Eurosport commentary

[lemon cheese cake]

Connor Swift has been on the front a few times this season and yet, it takes an age for the Brit commentators to spot. If he had an Ineos jersey on they would be on him like a shot.

To be fair, although he's tall, I've mistaken him with a couple of the other riders on the team who've been french champs in the past. The Rings on the arms aren't very noticeable with the red jersey so I've even muddled up Barguil with other riders who haven't been french champ.

 

[tobydawq]

Credit to Blythe btw, I think he was perhaps the only one who immediately spotted Fedorov brake checking Vergaerde.

I still don't see it.

 

[kingjr]

I still don't see it.

It's not perfect, but look at the very first frame of this video, you can see Fedorov giving the brakes a little squeeze with his right hand and releasing it.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1378632510813437952

View: https://twitter.com/sporza_koers/status/1378632510813437952

 

[GenericBoonenFan]

Oh ffs, how do you even mix up "Costa Rica" with "Ecuador"?
According to him both Jefferson Cepeda and Carapaz are from Costa Rica....

(Dutch eurosport)
They've been talking about the 2 "costa ricans" in the race for the last 5 minutes...

 

[Eclipse]

Have enjoyed Kirby's bizarre phrases and similes about things like soup and beef today lol

Colossal amount of enjoyment when he just belted out

"A WHOLE TRAY OF BEEF!"

As the lead group were absolutely battering their way clear.

 

[sir fly]

Seems that Carlton's the least cool Kirby sibling...

 

[the delgados]

Seems that Carlton's the least cool Kirby sibling...

Impossible!
Please elaborate, sir!

 

[sir fly]

Impossible!
Please elaborate, sir!

A basic search should get you familiar with the biographies.
A sister of two brothers is always cool, even more so if sculpturing and living of "playing in the sand". And the brother in filmmaking sounds cooler than a journalist brother (in my book).

 

[tobydawq]

but surely the race images are vastly more important than commentary?

Not really. The two go hand in hand, I'd say.

 

[pmcg76]

ok/ given choice would members select 'ad free'.....or 'kirby free?'

ES/the silent majority must be happy with kirby...he's a pro providing seamless commentary even when there is no race action....his diction is excellent...he is fairly knowledgable about cycling and can come up with funny stuff....adam blythe89?......adam is 89 for the year wham split?

of couse i realise the kirby is always gonna to annoy a certain no. for some of the crap he spurts
but surely the race images are vastly more important than commentary?

Mark L

Watched the last two days of Basque Country with commentary muted, haven't really missed anything. Once you figure out who is who, you can see what is happening yourself......without the utter banality. That is not too say good commentary doesn't add something, but very easy to live without bad commentary. Have to say I also don't care for Jose Been(find her annoying as a commentator, but not in a Kirby way) or Marty and Dani Rowe on the Woman's race, they seem to lack in a number of areas. For someone who rode in the Woman races not long ago, I would expect Rowe to be better at identifying people which is a strength of Jose Been.

 

[Netserk]

When commercials really annoy me (i.e. watching for longer periods of time where action is possible, e.g. most Classics), I prefer no-ads with ambient sound and no commentary if Kirby (or Blythe) is there. In general, when I don't need the commentators to catch up with what has happened so far, ambient sound only is often preferable. They rarely identify riders (correctly) before I do, and the producers are good at regularly showing the images needed to inform me of the race situation. After I had seen Ronde without commentary, I rewatched the very end (from Ronse onwards) with the Danish commentators.

 

[Netserk]

I will also recommend Norwegian TV2 to my fellow Danes (which should be freely available on all Danish TVs). When they show commercials, it is with a split screen with the race still on live. They show some races that are not on (Danish) TV2's main channel, like De Ronde (but I didn't see the race live, so watched it on Eurosport Player).

 

[the delgados]

A basic search should get you familiar with the biographies.
A sister of two brothers is always cool, even more so if sculpturing and living of "playing in the sand". And the brother in filmmaking sounds cooler than a journalist brother (in my book).

I had no idea there are more than one biography in existence that includes the name of my man CK. I heard he wrote an autobiography but that's about it. Thanks for the heads up.
Your second sentence is confusing, especially the "playing in the sand" part.
Where can I get my hands on the book you wrote describing why the filmmaker brother is cooler than what I assume is

A basic search should get you familiar with the biographies.
A sister of two brothers is always cool, even more so if sculpturing and living of "playing in the sand". And the brother in filmmaking sounds cooler than a journalist brother (in my book).

sir fly, correct me if I'm wrong, but you think Carlton Kirby's brother is "cooler" than my man Carlton Kirby. Without knowing who is brother is, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and accept your claim that CK is not as "cool" as his brother.
sir, I don't know how that relates to cycling commentary. Was the cool guy overlooked for a position in the broadcast booth in favour of Carlton Kirby? Or is this just a random observation made by someone in the comment section with 120 km's remaining in the race?
We've got plenty of time and km's to discuss.

 

[sir fly]

I had no idea there are more than one biography in existence that includes the name of my man CK. I heard he wrote an autobiography but that's about it. Thanks for the heads up.
Your second sentence is confusing, especially the "playing in the sand" part.
Where can I get my hands on the book you wrote describing why the filmmaker brother is cooler than what I assume is


sir fly, correct me if I'm wrong, but you think Carlton Kirby's brother is "cooler" than my man Carlton Kirby. Without knowing who is brother is, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and accept your claim that CK is not as "cool" as his brother.
sir, I don't know how that relates to cycling commentary. Was the cool guy overlooked for a position in the broadcast booth in favour of Carlton Kirby? Or is this just a random observation made by someone in the comment section with 120 km's remaining in the race?
We've got plenty of time and km's to discuss.

I assume the general opinion is that creating fiction requires a cooler character than commenting reality... the borders are often blurred though.

 

[the delgados]

I assume the general opinion is that creating fiction requires a cooler character than commenting reality... the borders are often blurred though.

sir, we have 80 km's remaining and the break has a 7 minute lead on the peloton. Magnus has just informed us that a rider went back to get some bidons from the team car. That gives us time to delve deeper into your claim that a "cooler" character is required to create fiction. Is there a chapter in your book that describes those characteristics and how they relate to the job of a cycling commentator? You say that lines are often blurred. Do you mean to say that my man CK's commentary does not contain enough fiction? Would he be "cooler" if he just made schit up? Reason I ask is there are a lot of people here who think he does a good job of doing so. What the hell does a guy have to do to be "cooler?" How many more times will it take to mispronounce the name of a climb and misidentify a rider involved in a mass pile-up to convince you that he is being fictional?
Back to the booth. 75 km's to go and the break is maintaining a 7 minute lead.

 

[sir fly]

Depending on whether we're in the Dolomites, Alps, Pyrenees, on northern cobbles, coastline, or flatland our discussion should be developing from defining the terms we're using to more specific arguments in support of our claims.
For example "cool "... what does it mean to be "cool"? Certainly not the same in various demographic and/or professional groups. Likewise, everything and nothing to the different types of personalities.
However, turning reality into fiction does require a sort of unique talent, maybe even of the "cool' kind. Probably more appreciated and lucrative in some other walks of life, but of certain significance in commentating competitive sport too.
Turning flaws into virtues, on the other hand, is an art form in itself.

 

[Publiuszam]

And that is why the chamber of lies is a cool thread. It takes some skill in some kind of art form to post there.
As you were, gentlemen.

 

[Savant12]

Yes, he waffles on, and gets rider's names and nationalities wrong, and misstates the obvious or misses some important developing action but I still enjoy enjoy Carlton Kirby's commentary if I'm locked in for hours of viewing.

 

[Rackham]

I get the option on the Eurosport Player app to change commentary language & I always choose French commentary. I tried the English one & it was tiresome (talking over the action constantly).

I prefer listening to Jacky Durand.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

I can only imagine Jacky Durand's tactical analysis. "This is absurd! Roglič should clearly be attacking here! He is behind in this race and needs to attack, by not going now he is losing this bike race! There are over 100 riders who are not winning this race who should be attacking NOW and I don't understand why they're all so happily accepting the leader's team pacing at the front of the bunch! Nobody in this péloton has any guts and they're all racing like cowards and deserve to lose!!!"

"Jacky, this is the neutral zone"

 

[Rackham]

Right, there's probably a grain of truth there (although just recently he did say Roglic was exactly where he needed to be after losing the jersey in the Basque Country on Thursday, i.e. contrary to what others like Chris Horner are saying, so he can do subtle as well), but it's his usual great little funny anecdotes which he does best.

Like in last year's Vuelta when he spoke of his own experience on the Angliru in 1999, i.e. when he had to climb with the wrong plateau (39 x 28) because his team lacked the right equipment for everyone. He only made it to the top (last of course) because the spectators pushed him up. He even said he looked to see if he could grab or hire a mountain bike at the side of the road before the climb started.

Funny stuff.

 

[EliseeReclus]

Yes, he waffles on, and gets rider's names and nationalities wrong, and misstates the obvious or misses some important developing action but I still enjoy enjoy Carlton Kirby's commentary if I'm locked in for hours of viewing.

Perhaps it's because I'm British and I'm more familiar with the types of affectations that Kirby has, but I always enjoy his commentary despite any mistakes (to a certain extent I think they are part of his charm!).

His commentary style reminds of Test Match Special - the BBC's radio coverage of test cricket. As they're covering a slow sport (which cycling can also be at times, especially in stage races), it frequently leads to commentators going off on a tangent talking about anecdotes from previous matches/pro careers, the cakes/food they're going to enjoy in breaks in play and talking about what they see in the crowd. I think Kirby seems to come from the same type of commentary school, the waffle is a nice way to fill in the background to an event that covers several hours.

 

[Swiss Tony]

Perhaps it's because I'm British and I'm more familiar with the types of affectations that Kirby has, but I always enjoy his commentary despite any mistakes (to a certain extent I think they are part of his charm!).

His commentary style reminds of Test Match Special - the BBC's radio coverage of test cricket. As they're covering a slow sport (which cycling can also be at times, especially in stage races), it frequently leads to commentators going off on a tangent talking about anecdotes from previous matches/pro careers, the cakes/food they're going to enjoy in breaks in play and talking about what they see in the crowd. I think Kirby seems to come from the same type of commentary school, the waffle is a nice way to fill in the background to an event that covers several hours.

What ever Cricket Commentators decided to discuss during a 5 days Test they tend to be entertaining and knowledgeable.... Charlatan Kirby processes neither .... Ruins every race he tries to commentate on, he's constantly annoying... A fraud of the highest order

 

[railxmig]

I'm possibly a rare breed that actually likes Kirby mainly because of his voice, delivery, emotion and "dad jokes" that are right in my alley. However, he is balancing at the verge of being just flat out corny. He makes a lot of mistakes but at least he doesn't mumble like Kelly does. I'm not a native english speaker and i just flat out can't understand him. I thought it may be because of him being Irish but then i heard some other Irish people on the web and i had no problem understanding them.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

The main take from yesterday's commentary is that CK acknowledged that Gaudu is not pronounced like Godot, so the Samuel Beckett jokes are out the window. I could have seen that one running for a few seasons.