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Eurosport commentary

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The Hitch said:
And according to ES betting websites base their odds on these guys.

What a joke.
That's cos at the Tour you get a lot of people who don't normally watch cycling - who will listen to these guys' mistakes and believe them - who are prepared to put some money on it. The betting sites know which side of the bread has butter on it. They've made a lot of money out of bets on Armstrong and Wiggins in the last year or two.
 
Apr 12, 2010
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Midnightfright said:
I'm guessing the bald glasses wearing Cav fanboy? As opposed to Magnus. Yesterday he was saying he expects BMC to be the dominant team in the mountains.

John Herety isn't that bad at least he tipped Samu for his win
 
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Anonymous

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I have now done text commentary for between four and five hours for 13 days. And that on its own is tough, but at least I can take breaks when there is nothing going on.

There is no way on earth I could commentate for five hours, on a stage like thursdays and remain sane.

As we said when Kirkby's mad female stalker was here, if anyone here can do their jobs half as well, then they can critisize
 
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luckyboy said:
Ah so that's why you haven't been on the forum much (at all?) during the race.

yup. ive been busy working my fingers down to their stumps.

This was thursdays marathon session
 
Boardslide said:
John Herety isn't that bad at least he tipped Samu for his win

Not really. Herety didnt even bring Sanchez up. Richardson was talking about guys that might surprise that hadnt been named, then said "some interesting words coming from Sanchez isnt that right John", to wich the bald guy read out the story about how Samu said he might work with Contador.

He then said that Sanchez was a guy who isnt a gc contender (unlike Wiggins and Evans for example:rolleyes:).

So yes hes very very bad.

The other guy was then asked to name another rider who was not to well known but might challenge.

When before the stage Richardson asked them both to name the winner, neither picked Samu.

But after the race, since the only names ever mentioned in the studio are Cav Evans, the Schlecks and Contador, and someone who had been mentioned before hand won, they were like OMG you said this Sanechez guys name beforehand.
 
OMG did anyone see when they were interviewing Contador and they took it over to Kirby to translate and instead of translating, or letting Contador talk so that those who speak Spanish could hear what the man had to say, Kirby dismissed what Contador was saying "hes talking about history" and started talking about Cadel on the podium.

I know he loves Cadel but that was not what he was supposed to do. I wanted to hear what Contador had to say.

I also think Kirby makes up a lot of what he translates. Its often quite general what he says. For instance you hear someone talking for a minute and Kirby says " Im feeling tired but I hope i win" which is what anyone could have guessed but highly unlikely that it takes a minute for them to simply say they want to win.
 
May 17, 2011
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I wonder if Sean Kelly would commentate on his own. He seems to comment only when Hammond requests him to. He hardly takes the initiative to comment. Certainly they shouldn't be paired with Kirby. Or Sean wouldn't talk at ALL :p
 
After my first Tour without Eurosport I can honestly say it will not happen again. The difference between Eurosport and ITV coverage is mind boggling (although thats not saying much). Had to watch the last 2 stages on mute because I just couldnt take it anymore. Harmon, Kelly and Kirby do what is a very hard job exceedingly well.
 
Richeypen said:
After my first Tour without Eurosport I can honestly say it will not happen again. The difference between Eurosport and ITV coverage is mind boggling (although thats not saying much). Had to watch the last 2 stages on mute because I just couldnt take it anymore. Harmon, Kelly and Kirby do what is a very hard job exceedingly well.

Couldn't disagree more - harmon consistently gets lost when commentating sprint finishes while phil and Paul spend more time commentating on the race rather than talk s**te when in the thick of the action
 
Mshengu said:
I wonder if Sean Kelly would commentate on his own. He seems to comment only when Hammond requests him to. He hardly takes the initiative to comment. Certainly they shouldn't be paired with Kirby. Or Sean wouldn't talk at ALL :p

Sean is generally a man of few words for sure. But his job is to offer analysis rather than describe the action. I think he does this better than any other English speaking commentator.

T
 
Jul 19, 2011
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I always wonder what runs through Kelly's head when Harmon goes off on his doping rants. He always falls silent. That said, Harmon does seem to direct most of his doping anger at non-anglophones. Why doesn't anyone hate Leipheimer for failing a test?
 
Jul 14, 2009
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180mmCrank said:
Sean is generally a man of few words for sure. But his job is to offer analysis rather than describe the action. I think he does this better than any other English speaking commentator.

T
Sean knows economy he says things like "difficulty" when a guy is getting shelled or completely blows. He really knows the game and it shows from the overall outcome of the broadcast. I watched 4 or so stages on VS instead of Eurosport and I almost turned it off.

Kelly made an awesome tour even better. The ezzholes that kept up turning off the links due to copy write violations should be force fed rotten cabbage. Thank you Sean and ES for great day to day of the tour.

The US stations should hit the reset button on our commentators
 
I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.
 
Jul 16, 2010
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Cycle Chic said:
I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

Oh boohoo, I've seen so many professional cyclists train without their helmets on like Van den Broeck and Philippe Gilbert...
 
Cycle Chic said:
I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

The point of the professional is that they CAN'T do 80% of the commentary. They're there to add analysis of what is happening, because it's the play-by-play man's job to tell us what is happening.

Séan Kelly's job is not to tell us what's happening in the sprint at the end of the stage. It's too fast for his lengthy expositions. He's there to tell us why what happened happened, after the fact, or to use his expertise to tell us what he thinks will happen before it happens. It's not his job to tell us what is happening at that present moment.
 
Jul 24, 2010
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Cycle Chic said:
I,ve just watched the Cycling 2012: Olympic Course Guide on Eurosport with David Harmon and Rob Hayles. Firstly, Harmon was not wearing a helmet while riding alongside Rob Hayles. Secondly, why do we have to watch a man who cycles for a hobby, has no journalistic experience and wangled his way on to Eurosport "by accident" , tell us about the Olympic Road Course and how the teams may ride it ?

No doubt he will be Mr Olympics all next summer, again dominating the commentary alongside his PROFESSIONAL CYCLIST CO-COMMENTATOR.

Mr Harmon I have nothing against you if you would take a back seat and let the Professional do 80% of the Cycling Commentary.

So you want cyclists doing the job of PROFESSIONAL COMMENTATORS.

Hypocrite.
 
May 25, 2009
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There are a very few brief occasions when Sean Kelly is left alone in the commentary booth. It quickly becomes clear why Harmon is necessary in that partnership.

Brian Smith is the only one of the ex-pros who can do the play-by-play stuff, it seems.
 
luckyboy said:
Never knew that. Anyone know how exactly Harmon got into this job?

Interview with Harmon from the Washington Post -

"My first love was archeology and I worked as an archaeologist."

i take it there has been racing in your career?
Yes, I did my first MTB race as an independent rider and a guy called Kerry Rochester approached me afterwards and asked me to join the Epping Forest MTB Club

what led you to commentary - do you have a background in this, such as commentating on live events?
I starting commentating purely by chance. I used to make motor sports programmes for a London based company whose boss worked each year as a commentator at the Le Mans 24 race. Unfortunately at the time, although I guess rather fortunately now, he was also the sort of man who could never turn a job down, whatever it was. When we arrived at Le Mans he just shoved me in the commentary booth and said; 'get on with it'. I had no preparation done and was all by myself but I commentated for 17 hours out of the 24, and the next year they asked me back.

Coming back to cycling was another piece of happy chance, I sent a showreel of my motor racing commentaries to Eurosport but Duffers noticed I'd been a bikie and hauled me in to have a go. We got on like a house on fire, I think a shared passion for driving minis and good single malt helped.

And thats our Eurosport Cycling Commentator !
 

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