Rob Hatch

[Kaptain Kool]

I always mute the races but they still get my money so I guess they know what they're doing.

 

[awavey]

Ughhh....the end of the stage today....Hatch become unbearable.

theres 3hrs of Simon Brotherton commentating on the BBC Iplayer, which I guarantee will change your mind on that

if you cant get a bit misty eyed and hyperbolic to see G lead out Cav for a sprint win like that, after this Giro especially, wheres your emotional heart

I liked that Hatch went full on with that finish, because it probably deserved it for once.

 

[ashhutch1997]

Rob & the team must be reading this thread. Why would Dan so profusely praise Rob otherwise today? Poor guy.

It was a bit weird, like Hatch was just doing his job, it's not like he's done anything out of the ordinary. I must admit, Hatch wasn't as annoying as usual in this years Giro, focused on the racing and didn't do his usual overreaction whenever a rider fell off like he sometimes does.
Although I must say, him calling Jumbo Visma the 'killer bees' was starting to grate on me.

 

[ashhutch1997]

It was a bit strange that he didn't manage to calculate what time Thomas needed to finish in but just said that "it looks like it will not be enough", when the time had already passed. A bit too focused on the pathos there.

Agreed, go and watch Phil Ligett when commentating the final TT in the 1989 TDF, he straight away told the time he needed to be faster than and counted down.
It didn't help that there were no graphics giving us a countdown or a time he needed to beat. I remember there being one when Tom Dumoulin beat Quintana in 2017.

 

[Potomac]

theres 3hrs of Simon Brotherton commentating on the BBC Iplayer, which I guarantee will change your mind on that

if you cant get a bit misty eyed and hyperbolic to see G lead out Cav for a sprint win like that, after this Giro especially, wheres your emotional heart

I liked that Hatch went full on with that finish, because it probably deserved it for once.

I dislike Thomas, I dislike when commentators say G, I dislike Cavendish. So I was anything but misty eyed.

 

[Leggitte]

I dislike when commentators say G,

With Derek Gee doing so well, surely you are warming to commentators say G.
Or is Gee the new G

 

[Sciatic]

Agreed, go and watch Phil Ligett when commentating the final TT in the 1989 TDF, he straight away told the time he needed to be faster than and counted down.
It didn't help that there were no graphics giving us a countdown or a time he needed to beat. I remember there being one when Tom Dumoulin beat Quintana in 2017.

Any decent announcer would do that. A few seconds after Roglic crossed the line the French Eurosport announcers had announced the time Thomas would need, and repeated throughout the next several minutes.

 

[Wyndbrook]

I dislike Thomas, I dislike when commentators say G, I dislike Cavendish. So I was anything but misty eyed.

Oh dear, you seem to have alot of dislikes.

 

[Red Rick]

Agreed, go and watch Phil Ligett when commentating the final TT in the 1989 TDF, he straight away told the time he needed to be faster than and counted down.
It didn't help that there were no graphics giving us a countdown or a time he needed to beat. I remember there being one when Tom Dumoulin beat Quintana in 2017.

If I remember correctly the countdown with Quintana was actually wrong because he missed that countdown by only 10s or something when he lost that Giro by 31s.

 

[ashhutch1997]

If I remember correctly the countdown with Quintana was actually wrong because he missed that countdown by only 10s or something when he lost that Giro by 31s

Yeah I actually think that was done on purpose to make it look closer than it was

 

[Axel Hangleck]

yes its Simon Brotherton whose commentating style is to read out procycling stats and say things like "her teammates are the ones behind in the multi coloured jerseys...".

That's what happens when you get somebody who only commentates on cycling occasionally - and is more likely to be heard at a football match. Saying that, he's not bad, and could be pretty good if he did it regularly.....

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Nicole Cooke ("Knee-coal Kok", it sounded like, but maybe that's the way they pronounce it in the Valleys, he's the expert on accents).

At least he manages to pronounce place names from his own country correctly. The man on Ride London Classique duties kept referring to Maldon (1st syllable should be as in maul, or the Mall in London) with a short a (rhyming it with pal) when talking of the main venue for stage 2.

If you don't know (which is reasonable), just ask someone rather than guess and be supremely confident in that guess.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Ughhh....the end of the stage today....Hatch become unbearable.

At least he had reason to mention Cavendish today: he mentioned him about 4 times in the last 500m on stage 17 when he was absolutely not a factor.

 

[awavey]

That's what happens when you get somebody who only commentates on cycling occasionally - and is more likely to be heard at a football match. Saying that, he's not bad, and could be pretty good if he did it regularly.....

its just stuff like he kept talking about the leader wearing the yellow jersey and then his commentating style is all about just picking out riders he recognises, especially if theyre British, and then describing their jersey or listing abunch of stats about them, its not actually commentating on the race and has that classic newbie sees a rider on the front theyre suddenly going for victory approach of reading a race, not just doing a stint to setup a team mate or helping a break form.

if Hatch spent his whole time going and theres Roglic riding for Jumbo Visma, theyre on the left of the screen wearing a yellow jersey with black lettering, just passing Geraint Thomas, who is an olympic gold medal cyclist and has won 25 stage races, 2 gold medals and been world champion 3 times, riding for Ineos, theyre on the right in the blue and red fade jerseys.

I think people would rightly have issues with that style. Hatch might make mistakes sometimes, noones perfect, but he does at least know how to call a bike race properly imo.

 

[awavey]

At least he manages to pronounce place names from his own country correctly. The man on Ride London Classique duties kept referring to Maldon (1st syllable should be as in maul, or the Mall in London) with a short a (rhyming it with pal) when talking of the main venue for stage 2.

If you don't know (which is reasonable), just ask someone rather than guess and be supremely confident in that guess.

GCN or Beeb coverage ? actually the host guy on the microphone at the stages was doing that too iirc

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

GCN or Beeb coverage ? actually the host guy on the microphone at the stages was doing that too iirc

GCN. But even worse if the bloke on the spot was doing it and winding up the locals. Simply shows lack of respect.

 

[awavey]

GCN. But even worse if the bloke on the spot was doing it and winding up the locals. Simply shows lack of respect.

so that was Marty MacDonald then, cant say Ive noted him getting stuff like that wrong before, I couldnt listen to the whole thing to see if it spread to Dani Rowe to in their conversations,she was telling this great story about how the Lifeplus Wahoo rider out on the solo attack should use her garmin to follow the route.

But I did watch the highlights though and they managed to avoid saying Maldon once in a nearly an hour, which is quite impressive for a stage that starts and finishes there.

as for the hired mic, they just bring people in to get the crowd hitting the boards, and Becca Charlton whose job it was to say Lizzie Deignan as often as possible so it seemed.

 

[Sciatic]

so that was Marty MacDonald then, cant say Ive noted him getting stuff like that wrong before, I couldnt listen to the whole thing to see if it spread to Dani Rowe to in their conversations,she was telling this great story about how the Lifeplus Wahoo rider out on the solo attack should use her garmin to follow the route.

But I did watch the highlights though and they managed to avoid saying Maldon once in a nearly an hour, which is quite impressive for a stage that starts and finishes there.

as for the hired mic, they just bring people in to get the crowd hitting the boards, and Becca Charlton whose job it was to say Lizzie Deignan as often as possible so it seemed.

Speaking of the live announcers on the loudspeaker at races, anyone know why the announcer at Saturday’s Giro Stage 20 finish line was calling the race in English and not Italian? Surprised me—you would never hear a Tour de France announcer speaking in anything but French.

 

[Armchair Cyclist]

Speaking of the live announcers on the loudspeaker at races, anyone know why the announcer at Saturday’s Giro Stage 20 finish line was calling the race in English and not Italian? Surprised me—you would never hear a Tour de France announcer speaking in anything but French.

I think I overheard both English and Italian, probably saying the same thing in each language. They hope that the Giro will have brought in visitors, and although not all of them will be native Anglophones, it is more likely to be understood by a larger proportion of non-Italian speakers than any other language.

 

[fmk_RoI]

Speaking of the live announcers on the loudspeaker at races, anyone know why the announcer at Saturday’s Giro Stage 20 finish line was calling the race in English and not Italian? Surprised me—you would never hear a Tour de France announcer speaking in anything but French.

If you listened to the background noise and tuned Hatch out it was both English and Italian, one after the other.

In fact Barry Ryan references it in an article, with one of the Jumbo riders calling for the announcement to be made in English.

When the speaker at the finish announced, in Italian, that Roglič had already pulled back 16 seconds on Thomas at the second intermediate check, Oomen threw his hands up in annoyance: “Say it in English too!” Confirmation from the on-screen graphic did little to defuse the prevailing tension.

As for the Tour ... English is the race's lingua franca for a decade now. And hasn't Ant McCrossan been one of ASO's English announcers at the Tour?

 

[RedheadDane]

I hate the fact that "English is the lingua Franca" is a sentence that actually makes sense!

 

[Sciatic]

I think I overheard both English and Italian, probably saying the same thing in each language. They hope that the Giro will have brought in visitors, and although not all of them will be native Anglophones, it is more likely to be understood by a larger proportion of non-Italian speakers than any other language.

Stage 20 certainly brought in a lot of visitors and it looked like 95% of them were Slovenians!

 

[Wyndbrook]

Speaking of the live announcers on the loudspeaker at races, anyone know why the announcer at Saturday’s Giro Stage 20 finish line was calling the race in English and not Italian? Surprised me—you would never hear a Tour de France announcer speaking in anything but French.

That's Anthony McCrossan, brother of Marty McDonald.
Maybe wrong , but I believe he is employed by UCI or ASO as start and finish race announcer for all world tour races.
Keeps him away from GCN who used to work for, not my favourite.

 

[Carrick-On-Seine]

That's Anthony McCrossan, brother of Marty McDonald.
Maybe wrong , but I believe he is employed by UCI or ASO as start and finish race announcer for all world tour races.
Keeps him away from GCN who used to work for, not my favourite.

Hopefully Hatch gets a job like that.

 

[Kaptain Kool]

Hatch is more listenable than McCrossan, I'll give him that.