So turn the volume down!
I think we have to remember they are commentating for a wider audience than just ourselves, who of course are all subject matter experts with an encyclopaedic knowledge of everything cycling related, or anything for that matter, and we could all do the job far better.
I'm just grateful I can watch it live without the pain of having to subscribe to Sky/Eurosport etc, especially as all the coverage is the same picture feed. As for the Phil/Paul show, yes they do commentate for the USA as well and that may have an effect on the approach they take.
If not them, then who would we prefer? I recall listening to Duffers and Kelly one year and the bits I could understand/translate were very tedious at times.
Exactly my point(s).
We should remember that the YACF default position on such matters is a sort of moaning pedantry (
"ha! Sherwin said that was a 105 front mech but it's clearly Dura Ace")
Ideally there wouldn't be any cycling on terrestrial TV at all, this would give the prefect opportunity for some weapons-grade moaning. However, ITV4 came along and ruined that opportunity so it only leaves room for complaining about the adverts (which pay for the coverage to take place at all, and are an opportunity for a cuppa) and the pronunciation of some foreign names/places (which, if you asked 100 YACFers to pronounce, you'd get at least 50 different pronunciations).
Half of me wishes the coverage would be cancelled and replaced with more Big Brother live coverage, just so I could see proper moaning about the good old days of Liggett and Sherwin.
My TV remote control has 2 optional (I assume they must be optional) features of "Mute" and "Off" buttons. I use them instead of moaning about TV programs.
Look, they get a feed from French TV, without any cues and are asked to talk about it for 5 hours on live TV. They see 100 riders from a helicopter shot one moment and then a random group of riders from a motorcycle the next. It strikes me as a tough job.
Like I said before, I like the coverage and it could be worse (although I wouldn't mind listening to Chris Kamara have a go at the TdF...just for the giggles)
http://www.youtube.com/v/qGaR6hqRbWY&rel=1