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Eurosport commentary

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Just out of curiousity - only started watching with English commentating relatively recently - does he ever correct any of his mistakes live?

Sometimes, but it's mostly his co-commentator's job.

I enjoy Kirby as background Mouse (was meant to be noise, but let's keep it in there). But if you want accurate and knowledgeable race commentary, he is not the guy for you.
 
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Just out of curiousity - only started watching with English commentating relatively recently - does he ever correct any of his mistakes live?

Not really, and almost never with any sense of apology.

There was an example of this yesterday. Kirby stated, as if it were an obvious fact, that Luke Rowe's red numbers were a "most aggressive rider" award. Presumably he had no evidence for this (he rarely if ever seems to have looked up the particular rules for any race), and it would seem odd that a guy coming third last in a time trial would be awarded as the most competitive rider for such an effort.
A few kilometres later he acknowledged the possibility that he might have been wrong. I didn't hear whether this was in response to people tweeting his oft repeated twitter identity. But didn't admit that he was, he just said that he didn't think the red dossard was a top of the team standings indicator as he hadn't noticed any other Ineos riders with them. So essentially his response to being told he was wrong was to question whether those pointing out that he was wrong were right.

Arrogance and ignorance are never a happy combination.
 
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Kirby did seem to be on particularly bad form during yesterday's Summit Finish. What annoyed me a fair amount was the plugging for GCN/Eurosport getting the rights for the rest of the Flanders Classics races this year during the final 4kms. He completely ignored the action on the screen for a minute or so, and I'm pretty sure you could hear Brian Smith wanting to speak abou what was going on and the rider who was attacking (I can't remember as they werent mentioned).
 
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British Eurosport commentary pairings season 2021 (men's elite):

Grand Prix La Marseillaise (live on 31/1): Kirby & Smith (ES Player/GCN only)
Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana (live from 3/2): tbc
Tour of Provence (live from 11/2): Lloyd & Stephens (ES Player/GCN only)
Clasica De Almeria: Hatch & Backstedt
Tour of Alpes-Maritimes (live from 20/2): Been & Stephens (ES Player/GCN only)
UAE Tour (live from 21/2): Kirby & Smith
Omloop Het Niewsblad (live on 27/2): Lloyd & Blythe
Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne (live on 28/2): Hatch & Blythe
GP Le Samyn (live on 2/3): Been & Backstedt
Strade Bianche (live 6/3): Hatch & Lloyd
Grand Prix Jean Monsere: (live 7/3): Been & Backstedt
Paris-Nice (live from 7/3): Hatch & Blythe
Tirreno-Adriatico (live from 10/3): Kirby & Lloyd
Nokere Koerse (live on 17/3): Been & Backstedt
Bredene Koksijde Classic (live on 19/3): Been & Backstedt
Milano-Sanremo (live on 20/3): Hatch & Smith
Volta Ciclista a Catalunya (live from 22/3): Kirby & Smith
Brugge - De Panne (live on 24/3): Hatch & Blythe
E3 SaxoBank Classic (live on 26/3): Hatch & Blythe (ES Player/GCN only)
Gent - Wevelgem (live on 28/3): Stephens & Blythe
Cholet Pays De La Loire (live on 28/3): Been & Backstedt (ES Player/GCN only)
Dwars door Vlaanderen (live on 31/3): Kirby & Blythe
GP Miguel Indurain: (live on 3/4): Jez Cox & Blythe
Ronde van Vlaanderen (live on 4/4): Kirby & Blythe
Itzulia Basque Country: (live from 5/4): tbc
Scheldeprijs (live on 7/4): tbc
Presidential Tour of Turkey (live from 11/4): tbc
 
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But if that's what you and some others care for there are many good poetry slammers and theatre people who know absolutely nothing about cycling but who sure could be taught some basics and would probably do the job... Why Kirby? ;)

You're gonna have to ask that question to the people responsible for hiring staff. I can't say for sure, but the fact my man Carlton Kirby can pick Sebastien Reichebach out of a police line-up would give him a leg up on the competition.
 
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Just out of curiousity - only started watching with English commentating relatively recently - does he ever correct any of his mistakes live?

There was a time in recent years when my man Carlton Kirby would apologize for stepping on his own shadow. I can only imagine that was a result of those carrying pitchforks who descended on his Twitter page to say he is a waste of human skin. That would make anyone with the thickest of skin become a bit uppity.
Thankfully he realizes he's just calling a bike race and it's totally normal to misidentify a rider. No biggie.
 
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Thankfully he realizes he's just calling a bike race and it's totally normal to misidentify a rider. No biggie.

Of course it's normal, it's also normal to acknowledge your mistakes. I'll give you an example (not ES commentators, but anyway):
During stage 1 of Catalunya, Danish commentators were discussing the chances of Kron in the late break - turns out, they were pretty good - at one point one of them mentioned how he didn't know much about the Cofidis rider, who had at first been misidentified in the graphics as Thomas Champion. When one of the others pointed out that the graphics had been corrected to say Remy Rochas, the first commentator pointed out that... he doesn't know much about him either.
There are plenty others, they just correct themselves, maybe joke a little about it, and carry on.
 
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Of course it's normal, it's also normal to acknowledge your mistakes. I'll give you an example (not ES commentators, but anyway):
During stage 1 of Catalunya, Danish commentators were discussing the chances of Kron in the late break - turns out, they were pretty good - at one point one of them mentioned how he didn't know much about the Cofidis rider, who had at first been misidentified in the graphics as Thomas Champion. When one of the others pointed out that the graphics had been corrected to say Remy Rochas, the first commentator pointed out that... he doesn't know much about him either.
There are plenty others, they just correct themselves, maybe joke a little about it, and carry on.

Yes, that's really nice. Chris Anker Sørensen is becoming a great commentator, I think. He may not have the best voice for it but he is extremely knowledgeable, is good at identifying riders, he is funny and just a nice guy through and through. Rolf may not be as precise with his analyses but at least he owns up to that and knows that he is an eternal optimist and is able to joke about that too. Also, cycling without his voice on TV2 would just be wrong. And then we have Rasmus Staghøj. I may never become his biggest fan but he doesn't fall through, either.
 
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Of course it's normal, it's also normal to acknowledge your mistakes. I'll give you an example (not ES commentators, but anyway):
During stage 1 of Catalunya, Danish commentators were discussing the chances of Kron in the late break - turns out, they were pretty good - at one point one of them mentioned how he didn't know much about the Cofidis rider, who had at first been misidentified in the graphics as Thomas Champion. When one of the others pointed out that the graphics had been corrected to say Remy Rochas, the first commentator pointed out that... he doesn't know much about him either.
There are plenty others, they just correct themselves, maybe joke a little about it, and carry on.

Exactly how it should be done. We're not talking about the Cuban Missile Crisis.
And by the way, I challenge anyone to identify more than one rider from Cofidis. That team should be called Casper the Friendly Ghost, for ffs.
 
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If you make a living as a commentator and you can't do that, I think you should find a different job to be honest, cause then you haven't taken your current one serious enough.

Easy there, Samu. The comment you quoted was meant as a joke. You know, Cofidis rarely wins, so who would know a rider? Just a lame joke is all.
Unless a commentator was assigned to a grand tour and given weeks to learn about every single rider in the peloton, I can't see why anyone should be expected to know everything about every rider. If that was a job requirement and the applicant didn't fit the bill, they wouldn't be hired.
Also, I can't see why anyone would get angry about something like this, but that's just me. Seriously, who the hell cares?
p.s. At least the comment wasn't directed toward the lovely and talented Carlton Kirby.
 
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I have every sympathy with him for matters of rider identification: I have said many times here that the sport could do far more to assist the viewers (and commentators, and probably commissaires when there are infractions of the rules) by making riders more identifiable.

But a commentator's job is to inform and entertain. I have no doubt that Kirby believes that he entertains us thoroughly with his quips, jokes and wittering, and I do not envy any cycling commentator the amount of air time they have to (or feel they have to) fill.

But when he (or any commentator) fails to inform himself about the basic circumstances of the race (time bonuses, sprint points, who is the most combative) or the sport (which races WorldTeams have to enter cropped up recently), then I do not see how he can in conscience claim that he is discharging the role of informing the viewer.
 
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