with stronger accents now. Not a criticism but an observation over the last year or so.

DeVlaeminck

We all have our preferences - for me Hatch is the pick of current commentators - up there with the David Harmon era. Eurosport are doing a good job with cycling coverage - not sure how they improve on the current studio team - I'd like to see a bit more debate which I think Vaughter's has brought to the table but overall it's hard to fault it.

I caught some of the itv coverage in the week and the difference is night and day - honestly feel a group of journalism students could do a better job. Ned Boulting is just unsuited to commentary duties - Eurosport would have got shot of him years ago.

blazing_saddles

DeVlaeminck said:

We all have our preferences - for me Hatch is the pick of current commentators - up there with the David Harmon era. Eurosport are doing a good job with cycling coverage - not sure how they improve on the current studio team - I'd like to see a bit more debate which I think Vaughter's has brought to the table but overall it's hard to fault it.

I caught some of the itv coverage in the week and the difference is night and day - honestly feel a group of journalism students could do a better job. Ned Boulting is just unsuited to commentary duties - Eurosport would have got shot of him years ago.

Agreed.
Boulting is almost in the same league as Carlton "Magic Roundabout" Kirby. He seems intent on copying his hyper hysterical delivery style for ever increasing distances.
It's as if both of them cut their teeth commentating on Colombian football matches.

gethinceri

Often seems like something "Colombian" is going on in the commentary box.