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Eurosport commentary

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A reminder how much Eurosports coverage has improved over the years. (also any excuse to remind people this actually happened)

i dunno, this is way better to me. there's no stupid split screen interviews or cut aways to people standing on the road giving useless information. there's no cringe memey banter between the commentators or talking about what they just had for lunch. it's just the raw feed of the race and two people talking about it. that's all you need.
 
i dunno, this is way better to me. there's no stupid split screen interviews or cut aways to people standing on the road giving useless information. there's no cringe memey banter between the commentators or talking about what they just had for lunch. it's just the raw feed of the race and two people talking about it. that's all you need.
I'd take the Eurosport coverage from 15 or so years ago. This is spot on, was just about the racing. Especially in the David Harmon days.
 
Rob Hatch when there's the most basic crash - 'NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!'. Then spends the next 10 mins being somber and acting like something awful had just happed, when everyone was already up and racing. If he doesn't like crashes then he might want to go back to commentating football....
BTW, I used to really rate Rob Hatch, thought he was the best English speaking cycling commentator out there, but in the last 5 or so years he's really started to get annoying and way overdramatic about everything.. Rant over lol.
 
Rob Hatch when there's the most basic crash - 'NO NO NO NO NO NO!!!!'. Then spends the next 10 mins being somber and acting like something awful had just happed, when everyone was already up and racing. If he doesn't like crashes then he might want to go back to commentating football....
BTW, I used to really rate Rob Hatch, thought he was the best English speaking cycling commentator out there, but in the last 5 or so years he's really started to get annoying and way overdramatic about everything.. Rant over lol.
I'd say the Oh NO NO NO NO NO NO is used when the guy who is in 11th place on GC gets dropped on the 1st MTF.
A basic crash is Oh NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO
 
Mar 10, 2022
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Being a relative newcomer to cycle racing, my thoughts on the various commentators have changed now I sort of understand what it entails and what they have to contend with. I began with cyclocross and have now become a big road race fan - again due to having been educated and would be interested in any feed back on this. First, whenever I click onto a race I always have a tense moment until the voice comes on and that sets me up for whether I watch most of the race or the last bit. Marty McD comes across as a knowledgeable and nice guy but he lets himself down in a couple of ways. He has a tendency to set off on a rambling monologue about a rider before he has actually formulated the question, meaning a string of verbal crutches, including the inevitable 'as wells', which crop up every few seconds which drive me insane. If he allowed his co-coms more voice room and cut out the rambles and 'as wells', he would be far easier on the ear. Personally, I enjoy Carlton Kirby as he is an entertainer, although he too has a verbal crutch which is 'indeed' which makes regular appearances. He is fluent and appears to identify riders and teams with little fuss and his end of race comms are always exciting. My personal favourite is Rob Hatch, whose knowledge and ability to impart it, is superb in my opinion and I personally don't care about accents. Jose Been always seems to be given the races where there is very little in the way of graphics and possibly fewer camera bikes which makes identification very difficult to the point where some races end with us not knowing who the winner is, It is a shame as she is also fluent, despite English being her second language, at least. Jez Cox is also very knowledgeable and when paired with the right co-com can be good - when not getting too excited occasionally. I also enjoy Matt Stephens and Dan Lloyd who are both immensely well versed and both can keep a comm going for hours if need be. As for the co-comms, Brian Smith needs to lighten up when with Jose as he struggles to contain his obvious distain for her - ditto Cox. Sean Kelly is methodical in that he regurgitates the previous question before answering it, another form of a verbal crutch, but knows what he is talking about and Jeremy Power has slowed down a little and is also very sharp. Pippa York needs her mic turned on as she whispers all the time, which comes across as being unsure of herself but she may have adapted that tone during her transitioning. We don't hear enough of Jo Rowsell, who is excellent on track work and both Danis' and Luke Rowe add to occasions positively. In my opinion, general coverage of road racing and cyclocross has deteriorated in the last year or so due to various reasons, few connected to commentating. The less important CX races are at the mercy of programme directors who often kill them at birth by ignoring all but the top handful of riders and if one or more go off the front then it is tedium all round with no graphics and no idea who is doing what. I confess I found much of last CX season formulaic and for a while, this road season was going the same way as I lost interest in the Giro in the first week. Would love some reaction to this Marty Mc style ramble!
 
Mar 10, 2022
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In my undue haste to go to bed I forgot to include Robbie McEwen who is right up there with the best and can switch from serious to comic in an instant and he can liven up the most tedious races. I fear the worst, however, as more and more races are being single crewed now and that leaves some commentators swimming against the tide. RIP GCN
 
Being a relative newcomer to cycle racing, my thoughts on the various commentators have changed now I sort of understand what it entails and what they have to contend with. I began with cyclocross and have now become a big road race fan - again due to having been educated and would be interested in any feed back on this. First, whenever I click onto a race I always have a tense moment until the voice comes on and that sets me up for whether I watch most of the race or the last bit. Marty McD comes across as a knowledgeable and nice guy but he lets himself down in a couple of ways. He has a tendency to set off on a rambling monologue about a rider before he has actually formulated the question, meaning a string of verbal crutches, including the inevitable 'as wells', which crop up every few seconds which drive me insane. If he allowed his co-coms more voice room and cut out the rambles and 'as wells', he would be far easier on the ear. Personally, I enjoy Carlton Kirby as he is an entertainer, although he too has a verbal crutch which is 'indeed' which makes regular appearances. He is fluent and appears to identify riders and teams with little fuss and his end of race comms are always exciting. My personal favourite is Rob Hatch, whose knowledge and ability to impart it, is superb in my opinion and I personally don't care about accents. Jose Been always seems to be given the races where there is very little in the way of graphics and possibly fewer camera bikes which makes identification very difficult to the point where some races end with us not knowing who the winner is, It is a shame as she is also fluent, despite English being her second language, at least. Jez Cox is also very knowledgeable and when paired with the right co-com can be good - when not getting too excited occasionally. I also enjoy Matt Stephens and Dan Lloyd who are both immensely well versed and both can keep a comm going for hours if need be. As for the co-comms, Brian Smith needs to lighten up when with Jose as he struggles to contain his obvious distain for her - ditto Cox. Sean Kelly is methodical in that he regurgitates the previous question before answering it, another form of a verbal crutch, but knows what he is talking about and Jeremy Power has slowed down a little and is also very sharp. Pippa York needs her mic turned on as she whispers all the time, which comes across as being unsure of herself but she may have adapted that tone during her transitioning. We don't hear enough of Jo Rowsell, who is excellent on track work and both Danis' and Luke Rowe add to occasions positively. In my opinion, general coverage of road racing and cyclocross has deteriorated in the last year or so due to various reasons, few connected to commentating. The less important CX races are at the mercy of programme directors who often kill them at birth by ignoring all but the top handful of riders and if one or more go off the front then it is tedium all round with no graphics and no idea who is doing what. I confess I found much of last CX season formulaic and for a while, this road season was going the same way as I lost interest in the Giro in the first week. Would love some reaction to this Marty Mc style ramble!
Could you put that a little more succinctly, please?
 
I'm just glad I don't have to listen to John McEnroe on the tennis broadcast. THAT is not a good time.
I love John McEnroe! I guess it doesn't hurt that I grew up playing tennis in upstate New York and played his first Davis Cup doubles partner Peter Fleming in a junior tournament in the early 70's (he won, but I took it to 3 sets). I got pretty good at the McEnroe wide slice kick out serve but unfortunately I was right handed so I was serving it to everyone's forehand side. Still worked pretty well if I didn't try to use it all the time. But I digress. McEnroe rules.
 
I love John McEnroe! I guess it doesn't hurt that I grew up playing tennis in upstate New York and played his first Davis Cup doubles partner Peter Fleming in a junior tournament in the early 70's (he won, but I took it to 3 sets). I got pretty good at the McEnroe wide slice kick out serve but unfortunately I was right handed so I was serving it to everyone's forehand side. Still worked pretty well if I didn't try to use it all the time. But I digress. McEnroe rules.

The problem with Macca is he only ever feels one offhand remark away from a meltdown.

So it feels his co-commentators are always walking on eggshells around him, which isn't a good way to build a partnership.

As I remarked earlier it doesnt help with Macca in Paris and his co commentator stuck in the cube, because the delay is enough that they're pausing to wait to see if he'll say anything and then talking over each other when he does.

And there was an instance where Simon Reed made a joke at Maccas expense, and there was just silence, you didn't know if Macca got the joke, was ignoring the joke or what, he then said the crowd were too noisy and he couldn't hear what was said. But it was just awkwardness you don't need.

He's a great pundit, and maybe in a trio of commentators all sitting together it would feel more natural, for them.

But it doesn't work for me in their current setup
 
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The problem with Macca is he only ever feels one offhand remark away from a meltdown.

So it feels his co-commentators are always walking on eggshells around him, which isn't a good way to build a partnership.

As I remarked earlier it doesnt help with Macca in Paris and his co commentator stuck in the cube, because the delay is enough that they're pausing to wait to see if he'll say anything and then talking over each other when he does.

And there was an instance where Simon Reed made a joke at Maccas expense, and there was just silence, you didn't know if Macca got the joke, was ignoring the joke or what, he then said the crowd were too noisy and he couldn't hear what was said. But it was just awkwardness you don't need.

He's a great pundit, and maybe in a trio of commentators all sitting together it would feel more natural, for them.

But it doesn't work for me in their current setup
To be fair I haven't watched any of the French Open yet this year.
 
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The problem with Macca is he only ever feels one offhand remark away from a meltdown.

So it feels his co-commentators are always walking on eggshells around him, which isn't a good way to build a partnership.

As I remarked earlier it doesnt help with Macca in Paris and his co commentator stuck in the cube, because the delay is enough that they're pausing to wait to see if he'll say anything and then talking over each other when he does.

And there was an instance where Simon Reed made a joke at Maccas expense, and there was just silence, you didn't know if Macca got the joke, was ignoring the joke or what, he then said the crowd were too noisy and he couldn't hear what was said. But it was just awkwardness you don't need.

He's a great pundit, and maybe in a trio of commentators all sitting together it would feel more natural, for them.

But it doesn't work for me in their current setup
I have no opinion on all this, I'm just allergic to his voice. Nothing gives me more 'Murica vibes and if there is one thing I hate, it's that.

I remember back when Tiger King was all the rave a few years ago, I simply couldn't watch more than a few minutes of it.
 
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Eurosport better be glad I don't live in Italy cause I would've roadside trying to ram Daniel Oss and his motorbike of the street.

They brought as much value to the cycling coverage as the Swiss forces to World War 2
The one time I heard him on the moto he was atrocious. Gilbert aint much better. Unironically, Brad is the best I have seen at that apart from Rolf Sørensen on Danish TV
 
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The one time I heard him on the moto he was atrocious. Gilbert aint much better. Unironically, Brad is the best I have seen at that apart from Rolf Sørensen on Danish TV

I think Brad's ignorance was very much exposed as he simply couldn't call almost any riders by name. At least Jens Voigt knows the names, but the rest of his performance is irritating beyond believe.

In reality, the guy on moto is just a gimmick which adds nothing to the coverage.
 
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I think Brad's ignorance was very much exposed as he simply couldn't call almost any riders by name. At least Jens Voigt knows the names, but the rest of his performance is irritating beyond believe.

In reality, the guy on moto is just a gimmick which adds nothing to the coverage.

It can be a valuable asset at times, if the guy's seen something that hasn't been on camera or spoken to a DS, but yeah, it usually isn't.
 
Brian Smith not happy it seems, it's quite funny listening to him commentate because you can sometimes hear him slowly getting more and wound up, genuinely think one day we could hear a Mick Morgan style blowup from him;


It could be so much better, cycling isn't a simple sport but it's being dumbed down by broadcasting that gives it's audience no credit. At least give us people who can at the correctly identify the riders, I don't think that's too much to ask. Then again, I promise you it can get so much worse so I'm careful what I wish for. Football is in an even worse state, the problem with both is that characters occasionally appear that remind you how much better it could be, James Horncastle and James Richardson wandered onto the BT Europa League set a couple of months ago talking about Gasperini's tactics and were quickly ushered off set never to be seen again. Next week we were left with Rio Ferdinand filling time being asked for the 4th time 'how can Atalanta win this one Rio?'.

Test cricket commentary is about 3 leagues above any other sport because they seemingly have absolutely no interest in appealing to the lowest common denominator, comfortable in it's own skin. Every time I listen to Nasser Hussain. Michael Atherton and in the past Richie Benaud and Michael Holding they tell me something I don't know about the sport and something I wouldn't be able to see. It's a shame it's only a few countries play it but because it's massive in South Asia it's still one of the most watched sports in the world.
 
Cycling is one of the most difficult sports for rider identificatiom, especially when you have up to two hundred riders and so many of the kits having similar colors. The commentators get some of their rider identification from race radio, however, sometimes race radio gets its wrong. I suspect its fine to sit from your ivory tower and criticise.