Painting a verbal picture of a five-hour race is stream of consciousness, and to be able to do that effectively, you just need to be there. Ive just turned Catalunya on and hes already come out with I think he fell victim to his agent, so now hes at x team. Ive fallen off the Galibier. Youre at the finish line, essentially watching the TV albeit with extra screens.. What you are talking about is a place in history. They basically work on the principle that people watching cycling in english are only interested in english speaking riders. Ive done so much and been so many places that I mostly have all of them embedded in my head. Valverde gets it very, very wrong!" exclaimed . To show no fear is the best skill of all. Its that melting pot of information that you get on-site. From dealing with the never-ending frenzy of action, and incessant radio announcements, to having to tackle the director. He further says, "In tennis, you never talk through a point because the crowd doesn't. My primary issue with Carlton Kirby is that he doesn't commentate on what is happening (he rambles whatever is inside his head). As a small example, he started talking to Magnus Backstedt about tyre widths the other day ("weren't you the 27 mm guy?") Conversely, a Carlton Kirby Fan Club exists for those who love the cycling commentator. For me, Carlton is the perfect commentator for the 'early shift' on long, flat grand tour stages. Uhhh, Ill say Bettiol. . During a long interview, the legendary veteran commentator of Eurosports shares some of his knowledge about the job. The Kirby CODEC will also be called into action as his followers on Twitter will know. It means sometimes were not actually commentating from the finish line because the Tour de France is so huge theres about 8,000 people attached to the Tour. Among an awful lot of distractions, as Carlton Kirby explains, commentating on cycling is an arduous process. You get the mood of the crowd, and of the press. And then, of course, there are the flat stages and the sprint finishes. But Mark Cavendish says no: what the track does is make you think fast, it makes you think within a very tight set of circumstances. Cue points, Kirby adds, are a bigger problem at Eurosport than with other networks, with producers calling for radio silence across the Eurosports various nationalbroadcasts to assist with the editing process. Among the big names the Belgian put time into today were Alejandro Valverde, fourth overall and 2 minutes 56 second down in fourth place overall, and Team Skys Egan Bernal, a further 1 second back. This is the video I showed Trinity School in Lewisham this morning. He said from the rider's perspective, motorbikes get far too close to the race. We have Sean Kelly, Stephen Roche, Magnus Backstedt, Dean Downing, Rob Hayles and David Harmon (who although is not the best at least it seems he is really doing some research and background checks on the riders and teams - he is clearly learning from Kelly as they sit in the box)but Kirby doesnt even do any background research. Teams have been announced for May's Tour de Yorkshire and the Asda Tour de Yorkshire Women's Race. Ive gotten drunk on the Galibier and been evacuated off the Galibier. Before Kirby hits the airwaves, he touchesbase with Eurosport HQ in Paris,and then its time to take to the microphone. American racers headed to Italy chime in. Well ride that sympathy and see how far it takes us up the beach. You have your usual office equipment, coffee machine, and sandwich machine. Thus concentrating becomes a difficult job for a commentator. VeloNews: Whats the biggest difference for you when youre commentating on a race from back home, instead of attending the event? Thankfully, no tree roots to overcome. I quite like Kirby. You always get letters or emails from people who really enjoyed your commentary, but youll always get those who hate every fibre of your being.. He suddenly realises how to beat Kittel, working out the formula to finish first. Most races have one unit but the Tour de France has four double-decker units. Kittel moves first into Cavendish, who follows the white line. Yes Harmon is okay and like I said - at least he does his homework on the teams and riders and hangs on every word uttered by Sean Kellyas though he is keen to learn the professional circuit. March 2, 2022 . You are as ill informed as Kirby. Personally I think Harmon and Brian Smith are the best team. Following a two year broadcasting secondment with the United Nations in the South Pacific he joined ITV as TVams overnight Sports Producer and Reporter. Like this site? and clearly was totally clueless. The road curved, but it was nothing to concern one's self with. Eurosport's lead cycling commentator Carlton Kirby presents a weekly guide to everything that's NOT happening in the sport this year, with stories and reflections from his 25 years in the gantry. No ! Also, I would say many of his criticisms are unfair and/or cruel. In my ear I have a producer telling me when we have interviews, drop-in features, ad breaks and cue points.. Kirby is a shockingly bad commentator, but Harmon is not much better. pic.twitter.com/fFcEf0AgHK, Volta a Catalunya (@VoltaCatalunya) March 25, 2019. JavaScript is disabled. Talk about what you know. Win! VN:When youre at the race, who are you talking to regularly to get your intel for the broadcast? There are already calls for a convening of UCI protocol committee so they can start to get some proper rules together about it. Yates was obviously cooked - why else would anyone work for dozens of kilometres and then give up in the final 2km? Eurosport's lead cycling commentator Carlton Kirby presents a weekly guide to everything that's NOT happening in the sport this year, with stories and reflections from his 25 years in the gantry. Learn More, Blog: Abusing other cyclists highlights everything wrong with cycling in Britain, Chris Froome backed by strong Team Sky squad for Vuelta a Espana, Vuelta a Espana 2015 route: five stages which could decide the race, Vuelta a Espana 2015: five stages which could decide the race. and apologises to those who don't. 00:04:00, 29/05/2020 at 08:52 Related While he admits Sagan's explusion for. The best thing you can do is relax, in my opinion, Kirby explains about going live on air. He clearly thinks he's the star of the show. Star names like Sagan getting knocked off and knocked out of races. I tweeted quite a few comments which clearly annoyed him. I think this is what is powering Marks mind at the moment. There are several fan forums that constantly try to have him removed from Eurosport and even made a Carlton Kirby petition their demands on the grounds of inane chatter, terrible jokes, and unnecessary screaming. In their eyes, he is one of the worst cycling commentators. 2023 Eurosport, a Warner Bros. Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. For mine, Carlton is the perfect commentator for the 'early shift' on long, flat grand tour stages. There are no points for each turn. Theres no doubt about it, the most difficult thing to do is cover nothing, he says. They will tell you, Yes, so-and-so is looking really mentally fatigued, or, they are saying, Hes getting very aggressive in the peloton and weve had a word with the team, that is all great information. Carlton Kirby: What inspired Chris Froome's golden era Eurosport's voice of cycling Carlton Kirby analyses Chris Froome's performance in winning a fourth Tour de France. Some people take offence for the strangest reasons. We usually have to drive to the finish line, which is where the commentary positions normally are theyre like double-decker coaches all lined up there, Kirby sayd. The breaks going to go up the road, theyre going to be allowed anything up to 15 minutes of an advantage and everyone else is just having a chat including us., All the other commentators from all the other nations and all their information are in the same room, so you often get people saying: Have you heard this?, with loads of things to share. But try explaining that to Cycling Weekly and their letters column.. Utterly self-absorbed: he had already decided who'd won. Can you imagine Paris-Roubaix with Kirby commentating? You take yourself to the studio, call up your procyclingstats.com, do your research online. As we reported at the time, the six-time Olympic champion tweeted that he had been on a Sunday bike ride with his son when they were almost run over by a van driver who drove at us, then proceeded to angrily inform me it was my fault we nearly died.. Jason Kenny has recounted to the BBC the near miss he and his infant son Albie encountered while out cycling last month. Hence, To be qualified to fill up that huge amount of time is, quite naturally, a daunting job. Next time you watch, ask yourself how many of his critiques are aimed against non-Anglophone riders. He is rubbish Eurosport have many other far better options we need a decent commentator not Carltons partridge esque musings. Kirby is not uncomfortable with the spurt of social media and the exponential increase of criticism that has gone alongside with it. Joe Robinson. Dan's stage guides at the giro a few years ago were great. Stay tuned! All rights reserved. because there wuld be an uprising in the country. To my mind, the motorcycles are the most dangerous because they have the least ability to stop. She talks about the background to the petition, which you can sign here, in this video. On the descent, motorbikes often get too close to the cyclist in front of them. He threw the toys out of the pram because his head is scrambled by these defeats. You have engineers popping in and out, you have guests from the different languages, and the only thing separating us from the Germans, on our left, and the French, on our right, are thin sound walls its completely open at the back, he says. Here they are listed below, but we already know there will be one change - Team Sky will be racing as Team Ineos, with the Tour de Yorkshire being its first race following the management company's sale to the petrochemical business. Its windowless. There is no discussion or debate, just chatter, articles, and just that. It easy to forget that before this tour Mark Cavendish, the greatest of all great sprinters, had never beaten Marcel Kittel in a head-to-head. Harmon's attitude can best be described as 'wogs begin at Calais'. It's garnering quite a few sarcastic responses on Twitter Yep, I regularly cycle to MacDonalds, get a load of food, then cycle to the off license, get some beer, and then cycle to a lay by or car park and spread it around the place. You sit there, its often quite quiet, and you get brought an exotic meal like a guacamole sandwich. I've just discovered, after following a tweet that Orla Chennaoui had re-tweeted, that the esteemed Mr Kirby has blocked me on Twitter.