Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => Freewheeling => Racing => Topic started by: mattc on 08 September, 2008, 10:31:20 am
-
First stage wasn't too exciting, but watchable. My mini-rant is about the commentating. I believe it was the same chap that added nothing to the Olympic road race coverage (Hugh Porter??). I've even "emailed" the ITV team:
Could you please ask your commentator to give us more help IDing the riders? It's not helpful to say "THERE's last year's winner, Roman ...." How about telling us what colours he's wearing? Watching bunch road racing is confusing enough without not knowing which rider is which.
If you share my pain, drop them a line. If you think I'm a feckless half-blind know-nothing, who should be able to recognize any professional bike rider by their helmets and choice of gloves - just ignore me!
-
No commentary at all on circuit, so lots of confusion about what lap they were on. Big screen at end of Embankment was rubbish & kept cutting out. No sound available, so only half-heard announcements from the podium. I bet a lot of people went home without a clue who won. Oh - and the camera work on display on the screen was shockingly bad.
-
First stage wasn't too exciting, but watchable. My mini-rant is about the commentating. I believe it was the same chap that added nothing to the Olympic road race coverage (Hugh Porter??). I've even "emailed" the ITV team:
Could you please ask your commentator to give us more help IDing the riders? It's not helpful to say "THERE's last year's winner, Roman ...." How about telling us what colours he's wearing? Watching bunch road racing is confusing enough without not knowing which rider is which.
If you share my pain, drop them a line. If you think I'm a feckless half-blind know-nothing, who should be able to recognize any professional bike rider by their helmets and choice of gloves - just ignore me!
That's all right.. Quite clear really. Millar is to the left of Thomas. Southam is in the GB strip. The LPR-Brakes, nope that is Agritubel or is it Rock Racing are making their way to the front.
It brings back memories of snooker on a black and white tele.
..d
-
Actually, it's better than the BBC coverage. They did lots of nifty camerawork but then refused to show it.. At least with the current state of affairs we get to see the racing on the day. Hugh Porter always seems to be watching the race on a time delay of about 5 seconds, on a 5 inch tele with poor picture quality. Either that or he needs new glasses. But can you imagine Duffers doing th eLondon commentary.
"and there is Di Luca off the front. He's really on the rivet now as he flies along with his race face on. Passing under Blackfriars bridge now. There is a great restaurant just up the road where I had lunch with my good friend Hugh Porter. There would be great views of the racing if we were sat there now. And after the crash, Di Luca is back on his bike but the peleton now have him in their sights"
..d
-
I thought the coverage was very amateur-ish. Why show the first lap where they were just pootling along looking cold and bored?
Hugh Porter wasn't even commentating live but to the edit (you could hear him on the PA at the start). He's OK commentating on the track but useless at road racing. And that other bloke (who's the Cycling TV guy I think?) was equally bad spouting on about the "maglia rosa" or the "maillot jaune" at every opportunity - did he not think that there might be some new fans watching as a result of the Olympic success?
The stage didn't come across very well on TV, IMO. The crowd looked to be very thin in most places and non-existent in some. The route looked very boring and that awful hairpin bend at Tower Hill killed any momentum on each lap.
-
... and that awful hairpin bend at Tower Hill killed any momentum on each lap.
To be fair, noone complains about the similar corner in Paris.
-
I thought the coverage was awful. I didn't even bother with the last 10 minutes - watched some paralympics I'd video'd earlier instead.
1. After some nice footage of Big Ben etc at the start why did the rest of the race look like it was being run around some decrepit industrial estate? If this is the best 'scenery' London can offer I dread to think what 2012 is going to look like.
2. Features. It's a bike race. With bikes. As such people probably tune in to watch bikes. Why on earth consistently break up the coverage to show , for example, some blonde twunt interviewing Mr A.N Onymous with twee questions such as 'are you enjoying yourself'....
3. Commentary - where are Mr Liggett and Sherwen when you need them most? At least they manage to inject a bit of feeling for the sport. Hugh Porter and the 'other bloke' sounded more like they were commentating at a stamp-collecting convention.
Even my missus thought it was bad - and she is the sort of person that this show should IMO be aimed at. She's not very au-fait with bike racing but does quite enjoy the CH4 TdF coverage and enjoyed the track-racing at the Olympics.
I hope it improves now the stages hit the open road
-
... and that awful hairpin bend at Tower Hill killed any momentum on each lap.
To be fair, noone complains about the similar corner in Paris.
Completely different situation though. Paris is the climax of the TDF and everyone wants to win there. The racing is mental: practically every lap there is a different set of riders who have broken away so every time the peloton goes around the hairpin in front of the Arc de Triomphe they are are going fast enough to be strung out (and it's a much bigger peloton than the TOB), hence, they get through it faster.
-
The hairpin on the CE is also much wider than the one at Tower Hill.
The crowds didn't look too bad, considering it is a big circuit and some parts are quite inaccessible.
..d
-
I hope it improves now the stages hit the open road
Me too, but I may not risk finding out.
where are Mr Liggett and Sherwen when you need them most?
Indeed.
-
Why show the first lap where they were just pootling along looking cold and bored?
To me this seemed the IDEAL oppo to tell us who all the riders were, which team strips to look out for etc...
<grumble, teeth-gnashing> ...
-
First stage wasn't too exciting, but watchable. My mini-rant is about the commentating. I believe it was the same chap that added nothing to the Olympic road race coverage (Hugh Porter??). I've even "emailed" the ITV team:
Could you please ask your commentator to give us more help IDing the riders? It's not helpful to say "THERE's last year's winner, Roman ...." How about telling us what colours he's wearing? Watching bunch road racing is confusing enough without not knowing which rider is which.
If you share my pain, drop them a line. If you think I'm a feckless half-blind know-nothing, who should be able to recognize any professional bike rider by their helmets and choice of gloves - just ignore me!
Not only that, but he can't pronounce most of the riders' and teams' names properly. And he usually gets them wrong anyway.
A good case for sacking him and getting Phil & Paul to do the commentary.
-
No commentary at all on circuit, so lots of confusion about what lap they were on.
Yes, it was truly pathetic. I was by the cab shelter at the bottom of Northumberand Ave, and couldn't hear a thing.
What gets me is that small towns in France and Belgium can manage to keep spectators informed by big screens and PA all around the parcours of a criterium. So why can't the mighty Metrollops of London?
-
I hope it improves now the stages hit the open road
Well it didn't..........
It all has a distinctly amateurish feel about it at times. On the stretch before Thame, they edited a few bits out of sequence, and one minute everyone's stretched out on Streatley Hill, and next they're crossing the Thames (again).
Also, several times, the motorbike camera got overtaken by the riders. When Ian Stannard was on his breakaway, he said a few words to the rider as he overtook him. ;D
On the plus side though, I was pleased to see they had a police officer waving a little flag whenever there was a car left parked by the side of the road. In fact, there seemed to be a lot of police zooming around holding up traffic. Which makes a change.
-
I hope it improves now the stages hit the open road
Well it didn't..........
It all has a distinctly amateurish feel about it at times. On the stretch before Thame, they edited a few bits out of sequence, and one minute everyone's stretched out on Streatley Hill, and next they're crossing the Thames (again).
Also, several times, the motorbike camera got overtaken by the riders. When Ian Stannard was on his breakaway, he said a few words to the rider as he overtook him. ;D
On the plus side though, I was pleased to see they had a police officer waving a little flag whenever there was a car left parked by the side of the road. In fact, there seemed to be a lot of police zooming around holding up traffic. Which makes a change.
A mixture of police and National Escort Group. I think the NEG did the hazards and the Police did the road closures (primarily). Seems to have gone off quite well. Agree about the camera work though. The motos were too close to the riders at times.
..d
-
Tonight's the first time I've had chance to watch the highlights all the way through - it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't care who was winning ::-)
At the end, Pena was winning with a couple of k to go - then the Norwegian lad was ahead and crossing the line. WTF?
-
The last two days have been a big improvement on earlier programmes. But the editing tonight was rubbish.
-
Tonight's the first time I've had chance to watch the highlights all the way through - it wasn't that bad, as long as you didn't care who was winning ::-)
At the end, Pena was winning with a couple of k to go - then the Norwegian lad was ahead and crossing the line. WTF?
Thank goodness for that, I thought that I must have had a missing time incident.
-
Not even watching it.
-
It's a different production team and presumably a very different budget to the TdF show.
It is piss-poor though.
You've got to wonder how much it would take to script a one-line link between the edits. And the very uncomfortable-looking interviews are badly done.
A group of students would be ashamed of that effort.
-
It's paul manning gurning whenever he isn't speaking... Not a natural for the camera.
..d