Rob Hatch

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Yep. I liked Hatch several years ago but the last few years have been too much for me to handle in large doses. Did you know that the 2020 Giro had 17 "Ride of the Century"s? Or that 83% of the peloton is in the "Form of His Life"? Domestique for the rider 16th on GC gets a puncture with 137km to go on Stage 8, "Dearohdearohdearofdearohdearohdear!"

I really think that since GCN got more involved the producers/editors have introduced a house style which calls for more faux enthusiasm and much more Ineos.
Meanwhile their YouTube content is unwatchable unless you are a fan of Top Gear.

 

[Alexandre B.]

As a foreigner, I like him waaaaay better than Kirby.

 

[Netserk]

I really think that since GCN got more involved the producers/editors have introduced a house style which calls for more faux enthusiasm and much more Ineos.
Meanwhile their YouTube content is unwatchable unless you are a fan of Top Gear.

And then there's the non-English language streams that combine the best of both worlds. A great service for coverage and mostly really good commentators.

 

[RedheadDane]

Meanwhile their YouTube content is unwatchable unless you are a fan of Top Gear.

I liked it when they would go ask the riders more special questions.
Or the "draw a bike in 20 seconds", thing.

 

[staubsauger]

I really think that since GCN got more involved the producers/editors have introduced a house style which calls for more faux enthusiasm and much more Ineos.
Meanwhile their YouTube content is unwatchable unless you are a fan of Top Gear.

It's the same with German Eurosport actually. Their coverage has become Bora TV just like RTL Germany's Formula 1 coverage used to be Michael Schumacher TV back in the day.

They probably want to reach the young tech affine generation with this who are more used to streaming thanks to Netflix & Co.

Problem is that exactly this generation below 35 actually is quite cosmopolitan. So they probably would prefer the more global coverage style Eurosport used to have in the TF1 days, talking about cycling and its stars in general rather than this nationalistic approach known from public TV. Especially winter sports in Germany for example.

 

[Logic-is-your-friend]

What does it pay? And should it look like an accident?

 

[sir fly]

My impression is that Hatch carries out the required role better than the rest of the personnel.
Hard to imagine Lloyd (for example) building the finishing excitement to exaltation.
Maybe it's the quality of his voice that some find disliking.

Discussions during the "empty" kilometers are a thing of experience, imo.
Forementioned Kirby must've seen and visited the places numerous times during his career which made him prepared. Affinities also play a role.

The broadcast director maps the path commentators follow. Assigning the roles properly shapes the viewing pleasure.

 

[zlev11]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Blythe

I think you meant:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robbie_McEwen

I had to switch to the Italian commentary feed today (I do not speak any Italian) because I couldn't listen to this guy anymore. The final straw was when he said some room temperature IQ bro sh*t about Nibali always being under the radar or something and delivered it like he was making some genius take.

 

[gunara]

Hatch now has at least two angry threads about him, maybe only Armstrong had more in this forum, more than a decade ago.

And of the English commentators, he's probably among the ones that annoy me the least.

 

[movingtarget]

I never minded him early on, but in more recent times I suspect he's been told by those higher up to be more excitable, esp in the finales - so now he's starting to yell himself almost into Kirby territory, nowhere near as bad, but I have found myself muting him on some of the finishes lately. It might not be what he'd personally prefer though, who knows.

It's the voice more than the content while with Kirby its the opposite............

 

[jmdirt]

MUTE button

 

[King Of The Wolds]

Hatch, Kirby, Lloyd, Kelly and McEwen all have thir strengths, and are all pretty good, when used at the right time. Blythe, less so. Let's face it, listening to any commentator for 6 hours, day after day, we're going to find things that annoy us, peak Richie Benaud excepted.

Weirdly, Hatch's Lancashire accent, and it is pretty thick, has come out at times this Giro. There was one instance where he may have thought he was off air, when it was full on. He does actually try to tone it down during commentary, in an attempt to make more palatable.

 

[Jumbot]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Blythe

Yup, he's "motoring"

 

[Izzyeviel]

And why do GCN need both Blythe and McEwen ...2 sprinters who basically say the same things, make the same 'jokes' and have the same 'insights' ...there is no colour

Blythe was a sprinter?

 

[Wavystarfish]

Imagine if a French or Italian commentator put on a cockney accent or scouse accent to talk about a British cyclist. Honestly Rob Hatch May well be bilingual, good for him, but he is English and should stick to enunciating in English and stop with the Italian accent.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

Imagine if a French or Italian commentator put on a cockney accent or scouse accent to talk about a British cyclist. Honestly Rob Hatch May well be bilingual, good for him, but he is English and should stick to enunciating in English and stop with the Italian accent.

It's called enunciating words correctly. I'm sure if you had the equivilant of Rob Hatch with a native language of german or italian but can speak several languages either fluently or professionally well, then they'd do the same for english, french, spanish, etc. Doing it in a scouse or cockney accent isn't same as pronouceing a german name the german way. He just does it in what would be High German and the german equivilant of Hatch would pronounce a british name in the equivilant in 'High' English.

 

[RedheadDane]

It's not like he's commenting entire races in the accent of the country in question. He's just... pronouncing riders' - and locations' - names correctly. The Danish commentators do that too. Just today the commentator for Mayenne corrected himself in the pronunciation of Sergio Roman Martín, having initally pronounced the 'Martín' in the French way. And don't mispronounce an Italian rider's name in front of Rolf Sørensen.

BTW, talking about Martins; it just feels more natural to pronounce that name in a French manner, after a name like "Guillaume".

 

[kingjr]

It's called enunciating words correctly. I'm sure if you had the equivilant of Rob Hatch with a native language of german or italian but can speak several languages either fluently or professionally well, then they'd do the same for english, french, spanish, etc. Doing it in a scouse or cockney accent isn't same as pronouceing a german name the german way. He just does it in what would be High German and the german equivilant of Hatch would pronounce a british name in the equivilant in 'High' English.

I didn't know that Phil Bauhaus is pronounced Bawhaws in High German.

 

[lemon cheese cake]

I didn't know that Phil Bauhaus is pronounced Bawhaws in High German.

Well he will make mistakes sometimes and I didn't actually notice that.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Even sprinters find it hard to find stuff to do in sprint stages though. Bauhaus tends to get bored in the flat field.

 

[Tim Cahill]

If you dealt with Paul and Phil during the early 2000s then these lot don't seem as bad.

'Oh isnt ARMstrong such a STAR!'

 

[DoYouEvenRideBruh]

Imagine if a French or Italian commentator put on a cockney accent or scouse accent to talk about a British cyclist.

Well, Hatch doesn't pronounce Italian names in a Neapolitan or Florentine accent either. He uses standard Italian pronunciation and he's pretty good at it, so I don't really see what the big problem is. In my eyes learning to pronounce someone's names well (especially if you are doing it in a professional setting, and even more so if you have a background in their language) is a welcome sign of respect.

The average monolingual listener could use the occasion to educate themselves, so that obscenities such as "KNEE-tso-low" or "YOU-lissy" may be avoided.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

If you dealt with Paul and Phil during the early 2000s then these lot don't seem as bad.

'Oh isnt ARMstrong such a STAR!'

idk if you ignore their TdF work, IMHO the World Cycling Productions coverage was very good during that era.

 

[Big Doopie]

Phil and Paul were absolutely horrendous. Phil knew nothing about cycling. And decades later, he appeared to know even less. And World Cycling Productions made money off of Armstrong. Why they were shills for the greatest sporting fraud.

the GCN gang, though not perfect, is in a completely different league.

i could totally do without Wiggins. Who adds ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. and literally every time they turn to him he mentions Ineos or Ineos riders.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

Phil and Paul were absolutely horrendous. Phil knew nothing about cycling. And decades later, he appeared to know even less. And World Cycling Productions made money off of Armstrong. Why they were shills for the greatest sporting fraud.

the GCN gang, though not perfect, is in a completely different league.

i could totally do without Wiggins. Who adds ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. and literally every time they turn to him he mentions Ineos or Ineos riders.

And Orla is much better than Gary Imlach. He got elbowed out of his American Football gig but still does cycling for ITV I understand.