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Eurosport commentary

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I don't understand people claiming they would rather watch cycling on mute, I mean, thats horrible, Just horrible. I also doubt people really prefer that to the legend that is Kirby, might as well watch ice skating or horse racing instead, that I'd rather do than watching sport on mute.
 
Re:

Valv.Piti said:
I don't understand people claiming they would rather watch cycling on mute, I mean, thats horrible, Just horrible. I also doubt people really prefer that to the legend that is Kirby, might as well watch ice skating or horse racing instead, that I'd rather do than watching sport on mute.
Have you ever been to a bike race ? I would assume so. When you do, is it your preference to have some moron shouting a load of nonsense which has nothing to do with what you're watching in your ear ?

Each to their own I suppose. Reminds me of a line in an Arctic Monkeys song - "Love is not only blind but deaf"
 
Re: Re:

Eyeballs Out said:
Valv.Piti said:
I don't understand people claiming they would rather watch cycling on mute, I mean, thats horrible, Just horrible. I also doubt people really prefer that to the legend that is Kirby, might as well watch ice skating or horse racing instead, that I'd rather do than watching sport on mute.
Have you ever been to a bike race ? I would assume so. When you do, is it your preference to have some moron shouting a load of nonsense which has nothing to do with what you're watching in your ear ?

Each to their own I suppose. Reminds me of a line in an Arctic Monkeys song - "Love is not only blind but deaf"
Lol, thats such a bad comparison...
 
Re: Re:

Eyeballs Out said:
Valv.Piti said:
I don't understand people claiming they would rather watch cycling on mute, I mean, thats horrible, Just horrible. I also doubt people really prefer that to the legend that is Kirby, might as well watch ice skating or horse racing instead, that I'd rather do than watching sport on mute.
Have you ever been to a bike race ? I would assume so. When you do, is it your preference to have some moron shouting a load of nonsense which has nothing to do with what you're watching in your ear ?

Each to their own I suppose. Reminds me of a line in an Arctic Monkeys song - "Love is not only blind but deaf"

I've been to quite a few. you catch a glimpse of what's going on maybe a1% of the race and you maybe able to distinguish a few riders more if its uphill. If your near the finish line you may be able to catch glimpses on a big screen but have to suffer through some guy yelling incomprehensibly into a microphone that worked a beach volleyball game that morning and will be "hyping" a skateboard contest that night. so yeah I've experienced a load of nonsense shouted in my ear.
 
Re:

RedheadDane said:
re Simon Clarke: I don't know! Maybe he placed a few Euros-- or pounds or whatever the hell currency the Brits use nowadays--on the guy and is willing him to win. Maybe Clarke sidled up to the Kirbster before the race and whispered a few nothings in his ear about having great legs. Who knows?!
Just sit back with some bon bons and enjoy, my friend.

Every single year? Kirby must really have too much money if he keeps betting on a guy with no chance to win. And I don't think Clarke would continue trying to trick Kirby into thinking he has great legs...
(I'm just looking forward to the year Clarke doesn't ride, and he still gets Kirby-hyped...)


re Refusing to accept: Honestly, I have no clue what you're talking about. These days Kirby apologizes for stepping on his own shadow. Seriously, it seems he's developed post-traumatic-stress disorder after reading the constant abuse he receives. Poor guy needs to lighten up a little and realize he's a gawddamn legend.

Again, I'm simply referring to (multiple) posts I've seen around here.


Oh, I almost forgot. To all those who say they'd rather watch the race on mute or in a foreign language than listen to Kirby, I'm calling BS.

Technically, for me listening to Kirby would be listening in a foreign language. Which I don't really mind, I've listened to Dutch commentating...

RedheadDane:
I would like to start by saying I've enjoyed reading your posts for quite some time.
But (and there's always a "but') I have to take issue with you saying you're simply "referring to (multiple) posts" you've seen.
Circumstantial evidence does not cut it when my man Carlton Kirby is pilloried on social media.
I encourage you to turn off the mute button and listen to what the legend says.
He's a funny guy who is clearly passionate about cycling.
 
I prefer Quigley or Hatch as lead commentator, but I don't understand the degree of hostility towards Kirby. He makes mistakes but so would anyone else who had to fill that much air talking about a sport where it isn't always clear to even the most expert what the hell is going on. And as a generalist sports commentator - i.e. as someone who has been hired on the basis of his ability to commentate entertainingly on any type of sport rather than on the basis of his cycling knowledge - he's good. I suspect that people who aren't in the 0.1% of the audience so obsessed with the sport that they post regularly on cycling forums will value his ability to inject excitement more than we do.

Also his fixation on a few riders who are good but not great, like Clarke and Reichenbach, is kind of endearing. It's better than commentators who are all about a couple of favourite big stars.
 
Re: Re:

the delgados said:
RedheadDane said:
re Simon Clarke: I don't know! Maybe he placed a few Euros-- or pounds or whatever the hell currency the Brits use nowadays--on the guy and is willing him to win. Maybe Clarke sidled up to the Kirbster before the race and whispered a few nothings in his ear about having great legs. Who knows?!
Just sit back with some bon bons and enjoy, my friend.

Every single year? Kirby must really have too much money if he keeps betting on a guy with no chance to win. And I don't think Clarke would continue trying to trick Kirby into thinking he has great legs...
(I'm just looking forward to the year Clarke doesn't ride, and he still gets Kirby-hyped...)


re Refusing to accept: Honestly, I have no clue what you're talking about. These days Kirby apologizes for stepping on his own shadow. Seriously, it seems he's developed post-traumatic-stress disorder after reading the constant abuse he receives. Poor guy needs to lighten up a little and realize he's a gawddamn legend.

Again, I'm simply referring to (multiple) posts I've seen around here.


Oh, I almost forgot. To all those who say they'd rather watch the race on mute or in a foreign language than listen to Kirby, I'm calling BS.

Technically, for me listening to Kirby would be listening in a foreign language. Which I don't really mind, I've listened to Dutch commentating...

RedheadDane:
I would like to start by saying I've enjoyed reading your posts for quite some time.
But (and there's always a "but') I have to take issue with you saying you're simply "referring to (multiple) posts" you've seen.
Circumstantial evidence does not cut it when my man Carlton Kirby is pilloried on social media.
I encourage you to turn off the mute button and listen to what the legend says.
He's a funny guy who is clearly passionate about cycling.

I simply asked a question, referring to several posts I - vaguely - remember seeing around here, and since it seems some people at least agree with me, I can't have been too far off. However, it also seems this is the thing that annoys people the least, and maybe he actually learned and stopped doing it.
Besides, when I asked that question it was in reference to you being all So what if he makes a few mistakes? while also ignoring those other complains. It honestly seems to me that the (understandable) mistakes aren't what bugs people the most.

And, like I sorta said, I'm not listening with the mute button on (except when I'm watching two races at once and have one on them of mute, because listening to two sets of commentating at once would be really confusing) but I still don't listen to Kirby - or Quigley, or Hatch, or Stephens, or whatever they're called - why would I? I've got my own* commentators, in fact whenever possible I prefer watching on TV2 (and TV2 Sport) rather than Eurosport, because there are fewer breaks. In fact, I don't even know how to get English commentating.


*Well, not mine as such. I have to share them with the rest of the country.


Zinoviev Letter said:
Also his fixation on a few riders who are good but not great, like Clarke and Reichenbach, is kind of endearing. It's better than commentators who are all about a couple of favourite big stars.

I can see how it can get a bit annoyed when he becomes so fixated on a few random riders that he refuses to talk about what's actually happening. I seem to recall someone mentioned that he basically claimed Pinot was riding for Reichenbach, or Reichenbach pulled because he was being really strong and would go for the stage win, or something like that.

BTW, I'm a bit concerned about the lots of people who don't really understand the sport listen to him, so it's okay if he makes mistakes argument. Surely, if lots of people who don't really understand the sport listen to him it just makes it even more important that he's correct. Isn't the job of the commentators to explain what's happening to the people who don't understand?
 
HILARIOUS THAT DELGADOS - HELLO CARLTON KIRBY - IS reading the forum - go shadow Rob Hatch for 3 months Carlton and we may give you a reprieve.

We,ve no problem with informed commentators but the 'blagging your way through jobs' has come to an end with cycling. Why not try teaching Geography at your local primary school !! ??
 
Re:

Cycle Chic said:
HILARIOUS THAT DELGADOS - HELLO CARLTON KIRBY - IS reading the forum - go shadow Rob Hatch for 3 months Carlton and we may give you a reprieve.

We,ve no problem with informed commentators but the 'blagging your way through jobs' has come to an end with cycling. Why not try teaching Geography at your local primary school !! ??

Judging by your behaviour, it seems likely you'd be one of my students.
 
I've been having to watch videos of the Dauphine and ToS -- the after-the-fact final 20-30 kilometer videos, and in USA about the only one I'm able to watch is Eurosport. I haven't been able to figure out the name of the announcers yet, but bleh!, I don't care for them. They are both heavily accented to where I can only make out about 50% of the words. It is not an English accent, but a Scottish or Irish accent. Couple that with there is no closed caption, so I don't have any way to check out the words I missed. And with the constant, no -- incessant, chatting, I've about gave them up. They NEVER shut up! One of them monopolizes the talking, and then the other one is able to chime in once in a while. Give me Paul & Phil over them any day. Paul & Phil shut up once in a while, and they (or their network) employ a bit of graphics (player tagging) once in a while to point out who they are talking about. And they break the racing views up a bit, with interviews, or split screen with something else. Paul & Phil have it way over the Eurosport announcers. I'm not impressed with them a bit.
 
Re: Re:

Nacho said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Oh no! Not Scottish or Irish accents!
Not easy for me! I have a hard time with any accent, other than my southern USA accent/drawl. I have about as much trouble with Pakistani and Indian accents.
This baffles me. I'm not a native English speaker, but I understand 100% of what Quigley and Smith are saying (and Sean Kelly, for that matter). Not to critisise you or anything, I just don't understand how a native speaker only understands 50% of the same language, especially one which doesn't have enormous differences in dialects.

But I do agree with you that the monotonous Declan Quigley (the Irish one) is not very inspiring to listen to. I just barely prefer him over Kirby. Brian Smith (the Scottish one) I have no problems with. Generally knows what he's talking about, is not afraid to correct the main commentator, and is pretty good at identifying riders.
 
Re: Re:

Squire said:
Nacho said:
Zinoviev Letter said:
Oh no! Not Scottish or Irish accents!
Not easy for me! I have a hard time with any accent, other than my southern USA accent/drawl. I have about as much trouble with Pakistani and Indian accents.
This baffles me. I'm not a native English speaker, but I understand 100% of what Quigley and Smith are saying (and Sean Kelly, for that matter). Not to critisise you or anything, I just don't understand how a native speaker only understands 50% of the same language, especially one which doesn't have enormous differences in dialects.

But I do agree with you that the monotonous Declan Quigley (the Irish one) is not very inspiring to listen to. I just barely prefer him over Kirby. Brian Smith (the Scottish one) I have no problems with. Generally knows what he's talking about, is not afraid to correct the main commentator, and is pretty good at identifying riders.
I don't know. It has to do with the "inflections/diction", whatever. They seem to me to put emphasis on different parts of the words or sentences. I think I spend too much time trying to follow the accent and don't pay enough attention to just the words. It's the same way with my doctor. He is from Pakistan, and I can hardly understand anything he has to say.

With me, it has nothing to do with the dialect. Only the accent. It takes time, but I can sometimes get through it. One time I had to work with a person from somewhere in South America (I'm in USA). We had to communicate by telephone. At the start I could hardly understand anything he said, and I had to ask him to repeat it, and sometimes even spell it out for me. He didn't take it the wrong way, and didn't mind all of the repeating. After about a month or so I finally started understanding his speech patterns, and it talking to him wasn't a problem for me any more.

Of course you don't get the feedback like that just watching TV. That is one reason why closed captioning is important for me to have.
 
Re: Re:

StephenC2020 said:
Cycle Chic said:
Just seen on Twitter that ROB HATCH is doing the Tour de France - finally !

No Kirby?


I asked Rob Hatch and he said that there are 2 commentary teams ...so I guess we will have Kirby as well...

of course they are broadcasting all stages from the off so will need further comms ...esp if all stages flat boring ones as most seem to be

Think ES may be taking on board that alot of people prefer Hatch
 
Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
StephenC2020 said:
Cycle Chic said:
Just seen on Twitter that ROB HATCH is doing the Tour de France - finally !

No Kirby?


I asked Rob Hatch and he said that there are 2 commentary teams ...so I guess we will have Kirby as well...

of course they are broadcasting all stages from the off so will need further comms ...esp if all stages flat boring ones as most seem to be

Think ES may be taking on board that alot of people prefer Hatch


Ah, thanks for the info. I guess that's not so bad. So I guess they'll be switching back and forth between commentary teams during each stage. Or maybe they'll alternate stages? In the former case it will be interesting to see if they put Hatch or Kirby on for the finales. It's not surprising that they'll have two teams I guess given that they're broadcasting the entire race.
 
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RedheadDane said:
Looks - or rather sounds - like someone needs to explain to Leif Mortensen that it's not "Bora-Hansegroht", but rather "Bora-Hansgrohe"...
As per the Tour of Slovenia commentating...

When has he ever been able to pronounce anything, though? I always felt bad for him when he had the role of recapping the action at beginnings of transmissions back in the day when he commented on every big race with Bay. He couldn't even pronounce English words semi-correctly.
 
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RedheadDane said:
He seems to manage quite find with (most?) other team names.

BTW, talking about mispronouncing team names, am I the only one who have noticed that Staghøj (TV2, so I guess we're back to being slightly off-topic) constantly says "Lotto Sovedal"?

True, but if it is a Flemish name I guess that would be a more correct pronunciation than what everybody else says. I don't know if that is the case, though.
 
Re: Re:

HelloDolly said:
StephenC2020 said:
Cycle Chic said:
Just seen on Twitter that ROB HATCH is doing the Tour de France - finally !

No Kirby?


I asked Rob Hatch and he said that there are 2 commentary teams ...so I guess we will have Kirby as well...

of course they are broadcasting all stages from the off so will need further comms ...esp if all stages flat boring ones as most seem to be

Think ES may be taking on board that alot of people prefer Hatch

Yes I think we will see even more of what happened in the Giro when they split the commentary. Rob Hatch and Carlton Kirby as lead commentators with Sean Kelly and maybe Brian Smith sharing the co commentary duties.
 
Re: Re:

Pricey_sky said:
HelloDolly said:
StephenC2020 said:
Cycle Chic said:
Just seen on Twitter that ROB HATCH is doing the Tour de France - finally !

No Kirby?


I asked Rob Hatch and he said that there are 2 commentary teams ...so I guess we will have Kirby as well...

of course they are broadcasting all stages from the off so will need further comms ...esp if all stages flat boring ones as most seem to be

Think ES may be taking on board that alot of people prefer Hatch

Yes I think we will see even more of what happened in the Giro when they split the commentary. Rob Hatch and Carlton Kirby as lead commentators with Sean Kelly and maybe Brian Smith sharing the co commentary duties.

Please, for the love of everything holy, don't pair my man Carlton Kirby with Sean Kelly.
One word: Awkward.
 

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