Carlton Kirby thread 2014.

[Pricey_sky]

Whats happened to dave harmon?

And Rob Hatch isn't a bad commentator whenever he's on. Good twitter feed too!

Sadly I dont get to watch as much as I'd like

Dave Harmon took a few months off last year, he was battling with depression and also wanted to focus on other things for a while.

He says he is ready to return but Eurosport have not contacted him. It's annoying as in my opinion he is one of the best commentators they have!

 

[zlev11]

Rob Hatch is fantastic, probably the best cycling commentator currently

 

[LugHugger]

Rob Hatch is fantastic, probably the best cycling commentator currently

Agreed, at least for Eurosport UK. He and Matt Stephens make a winning combination. Fully endorse Hitch's earlier comments on Smith - he's typical of the hypocritical coward that should be shown the door asap.

 

[elfed68]

Commentating on a cycling race when 99% of the time they're just riding along in the peleton can't be easy so give the guy a break, he's entertaining and funny and I love his humour!
Plus his description of Tommy Voeckler's facial expressions on the front are hilarious, I so enjoy Tommy's stints in the breakaway, not a race without them!

 

[RiccoDinko]

Commentating on a cycling race when 99% of the time they're just riding along in the peleton can't be easy so give the guy a break, he's entertaining and funny and I love his humour!
Plus his description of Tommy Voeckler's facial expressions on the front are hilarious, I so enjoy Tommy's stints in the breakaway, not a race without them!

Please.. he's so far over the top. I feel like he's trying to sell sell sell.. Dude needs to calm down, let Kelly do some talking. Maybe he could shut up for 10 seconds, get his facts straight, leave some oxygen for the rest of us.

 

[argyllflyer]

Don't feel that Kirby and Backstedt is a winning combo - Magnus doesn't let Carlton's comments go and Carlton talks over Magnus' rambles. Such as Carlton observing about Giant-Shimano yesterday "do you know they train for sprints on an airfield?" "Yes, I did know that, I know their coaches very well" or words to that effect. Magnus forgetting that not everyone at home would know that and his snub-type response wasn't needed. Carlton took it back to planet Kirby by suggesting they used landing aircraft to get that wee bit extra speed haha.

 

[JRanton]

ROFL!

Anyway,I dont watch english streams anymore.Its sad,as english is my best language I speak.Fortunatelly I can watch spanish and italian streams too.Man, I better watch flemish or dutch (which i believe is a really weird language,sorry dutch guys) streams than english,and I can only translate riders names and kop van den strijd or how it is written .
I believe that sporza commentators are the best in recognizing riders,which is very important in bad weather conditions

The Sporza commentators are in a different universe compared to the English ones. I don't even need to understand very much of it to appreciate that they know what they're talking about.

 

[Roude Leiw]

The Sporza commentators are in a different universe compared to the English ones. I don't even need to understand very much of it to appreciate that they know what they're talking about.

RTBF ones are on Sporza level, belgians and cycling, just a notch above the rest of the world.

On a sidenote, read an interview with de vlaeminck yesterday, he was asked who was his favorit belgian rider. Said stybar. When the journalist said he is tcheque, he answered that he rides for the steppers, is cross world champ and lives in blegium, so for all that matters he is Belgian

 

[BigMac]

Ah! How I anxiously waited for this thread. Is this Kirby the one commentator screaming all the ''OH's'' and ''AH's'' on Eurosport's cycling short presentation vids (I don't know the technical name)?

It would be funny for the Portuguese here to hijack this thread every once in a while and post Paulo Martins' and Luis Piçarra's wtf non sence. If this was a Portuguese forum we could even joke on Paulo's disgraceful grammar and phrase construction skills.

Anyway, long live Mr. Carlton ''Future Sir'' Kirby.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Paulo Martins is the gold standard to which all commentary idiocy should be held.

 

[The Barb]

I can't go along with the proposition that anyone is worse than Phil Liggitt. It is one thing to be incompetent but another to treat viewers with the condescension and arrogance that Phil does.

Anyway, to be more positive, the sooner technology improves to the extent that clones of Matt Keenan can commentate every bike race anywhere in the world, the better.

 

[trevim]

Paulo Martins is the gold standard to which all commentary idiocy should be held.

Yes he is. I could do the job 10000x better for half the price

 

[Christian]

RTBF ones are on Sporza level, belgians and cycling, just a notch above the rest of the world.

RTBF is great and France 2/3 are great too IMO.

I prefer Sporza, where I can understand maybe half, to most English feeds.

Did Kirby/Backstedt do Catalunya? I only saw one stage, but if that was them I prefer them to Phil & Paul. I feel like Kirby talks nonsense at times but Phil and Paul insult every cycling fan's intelligence

 

[Cyivel]

RTBF is great and France 2/3 are great too IMO.

I prefer Sporza, where I can understand maybe half, to most English feeds.

Did Kirby/Backstedt do Catalunya? I only saw one stage, but if that was them I prefer them to Phil & Paul. I feel like Kirby talks nonsense at times but Phil and Paul insult every cycling fan's intelligence

Indeed they did.

 

[theyoungest]

The Sporza commentators are in a different universe compared to the English ones. I don't even need to understand very much of it to appreciate that they know what they're talking about.

Not really, commentary during Milan-San Remo was absolutely terrible. It's getting worse every year. Rider recognition is hardly better than Kirby & friends.

 

[Avoriaz]

Each to their own, I suppose. I think Kirby rocks - love his tales, and, importantly, he can talk for a long time about not very much and sound interested. He's like the cycling equivalent of a Test Match Special commentator.

I was a fan of Harmon too. Less so of Quigley.

To be honest, I'm just very happy I can get to see cycling on TV. Spent my teens trying to tune into French radio stations during the classic season and getting excited at hearing the odd "Kelleeeee, Anderrr-sohn, Mee-yar" - not that easy when living in a valley in deepest Lancashire

 

[Swiss Tony]

Well my viewing been partly ruined with this knob commentating again...Eurosport please rid us of this clown!

 

[LugHugger]

Well my viewing been partly ruined with this knob commentating again...Eurosport please rid us of this clown!

Agreed. He made at least 4 Kirkbyisms in the first 10 minutes of today's broadcast. The worst of which "This is the World Championships of Classics,if you win this one, well, you've won them all." He's a freaking cretin.

 

[gooner]

If you have Sky Sports 4 they are showing it. It's much better with Robert Hatch doing the commentary.

 

[The Hitch]

Well my viewing been partly ruined with this knob commentating again...Eurosport please rid us of this clown!

Agreed. He made at least 4 Kirkbyisms in the first 10 minutes of today's broadcast. The worst of which "This is the World Championships of Classics,if you win this one, well, you've won them all." He's a freaking cretin.

Yeah just came here to post that and that particular quote. When I switched on the tv and heard his voice my mood was immediately spoiled.

Funny thing is a couple of years ago he had no idea what RVV was when Backsted pointed out he saw J Rodriguez in the peloton and Kirby asked - "is that the guy who won umm Flanders?". Now its the "world cup final"

 

[Afrank]

How did someone who didn't know who Rodriguez was or even worse what RVV was even become a cycling commentator. I'm betting he must have put more then a few lies on his resume.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Just for those who follow women's cycling, I'm being told Carlton was trying to call the women's race across the line with the coverage still showing the men, and instructed us all that the Swedish champion Emilia Fahlin leads the World Cup and was in the chasing group. As you probably guessed, Fahlin was not doing any of these things at any point. Johansson was.

 

[The Hitch]

Kirby, when Devolder appears on screen 2 minutes behind the peloton following a crash - "if he wins this I will cry"

 

[woodenswan]

and now we all know. the peloton is like a tube of toothpaste. u hide in the middle until u get squeezed out

 

[The Hitch]

To be fair to Kirby for a second, going over the Patterberg I remembered Harmonn from last year - "the only way to beat Sagan is to kill him, take a knife and stab him", which was pretty dumb.

But hey, at least Harmonn knew something about cycling.