Eurosport comment on Kelly/sportive/Paris-Roubaix

Wicklowrider

Any of you watching eurosport yesterday? Commentators talking about the Paris-roubaix sportive. They said Sean Kelly took a look at all the questions on the entry form and just scrawled across it " I won the Race twice" and signed his name under it!

drogdub

Wicklowrider wrote: »

Any of you watching eurosport yesterday? Commentators talking about the Paris-roubaix sportive. They said Sean Kelly took a look at all the questions on the entry form and just scrawled across it " I won the Race twice" and signed his name under it!

Yeah I heard that very funny. Didn't Harmon say it was to answer a question about what skills or experience do you think you have to enter such a taxing event

calerbass

Wicklowrider wrote: »

Any of you watching eurosport yesterday? Commentators talking about the Paris-roubaix sportive. They said Sean Kelly took a look at all the questions on the entry form and just scrawled across it " I won the Race twice" and signed his name under it!

Did nt hear that, but i did hear harmon imitate Kelly's accent by putting on an irish accent, came across a piss take to me.... when he and backstedt were talking about a certain rider,and whom kelly thinks has no tactical brain,cant remember the rider's name, it was during highlights of the tour of the basque country...........2nd stage, id dare harmon to do it next sunday for paris roubaix when he ll be sitting next to him:D

Hail 2 Da Thief

calerbass wrote: »

Did nt hear that, but i did hear harmon imitate Kelly's accent by putting on an irish accent, came across a piss take to me

Didn't hear it but Harmon seems to be a bit of a Kelly fanboy to be fair.
I've heard him mention on a couple of occasions that Kelly was the road rider he followed before becoming a commentator.

el tel

Sightly off topic but watching Basque tour highlights it struck me how crap Harmon and Backstedt are. The sound like a pair of fruity old queens. Their chitchat is utter drivel delivered with the most crappy bonhomie.

Harmon comes out with some of the daftest fanboy garbage. How he wonders how such-and-such a rider has the most incredible powers of recovery... how so-and-so doesn't really train too much but is still amazing...
how dingus there didn't really live up to his early potential... Well yes Harriet, wonder no more, for you've just identified the ones who are pumped full of 'roids and go-go juice and the ones who are clean.

And their general head-burying when it comes to riders like Vino is so blatant. Sometimes I wonder if there is a prohibition in mentioning the 'd' word on Eurosport?

Fender76

Agreed.. those two are crap... Liggott and Kelly would be a great combination...

Junior

I used to love Phil Liggets commentary as I grew up, it was like Graham Watsons photography, properly iconic. Now both are out of touch jingoistic fanboy idiots that are an insult to my and your intelligence.

Chips Lovell

Harmon actually mentions Vino's doping quite a bit.

Liggett on the other hand...

TinyExplosions

el tonto wrote: »

Harmon actually mentions Vino's doping quite a bit.

Liggett on the other hand...

+1 on that, Harmon was quite critical of Vino's first few wins when he came back, saying that he found it quite hard to congratulate the guy etc etc.

I like Harmon's commentary, he keeps it very simple for those who have no clue, but also throws in interesting, geeky stuff every now and then (as well as allows Sean to speak on tactics etc).

I think a lot of people forget that we are a significant part of the audience, but that they want to spread it even further, so constantly going on and on and on about doping wouldn't be the smartest move to raise audiences

Guybrush T

el tonto wrote: »

Harmon actually mentions Vino's doping quite a bit.

Liggett on the other hand...

I agree as well, I think Harmon gets it about right, he mentions the doping when a rider is accused, or comes back after a ban, but he doesn't bang on about it for ever.

FFS Vino's been riding for ~ 2 years after his ban now I don't want to hear an obligatory reference to his doping every race.

cormpat

In fairness to Harmon, I remember reading an interview with him a few years back & he said the Kelly was the Godfather to one of his children so don't think he's trying to take the p!ss out of him too much.

petethedrummer

Guybrush T wrote: »

he mentions the doping when a rider is accused,

Yes he refers to it as 'troubles', 'indiscretion', 'difficulties', 'unpleasantness', 'silliness'. I still like him as a commentator.

ROK ON

Harmon spoke last year in the wake of another doping issue about their silent approach.
He mentioned that legally they cannot prempt or accuse anyone of doping. But he went ontO say that sometimes when he talks about certain riders having superhuman reserves of strength or recovery that the audience should understand his drift so to speak.
We need to understand that there exist constraints to what one can say in the public media without bringing the spectre of litigation down on oneself.

TheBlaaMan

Remember that there are long gaps in a race when nothing much is happening and they have to chit-chat/banter ad-lib, so its not always going to be profound or well-thought out. I think they get it about right and I much prefer Harmon or Carlton Kirby to having to listen to Ligget.

Here's what Harmon himself says about his commentating 'style' .

“Diehards will watch anyway and that I try to imagine I’m commentating for a widow woman in Wigan. But I’d compare what I do to sitting in a pub and talking to my mates. I try not to overstep what I know, and I’m happy to say when I’m wrong. I won’t let things go and hope nobody notices. Other than that I think the ability not to dry up is the important thing.”

He absolutely admires Kellys perspective on the sport and frequently defers to his knowledge and insight.

Funkyzeit

I like the Harmon and Kelly combination.

Carlton Kirby on the other hand :rolleyes: Possibly the unfunniest man on the planet and with Roy Chubby Brown still on the comedy scene that's no mean achievement.....

cantalach

I agree with those above who've said that Harmon is as vocal about dopers as he can possibly be without creating legal problems for his employer. You can usually tell where he stands on a particular rider by his tone of voice and turn of phrase. His displeasure at seeing Vino win L-B-L last year was, I thought, very apparent.

petethedrummer

cantalach wrote: »

I agree with those above who've said that Harmon is as vocal about dopers as he can possibly be without creating legal problems for his employer.

All they have to say is, "Do you want your sport shown around the world or not? Cos noone else is gonna do it. If you're gonna be like that we can always put on more Live Curling.":pac:

mahoo

what ever happened to david duffield? the murray walker of cycling

TheBlaaMan

He got 'retired' to lesser sports/cycling commentary programs after a few too many "Duffieldisms".:D

dastardly00

mahoo wrote: »

what ever happened to david duffield? the murray walker of cycling

he's hitting the 80 mark this year too!

mahoo

i miss his musings on the previous nights dinner. . my favourite duffield moment though was in the tour de france one time, think it was on alpe d'huez stage, when a spectator taking a photo knocked the leader of his bike. duffield said something like 'if you know this man, you should not be his friend!'. i did laugh

dastardly00

mahoo wrote: »

i miss his musings on the previous nights dinner. . my favourite duffield moment though was in the tour de france one time, think it was on alpe d'huez stage, when a spectator taking a photo knocked the leader of his bike. duffield said something like 'if you know this man, you should not be his friend!'. i did laugh

Sounds like the time Giuseppe Guerini got knocked off in '99.
Here's the video, incident happens around 4m 50s (unfortunately couldn't find a link with David Duffield commentating!).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dBvJkqv0DM