Harmon & Kelly

pprendeville

What do people make of this commentary partnership? Kelly never laughs at Harmon's jokes. Wonder do people find Kelly hard to understand. Personally I don't but I imagine his accent might be hard for some. I think they should give the RAS mc guy a shot. He's.some character.

Pherekydes

While Kelly's analysis is unerringly accurate, his pronunciation, especially of names, is awful. Harmon is ok, imo, probably going against the grain saying that.

happytramp

I think this piece of commentary pretty well sums up their partnership.


David Harmon: "why do you suppose Damiano Cunego has never been able to recreate the form from when he won the Giro?"
Séan Kelly: "it was a different era of cycling then"
David Harmon: "yes, perhaps, but... *long exposition of possible reasons such as changing diets, conditions, racing tactics and Cunego's reaction to the pressure he has faced since*"
Séan Kelly: (much, much more firmly) "I said, it was a different era of cycling then"

tawfeeredux

"yis ehh"
"The Too-er"
"souper ride by Canchelaara"
"Contadour looks to be, ehh, on de limit"
"no, he's coooked"

- how could you not love Kelly's pronunciation!

petethedrummer

Kelly knows when not to talk. A rare quality in the world of commentating.

Pherekydes

tawfeeredux wrote: »

- how could you not love Kelly's pronunciation!

"Del-ahnge is on the attack again."

Who the **** is Delange?

michael196

tour de burren this year, ''MC interviewer'' at the start getting a few words from Sean Kelly........


MC
''so sean, is carrick on suir, in Tipperary or Waterford ?''

SK
''Boath''


end of interview ........:D

Pherekydes

petethedrummer wrote: »

Kelly knows when not to talk. A rare quality in the world of commentating.

Which is mostly. My daughter remarked last week "Has he [Kelly] woken up? Did he [Harmon] wake him?"

Hail 2 Da Thief

I really enjoy listening to Kellys commentary & think him & Harmon work well together!

By the way, I notice all of ye who are complaining about Kellys accent are from the Pale. Stephen Roche popped into the Eurosport crew on a few occassions & I found it harder to understand him than Kelly!

Dubba

I much prefer them to the breathless drivel from the ITV croud :rolleyes:

Rovi

Why Séan Kelly is the undisputed king of cycling commentators:
"Cow shite."

This thread may now be closed.

Mr Velo

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

I really enjoy listening to Kellys commentary & think him & Harmon work well together!

By the way, I notice all of ye who are complaining about Kellys accent are from the Pale. Stephen Roche popped into the Eurosport crew on a few occassions & I found it harder to understand him than Kelly!

Yeah - Roche was very hard to decipher there on Sunday when he was in doing a little bit of commentary.

I just love Harmon and Kelly's commentary.
" The Roydhers are in good shape for this too-er"

Pherekydes

Hail 2 Da Thief wrote: »

I really enjoy listening to Kellys commentary & think him & Harmon work well together!

By the way, I notice all of ye who are complaining about Kellys accent are from the Pale. Stephen Roche popped into the Eurosport crew on a few occassions & I found it harder to understand him than Kelly!

LOL, I don't think the fact that I hail from the pale has anything to do with Kelly's accent.

cantalach

Pherekydes wrote: »

While Kelly's analysis is unerringly accurate, his pronunciation, especially of names, is awful.

It is. But pro cyclists and team personnel seem to take a very practical approach to speaking foreign languages: they just want to be understood and don't really give a rat's whether their pronunciation is good. This seems to be particularly true of the Flemish. If you've ever heard Bruyneel or Boonen being interviewed in French, or listened to Merckx or De Vlaeminck speaking French and Italian in 'A Sunday in Hell' you'll know what I mean. So perhaps Kelly's attitude to pronunciation is just a reflection of the years he spent living in Flanders.

Actual Paramedic

When Kelly talks people should listen as he is usually 100% on the button. Like his insight and knowledge

petethedrummer

At least Kelly didn't say Voykler about 4 million times.

The tax man

I feel sorry for anyone not from Ireland trying to understand Sean Kelly at times. I don't think anyone from Ireland should have a problem with his accent. Years ago maybe but not now.His speech has changed over the years.
Stephen Roche came from the same postcode as me yet I really have to listen carefully to understand what he says these days. Roche's accent has gotten stronger over the years while Kelly's has gotten softer.

Harmon was grand this year,a few times I thought he over reacted at times when it came to the crashes but I think the Giro was still fresh in his mind.
Still chapeau to the lads for filling hours upon hours of coverage where nothing was happening to something worth listening to.

Loved Duffield till he lost the plot.Grew up on Liggett+Sherwen but just don't like their style any more. It's probably still the same as it was back in the day.

Captain Havoc

cantalach wrote: »

It is. But pro cyclists and team personnel seem to take a very practical approach to speaking foreign languages: they just want to be understood and don't really give a rat's whether their pronunciation is good. This seems to be particularly true of the Flemish. If you've ever heard Bruyneel or Boonen being interviewed in French, or listened to Merckx or De Vlaeminck speaking French and Italian in 'A Sunday in Hell' you'll know what I mean. So perhaps Kelly's attitude to pronunciation is just a reflection of the years he spent living in Flanders.

I think Merckx is a native francophone and flemish speaker.

Chips Lovell

I think they are the best around at the moment, in English at least.

Harmon has hours of air to fill so invariably he will be coming out with a lot of waffle. As the "expert co-commentator" Kelly has the luxury of not talking when he doesn't want to. Harmon is infinitely preferable to Carlton Kirby and David Duffield, both of whom make me feel homicidal. Yes occasionlly he gets names wrong, but it's a tough job calling riders when you can barely see their numbers half the time. He does get overly excited on occasion. There were a few times on the Tour when I thought he was actually aroused.

Kelly's analysis is usually spot on. I like the fact he's almost immune to hyperbole.

"So Sean, four hors categorie climbs today, with the final ascent up an unpaved road in 35 degree heat." "Yes, this one is very difficult".

Harrybelafonte

I have read people on UK sites complimenting Kelly on his improvements in commentating and that they find him easier to understand than when he initially started. He has to be better than his into bits on the History of the Tour DVD

iregk

I like the two of them together I have to say. I think Harmon at times goes a little ballistic too quickly. Soon as any sort of break starts he is high pitched and whining where as you can feel Kelly just sitting there thinking 'lets give this a minute and see where it goes'. Harmon exploded about 3 or 4 times when Schlek attacked but he was only jumping. Kelly knew the score and didn't say a word and eventually came in with "he's only testing Contodooooor"

The accent doesn't bother me at all, being from outside Dublin I can understand and appreciate that people have different accents. Stephen Roche on the other hand, jesus I didn't catch a single word of it when he was on.

Chips Lovell

Remember when Gay Byrne had Roche and Kelly on the Late Late. He asked them how they dealt with the language barrier in France. "With my broken French and Sean's broken English, we get by," said Roche.

TheBlaaMan

Regardless of whether some (Kellys) are stronger than others, EVERYONE has an accent and its only ever difficult to understand when its different to yours or what your used to. Sure , if you want style over substance, get someone else, but SKs insight into the peleton and tactics etc is excellent and - from what I gather - well appreciated by Eurosport.

You have to love some of his deadpan witticisms. Was it this years Giro or last years Vuelta......? Guy goes on a solo breakaway and isnt caught by the time he crosses the last peak. Cue another rider breaking away from the peleton to try to catch him on the downhill. He makes little progress and lead begins to extend. Harmon goes into a long, drawn-out description of varying downhill styles and techniques offering suggestions of how the second guy might close the gap and after about a minute of this turns to Sean and asks for his opinion on how he might catch the first guy. Cool as anything Sean Kelly replies ..............."just let go of the brakes"

I think it was a much a put-down of Harmon as anything!

C3PO

Mr Velo wrote: »

I just love Harmon and Kelly's commentary.
" The Roydhers are in good shape for this too-er"

+1

My old man always said that it's "best to say nothing if you've nothing sensible to say" - I think Kelly also believes that!!

on_the_nickel

Much prefer them to Phil and Paul, the Lance fanboys.

Can't remember who, but I remember some years ago someone writing that Paul Sherwen always referred to the Postal/Discovery boys as "loyal lieutenants" and Vino/Ullrich/Contador's team-mates as "the henchmen of Astana/T-mobile". Summed it up perfectly.

Jawgap

I put up with Harmon (who's not the worst) to listen to Kelly - he's a bit like Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti westerns- doesn't say a whole lot, but nails it every time he speaks.

The pronunciations are great- my own favourite is "Booooonen"

Roche's words just seem to lean up against one another, it's like there's no spaces!

But for me the best accent in cycling was / is Lydia Roche (Nico's Ma)

ThisRegard

I'm not bothered at all by their pronunciations, it's not elocution or foreign language lessons I tune in for. For the amount of hours they're on air for they fill it well with various stories and antidotes keeping me amused and interested anyway.

pprendeville

Yes any words with an 'ou' together make for funny pronunciation.'Too-er' as taw mentioned is my favourite. Must say I've no probs understanding him. I worked with a fella from 'Naw-van' and that was the most difficult accent I've ever encountered.

He cuts Harmon short when answering questions. You'd be expecting a long answer but get short ones but bang on. Met him in wheelworx in Feb and he's sound as a bell.

griffin100

My favorite Kelly - Harmon moment was from a couple of years ago when the peleton was climbing a category 1 climb and Harmon and someone in the studio were banging on about gear rations and choosing the correct one for such a tough climb blah blah blah.....and Harmon asks Kelly what gear ratio he would have selected for that hill......long long pause and then Kelly says 'The one that gets you to the top quickest' Classic Kelly.

Kelly seems to have become more vocal this year compared to previous years. A couple of years ago he said very little, now he talks a lot more. I was quite taken aback during the Giro this year when they were talking about Wouter Weylandt and Kelly started to talk about the death of his brother in a cycling accident, I don't think he would have done that a few years ago.

Hopefully they're doing the Vuelta as well.

Johnners1878

Sean Kelly is above criticism.

studiorat

the "Toor-eh-France"
"Fair Play, Shapo!"

The man's a legend, great to hear opinion and commentary from someone who was there...

Rovi

Kelly certainly appears to be getting more comfortable with the whole punditry thing, though he'll never be as verbose as the professional wafflers.
At least, I hope he never will be.

His 'silences' are entertaining and charming in their own right, I think.

plumber77

TG4 anyone .Actually love the eurosport combo.Think it works really well...Kelly is some legend and so well respected across the sport: while Harmon takes care of the waffle to fill up the 5 hours of coverage.Best combo for sure across all channels.Doing the Sean Kelly Tour at the end of August,really looking forward to Kelly's few words at the start.

cantalach

Captain Havoc wrote: »

I think Merckx is a native francophone and flemish speaker.

Well, even though he grew up in Brussels, I'm almost certain that his family were Flemish speaking. So whether that qualifies him as a native French speaker is debatable. It wouldn't be his mother tongue anyway, by definition. One way or the other, he speaks heavily-accented French. Compare his French, for example, to that of his Walloon countryman, Gilbert. But this is all a bit of a tangent anyway. The main point I'm making is that pro cyclists seem to take the path of least resistance when speaking a foreign language. After all, it's not as if they're doing it for their Leaving Cert and needing to have perfect pronunciation so as to get maximum points in the oral exam. Their motivation is purely to be able to communicate. Kelly fits with this.

petethedrummer

I bet he can swear like a sailor in 5 languages.

mloc123

I like them. Kelly is soothing to listen to and he grounds Harmon I think. Harmon seems like an excited child while Kelly is always calm and sensible.

As for Roche, he seems to have a case of the Steve Maclarens

Hungrycol

I often wondered during those long silent pauses in commentary if they both have a fit of the giggles. Has to happen, live TV for hours on end for three weeks.

Lusk Doyle

Harrybelafonte wrote: »

I have read people on UK sites complimenting Kelly on his improvements in commentating and that they find him easier to understand than when he initially started. He has to be better than his into bits on the History of the Tour DVD

Yea much improved. The dvd with him at a cafe table and a glass of wine in front of him was so hard to watch as it was clear he was not comfortable. Nice man it must be said. I met him at the finish of the Paris roubaix challenge this year and had a chat.

Lusk Doyle

plumber77 wrote: »

TG4 anyone .Actually love the eurosport combo.Think it works really well...Kelly is some legend and so well respected across the sport: while Harmon takes care of the waffle to fill up the 5 hours of coverage.Best combo for sure across all channels.Doing the Sean Kelly Tour at the end of August,really looking forward to Kelly's few words at the start.

Welcome. That's enough. Let's go.:D

Malari

I love the Kelly and Harmon show. It's like Sean is only activated when Harmon uses his name

Harmon: "We really are seeing some interesting moves from Voekler"
Sean: "..."
Harmon: "We really are seeing some interesting moves from Voekler, aren't we Sean?"
Sean: "Yis, ehh....[rambles on a bit]"

seven stars

I enjoy the Harmon/Kelly double-act I must say. Kelly is the star, but I think they work well together. Although at timnes they put me in mind of Ted and Ralph off the Fast Show, if anyone remembers that:

skerry

Kelly is a legend, end of... Love some of the wry comments he comes out with, he's funny in his own way. He does seem to drift off sometimes before Harmon snaps him back out of it. His knowledge of the sport makes up for any dead space though and you know when he says something its worth while, and if he gets excited about something in the race its definitely time to pay close attention. Harmon seems to get over excited which is funny sometimes and irritating others. He nearly lost the plot when Wiggins broke his collar bone. All in all I think they make a good team. Handled the Wouter Weylandt crash well I thought (RIP). Tough commentating on that especially when the host broadcaster kept going back to the incident.

Couldn't understand a word Roche was saying on Sunday, had to skip past it for a finish, he kept going on and on and on. Like it was the same sentence for ten minutes.

check_six

One favourite memory of an early Sean Kelly commentary moment involved himself and Duffield:

Duffield (does big lead in to question on an Alpine stage): "Sean, you completed more Tour de Frances than any other rider. You won the Green Jersey four times. You more than anyone can tell us what it's like for the riders out there today, Sean?"

Kelly, as the expert analyst on a 4 to 5 hour broadcast, simply replies: "Tough."

Even Duffield had to pause for a moment after that!

I think his analysis is great now. The accent is great. The sport has so many crazy names that no one knows how to pronounce half of them anyway. I find any interpretation of the names entertaining.

On the commentary the other day he started doing a long description of how he tried to improve his climbing to compete on the mountain stages by dropping weight, but his body type didn't really allow him to get down to the spindly level required. It was very interesting and quite a long segment, so he does break out now and again!

Columbia

I had to watch this year's tour on streams, and every day when my Eurosport stream cut off, I would spend twenty minutes missing the race trying to find another one, rather than just switch to the always-working ITV4 stream. I had never particularly cared about the commentary before, but this year's tour hammered home the difference in quality for me.

Yes, Eurosport are biased towards the Brits, but on the Champs Elysees ITV4 ignored the podium presentations after Mark Cavendish got his green so they could have interviews with him and talk about him. They actually had gone back to the studio discussing Cav while the final jersey presentations were on. They cut at the last second to catch Cadel Evans in yellow, but no top three, no mountains, no white jersey (well, we did see Pierre Roland wearing white in the background of their Cav interview), nothing.

Eurosport beats ITV4 hands down any day of the week.

Captain Havoc

I certainly wouldn't knock British Eurosport for being biased towards the Brits. I myself would have loved to see Wiggo on the podium. Kelly is just one of those people that when he talks, you listen.

seven stars

Columbia wrote: »

Yes, Eurosport are biased towards the Brits, but on the Champs Elysees ITV4 ignored the podium presentations after Mark Cavendish got his green so they could have interviews with him and talk about him. They actually had gone back to the studio discussing Cav while the final jersey presentations were on. They cut at the last second to catch Cadel Evans in yellow, but no top three, no mountains, no white jersey (well, we did see Pierre Roland wearing white in the background of their Cav interview), nothing.

Eurosport beats ITV4 hands down any day of the week.

All I saw of the ITV4 show was the TG4 highlights, featuring Liggett and Paul 'in the sport of professional bike racing' Sherwen. Understandable I suppose that they'd be pro-british, but Liggett really was going into overdrive about the Manx Missile during some of those sprints, using the phrase ‘Manx Missile’ (or variations thereof: ‘Missile from Man’, etc) repeatedly in the space of about 5 seconds.

SWL

My favourite bit was when Harmon was discussing road bikes and which the best groupo frame etc was.

Harmon turns to Kelly and says Sean what is the best bike you have ever ridden

Kelly – Dead pan – the one I was paid to ride. That comment I think really sums up the guy.

Kav0777

seven stars wrote: »

All I saw of the ITV4 show was the TG4 highlights, featuring Liggett and Paul 'in the sport of professional bike racing' Sherwen. Understandable I suppose that they'd be pro-british, but Liggett really was going into overdrive about the Manx Missile during some of those sprints, using the phrase ‘Manx Missile’ (or variations thereof: ‘Missile from Man’, etc) repeatedly in the space of about 5 seconds.

I particularly liked the stage where Griepel beat Cavendish in the sprint, and the change in Phil Liggett's as he went from proclaiming Cavendish's win to the realisation that Griepel crossed the line first.

Or Sherwen referring to Bosan-Haggen as the "crown in the jewel of the sky team".

Mark OK

I really enjoy the full Eurosport package (Including the pre race analysis with James Richardson).

Kelly has improved so much considering he was the man who nodded when answering a quetion on radio in his early career.

Roche knows his stuff but is hard to listen to.

I have lost so much respect for Liggett due to his views on Armstrong.

Mr Velo

griffin100 wrote: »

My favorite Kelly - Harmon moment was from a couple of years ago when the peleton was climbing a category 1 climb and Harmon and someone in the studio were banging on about gear rations and choosing the correct one for such a tough climb blah blah blah.....and Harmon asks Kelly what gear ratio he would have selected for that hill......long long pause and then Kelly says 'The one that gets you to the top quickest' Classic Kelly.

Kelly seems to have become more vocal this year compared to previous years. A couple of years ago he said very little, now he talks a lot more. I was quite taken aback during the Giro this year when they were talking about Wouter Weylandt and Kelly started to talk about the death of his brother in a cycling accident, I don't think he would have done that a few years ago.

Hopefully they're doing the Vuelta as well.

Yeah - they're doing the Vuelta... more commentary "gold" moments coming up hopefully.

kilns

Was in France for the last 2 weeks of the tour and only had ITV4 to watch the tour on.

I was desperatly missing Eurosport.

Liggot and Sherwin were awful at calling stuff, there was a flat stage and the breakaway were about 30 seconds ahead with over 10km to go and they were saying the peloton are getting worried and panicking now, when it was far from the case.

Then on the Alp D'huez stage, they kept going how Contador was in all sorts of trouble, just before he broke away, not sure what race they were watching!