Commentary on TNT and other WB brands

[RedheadDane]

One of the Danish Guys in E3 kept calling Jack Bauer 'Van Summeren'. I just felt like yelling at the scream:

"I have no clue who that Cannondale guy is, but it certainly ain't Van Summeren, coz he's with AG2R!"

 

[BigMac]

Re:

One of the Danish Guys in E3 kept calling Jack Bauer 'Van Summeren'. I just felt like yelling at the scream:

"I have no clue who that Cannondale guy is, but it certainly ain't Van Summeren, coz he's with AG2R!"

No one. And I mean No One, is worse than the Portuguese EuroSport commentators. You should be grateful for whatever it is served to you.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re: Re:

One of the Danish Guys in E3 kept calling Jack Bauer 'Van Summeren'. I just felt like yelling at the scream:

"I have no clue who that Cannondale guy is, but it certainly ain't Van Summeren, coz he's with AG2R!"

No one. And I mean No One, is worse than the Portuguese EuroSport commentators. You should be grateful for whatever it is served to you.

I am! 99/100 times they're really good. Which is probably why the mistake was so jarring. Not to mention that his co-commentator who's one of the "main pack" didn't actually correct him.

 

[luckyboy]

Today they said that Ypres (pop 34000) was the third biggest city in Flanders today, after Gent and Bruges

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Re:

Today they said that Ypres (pop 34000) was the third biggest city in Flanders today, after Gent and Bruges

They may not realise a city called Brussels is on the outskirts of flanders When I last heard, it was the capital. That puts Ypres down to at least fourth.

 

[staubsauger]

Re: Re:

Today they said that Ypres (pop 34000) was the third biggest city in Flanders today, after Gent and Bruges

They may not realise a city called Brussels is on the outskirts of flanders When I last heard, it was the capital. That puts Ypres down to at least fourth.

Antwerp and Anderlecht should be known as well!

 

[luckyboy]

It's something like the 30th biggest city in Flanders. 54th in all Belgium

Was just surprising to hear especially after we saw the Rouleur piece about all the notes Stephens and Quigley had.

 

[luckyboy]

Going from what we've heard of everyone I would rank the ES guys this way. Haven't heard much of Hatch or Doyle.


Matt Stephens

Sean Kelly
Declan Quigley
Magnus Backstedt

Rob Hatch/Tony Doyle

Brian Smith
Carlton Kirby

 

[argyllflyer]

Rob Hatch is really good if you can cope with his OTT rider name pronunciations. Certainly more knowledgeable than any of the other commentators Eurosport use.

I thought Kirby and Gibb's conversation about helmets was pretty poor - very one sided and CK came across as always like a smartarse knowing FA. I see Chris Boardman has weighed into them both on Twitter.

 

[wansteadimp]

Doyle was dreadful on Sunday doing the Criterium International, had very little to say, Kirby had to keep prodding him to say stuff, what he did say was barely intelligible.

 

[argyllflyer]

deleted

 

[LaFlorecita]

Re:

Going from what we've heard of everyone I would rank the ES guys this way. Haven't heard much of Hatch or Doyle.


Matt Stephens

Sean Kelly
Declan Quigley
Magnus Backstedt

Rob Hatch/Tony Doyle

Brian Smith
Carlton Kirby

I agree, Stephens is very good! Especially with Kirby, as he counteracts Kirby's Sky love a bit.

 

[Beacon Hill]

Its a shame Dan Lloyd isn't involved more. He and Stephens are both good on GCN.

Actually quite enjoyed Tony Gibb ... never hesitates to stick it to Carlton Kirby and certainly raises a laugh.

 

[TMP402]

Yesterday I was explaining to someone how Carlton Kirby makes sh!t up about the local foods and drink "we'll be sampling later", turned the eurosport volume up and he was literally doing it at that very moment.

 

[TMP402]

Now he's used the term "dirty great big" to describe both clouds and corners within the space of about three minutes.

 

[TMP402]

CK quotes today:

"It really is amazing, Paolini meercat-ing at the back with his ginger beard. I quite fancy a ginger beer myself, actually"

"It's a treble-phaser. Sounds like Star Wars"

"I'm going for Viviani with a side order of Mark Renshaw"

"There is Andre Greipel, watching and waiting, hoping nobody does anything rude in front of him"

"'Cool it!' is the word"

"Renshaw looking almost killer-like"

"ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE AND IT'S RIGHT NOW" Markus Backstedt: "well, with 450m to go..."

"And he gives it a big old slap of pride"

 

[BigMac]

Re:

CK quotes today:

"It really is amazing, Paolini meercat-ing at the back with his ginger beard. I quite fancy a ginger beer myself, actually"

"It's a treble-phaser. Sounds like Star Wars"

"I'm going for Viviani with a side order of Mark Renshaw"

"There is Andre Greipel, watching and waiting, hoping nobody does anything rude in front of him"

"'Cool it!' is the word"

"Renshaw looking almost killer-like"

"ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE AND IT'S RIGHT NOW" Markus Backstedt: "well, with 450m to go..."

"And he gives it a big old slap of pride"

Hilarious. You can almost read the penultimate quote in his excitedly low-pitched slowly fading enthuastic scream.

Also, something about a Movistar rider giving another rider ''The Stare'', as in a killer stare, after some minor bumps prior to the ''Cool it'' moment.

 

[TMP402]

Re: Re:

CK quotes today:

"It really is amazing, Paolini meercat-ing at the back with his ginger beard. I quite fancy a ginger beer myself, actually"

"It's a treble-phaser. Sounds like Star Wars"

"I'm going for Viviani with a side order of Mark Renshaw"

"There is Andre Greipel, watching and waiting, hoping nobody does anything rude in front of him"

"'Cool it!' is the word"

"Renshaw looking almost killer-like"

"ALL HELL IS BREAKING LOOSE AND IT'S RIGHT NOW" Markus Backstedt: "well, with 450m to go..."

"And he gives it a big old slap of pride"

Hilarious. You can almost read the penultimate quote in his excitedly low-pitched slowly fading enthuastic scream.

Also, something about a Movistar rider giving another rider ''The Stare'', as in a killer stare, after some minor bumps prior to the ''Cool it'' moment.

Yeah I completely didn't get his outrage at that.

 

[Jancouver]

I dont mind Magnus but I totally hate his use of "awful lot" in just about every sentence ...

Anyone else notice that or am I the only one allergic to this term?

 

[TMP402]

Re:

I dont mind Magnus but I totally hate his use of "awful lot" in just about every sentence ...

Anyone else notice that or am I the only one allergic to this term?

I can't say I noticed it, but I'll listen out next time. Kirby's use of "dirty big" several times was my own annoyance highlight.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

What really annoys me is when Kirby ends almost every sentence with "I'll be bound". If he says it again then I hope he is.

Dont you mean Magnus uses "awful lot" an awful lot?

 

[wansteadimp]

Although his pet phrases are annoying (really really mind numbingly annoying in fact) the worst part is his complete inability to understand what's going on in the race.

Yesterday he had someone talking to Greipal to tell him to ease it off because they weren't going to catch the break, Maggy had to point out to him that Greipal had THREE team mates up the road and was try to block the chase not help it. Just awful.

Other things that annoy me: -

A guessing game of who wins every day.

How often he mentions how far to go in the closing stages, we know, its on the screen, that's the only reason he knows.

 

[dduff442]

Re:

Rob Hatch is really good if you can cope with his OTT rider name pronunciations. Certainly more knowledgeable than any of the other commentators Eurosport use.

I thought Kirby and Gibb's conversation about helmets was pretty poor - very one sided and CK came across as always like a smartarse knowing FA. I see Chris Boardman has weighed into them both on Twitter.

The thing is the stage lacked meaningful activity until the last 15kms and they hit the #1 professional problem cycling commentators have in such situations: running out of useful things to say. That's why they started saying all the non-useful things.

 

[BigMac]

Re:

Rob Hatch is really good if you can cope with his OTT rider name pronunciations. Certainly more knowledgeable than any of the other commentators Eurosport use.

I thought Kirby and Gibb's conversation about helmets was pretty poor - very one sided and CK came across as always like a smartarse knowing FA. I see Chris Boardman has weighed into them both on Twitter.

I think Rob Hatch and Magnus Bäckstedt are the best possible duo. Their analysis goes well together and of all the main commentators, Hatch is the biggest connoisseur of the sport. Sadly, the only times I hear them together are during the international streams for races such as the Tour de Suisse and others for which Eurosport doesn't have broadcasting rights. I think the TdS is the highlight of the season as far as commentaries go.

Now that I look at your extensive list of pairings from last season, I see and recall they teamed up a few times besides Suisse. USA Pro Challenge and Montréal were very good too.

Edit: It's true his pronounciation is sometimes over the top, but I'm happy that he is also the only one capable of correctly spelling certain riders' names. I'm thinking Michał Kwiatkowski, Simon Špilak, or even Rui Costa, for instance.

 

[peloton]

Re:

Although his pet phrases are annoying (really really mind numbingly annoying in fact) the worst part is his complete inability to understand what's going on in the race.

Yesterday he had someone talking to Greipel to tell him to ease it off because they weren't going to catch the break, Maggy had to point out to him that Greipel had THREE team mates up the road and was try to block the chase not help it. Just awful.

Other things that annoy me: -

A guessing game of who wins every day.

How often he mentions how far to go in the closing stages, we know, its on the screen, that's the only reason he knows.

Cannot agree more with all above. And as he himself today admitted, he can't see so well (as he used to do, to identify riders) D'oh.

Kirby does (or did?) some motor sport commentating on Eurosport 2, he actually was very good with that. Unlike with cycling.