No more Phil and Paul on ITV4

ic.

David Millar said last night that he and Ned Boulting will be commentating the whole Tour for ITV4 this year.

markhewitt1978

Hurrah!

ugo.santalucia

Makes no difference, it is un-watchable, with 50% adverts, 25% TdF jingle and 25% of actual race

markhewitt1978

ugo.santalucia wrote:

Makes no difference, it is un-watchable, with 50% adverts, 25% TdF jingle and 25% of actual race

I never watch the TDF highlights programme 'live', just no point. Even if it means watching The One Show until 7.15 then I can watch without being interrupted by adverts.

rick_chasey

Ok. Who's gonna tell Ned he's ok but he would do everyone a favour including himself if he speaks more slowly?

6wheels

I think he's trying to match DM, but I do like Ned.

maddog 2

he would do everyone a favour including himself if he speaks more slowly?

+1

Cycling commentators need to more cricket and less footy.

markhewitt1978

maddog 2 wrote:

he would do everyone a favour including himself if he speaks more slowly?

+1

Cycling commentators need to more cricket and less footy.

I miss Duffers

RichN95.

That's a big move by ITV. In one way or another I've watched 30 Tours with P+P. They're gone downhill, but hey so have I.

kingstongraham

Still taking jobs from clean athletes.

joelsim

Ned's getting better, Millar has decent insight.

Kirby is Murray Walker, which I like, and Hatch is growing on me, although some of his pronunciations annoy me a bit. I know he's trying to pronounce things correctly, for example Hermans as 'airmon' but if that's the case then he should call Michael Matthews 'moychle ma tthews'

ddraver

Boulting just needs more practice at the boring bits so this can only be good. Millar's insight is great so this is a partnership worth sticking with I reckon!

r0bh

Will also be interesting to see if Daniel Friebe is taking over the Matt Rendell role at the Tour like he did at the Tour of Yorkshire

narbs

Hopefully Carlton will take the summer to recuperate as well.

Ned and Dai for ITV and Hatch and Kelly for Eurosport would be a nice choice to have.

dish_dash

narbs wrote:

Hopefully Carlton will take the summer to recuperate as well.

Ned and Dai for ITV and Hatch and Kelly for Eurosport would be a nice choice to have.

^ This absolutely...

carbonclem

Happy with Ned and Dave.

Happy to see the back of Phil and Paul!

I only have Eurosport via an iPhone app/Apple TV which means I can't easily follow on Twitter etc at the the same time, so I choose ITV4 for coverage when I'm at home.

jimmythecuckoo

Fabulous news. And not before time.

sheffsimon

narbs wrote:

Hopefully Carlton will take the summer to recuperate as well.

Ned and Dai for ITV and Hatch and Kelly for Eurosport would be a nice choice to have.

He's already back commentating on 4 Days of Dunkerque.....

sheffsimon

SheffSimon wrote:

narbs wrote:

Hopefully Carlton will take the summer to recuperate as well.

Ned and Dai for ITV and Hatch and Kelly for Eurosport would be a nice choice to have.

He's already back commentating on 4 Days of Dunkerque.....

Phil n Paul, Armstrongs personal a*** kissers, hould have been put out to grass when Armstrong stopped.

blazing_saddles

SheffSimon wrote:

narbs wrote:

Hopefully Carlton will take the summer to recuperate as well.

Ned and Dai for ITV and Hatch and Kelly for Eurosport would be a nice choice to have.

He's already back commentating on 4 Days of Dunkerque.....

He's also doing the Azerbaijan highlights. Both alongside Maggie Backstedt, who gets his co slot more often than not, these days.
He seems to share his sense of humour, which means their commentaries sound like a couple of young girls on a sleep over: all giggles and shrieks. A fecking awful assault on the eardrums.

blazing_saddles

Double post. Why can't we simple have a remove post option?

epc06

Cant understand all the negativity towards them and the constant adverts aren't their fault.
Will always be the voices of the TDF

milton50

Back in the day Phil was a great commentator and the voice of cycling but he's past it now. Should have gone 10 years ago really but I don't have the hatred for him that others seem to have.

kingstongraham

EPC06 wrote:

Cant understand all the negativity towards them and the constant adverts aren't their fault.
Will always be the voices of the TDF

Some of it might be down to this kind of thing way after it was reasonable: http://www.velonation.com/news/id/12763 ... ribed.aspx

For me it's the fact that after all that time, he still never worked out how to pronounce maillot jaune. Or anything else.

Still think they are the best voices for a climbing stage, as long as you aren't relying on them to get any of the calls right, but Kelly is the man for three hours on the flat.

narbs

Blazing Saddles wrote:

He's also doing the Azerbaijan highlights. Both alongside Maggie Backstedt, who gets his co slot more often than not, these days.
He seems to share his sense of humour, which means their commentaries sound like a couple of young girls on a sleep over: all giggles and shrieks. A fecking awful assault on the eardrums.

Backstedt is fast becoming the Jonathan Davies of cycling commentary - a fine participant but no appreciation that their sport has moved on since their retirement.

DL1987

narbs wrote:

Blazing Saddles wrote:

He's also doing the Azerbaijan highlights. Both alongside Maggie Backstedt, who gets his co slot more often than not, these days.
He seems to share his sense of humour, which means their commentaries sound like a couple of young girls on a sleep over: all giggles and shrieks. A fecking awful assault on the eardrums.

Backstedt is fast becoming the Jonathan Davies of cycling commentary - a fine participant but no appreciation that their sport has moved on since their retirement.

I eagerly await a "Numbers left!" shout from Maggy.

DeVlaeminck

I like Ned Boulting as far as he seems like a decent type and he's not a bad presenter but as a commentator he's not my cup of tea. I'm not a fan of his ordinary man off the street style nor of the ITV approach of treating the audience as if they've never watched a bike race before.

Good luck to them though, I would be sticking with Eurosport anyway just because the ad breaks are shorter. Not sorry to see the back of Liggett he took his 30 pieces of silver long after he knew what Armstrong was, no I don't expect the commentators to start accusing riders on air but Liggett became cheerleader in chief for Armstrong so good riddance.

Liggett, Duffers, Harmon - one past it, one sadly no longer with us and one no longer employable - still waiting for someone to step up and fill their shoes.

kingstongraham

DeVlaeminck wrote:

Not sorry to see the back of Liggett he took his 30 pieces of silver long after he knew what Armstrong was, no I don't expect the commentators to start accusing riders on air but Liggett became cheerleader in chief for Armstrong so good riddance.

Maybe one of the new commentators could give some insight into which rides are not believable.

rick_chasey

I would but my voice is too droney/foghorn

tailwindhome

DeVlaeminck wrote:

I like Ned Boulting as far as he seems like a decent type and he's not a bad presenter but as a commentator he's not my cup of tea. I'm not a fan of his ordinary man off the street style nor of the ITV approach of treating the audience as if they've never watched a bike race before.

I like the Millar/Boutling pairing, however their weaknesses are badly exposed in the last 5k or so of flat stages.

gozzy

I'd maybe consider Eurosport an option if they did subtitles, but as it stands the disembodied voice of Kelly is completelty unintelligible to my ears, so it's ITV4 no matter how many ad breaks.