No more Phil and Paul on ITV4
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That didn't last long then. Wasn't he mainly there for Nairo anyway, maybe he'll moonlight for them during the Tour?0
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Yeah looks that way, Twitter bio has changed for sure.2020 Reilly Spectre - raw titanium
2020 Merida Reacto Disc Ltd - black on black
2015 CAAD8 105 - very green - stripped to turbo bike
2018 Planet X Exocet 2 - grey
The departed:
2017 Cervelo R3 DI2 - sold
Boardman CX Team - sold
Cannondale Synapse - broken
Cube Streamer - stolen
Boardman Road Comp - stolen0 -
The best commentators are able to identify riders based on their riding style, size, etc. The likes of Phil/Paul and especially Carlton K just name a rider based on assumption. For example, if a Movistar rider was to attack on a climb it must be Valverde because he is their number one rider. If a Dimension Data guy attacks in the last 5km it is Cummings, etc. As indicated by others, some commentators clearly don't follow the sport. I often find it bizarre when the guys commentating don't know about things that have been reported on the likes of cyclingnews.com 24 hours earlier.0
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Often the commentators are doing their job in those perspex boxes on the finish line - so they haven't got the luxury of a huge HD screen to look at to identify who is who. It's not an exact science working out who is who. Cut them some slack.
Everyone in Movistar looks the same these days - same helmet and glasses ? What's that about ? Weird.0 -
Fenix wrote:Often the commentators are doing their job in those perspex boxes on the finish line - so they haven't got the luxury of a huge HD screen to look at to identify who is who. It's not an exact science working out who is who. Cut them some slack.
Everyone in Movistar looks the same these days - same helmet and glasses ? What's that about ? Weird.
It's their job to be able to identify the correct rider... I can understand initial uncertainty... but some like Kirby go for ages claiming its a particular rider when it clearly isn't. They may be in a perspex box (or an underground room in London) but I believe they do get access to multiple screens/shots and have the rider list (with numbers) in front of them...0 -
just out of interest, obviously Liggett was in love with Armstrong and either couldn't or wouldn't see what was happening...
but was Sherwen in the same league? We lump them together as a pair of bad eggs but is that fair on Paul? (just asking, like)Facts are meaningless, you can use facts to prove anything that's remotely true! - Homer0 -
maddog 2 wrote:just out of interest, obviously Liggett was in love with Armstrong and either couldn't or wouldn't see what was happening...
but was Sherwen in the same league? We lump them together as a pair of bad eggs but is that fair on Paul? (just asking, like)
Thought Sherwen had business interests with Armstrong in Saffa?0 -
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Mad_Malx wrote:maddog 2 wrote:just out of interest, obviously Liggett was in love with Armstrong and either couldn't or wouldn't see what was happening...
but was Sherwen in the same league? We lump them together as a pair of bad eggs but is that fair on Paul? (just asking, like)
Thought Sherwen had business interests with Armstrong in Saffa?
Armstrong invested in his gold mine in Uganda.0 -
Fenix wrote:Often the commentators are doing their job in those perspex boxes on the finish line - so they haven't got the luxury of a huge HD screen to look at to identify who is who. It's not an exact science working out who is who. Cut them some slack.
Everyone in Movistar looks the same these days - same helmet and glasses ? What's that about ? Weird.
Agree on Movistar - physically a number of their guys are pretty similar build, dark hair (or implants) etc. - it's handy that Valverde is Spanish Champ so you can usually spot a splash of red & yellow - but they've gone very subtle on this years kit which isn't helping.
it's the one advantage of Froome & Aru looking ropey on the bike - can spot them easily on 'telly.0 -
You can cut them a little slack for things like that, sure, but there is no excuse for other things that don't rely on identifying a specific rider. For example calling out someone gently rolling to the front to take a turn as launching an attack. That's a particular favourite of Mr Kirby, he gets far too excited to actually think about what he's watching.Fenix wrote:Often the commentators are doing their job in those perspex boxes on the finish line - so they haven't got the luxury of a huge HD screen to look at to identify who is who. It's not an exact science working out who is who. Cut them some slack.
Everyone in Movistar looks the same these days - same helmet and glasses ? What's that about ? Weird.0 -
Fenix wrote:Often the commentators are doing their job in those perspex boxes on the finish line - so they haven't got the luxury of a huge HD screen to look at to identify who is who. It's not an exact science working out who is who. Cut them some slack.
Everyone in Movistar looks the same these days - same helmet and glasses ? What's that about ? Weird.
Not too often though. Eurosport are only at the finish line for the Tour de France, Paris-Nice, Tour of Turkey and Paris-Roubaix, the rest of the time they're sitting in an industrial estate near Heathrow. They have Ashley House and Flecha out at the Giro, but not the commentary team.
There are commentators on site at some races but they tend to be providng commentary for a generic international market - for example, Rob Hatch goes to Belgium for the Flanders Classics races, and Switzerland for their two big stage races. Ned Boulting and Dan Lloyd are in Italy for the Giro. BIKE channel sometimes picks these types of broadcasts up.
There is a video that Dan and Kirby did a few years back from the commentary box when CK was the Giro's English voice. Screen size irrelevant when you're sitting so close - I find my phone better to see detail than sitting miles away from the telly.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSHAU27uIcA0 -
Rob Hatch was bang on form with his rider identification yesterday, spotting riders going out the back from the merest of glimpses0
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Hatch is the cream of the crop at the moment. Not just because he retweeted my podcast the other day but because he has a real understading of the race and can identify the riders.0
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Hatch is the best by the proverbial country mile.0
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Hatch is especially good with picking out the Spanish riders.
While Hatch (and Quigley IMO) keep getting better, Kirby keeps getting louder. You get the feeling Hatch has spent his free time watching the same awful illegal streams to watch Route du Sud or Tour de Wallonie that we all have.0 -
I remember ES having problems with commentary in the early days of televising the tour. So me and my mates would take it upon ourselves to try and fill in the spaces. Man it's hard work. Duffield was brilliant for rambling on for hours when literally nothing was happening on screen.
It was much easier to ID people in the days before helmets were compulsory. I'm surprised that they haven't gone more down the route of having numbers on their hats - so you have the team number and then 1 to 9 or whatever in the team.
It'd make it a lot easier on TV. I know one of the pros personally but its not always easy to ID him from a long shot - even I still get confused and thats after spending hours on the club run with him.
Sky have gone the right way with their personalised tops but its not that easy to read.0 -
Hatch is pretty good IMO but his pronunciation of foreign names/words is grating. He even twangs when he says 'Lampre Merida'... c'monFacts are meaningless, you can use facts to prove anything that's remotely true! - Homer0
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CK commentating on the Tour Series ITV4 tonight, sounded quite sensible.0
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6wheels wrote:CK commentating on the Tour Series ITV4 tonight, sounded quite sensible.
Because he knows the result in advance? Ned Boulting was calm and measured and a genius at rider identification when he did the Tour Series comms0 -
This is joyous news.
Liggett might well have been 'the voice of cycling ' but that's not to say the voice has been in any way informative, insightful, intelligent or entertaining.
Good riddance.
The standard of UK cycling commentary is absolutely appalling and pretty much always has been. It's hard to decide who has had the worse impact on a thinking man's enjoyment of televised bike racing, these two clowns, or Hatch and Kirby. The only good thing to say about Rob Hatch is that he is less of an idiot than C Kirby. But then there are very few people in the world who are as much of an idiot as Kirby.
Eurosport management must be imbeciles.0 -
I've watched only a small fraction of the cycling I would normally, but every time I have Carlton Kirkby has mentioned the fact that a bunch of Giant riders got took out by a car and Degenkolb has lost his bottle.0
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KnightOfTheLongTights wrote:This is joyous news.
Liggett might well have been 'the voice of cycling ' but that's not to say the voice has been in any way informative, insightful, intelligent or entertaining.
Good riddance.
The standard of UK cycling commentary is absolutely appalling and pretty much always has been. It's hard to decide who has had the worse impact on a thinking man's enjoyment of televised bike racing, these two clowns, or Hatch and Kirby. The only good thing to say about Rob Hatch is that he is less of an idiot than C Kirby. But then there are very few people in the world who are as much of an idiot as Kirby.
Eurosport management must be imbeciles.
oh shut the kfuc up
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omg i said it twice0
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Today's Rob Hatchism of pronouncing Roger Kluge: Rugger Clugger. I hadn't a clue who he was on about.0
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But if he pronounced it "Rojjer Kloog" then Roger Kluge wouldn't know who he was talking about, because that's not how you say his name0
