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Eurosport commentary

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I think there is an ongoing negotiation with Flanders Classics for the rights, yesterday when asked from Twitter Panchetti said "at the moment" Omloop is not scheduled, leaving the door open for a change.

On the other hand he said they signed a new five year global exclusive deal for all the RCS races that will be available also on their new Discovery+ service (both streaming and on demand).
 
I don't know about you, but I'd love to hear an English translation of the commentary provided by Dubai Bonjour, especially the colour commentator.
How does he fill hours of dead air?
Has he taken clues from my man Carlton Kirby? Does he sprinkle the dialogue with references to Arabic literature?
Does he talk about the hotel he stayed in last night?
Does he reference historical monuments along the way?
How does he call the finale of a stage? (I'm not there yet to record decibel levels; I'm only ten minutes into a four-hour race. Spoiler alerts are encouraged. For the love of god, spoil away.)
Check out Dubai Bonjour on Youtube.
 
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Looking at it, I don't think any 'Flanders Classics' under that company banner will be on GCN but what I'm not sure is whether that is the same for Eurosport and player.

Looks to be that the Ronde is slightly different being a monument and the backlash that 'Flanders Classics' would get for not giving the rights to Eurosport would be big, so that IS on Eurosport and GCN.

E3 is run by a seperate company and that is on GCN's schedule. However the other 'Flanders classics' arent on the list....
Gent-Wevelgem
Dwars door Vlaanderen
Scheldeprijs
Brabantse Pijl

There seems to be confusion over whether that means it won't be on Eurosport either and they are being vague over what races they have and if not, why they havent got the rights.....money seems to be the obvious issue (but it hasn't been in the past few years) so what is the problem now? and who's fault is it? Lets hope a compromise can be reached because its not a good look if some of the best races of the season won't be shown outside of Sporza.

Eurosport/GCN have now secured the rights to Omloop now, alongside the previous already planned Ronde...

Gent wevelgem is the next important one now....
 
Eurosport/GCN have now secured the rights to Omloop now, alongside the previous already planned Ronde...

Gent wevelgem is the next important one now....

Good news. About 5 years ago I had a nightmare about a dystopian world in which Scheldeprijs was the only race in Flanders aired on TV. Luckily, that hasn't happened and we only got COVID instead.
 
British Eurosport commentary pairings season 2021 (men's elite):

Grand Prix La Marseillaise (live on 31/1): Kirby & Smith (ES Player only)
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (live from 3/2): tbc
Tour of Provence (live from 11/2): Lloyd & Stephens (ES Player only)
Clasica De Almeria: Hatch & Backstedt
Tour of Alpes-Maritimes (live from 20/2): Been & Stephens (ES Player only)
UAE Tour (live from 21/2): Kirby & Smith
Omloop Het Niewsblad (live on 27/2): Lloyd & Blyth
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (live on 28/2): Hatch & Blyth
GP Le Samyn (live on 2/3): Been & Backstedt
Strade Bianche (live 6/3): tbc
Paris-Nice (live from 7/3): ?? & Blythe
 
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A very poor day for Carlton Kirby and Brian Smith today. Called the winner of the stage (UAE Tour Stage 5) wrong for 3 minutes repeatedly despite many superb camera shots of his face. I have a soft spot for the Eurosport commentators but bit of egg on their faces today.
 
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To be fair the graphics said it was Harper, so I understand their confusion a bit. But since he wasn't wearing glasses, they should probably be familiar enough with his face by now. Also Kirby really likes names that he can in some way Britishize, and that's a lot easier to do with Chris Harper than Jonas Vingegaard!
John Vine Garden
John Vinegar
John Finger Guard
 
To be fair the graphics said it was Harper, so I understand their confusion a bit. But since he wasn't wearing glasses, they should probably be familiar enough with his face by now. Also Kirby really likes names that he can in some way Britishize, and that's a lot easier to do with Chris Harper than Jonas Vingegaard!

No matter what is said on graphics you can't make that mistake. There was at least 1 minute full frontal camera on Jonas. I get it to mistaken rider if it's an attack or only footage from behind. Overall their commentary was really bad today. I prefer Lloyd over these two everyday in a week.
 
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To be fair the graphics said it was Harper, so I understand their confusion a bit. But since he wasn't wearing glasses, they should probably be familiar enough with his face by now. Also Kirby really likes names that he can in some way Britishize, and that's a lot easier to do with Chris Harper than Jonas Vingegaard!

Hang on! Maybe that was the problem; they weren't wearing glasses either!
 

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