Eurosport commentary

[deValtos]

Things that frustrate me;, not using common sense to identify a rider when the picture isn't great

Rule 1) When a Bardiani rider launches out of the peloton at an inappropriate moment, just assume it is Stefano Pirazzi. (This works 99% of the time)

 

[valentius borealis]

The past two finishes have been ballsed up a bit, but that isn't exactly a rare occurrence in cycling. I can't remember who was commentating at Pais Vasco recently, but during one of the sprints it was "Matthews this", "Matthews that" and "Matthews wins" and of course when the stage results came up on screen it was "1st - Daryl Impey".

That reminds me of the 2010 Giro when Harman got the winner wrong 3 stages in a row (or at least 3 times in not many days).

 

[Pricey_sky]

Roll on July when we get Harmon back, let DQ get some more experience at the minor races.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Declan

I could fill a book with Harmon and Kirby's monumental c*** ups.

Head over to Sky Sports for Cartoon Kirby and Dan Lloyd if you dont like Declan Quigley - at least we have some choice now.

You should also be happy that I AM happy...no more ranting from me - I LOVE DECLAN

 

[The Principal Sheep]

No rush to see Harmon return, I don’t mind commentators making mistakes but to hear Harmon talk like he is an authority on the subject can get irritating.

I can usually do a pretty good job tuning out the commentators, don’t really mind DQ, Kirby is a fool and I hear him as such but Harmon just comes across as someone who is desperate to be seen as part of cycling rather than just being a commentator who occasionally rides a bike.

 

[gooner]

A lot of these guys seem to be almost set up to fail. Not deliberately, but it's like, people expect so much from the commentators. A guy like Quigley hasn't called that many international races with the whole international péloton, at least not with the international audience that he'll have with Eurosport. People have commented on how Kelly has seemed more talkative than usual, maybe he's trying to help out a bit to ease Declan in. I seem to recall quite a few people thought Matt Rendell was pretty good on commentary... until he got the high profile role of having to call the Vuelta solo, and floundered in that position. Some of the best commentary I recall hearing in English on cycling was Marty McDonald calling the 2010 Tour of Turkey solo. He seemed to know enough about the riders, or could bluster his way through sounding like he did; but would he be able to do the same consistently on every race? For guys like Harmon over the last few weeks he's been jetting back and forth on commentary on a variety of races, must be sometimes difficult when doing your research to remember who's at what race.

I think Quigley could be a very good commentator in time. Maybe he isn't that yet, but commentary is something you need time to pick up, just like any other task.

I think this is fair analysis(once again by LS).

Declan was an excellent commentator on F1 when he worked with RTE and Setanta and he has great knowledge here where he can go on and express his thoughts in a very good delivery. He has covered the Tour in the past as a journalist and I think with more exposure to the big races on Eurosport he can do similar in the sport of cycling. We see with Kirby who has commentated on many races that Harmon isn't around, continue to make mistake after mistake and not evolve or learn from his previous errors in the process. I don't think that would be the case with Declan if he was allowed to commentate on a more wider scale like Kirby has been.

Maybe we should spare him a bit of flak and see how it progresses. Who knows by the third week of the race we could see him coming more and more into his own to the point where we could be taking about him in esteemed way where we would like to see him more often.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Harmon wannabe a cyclist

Well said Principal Sheep.

Below...Quigley's cycling background..

http://www.orwellwheelers.org/profiles/437-5-minutes-with-declan-quigley.html

I was a Sorrento CC member as a kid and have great friends there still and I also did brief stint with '34 Nomads in Surrey and Minuteman Road Club in Massachussets

 

[JRanton]

Quigley is completely out of his depth. Come back Harmon, all is forgiven!

 

[jens_attacks]

tour of belgium live on eurosport international
tour of norway live too every day

eurosport going full awesome

giro,norway on the afternoon and cali in the night. eurosport _O_

 

[Cycle Chic]

Quigley is completely out of his depth. Come back Harmon, all is forgiven!

Well if Quigley is out of his depth Harmon drowned years ago.

 

[manafana]

Harmon is good at spotting riders, for me thats half of what i want from coverage. Hes also better at getting Kelly involved. Kelly could easily pitch in with the spotting but doesnt seem to with DQ

 

[Bye Bye Bicycle]

Funny how Quigley mentions Bouhanni all the time. Seems to be the only rider he can identify without doubt thanks to the special jersey.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Harmon is good at spotting riders, for me thats half of what i want from coverage. Hes also better at getting Kelly involved. Kelly could easily pitch in with the spotting but doesnt seem to with DQ

Yes Harmon is excellent at spotting the Sky riders. Ask him who rides for Euskaltel or FDJ - he couldnt spot them in a line up.

 

[Descender]

The man on my avatar on the other hand is excellent at spotting Gallopin. He even spots him when he's not in the race.

Now about this new bloke, the fact that he is appalling shouldn't make us forget the fact that Harmon is terrible himself as well.

 

[ferryman]

Been very very impressed with Dan Lloyd so far. He could be lead man easily soon. Together with Brian Smith they are the best two analysts for me. But Dan shades it. He misses nothing. Dan lead, Brian shotgun and sorted

 

[The Hitch]

I got nothing against quigley, even though he talks about wiggins all the time.

Im ok with constant stupid mistakes like saying that wiggins teammates henao and urtasun are coming back to help him.

What i cant take though is when dan lloyd is interviewing benat intxausti in Spanish, and Quigley starts talking over it, by making up what inxausti is saying because he cant speak Spanish. Either translate it or dont, but dont spoil the whole interview by making up generic crap.

 

[argyllflyer]

Kirby / Lloyd streets ahead of Quigley / Kelly for stage 7's finale. The latter pair were unable to pick out Nibali pretty much from after his sliding tumble, to the point that they were speculating if he'd been dropped from the Evans group. Ok, it's Dan Lloyd, not Carlton, but superb analysis as always from DL. DQ perhaps needs a stronger partner, i.e. Magnus on Milan-Sanremo, though as I have said before, I've enjoyed Sean's contributions a lot this Giro.

 

[Cycle Chic]

Declan

Quigley is doing 3 hours of great commentary with Kelly. The reason Kelly is more vocal this race is because he is being asked sensible and informative questions...unlike Harmon who would ask him if he liked the Sky kit this season.

Quigley explains what is happening in the race and WHY. When Cameron Wurf dropped off the breakaway the other day and was seen putting bottles in his back pockets, Quigley explained why.

Kelly actually enjoys talking with Quigley because he is talking to someone wwith some knowledge.

 

[the asian]

Declan Quigley is an Clown and Tool of the highest order. he's fast reaching Sherwin and Liggett proportions. Ruining and otherwise fantastic Giro.

 

[Netserk]

Declan Quigley is an Clown and Tool of the highest order. he's fast reaching Sherwin and Liggett proportions. Ruining and otherwise fantastic Giro.

I use rai and/or sporza. Much better. (even though I don't understand a single word of what they say )

 

[Geraint Too Fast]

I use rai and/or sporza. Much better. (even though I don't understand a single word of what they say )

Same here. They're good at recognising riders which is all I really care about.

 

[l.Harm]

The problem with commentators is they have to watch the race at the finishing line on a small television So it's very difficult for them to recognize the riders. Even at Sporza I see things a lot quicker than them most of the times. At Dutch Eurosport I think the commentary now is pretty good, but still they have difficulties to recognize them (although they're not in Italy, but somewhere in Amsterdam).

 

[hfer07]

Declan Quigley is an Clown and Tool of the highest order. he's fast reaching Sherwin and Liggett proportions. Ruining and otherwise fantastic Giro.

...And I always thought Harmon was going to be difficult to match on Wiggo's man love but Quingley has set the bar even higher.....

Sad to hear Kelly putting up with that BS & getting punished by those clowns stupidity

 

[argyllflyer]

The problem with commentators is they have to watch the race at the finishing line on a small television So it's very difficult for them to recognize the riders. Even at Sporza I see things a lot quicker than them most of the times. At Dutch Eurosport I think the commentary now is pretty good, but still they have difficulties to recognize them (although they're not in Italy, but somewhere in Amsterdam).

1. Declan Quigley is not on site** so I'm sure the set-up at Eurosport HQ far outdoes what is available at the finish-line.

2. Here's a link that shows the set up that the commentators who *are* at the finishing line have (inside those silver pods)... ok it's not a 40" HD screen, but it's hardly like watching on your phone.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSHAU27uIcA

Anyway, yesterday was a disaster for DQ and SK. SK in particular didn't seem to grasp the way the time splits were working, and at one point was asking to go back to find out what Nibali's split was, despite it having been shown. There was also the point when one of the riders was going up the final climb and with 100m to go and 10 seconds left to beat Dowsett, he was apparently going to go into the lead? Neither worked out it was taking approx 2 minutes to do that last 700m. Hesjedal went into the last km practically on Dowsett's time yet both SK and DQ were discussing whether he'd made up enough time since the first split to catch him, just as Wiggins had done...

I'm off to watch CK and DL to see how they called it. I've got a sneaky feeling they might have done a better job.

**(on the assumption that he made no personal reference to the flood outside the comms box on stage 4, hasn't talked about anything so far that refers to being in Italy on the road either on air or on Twitter, and doesn't have the benefit of the on-site multi camera feed that DL and CK refer to that allows them to talk about moto pictures not broadcast, such as how Hansen was descending very gingerly on Friday when the main broadcast cameras were on Wiggins and Nibali.)

 

[Cycle Chic]

Kirby v Quigley

Come on then - How was Cartoon Kirby ?? if you think Quigley is a fool then Kirby has been in the nuthouse for years.