Cycling UK Forum

It's a pity there seems to be no easy way to pick up the relevant national TV channel which, I presume, nowadays transmits these races in full without adverts. It would mean relying on the on-screen captions and online race details, with no commentary except for speakers of the relevant language but that's no great loss. It would mean eg that if the camera cut away to something else like a personality at the finish you might not know who it was but the English language commentators often haven't a clue either.

Commentators in any sport tend to be a matter of personal taste.

thirdcrank wrote:Commentators in any sport tend to be a matter of personal taste.

Very true.

Sean Kelly is like Marmite and, I for one, cannot stand his incessant monotone drone.

borisface wrote: ↑12 Aug 2021, 2:11pm I take it you're not a fan of Carlton Kirby either! I don't think there's much wrong with Rob Hatch's pronunciation. He says it in the accent appropriate to the language in question. His Spanish pronunciation is excellent - it just sounds odd to an English-speaker's ear. Remember that Eurosport commentary is not just for a UK audience. However, I do find Hatch irritating and really quite boring.

It's funny you should say that! I only just discovered which one he is - I just used to call him "Hissing Sid" before. And you're right - I don't like him either! Two reasons for that:

1. He's constantly laughing at his own comments, which aren't usually funny.
2. He sucks air through his teeth after every single bloody sentence, like a car mechanic just before they tell you how much the repair bill is going to be.

I've not regularly heard Sean Kelly since our BskyB box packed up. Bearing in mind he was reputed to be the last rider in the pro peloton to switch from toe-clips, I can imagine some of his knowledge is a bit dated, but I always found him an excellent commentator. Unusual for a former top sportsman, it wasn't all about the character from La Bohème - Me, me. Unfortunately, having been based in Flanders, he didn't know the French to fill in for Duffers. (I'm talking about him in the past tense - perhaps he changed.)

thirdcrank wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 12:19pm I've not regularly heard Sean Kelly since our BskyB box packed up. Bearing in mind he was reputed to be the last rider in the pro peloton to switch from toe-clips, I can imagine some of his knowledge is a bit dated, but I always found him an excellent commentator. Unusual for a former top sportsman, it wasn't all about the character from La Bohème - Me, me. Unfortunately, having been based in Flanders, he didn't know the French to fill in for Duffers. (I'm talking about him in the past tense - perhaps he changed.)

The old story about Kelly was that he was so taciturn that he nodded in answer to a question in a radio interview.
He is a bit more talkative these days.

thirdcrank wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 11:28am It's a pity there seems to be no easy way to pick up the relevant national TV channel which, I presume, nowadays transmits these races in full without adverts.

It's probably not too difficult to play https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/directo ... eales/tdp/ if it won't play automatically (La 1 and 2 play, but I wouldn't be surprised if the race is only shown on a geo-restricted minor channel). It's also not that difficult to put a £70 little caravan satellite dish outside, run the cables to the TV through the supplied receiver and aim it at the pretty strong Eurosport German signal.

Live coverage isn't a big problem. The real problem is finding good highlights for those at work who can't watch hours of TV every day. itv4 have become pretty good at this, even in their barebones Vuelta shows which I think were made with Gary in one computer-projected studio somewhere with Ned and Dave in different commentary booths near their homes. GCN/Eurosport/Quest (it has a bit of an identity crisis!) are awful, worse than the non-v2v itv/Sweetspot Tour Series and Tours of Britain highlights... some have suggested it's worse than the BBC world-championships coverage but I suspect they're thinking of the live coverage and not the highlights.

Even on foreign-language channels that I can watch, I've yet to spot decent Vuelta highlights of 30-60 minutes.

I've always thought that many sports that are televised frequently and freely, such as football, rugby, cricket, and indoor games such as snooker, darts et al, only require a few people with static cameras to focus on the action, and that cycle road racing is far more complicated in that it's on the move from one place to another and requires a lot of cameras as static, motorcycle, on board car, helicopter, and more recently drone cameras and tiny on board bicycle-cams, all this must intail quite a number of people for the recording, editing and paying of fees etc.

Even motorsport car/motorcycle filming is easy in that they tend to be on a closed loop circuit coarse, and go around lap after lap, but it must involve many complications and expense to film cycle road racing...

Debs wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 2:51pm I've always thought that many sports that are televised frequently and freely, such as football, rugby, cricket, and indoor games such as snooker, darts et al, only require a few people with static cameras to focus on the action, and that cycle road racing is far more complicated in that it's on the move from one place to another and requires a lot of cameras as static, motorcycle, on board car, helicopter, and more recently drone cameras and tiny on board bicycle-cams, all this must intail quite a number of people for the recording, editing and paying of fees etc.

Even motorsport car/motorcycle filming is easy in that they tend to be on a closed loop circuit coarse, and go around lap after lap, but it must involve many complications and expense to film cycle road racing...

A large football game will easily be 30+ cameras, more than Euromedia would use for the TdF.

There's usually an OB truck set up near the finish line with some static cameras. All the rest comes from the 5 or 6 camera bikes which link via the helicopters.

mjr wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 1:11pm

thirdcrank wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 11:28am It's a pity there seems to be no easy way to pick up the relevant national TV channel which, I presume, nowadays transmits these races in full without adverts.

It's probably not too difficult to play https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/directo ... eales/tdp/ if it won't play automatically (La 1 and 2 play, but I wouldn't be surprised if the race is only shown on a geo-restricted minor channel).

I was wrong and it's on https://www.rtve.es/play/videos/directo ... ales/la-1/ which plays fine here after a long buffering delay.

st599_uk wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 3:19pm There's usually an OB truck set up near the finish line with some static cameras. All the rest comes from the 5 or 6 camera bikes which link via the helicopters.

And as we've been shown during bad weather, the bigger races now have a small plane to provide a more stable link from the helicopters, or to provide at least some link for some of the motorbikes when the weather is too bad for helicopters to fly.

At the bigger races, up to 2 or 3 breakaway groups get a motorbike camera with each of them, then there's one camera at the front of the peloton, one at the back of it watching who gets dropped, and then one off the back which gets used to replace any of the others if needed or films the groupetto if not. That's why sometimes riders can get "lost" from TV coverage if a breakaway explodes into a dozen bits or if they are in the groupetto and the back bike has to replace another.

Darkman wrote: ↑19 Aug 2021, 12:16pm

borisface wrote: ↑12 Aug 2021, 2:11pm I take it you're not a fan of Carlton Kirby either! I don't think there's much wrong with Rob Hatch's pronunciation. He says it in the accent appropriate to the language in question. His Spanish pronunciation is excellent - it just sounds odd to an English-speaker's ear. Remember that Eurosport commentary is not just for a UK audience. However, I do find Hatch irritating and really quite boring.

It's funny you should say that! I only just discovered which one he is - I just used to call him "Hissing Sid" before. And you're right - I don't like him either! Two reasons for that:

1. He's constantly laughing at his own comments, which aren't usually funny.
2. He sucks air through his teeth after every single bloody sentence, like a car mechanic just before they tell you how much the repair bill is going to be.

Thanks for reason number 2. Now I can hear nothing else.

I got advert free coverage of the Giro and TDF on Eurosport but not the Vuelta. The Quest evening coverage is poor and nothing like ITV4 which I miss.

The advantage of Eurosport is live coverage of several races at the same time - today the GP Plouay with a new name, was a good choice, especially with a herd of cows on the course, and the Tour of Germany competed with the Vuelta for attention. The chat programmes following race coverage are crap, as are rider interviews. Match of the Day has the same problem - better to watch the goals on YouTube.

pga wrote:. The chat programmes following race coverage are crap, as are rider interviews. .

Quest seem to have hit a new low with post race discussions which tell me nothing about what has happened, or about the next day's prospects.

Rider interviews can - if handled professionally - give an insight into personality. Unfortunately we're getting an increasing number of "How did you manage to win today?" type questions, which can't be answered sensibly by an exhausted rider in his second / third language in a soundbite!

Come back ITV 4 all is forgotten /

I think they blew most of the budget on Orla's hair and outfits, which are radically different each day. Contrast Bradley Wiggins, who seems to own only one jumper and a pair of excessively-tight trousers.

rogerzilla wrote: ↑31 Aug 2021, 2:05pm I think they blew most of the budget on Orla's hair and outfits, which are radically different each day. Contrast Bradley Wiggins, who seems to own only one jumper and a pair of excessively-tight trousers.

Correct! Orla is a good presenter and well informed. Brad seems to be transitioning from super human racing snake to mere mortal proportions. The only saving grace from the dire editing is the race itself doesn't seem to have started yet and the fashion on the sofa adds interest.