How can Kirby be stopped...

carbonclem

RichN95 wrote:

Is it Boulting & Millar for ITV4?

Id assume so, as they are covering the Dauphine, also I note with Daniel Friebe doing rider interviews now.

blazing_saddles

And why not?..........................sack him and put us out of our misery.

Entertaining he may be to some, but cycling is a sport, not a light entertainment show.

imatfaal

TakeTheHighRoad wrote:

He's guaranteed to mention Geoffrey Soupe's beard today, if the stage goes as expected

4 mins into broadcast

tailwindhome

"rock and roll"

epc06

RichN95 wrote:

Is it Boulting & Millar for ITV4?

Yep, Ned confirmed a couple of weeks back

squired

There is nothing worse than someone who constantly makes and laughs at their own jokes. The other thing he is great at is assuming that whoever attacks or moves to the front must be the main hope for that day, rather than actually identifying the rider. You can imagine that if any member of BMC attacks on a mountain this week, even if they were 7ft tall he would immediately tell the viewer with his raised excited voice that Richie Porte has attacked. I appreciate the fact that it can be very hard sometimes, but when it is your job you should be able to identify riders from the smallest nuances (riding style, how they wear their helmet, etc).

I think there was one moment during the prologue coverage yesterday where he started getting excited as one of the later riders was on screen, talking about how slow his time was given that he had 700-800m to do. Within a second of him saying that the guy passed the 75m to go marker.

DeVlaeminck

If Hatch is doing 5 live who is doing Eurosport for the Tour ? Please tell me it's Quigley.

rick_chasey

DeVlaeminck wrote:

If Hatch is doing 5 live who is doing Eurosport for the Tour ? Please tell me it's Quigley.

Try again.

argyllflyer

For anyone thinking Kirby is being phased out by ES... (and this includes his time out around Tour of Turkey after his skiing accident)

Cadel Evans Ocean Race: Liggett, Keenan & McEwan (international broadcast comms)
Dubai Tour: Hatch & Smith
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana: Kirby & Stephens
Tour of Oman (nightly highlights): Hatch (solo)
Tour of Andalusia: Kirby & Stephens
Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne: Kirby & Smith
Le Samyn: Quigley & Smith
Strade Bianche: Hatch & Smith
Paris-Nice: Hatch & Kelly with Harris-Bass (first 6 days) and Quigley (weekend)
Tirreno-Adriatico: Kirby & Stephens
Nokere Koerse: Quigley & Gibb
Handzame Classic: Stephens & Smith
Milan-Sanremo: Stephens & Smith
Tour of Catalunya: Kirby & Backstedt (stages 1-5), Gibb (stages 6 and 7)
E3 Harelbeke: Quigley & Smith
Criterium International: Quigley & Smith
3 Days of De Panne: Kirby & Backstedt
GP Miguel Indurain: Quigley & Smith
Tour of Flanders: Kirby & Kelly with Quigley
Basque Tour: Kirby & Backstedt
Paris-Roubaix: Hatch & Kelly with Quigley
Elite Series (all races): McCrossan & Stephens
Amstel Gold Race: Quigley & Lloyd
Tour of Croatia: Harris-Bass (stages 1-4), Quigley (stages 5 & 6) & Smith
Fleche Wallonne: Quigley & Backstedt
Tour of Turkey: Quigley & Gibb (stages 1, 6, 7 and 8 ), Backstedt (stages 2-5)
Liege-Bastogne-Liege: Hatch & Kelly
Tour de Yorkshire: Kirby & Stephens
4 Days of Dunkirk: Kirby & Backstedt
Tour of Azerbaijan: Kirby & Backstedt
Giro d'Italia: Hatch & Kelly
Tour of California: Kirby & Smith
London Nocturne: Kirby & Stephens
Criterium du Dauphine: Kirby & Stephens
Velothon Wales: Kirby & Stephens
Tour de Suisse: tbc

Pross

Has Kelly had enough of working with him? They always used to be paired but have done very little together this year.

argyllflyer

Pross wrote:

Has Kelly had enough of working with him? They always used to be paired but have done very little together this year.

Kelly only does the monuments, Paris-Nice and Grand Tours so opportunities to work with Kirby are limited.

Carlton has never done Giro for ES, nor Paris-Nice as he was until this year always doing the English commentary for RCS, for Giro and Tirreno at those times. I can only guess he decided against another year on the road in Italy as he has been on ES all season, though not on those races.

They've still to do the Tour and Vuelta together this season.

It was 2013 that Harmon suddenly got dropped. With Kirby actually in Italy for RCS, ES used Quigley at very short notice for the Giro that year and have used Hatch in the 3 editions since iirc.

argyllflyer

Here's who has done the GTs and monuments since 2014:

Milan-Sanremo:
2014: Quigley & Kelly
2015: Stephens & Smith
2016: Stephens & Smith

Flanders:
2014: Kirby & Kelly
2015: Kirby & Kelly
2016: Kirby & Kelly

Roubaix:
2014: Kirby & Stephens
2015: Hatch & Kelly
2016: Hatch / Quigley & Kelly

LBL:
2014: Hatch & Kelly
2015: Hatch & Kelly
2016: Hatch & Kelly

Lombardy:
2014: Stephens & Smith
2015: Stephens & Backstedt

Giro:
2014: Hatch & Kelly
2015: Hatch & Smith / Stephens / Kelly
2016: Hatch & Kelly

Tour:
2014: Kirby & Kelly
2015: Kirby & Kelly

Vuelta:
2014: Kirby & Kelly
2015: Kirby & Lloyd / Kelly

topper_harley

I like him

rick_chasey

Get out.

oldbazza

Rick Chasey wrote:

PoweredByIdris wrote:

argyllflyer wrote:

Make it a game:

Wot no 'engage'?

"There it is"

'Plying their trade" :roll:

"Fast men" :roll:

The other half always asks "Is the 'cock' commentating on this"

rick_chasey

I get 'if it makes you so angry, why do you watch it?'



*throws shoe at TV*

mcstumpy

Topper harley wrote:

I like him

I like him too. Yes, he's often wrong. But, he entertains me, not necessarily in the way eurosport intend, but I enjoy his commentary.

yourpaceormine

When I was at Uni in Lancaster it was rumoured that pretty much anything could be 'stopped' by visiting certain pubs in Barrow in Furness with a fistful of used £20 notes.

He isn't quite that bad, but he does get a bit too excited at times. Can't be good for his blood pressure. He really is the wrong person to be teamed up with Stephens. Stephens gets too easily distracted into his comedy commentating (which isn't funny). His Kenny personna was mildly amusing for half an hour or so.

jimmythecuckoo

Yesterday they were almost a parodoy of themselves. It was very odd.

Richmond Racer 2

yourpaceormine wrote:

When I was at Uni in Lancaster it was rumoured that pretty much anything could be 'stopped' by visiting certain pubs in Barrow in Furness with a fistful of used £20 notes.

He isn't quite that bad, but he does get a bit too excited at times. Can't be good for his blood pressure. He really is the wrong person to be teamed up with Stephens. Stephens gets too easily distracted into his comedy commentating (which isn't funny). His Kenny personna was mildly amusing for half an hour or so.

*pays a visit to the atm*

rick_chasey

McStumpy wrote:

Topper harley wrote:

I like him

I like him too. Yes, he's often wrong. But, he entertains me, not necessarily in the way eurosport intend, but I enjoy his commentary.

You enjoy being told the wrong thing?

You enjoy hearing vacuous aphorisms that mean nothing repeated over and over again?

ddraver

yourpaceormine wrote:

His Kenny personna was mildly amusing for half an hour or so.

I'm a big fan of Stephens but that really does need to die. When he speaks 5 languages like the Renaat (who it's based on if he's honest) then he can take the mick out of someone who makes the odd mistake in one.

Given the levels of SJW opprobrium swirling around cycling I'm surprised he hasnt been burned at the stake as a racist...

DeVlaeminck

I thought Stephens had potential to be a commentator and he does seem to fall into commentating more than being the pundit at times. It's especially noticeable near the end of stages where he will take up Kirby's 100mph verbal assault when Kirby himself has to pause for breath.

If Stephens could have his brain wiped so he knew nothing about his own history as a pro and so stopped giving us chapter and verse on the bleeding obvious and then kept well away from Kirby I think he could develop a good relaxed commentary style though - something for the management at Eurosport to consider perhaps ?

As for Kenny - there should be a rule he does the whole race in character or none of it.

No_Ta_Doctor

yourpaceormine wrote:

When I was at Uni in Lancaster it was rumoured that pretty much anything could be 'stopped' by visiting certain pubs in Barrow in Furness with a fistful of used £20 notes.

I'm fairly sure that in my day you wouldn't need to go so far. Pubs around The Marsh would be closer and probably cheaper.

jimmythecuckoo

All about the Hatch for me.

The way he pronounces all those foreign names and places is amazingggggggg

yourpaceormine

No tA Doctor wrote:

yourpaceormine wrote:

When I was at Uni in Lancaster it was rumoured that pretty much anything could be 'stopped' by visiting certain pubs in Barrow in Furness with a fistful of used £20 notes.

I'm fairly sure that in my day you wouldn't need to go so far. Pubs around The Marsh would be closer and probably cheaper.

The Marsh? Thought i was brave going to Skerton

mr_poll

Kirby was Ok when he was third wheel during the tour - he popped up to give daft facts about chateau's and towns during long stages when the action wasnt on. I could tolerate that and to be honest it helped give Harmon a break. However that style for 3+ hours when we want and need actual commentary and rider id is paramount is awful.

Does anyone know what happened to Harmon? There was talk on social media of a messy divorce, some other issues around that or even pure contractual £££ issues leading to a walk out. If it is the latter then understand why ES may have put him out to pasture but the former, surely ES might want to give him time then bring him back - especially as not many fans seem to have a bad word said about him.

rick_chasey

Poll it's been mentioned on here plenty of times.

Google is your friend. BR is not the place to discuss that for boring lawyer reasons.

Others, please don't respond.

bobmcstuff

Edit - sorry Rick...

jimmythecuckoo

mr_poll wrote:

Does anyone know what happened to Harmon?

He was calling the Tour of Cambs again this weekend. So he is still in the sport.

(Hope the lawyers will pass this reply Rick)