Cycling UK Forum

http://road.cc/content/news/50033-itv4- ... until-2015

Ch4's coverage of the Tour is terrible,thats if you can wade through the adverts and whilst Phil and friend's commentary is slick its way too slick for my taste.
Give me the more laidback Eurosport team anytime,Kelly is great.David Harmon is human and theres a lot less adverts.
I'd be piddled off good style if I only had CH4 for TdeF coverage.
But TBH I'd rather watch the Giro anytime as its more real,the strada bianca stages last year were unbeatable cycle race viewing,or the one day Classics given the choice,especially if Moto Gp doesn't clash with Paris Roubaix and it gets full coverage .
Just my 2d's woth

PS I miss Duffers like I miss my Grandad,loved him.

reohn2 wrote: Give me the more laidback Eurosport team anytime,Kelly is great.David Harmon is human and theres a lot less adverts.

Each to their own preferences, but doesn't the complete lack of Eurosport's editorial control hack you off? The stage has finished, the first page of the provisional GC or stage finish is flashed up for 1/2 sec against the stunning backdrop of a castle or whatever, they just about manage to say thank you and goodbye and we are whisked off to motorbike racing...... It's all seems very inconsistent if not unprofessional?

I'm sure I see many more interviews with the British riders (and indeed the other main names) on ITV than I do on Eurosport.

I'm happy to watch Eurosport and like all the presenters, but ITV wins for me.

I've not watched Eurosport since the satellite receiver packed up, not long after it became British Eurosport and the only free version was on a German channel. I take it from the comments above that the inimitable Duffers is no longer in the commentary box.

If you want to understand more about ITV's and others coverage of the tour then read Ned Boulting's "How I won the Yellow Jumper" - an insightful account of the trials and tribulations of being a cycling journalist on the telly. Coverage of LeTour will have a whole new meaning for me this year having read it.

The beeb do of course cover the track cycling fairly extensively with Hugh and Jill

Independant TV coverage of sporting events need lots of money from sponsors, so there will be lots of adverts.

Eurosport have 'Eurosport player' which I watch. It's about £40 per year. This is revenue which can reduce the number of adverts Eurosport need to run.

C4's coverage IMHO, is aimed at the schoolboys who are considering getting into racing. That's good.
Eurosport is more cerebral. They discuss tactics and technical stuff that would fly over the average twelve year old's head.

I watch both channels.

Duffers is a local Midlands bloke. He's been seen on his trike up the Malverns.

Dave Harmon is also a midlander, as I believe.
Don't knock him. The CTC is on his list of 'following' Twitters.

DavidT wrote: but doesn't the complete lack of Eurosport's editorial control hack you off? The stage has finished, the first page of the provisional GC or stage finish is flashed up for 1/2 sec against the stunning backdrop of a castle or whatever, they just about manage to say thank you and goodbye and we are whisked off to motorbike racing...... It's all seems very inconsistent if not unprofessional?

I take your point but only slighty,it doesn't happen every day.I've long since realised that cycling on "British"Eurosport is a (very) minority sport and as such sometime it isn't going to get first pull where ratings are concerned and because of that it can be hacked down and changed around sometimes without notice.Its usually Tennis or Moto GP that are the main problem,so yes I do feel short changed occasionally but only occasionally.
If I've seen the stage and I'm upto speed I not too mythered about the Champagne splash.FWIW I quite like the historic info Harmon provides and some of the dry humour that only an Irishman of Kelly's cycling calibre can provide not to mention his very real insight into team tactics and overall knowledge that no one else quite gets to grips with.

I'm sure I see many more interviews with the British riders (and indeed the other main names) on ITV than I do on Eurosport.

I don't need that,I watch the racing,interviews are a PR exercise IMO

I'm happy to watch Eurosport and like all the presenters, but ITV wins for me.

I wouldn't do for us all to be the same

Each to their own preferences

Agreed!

I don't know why people are moaning abt CH4, they haven't covered the TdF for a couple of years at least and it has pretty much the same pundits and race commentary team on ITV4 as it was back when CH4 had it. I don't normally watch Eurosport but caught some coverage of thegiro I think it was, whilst Kelly was a great rider & obviously has a 1st hand in depth knowledge of the pro peleton he didn't come across that great to be fair. in my opinion of course.
ATEOTD, if you don't like what's been said, watch it and turn the volume down...simplez.

Think yourselves lucky that you are not living in the 1950's. Most of us did not even have TV's. We had to rely on the brief results in the newpapers, and if lucky, a report. Coureur/Sporting Cyclist magazine had good reports but well after the Tour had finished. Cycling (now Cycling Weekly) was more interested in time trials, just as the current magazine is more interested in sportives. However, we could buy, even in small Lincolnshire towns, the top French cycling magazines with wonderful photos and full results. But if we wanted to find out more we had to get on our bikes and go over to France, Italy and Spain to see the big tours. What memories and stages.

ITV4 provided wonderful coverage last year - ok the ads are annoying - but at least it is on Freeview.

Up the League.

Tonyf33 wrote:I don't know why people are moaning abt CH4, they haven't covered the TdF for a couple of years at least and it has pretty much the same pundits and race commentary team on ITV4 as it was back when CH4 had it. I don't normally watch Eurosport but caught some coverage of thegiro I think it was, whilst Kelly was a great rider & obviously has a 1st hand in depth knowledge of the pro peleton he didn't come across that great to be fair. in my opinion of course.
ATEOTD, if you don't like what's been said, watch it and turn the volume down...simplez.

Ah yes, its ITV4 now. Not difficult to think its still C4. "Same old faces"....

I too find eurosport to be a better program but the scheduling is very patchy, the only way i get to watch it is to record the highlights and on many occasion they have shown a completely different sport .
So when i have a choice of what channel to watch it on I would rather be sure i can watch it at all rather than just hoping tennis or motorsport has taken its place.

Sean Kelly for me every time although it's a while since I could get Eurosport. He's the only one who doesn't seem to aping somebody else. Bear in mind that he's not there as the commentator but as the expert pundit. Although it's obviously a while now since he retired he knows what's going on in the race and he has so much respect within the sport he can get the inside stories but he's a taciturn type and unless he's asked, the stuff never comes out. It's obviously a few years ago now, when Zabel passed Kelly's record for the number of Green Jerseys. Duffers must have asked him a dozen times what it was like losing the record and what could he really say? After the satge finish zabel went into see them and Duffers started again. Zabel pointed out that Kelly had been his hero before he started racing and then his role model, and he had come to pay his respects.

I always assumed that Duffers was basing his style on Test Match Special. (He went to a lot of trouble to disguise what I suspect was very little understanding of French and therefore the race radio.) Phil L., - another with huge knowledge - goes for the Murray Walker impersonation and I don't think I'm the only one to be irritated by his over-simplification. Paul Sherwen is another ex-rider with loads of insight, but often at the opposite end of the peloton from Sean K. (Whatever happened tho the fanzine "Well, Phil..." )

In my past incarnation as a part-time worker , I used to love the daily Eurosport coverage of "Le Tour" . You can't believe how often I found I had some necessary ironing to do which required me to be stuck in front of the TV for the duration of the day's ride....highlights are all very well, but to get the genuine flavour you have to watch the whole race, and yes, you do get some completely irrelevant and off-topic comments. David Duffield was the absolute master of those.

This year, as I've only been offered a part-time post after our restructure I'm looking forward to a couple of days a week stretching out the ironing to cover whole days coverage of the race...

the glorious scenery helps of course. The Giro and Vuelta might be better bike rides for the purists, but you can't beat La Belle France for scenery.

Jan

I've never subscribed to Euro or Sky sports - just have freeview. I did hear a "commentary" by Duffers once and that was enough to put me off the subscription channels for life. I believe the ITV coverage is a direct lift from the French TV with a syndicated commentary from Phil and Paul which serves USA, Australia and the UK. As they are serving different channels at the same time they need to take into account the various commercial breaks across the globe. You often hear Paul Sherwen talking but no Phil because he is giving a seperate commentary for another station at the same time. When Phil rejoines he may repeat something Paul said because he didn't hear him say it! At the same time they are listening to race radio - in French - watching the monitors and the clocks. They also do the commentary for World Cycling Productions, who produce the DVDs in the CW shop. Being an American firm who pay quite a bit towards the coverage, Paul and Phil do tend to pick out the USA riders and comment on the number of "top professional USA teams these days". I'm used to Phil and Paul so can excuse the odd mistake. I'm just grateful that we actually get the Tour on terestial TV these days. As for the adverts; I record onto our hard drive recorder. If I'm at home during the day's live broadcasts I let about 30 mins of the race go then start to watch what has been recorded so I can fast forward through the L-O-N-G commercials. I tend to catch up the live streaming before the end though!

PaulB wrote: I believe the ITV coverage is a direct lift from the French TV with a syndicated commentary from Phil and Paul which serves USA, Australia and the UK. As they are serving different channels at the same time they need to take into account the various commercial breaks across the globe.

Although ITV also provide Ned Boulting, Gary Imlach and Chris Boardman all featured in our own (i.e UK biased) editorial features and discussions?