Commentary on TNT and other WB brands

[mariposa]

ust edited to add: watching Matthew Keenan's commentary on Paris-Nice right now, and from the start he is communicating very differently from what I'm used to with ES. Very clear in telling the race situation.

I like Matt Keenan's commentary . I think his feed was used on the Vuelta in the UK a couple of years back. Unfortunately however his Australian accent didn't seem to go down well with some people. On a personal front I would much prefer to listen to his informed commentary than Carlton Kirby's drivel.

 

[William H]

Eurosport are much better about ads than ITV are, at least. Their ads are relatively quick, and they generally try to get them out of the way before the finale.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

ust edited to add: watching Matthew Keenan's commentary on Paris-Nice right now, and from the start he is communicating very differently from what I'm used to with ES. Very clear in telling the race situation.

I like Matt Keenan's commentary . I think his feed was used on the Vuelta in the UK a couple of years back. Unfortunately however his Australian accent didn't seem to go down well with some people. On a personal front I would much prefer to listen to his informed commentary than Carlton Kirby's drivel.

That's weird: I said no such thing (not that I dislike Keenan): Spiritualride said it in the following post, so the quote function seems to have attached my link info to his words.
Odd.

 

[the delgados]

Re: Re:

Kirby is just a con artist, anyone who thinks he's a fan or a lovely of cycling are fools. Everyone must realise since he moved from motorsports when given this job due to other circumstances he's talked like he knows what he's talking about when he's no knowledge what so ever.. What a f*c€ing Pr!ck

Hey, Hey!
I'm afraid I must insist you refrain from dissing Carlton Kirby. The man is a legend among mere mortals.
He calls the back-end of a bike race like no others and fills dead air like a seasoned raconteur.
Take it easy on Kirby and give the man the lurving he deserves.

Em no !!

Whatever his commentating abilities he is nasty about some riders

What he said yesterday about Nibali was uncalled for and he makes s*** up to improve the image of his favourites and knock those he doesn't like,,,,,He is a biased tool

Did he say Nibali sold his soul to work for a dictator who is known to torture those who advocate for democracy? Did he say his boss is responsible for wire-tapping journalists who simply want to tell a story?
If so, I like the guy even more.
If not, he's a guy who calls a bike race.
No need for the hate, imo.

First of all I don't hate anyone .... you cannot dislike someone nowadys but you are called a hater . I have an opinion about Kirby and I am entitled to it as I pay for Eurosport

He is a disgrace as a commentator ....that is my opinion and it is valid

As for Niabli ...his remarks on Nbali were personal , had nothing to do with his team , and were uncalled for ....He never questioned any other Bahrain riders nor did he take the high horse of why Bahrain is so much worse than say Russia who murder their enemies or say USA who have a facist , sexist racist in power.....

Kirby is not there to pass political judgement on teams and I didn't either ...you made it so

His remarks on Niabli were uncalled for and unsubstaniated and were about his personality as are his constant put down on TJ van Garderen coupled with his over the top hype of riders like Simon Clarke or Sebastian Reicenbach

The man is a buffoon and destroyes my pleasure of watching cycling

Yesteday he said ..." Sky had ran out of options " when they had Kwait up the road and Thomas sitting pretty
On the final he said he can't tell us what one rider said ....but it was 'eem off' ..he had no way of knowing what any rider says but he pretends as if he does and treats us like fools

he contantly bombards us with his theories than make no sense ...like Clarke winning MSR and talks as if it the best punditary

He uses over the top grandiose terms that take from the observers enoyment of the race and which make little sense while not understandign the flow of the race yet pretneding as if he can read minds, lips and has insider knowledge ...

He is the worst kind of commentator ...dishonest and bias

I could go on and on

But hey I am just a hater :razz:

Hello Dolly!
Just saw this message now.
Sorry, didn't mean to strike a nerve. I was just goofing around and sent the message in a stream of consciousness state--i.e. I was drunk. No offence intended
Your comments regarding the Russian regime are well-taken.
I accidentally stumbled upon the human rights record of the Bahrain regime after they secured a UCI licence and they are truly terrifying. I guess it's just me, but I can't look at a race featuring Nibali's team without thinking that the guy who tortured dissenters with his own hands might be riding in the team car.
Sorry to be a downer, and I apologize for my bad writing. My message was not meant as a personal attack.
With that said, in the spirit of inanity, I will always go to bat for my man Carlton Kirby.

 

[the delgados]

Re: Re:

Kirby is just a con artist, anyone who thinks he's a fan or a lovely of cycling are fools. Everyone must realise since he moved from motorsports when given this job due to other circumstances he's talked like he knows what he's talking about when he's no knowledge what so ever.. What a f*c€ing Pr!ck

Hey, Hey!
I'm afraid I must insist you refrain from dissing Carlton Kirby. The man is a legend among mere mortals.
He calls the back-end of a bike race like no others and fills dead air like a seasoned raconteur.
Take it easy on Kirby and give the man the lurving he deserves.

Em no !!

Whatever his commentating abilities he is nasty about some riders

What he said yesterday about Nibali was uncalled for and he makes s*** up to improve the image of his favourites and knock those he doesn't like,,,,,He is a biased tool

Did he say Nibali sold his soul to work for a dictator who is known to torture those who advocate for democracy? Did he say his boss is responsible for wire-tapping journalists who simply want to tell a story?
If so, I like the guy even more.
If not, he's a guy who calls a bike race.
No need for the hate, imo.

First of all I don't hate anyone .... you cannot dislike someone nowadys but you are called a hater . I have an opinion about Kirby and I am entitled to it as I pay for Eurosport

He is a disgrace as a commentator ....that is my opinion and it is valid

As for Niabli ...his remarks on Nbali were personal , had nothing to do with his team , and were uncalled for ....He never questioned any other Bahrain riders nor did he take the high horse of why Bahrain is so much worse than say Russia who murder their enemies or say USA who have a facist , sexist racist in power.....

Kirby is not there to pass political judgement on teams and I didn't either ...you made it so

His remarks on Niabli were uncalled for and unsubstaniated and were about his personality as are his constant put down on TJ van Garderen coupled with his over the top hype of riders like Simon Clarke or Sebastian Reicenbach

The man is a buffoon and destroyes my pleasure of watching cycling

Yesteday he said ..." Sky had ran out of options " when they had Kwait up the road and Thomas sitting pretty
On the final he said he can't tell us what one rider said ....but it was 'eem off' ..he had no way of knowing what any rider says but he pretends as if he does and treats us like fools

he contantly bombards us with his theories than make no sense ...like Clarke winning MSR and talks as if it the best punditary

He uses over the top grandiose terms that take from the observers enoyment of the race and which make little sense while not understandign the flow of the race yet pretneding as if he can read minds, lips and has insider knowledge ...

He is the worst kind of commentator ...dishonest and bias

I could go on and on

But hey I am just a hater :razz:

Hello Dolly!
Just saw this message now.
Sorry, didn't mean to strike a nerve. I was just goofing around and sent the message in a stream of consciousness state--i.e. I was drunk. No offence intended
Your comments regarding the Russian regime are well-taken.
I accidentally stumbled upon the human rights record of the Bahrain regime after they secured a UCI licence and they are truly terrifying. I guess it's just me, but I can't look at a race featuring Nibali's team without thinking that the guy who tortured dissenters with his own hands might be riding in the team car.
Sorry to be a downer, and I apologize for my bad writing. My message was not meant as a personal attack.
With that said, in the spirit of inanity, I will always go to bat for my man Carlton Kirby.

 

[argyllflyer]

delete

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

An extraordinary result in Milan San Remo, where the rider who was hot favourite and clearly most qualified to win the race (as evidenced by his outstanding previous 3 results in the race of 100th, 97th, and DNF) was somehow impeded and ended up 93rd.

There should surely be an immediate enquiry into such a blatant sporting injustice.

 

[RedheadDane]

Life's just unfair like that sometimes.
I actually thought Simon Clarke (guessing it's him you're talking about) would've had some decent showings in the race earlier, to justify hyping him like that. Or... am I assuming logic in a place with no such thing?

Handzame Classic was shown live in GB? If so, why couldn't we have gotten the English commentating on the Player? Would've been easier to understand.

 

[argyllflyer]

Anyone in the UK wanting more Rob Hatch - I see he presents the Radio 5 show Bespoke which is available online sometimes.

 

[StephenC2020]

Re:

Anyone in the UK wanting more Rob Hatch - I see he presents the Radio 5 show Bespoke which is available online sometimes.

Yes! If we could just have Hatch and Stephens for every race that would be nice!

 

[bigcog]

Carlton Kirby just gets worse. Poor old Magnus ...

 

[HelloDolly]

Hello Dolly!
Just saw this message now.
Sorry, didn't mean to strike a nerve. I was just goofing around and sent the message in a stream of consciousness state--i.e. I was drunk. No offence intended
Your comments regarding the Russian regime are well-taken.
I accidentally stumbled upon the human rights record of the Bahrain regime after they secured a UCI licence and they are truly terrifying. I guess it's just me, but I can't look at a race featuring Nibali's team without thinking that the guy who tortured dissenters with his own hands might be riding in the team car.
Sorry to be a downer, and I apologize for my bad writing. My message was not meant as a personal attack.
With that said, in the spirit of inanity, I will always go to bat for my man Carlton Kirby.

No problem...I guess you like Kirby and I don't ...just the way it goes

I agree re Bahrain and the team owner....but cycling has fallen in with a lot of shady characters ...the nature of the sport not being lucrative for more successful main stream sponsors coupled with its reputation as a sport of doping

Pity

 

[vedrafjord]

Re:

Anyone in the UK wanting more Rob Hatch

I find his over the top pronunciation of foreign names (especially Italian ones) really jarring - it's like he's switching language multiple times in a single sentence.

 

[argyllflyer]

Re: Re:

Anyone in the UK wanting more Rob Hatch

I find his over the top pronunciation of foreign names (especially Italian ones) really jarring - it's like he's switching language multiple times in a single sentence.

yeah I know what you mean. He is also putting on a neutral broadcasting accent as his natural speaking voice is very broad north west England. You'll only hear that though on the likes of the Cycling Podcast when a guest.. such as here.

http://thecyclingpodcast.com/podcast/vuelta-stage-3

 

[Swiss Tony]

Re: Re:

Kirby is just a con artist, anyone who thinks he's a fan or a lovely of cycling are fools. Everyone must realise since he moved from motorsports when given this job due to other circumstances he's talked like he knows what he's talking about when he's no knowledge what so ever.. What a f*c€ing Pr!ck

Hey, Hey!
I'm afraid I must insist you refrain from dissing Carlton Kirby. The man is a legend among mere mortals.
He calls the back-end of a bike race like no others and fills dead air like a seasoned raconteur.
Take it easy on Kirby and give the man the lurving he deserves.

Em no !!

Whatever his commentating abilities he is nasty about some riders

What he said yesterday about Nibali was uncalled for and he makes s*** up to improve the image of his favourites and knock those he doesn't like,,,,,He is a biased tool

Did he say Nibali sold his soul to work for a dictator who is known to torture those who advocate for democracy? Did he say his boss is responsible for wire-tapping journalists who simply want to tell a story?
If so, I like the guy even more.
If not, he's a guy who calls a bike race.
No need for the hate, imo.

First of all I don't hate anyone .... you cannot dislike someone nowadys but you are called a hater . I have an opinion about Kirby and I am entitled to it as I pay for Eurosport

He is a disgrace as a commentator ....that is my opinion and it is valid

As for Niabli ...his remarks on Nbali were personal , had nothing to do with his team , and were uncalled for ....He never questioned any other Bahrain riders nor did he take the high horse of why Bahrain is so much worse than say Russia who murder their enemies or say USA who have a facist , sexist racist in power.....

Kirby is not there to pass political judgement on teams and I didn't either ...you made it so

His remarks on Niabli were uncalled for and unsubstaniated and were about his personality as are his constant put down on TJ van Garderen coupled with his over the top hype of riders like Simon Clarke or Sebastian Reicenbach

The man is a buffoon and destroyes my pleasure of watching cycling

Yesteday he said ..." Sky had ran out of options " when they had Kwait up the road and Thomas sitting pretty
On the final he said he can't tell us what one rider said ....but it was 'eem off' ..he had no way of knowing what any rider says but he pretends as if he does and treats us like fools

he contantly bombards us with his theories than make no sense ...like Clarke winning MSR and talks as if it the best punditary

He uses over the top grandiose terms that take from the observers enoyment of the race and which make little sense while not understandign the flow of the race yet pretneding as if he can read minds, lips and has insider knowledge ...

He is the worst kind of commentator ...dishonest and bias

I could go on and on

But hey I am just a hater :razz:

Spot on the blokes absolutely clueless

 

[argyllflyer]

deleted

 

[HelloDolly]

So British Eurosport have dropped Ashley House, Juan Antonio Fletcha and Laura Messiguer from their GT schedule

 

[Irondan]

Re:

So British Eurosport have dropped Ashley House, Juan Antonio Fletcha and Laura Messiguer from their GT schedule

It's about time!

Although I really liked Laura Messiguer, they should have kept her on but JA Fletcha was awful with his terrible butchery of the english language. I've been complaining about him in this and other threads for his entire Eurosport career. Ashley House wouldn't have been too bad to listen to if he didn't sound like such an idiot.

It's good they got rid of those two, but I fear that what ES hires in their replacement will be worse. They made the decision to hire JA Fletcha thinking his english was good enough to get by because he's a great looking guy, that terrible decision making didn't go away from ES unless they fired the person that hired him in the first place.

Hopefully Carlton Kirby's next!

 

[Valv.Piti]

The few times I watched it it was fine, I guess. I remember Ashley House for picking very weird clothes, Flecha was always smiling and Laura was cute and interviewed many spanish and colombian riders, so needless to say she was very welcome to stay.

But on the other hand it shouldn't be hard to find better replacements for House and Flecha, especially not the ladder. There should be endless amount of riders better than him, for one I really like listening to Backstedt.

 

[luckyboy]

Is there any news about Meseguer and LeMond? House only mentioned him and Flecha on Twitter - https://twitter.com/AshleyPresents/status/848111233496563713

 

[Beech Mtn]

Re:

So British Eurosport have dropped Ashley House, Juan Antonio Fletcha and Laura Messiguer from their GT schedule

Good news, although out of that group I would've kept Flecha.
Now if only they'd get rid of Kirby, who drags down every broadcast he does.

 

[deValtos]

I'm just not a fan of these "packages" in general where they spend 15 minutes playing some pointless videos when there's a damn race going on that I tuned in for! I don't mind the debrief after the stage though.

I guess at least in the TDF if they're going to show all the stages start to finish then they will have time for a "presenting team" to their thing.

Also Kirby is pretty popular in general so he won't go unless he chooses to do something different. People who frequent and post on cycling forums are obviously more die-hard fans than most and don't like any inaccuracies in commentary but that's really only a small subset of the overall viewership. Anyways it's more the job of the "expert" (Kelly/Backstedt..etc) to point out if Kirbys talking nonsense and clarify that. Kirbs is there to hype *** up and crack jokes for 6 hours, which to be honest I can't think of anyone else on the ES team who can fill time for 21x6hour days in a GT better than Kirby.

I used to like Harmon (the guy Kirby took over from) but I guess he's given up commentating now ...

Miss Duffield too, at least when he isn't talking about cheese and wine for 3 hours in a row.

 

[kingjr]

I used to like Harmon (the guy Kirby took over from) but I guess he's given up commentating now ...

I think he was more or less forced to... are you familiar with Letzgo Hunting?

 

[LaFlorecita]

I thought Ashley and Juan Antonio were a great pairing and they added a lot of character to the broadcast. Also they seemed to connect well with the riders. I for one will miss them a lot.

They should have ditched Kirby. I almost never watch British Eurosport but whenever I do my head explodes. I watched a stream with Kirby for Driedaagse De Panne and I think he said "I'm afraid" at least 30 times in the final 20 kilometers. The stupid nicknames he gives to riders are cringe-worthy as well. "G", "Bertie", "Froomey", "Freddy" Backaert (latest addition). And whenever someone criticizes his commentary on twitter he gets aggressively defensive.

 

[yaco]

Surprised Eurosport let go of Flecha and Meseguer - Fletcha provides the inside view of an ex-rider in the peleton and Mezeguer seems to have the confidence of the peleton and Sporting Directors who willingly give her interviews.