Eurosport commentary

[argyllflyer]

Kirby is the No 1 commentator on Eurosport (I don't mean that to be a subjective statement) and gets virtually all the big races, nothing's changed this year from last that I can see.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Paris Nice finished 100 minutes before Tirreno Adriatico. Why on Earth would Eurosport choose to be showing something 40km or so from the end of TA at exactly the time they could have been showing the final stages of PN? Is the charge from ASO for live rather than delayed broadcast that much more? Crazy broadcasting choice.

 

[the delgados]

Re:

Paris Nice finished 100 minutes before Tirreno Adriatico. Why on Earth would Eurosport choose to be showing something 40km or so from the end of TA at exactly the time they could have been showing the final stages of PN? Is the charge from ASO for live rather than delayed broadcast that much more? Crazy broadcasting choice.

Good question. I have no clue, so please forgive me for what may be a dumb idea why: It's hard to determine in advance how long a race would take to finish--e.g. weather, route, relative amount of time the riders decide when to pick up the pace. I'm just guessing.

P.S. Hey Cycle Chic! You there? Hello?
Are you still scouring the tapes to show us that my man Carlton Kirby has no clue what he's talking about?
Take your time, buddy.

 

[argyllflyer]

Re:

Paris Nice finished 100 minutes before Tirreno Adriatico. Why on Earth would Eurosport choose to be showing something 40km or so from the end of TA at exactly the time they could have been showing the final stages of PN? Is the charge from ASO for live rather than delayed broadcast that much more? Crazy broadcasting choice.

They signed a deal with RCS to show all their races live, including the desert diversions. They dont have such a deal with ASO - it seems to be on an event by event basis (though to be fair ES have got most of them). Qatar, when ran, for example was owned by BEIN in Europe, rather than Eurosport. Some of their other current events are shown delayed rather than live. I could be wrong but the Arctic Race of Norway I seem to recall being shown delayed mostly in 2017, maybe it was live on the player. Tour de Yorkshire had fairly poor coverage on ES compared to ITV4 last year.

 

[the delgados]

Tirreno Adriatico, Stage 5:
Today my man Carlton Kirby referred to a famous novel; he referred to the solar plexus; he referred to more than one mythological figure; and he combined all of that with a brilliant description of the final 20 km's.
I'm honestly beginning to think that perhaps the CK haters on this forum do not understand metaphors. (Oh, wait. Someone a while back criticized Carlton Kirby for referring to a rabbit without having a clue that he was referring to Aesop's Fables.I should have realized it long ago)

 

[Netserk]

I had to listen to him today, and I wanted to shoot him within 10 seconds. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Really, Majka working on the front for Formolo? Sagan out of it when he is in 10th~position on the climb and not gapped? He is such a pain and he constantly fills the air with nonsense.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Tirreno Adriatico, Stage 5:
Today my man Carlton Kirby referred to a famous novel; he referred to the solar plexus; he referred to more than one mythological figure; and he combined all of that with a brilliant description of the final 20 km's.
I'm honestly beginning to think that perhaps the CK haters on this forum do not understand metaphors. (Oh, wait. Someone a while back criticized Carlton Kirby for referring to a rabbit without having a clue that he was referring to Aesop's Fables.I should have realized it long ago)

I watched the last 15 km and enjoyed listening to him, he can certainly pump up an atmosphere and say a lot of funny, stupid or wtf things that makes it enjoyable for me.

He is most certainly 1000x better than Rene Wenzel on Danish eurosport, I doubt you can find anyone worse than him.

 

[tobydawq]

Tirreno Adriatico, Stage 5:
Today my man Carlton Kirby referred to a famous novel; he referred to the solar plexus; he referred to more than one mythological figure; and he combined all of that with a brilliant description of the final 20 km's.
I'm honestly beginning to think that perhaps the CK haters on this forum do not understand metaphors. (Oh, wait. Someone a while back criticized Carlton Kirby for referring to a rabbit without having a clue that he was referring to Aesop's Fables.I should have realized it long ago)

I watched the last 15 km and enjoyed listening to him, he can certainly pump up an atmosphere and say a lot of funny, stupid or wtf things that makes it enjoyable for me.

He is most certainly 1000x better than Rene Wenzel on Danish eurosport, I doubt you can find anyone worse than him.

Yes, I've been watching Tirreno on Italian or French streams to avoid that horror duo they have chosen to cover that race (for the third year in a row!).

He is insufferably bad. I can't comprehend why they are using him so much.

 

[RedheadDane]

I think the problem was that they (Eurosport Denmark) had Thomas Bay and, I presume, Leif Mortensen commentating Paris-Nice, and those newbies can't even commentate two races at the same time...

 

[tobydawq]

Leif Mortensen hasn't been commenting for years. It was Dan Frost.

But usually, Wenzel is accompanying Bay. Which is okayish because Bay is a good commentator, so Wenzel is not allowed to run rampant in his idiocy.

 

[spalco]

Are there even any certified good by CN forum standards english-language commentators?

It's really a kind of *** job, having to talk for hours with nothing really happening usually. As long as they correctly identify relevant riders 9/10 of the time or so and mention attacks/riders dropping off, what else do we need?
I'm even ok watching cycling in languages I don't really understand - italian, dutch, french since I can still make out the things that matter to me. Everything else is just background noise.

 

[Netserk]

I like Magnus Bäckstedt.

 

[tobydawq]

Re:

Are there even any certified good by CN forum standards english-language commentators?

It's really a kind of **** job, having to talk for hours with nothing really happening usually. As long as they correctly identify relevant riders 9/10 of the time or so and mention attacks/riders dropping off, what else do we need?
I'm even ok watching cycling in languages I don't really understand - italian, dutch, french since I can still make out the things that matter to me. Everything else is just background noise.

An ability to understand tactics is pretty relevant, I would say.

 

[spalco]

Re: Re:

An ability to understand tactics is pretty relevant, I would say.

Fair enough, yeah. Eurosport really offers very little of that.

 

[Koronin]

For the most part I'll take any set of Eurosport announcers over most of our announcers any day. Then again we have announcers who seem to not understand what some of the teams are doing, love to ignore certain teams, esp ignore riders who don't speak English (unless their name is Quintana), and have issues identifying riders. How bad is it when you can tell which rider it is and the guys broadcasting can't?
I'll keep Schlanger and VanderVelde, but otherwise would much rather have Eurosports announcers.

 

[the delgados]

Re:

I had to listen to him today, and I wanted to shoot him within 10 seconds. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Really, Majka working on the front for Formolo? Sagan out of it when he is in 10th~position on the climb and not gapped? He is such a pain and he constantly fills the air with nonsense.

Majka is out of the GC running; Formolo is top ten. It's not a stretch to suggest that perhaps Majka would want to work for Formolo.
Also, Sagan was out of it in terms of winning the stage. That was abundantly clear.
Seriously, you guys can do better than this.
Sure, you don't like a well-read commentator who constantly comes up with well-timed quips. Good for you.
Whatever floats your boat.
I'm suggesting that perhaps you might like him more if you pick up a book and do a bit more reading. That way you might understand and enjoy my man Carlton Kirby a bit more.

 

[tobydawq]

Re: Re:

I had to listen to him today, and I wanted to shoot him within 10 seconds. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Really, Majka working on the front for Formolo? Sagan out of it when he is in 10th~position on the climb and not gapped? He is such a pain and he constantly fills the air with nonsense.

Majka is out of the GC running; Formolo is top ten. It's not a stretch to suggest that perhaps Majka would want to work for Formolo.
Also, Sagan was out of it in terms of winning the stage. That was abundantly clear.
Seriously, you guys can do better than this.
Sure, you don't like a well-read commentator who constantly comes up with well-timed quips. Good for you.
Whatever floats your boat.
I'm suggesting that perhaps you might like him more if you pick up a book and do a bit more reading. That way you might understand and enjoy my man Carlton Kirby a bit more.

Now it all makes sense. You don't get the tactics either (if you think that was what Majka was doing), so you don't realise when Kirby talks nonsense.

 

[the delgados]

Re: Re:

I had to listen to him today, and I wanted to shoot him within 10 seconds. Shut up, shut up, shut up! Really, Majka working on the front for Formolo? Sagan out of it when he is in 10th~position on the climb and not gapped? He is such a pain and he constantly fills the air with nonsense.

Majka is out of the GC running; Formolo is top ten. It's not a stretch to suggest that perhaps Majka would want to work for Formolo.
Also, Sagan was out of it in terms of winning the stage. That was abundantly clear.
Seriously, you guys can do better than this.
Sure, you don't like a well-read commentator who constantly comes up with well-timed quips. Good for you.
Whatever floats your boat.
I'm suggesting that perhaps you might like him more if you pick up a book and do a bit more reading. That way you might understand and enjoy my man Carlton Kirby a bit more.

Now it all makes sense. You don't get the tactics either (if you think that was what Majka was doing), so you don't realise when Kirby talks nonsense.

To be honest, I wasn't paying any attention to Majka and what he was doing. (That's not to say I'm a tactical genius. Far from it. I lost more than one race by sheer stupidity).
My point being I was going by the GC list, in which Majka is nowhere to be seen.

 

[yaco]

Tirreno Adriatico, Stage 5:
Today my man Carlton Kirby referred to a famous novel; he referred to the solar plexus; he referred to more than one mythological figure; and he combined all of that with a brilliant description of the final 20 km's.
I'm honestly beginning to think that perhaps the CK haters on this forum do not understand metaphors. (Oh, wait. Someone a while back criticized Carlton Kirby for referring to a rabbit without having a clue that he was referring to Aesop's Fables.I should have realized it long ago)

I watched the last 15 km and enjoyed listening to him, he can certainly pump up an atmosphere and say a lot of funny, stupid or wtf things that makes it enjoyable for me.

He is most certainly 1000x better than Rene Wenzel on Danish eurosport, I doubt you can find anyone worse than him.

Yes, I've been watching Tirreno on Italian or French streams to avoid that horror duo they have chosen to cover that race (for the third year in a row!).

He is insufferably bad. I can't comprehend why they are using him so much.

Well you are misinformed - Using your words it's a terrible trio - Kirby had Gibb for the first 3 days and Stephens for the last 4 days.

 

[tobydawq]

Tirreno Adriatico, Stage 5:
Today my man Carlton Kirby referred to a famous novel; he referred to the solar plexus; he referred to more than one mythological figure; and he combined all of that with a brilliant description of the final 20 km's.
I'm honestly beginning to think that perhaps the CK haters on this forum do not understand metaphors. (Oh, wait. Someone a while back criticized Carlton Kirby for referring to a rabbit without having a clue that he was referring to Aesop's Fables.I should have realized it long ago)

I watched the last 15 km and enjoyed listening to him, he can certainly pump up an atmosphere and say a lot of funny, stupid or wtf things that makes it enjoyable for me.

He is most certainly 1000x better than Rene Wenzel on Danish eurosport, I doubt you can find anyone worse than him.

Yes, I've been watching Tirreno on Italian or French streams to avoid that horror duo they have chosen to cover that race (for the third year in a row!).

He is insufferably bad. I can't comprehend why they are using him so much.

Well you are misinformed - Using your words it's a terrible trio - Kirby had Gibb for the first 3 days and Stephens for the last 4 days.

It was the duo on Danish Eurosport I was talking about.

 

[RedheadDane]

Re:

Leif Mortensen hasn't been commenting for years. It was Dan Frost.

But usually, Wenzel is accompanying Bay. Which is okayish because Bay is a good commentator, so Wenzel is not allowed to run rampant in his idiocy.

I'd momentarily forgotten about Frost, and I'm pretty sure I watched a race (co-)commentated by Mortensen as recent as last year. So, with Wenzel and Guy-whose-name-I've-never-managed-to-catch (something Sørensen? Guess Eurosport needs to have a Sørensen too) in T-A, and Holm being kinda busy, I figured that left just Mortensen to be paired with Bay. However, my point still stands newbies can't even commentate two races at the same time!

 

[tobydawq]

I think his name is Rasmus Rothmann Pedersen. I have no idea what his credentials are and why he is commentating for Eurosport.

If they want a Sørensen, I will gladly give them a hand.

 

[Valv.Piti]

Bay is very good IMO, Holm is great, Frost I haven't heard so much but is decent enough. The guy alongside Wenzel I don't know by name, but like Frost, he seems decent enough. Only Wenzel is dirt.

My favourite ES combo is by far Bay and Holm, I think I would prefer those two over Ritter and Sørensen, altho commercials do suck.

 

[RedheadDane]

Bay and Holm together are crazy. Just a shame Holm got that little side-job as well...

 

[tobydawq]

Sometimes they just tend to forget that there is a race to comment. When Holm wants to tell some tangential story within the last 3 kilometres, it becomes a bit much. But yeah, they are a very entertaining combo. Especially at the Driedaagse de Panne when they talk about the Beast of Diksmuide

It's also funny when Holm and Pedersen comment together and Holm scolds the other for calling the riders drivers