ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Now we have something / quite-a-lot to discuss and celebrate.
mark a.
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by mark a. »

I finally noticed "years of age" mid-way through last year's Tour, and by the end it nearly drove me mad. Sadly, like an old injury, the irritation started up immediately during this tour. Gah!

However, I'm happy to have the humour of Gary, Ned and Chris; the latter two should just get married and be done with it since they're essentially an old couple anyway.

Geraint's interview of Ned was hilarious!
rualexander
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by rualexander »

Haven't heard Paul Sherwen mention anyone having to "dig deep into his suitcase of courage" yet this year.
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Spinners
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by Spinners »

Nor have I heard, "Bridge to engine room, more power".
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old_windbag
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by old_windbag »

I enjoy the two P's commentary as it can be a relaxing trip through the french countryside until....... Phil shouts "theres a crash theres a crash", its like an alarm clock. But I wouldn't want to lose that enthusiasm for mishaps. I watch many motor based sports and have to admit for them to be crash free would be less exciting and in the tour those random crashes have often added spice to, what can be at times, a monotonous few hours. I'll be glad when we get into the mountains.... oh Paul its raining, theres spots on the camera lense, the roads wil turn glacial..... :) . I'll miss them when they go just as I'd like to have Murray Walker and the late James Hunt back on F1, Murray made mistakes often but his passion and knowledge were hard to beat, James Hunt, after a life we'd envy of non stop totty( 70's speak ), settled nicely into the role. In F1 terms Lewis Hamilton may be perhaps a better driver than James Hunt was, we'll never know , but the bling gangster rapper image he puts over is a shadow of Hunts fists, fags, beer and womanising.
Sometimes sports and their participants/commentators are more than pure ability... personality and passion can make a huge difference. In the peleton there are many very skilled riders who when interviewed I fast forward past, basically they're dull communicators. Yet there are others who I look forward too, perhaps age plays its part in that ability to converse interestingly or experience in handling media interviews.
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by uppadine »

They have an obsession for sidewinds blowing the peloton over the road, when trees hardly seem to ripple.
I wish Boardman would shave.
old_windbag
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by old_windbag »

Yes I noticed the change in Chris Boardman this year, he looks like they've just got him out of bed after sleeping in, also accrueing many bags under the eyes. He'll keep the make up girls busy after they've finished hair spraying imlachs bouffant.
PaulB
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by PaulB »

I like Phil and Paul as their voices are generally mellow in tone. You must remember that they are providing commentary to several different TV stations at the same time. These channels take commercial breaks out of time with each other so the commentators have to keep an eye on that and match their comments accordingly. You may often hear one of them sound as though a commercial break is coming up (by the inflection in his voice) but nothing happens and the race continues. This is because another station, in another country has gone to a break. Then they may repeat something they have just said to us when that channel returns.

We often hear more of Paul than Phil as, at times, they are giving coverage to separate channels at the same time and when they rejoin each other they may repeat what the other one has already said! They do this from a small booth with a monitor and computer screens in front of them, while listening to race radio in French!

I have watched some Eurosport coverage of cycle races via a live 'on-line' feed and cannot stand any of their commentators. One regular insists on putting on a stupid "foreign" accent when pronouncing riders' names or place names. He sounds like the policeman from 'Allo, 'Allo. Eurosport commentators are often hysterical and I just have to turn the sound down. I watched one race using an Italian feed and despite not understanding a word of it, enjoyed it much more.

I also do not want my commentators to be biased to 'home' riders. The fixation with "Team Sky" and Froome gets very annoying as does the obsession with Hamilton in Formula 1. Incidentally, I used to be a keen watcher of Formula 1, but I now just watch the qualifying as that is more exciting and unpredictable than the race. I record the Tour's live coverage every afternoon and then watch it later so I can fast forward through the adverts which are really irritating; if I see that smug bloke eating something (I have no idea what) with chop-sticks again I'll snap them in two!

Overall I like the ITV4 coverage of the Tour and of the Isle of Man TT races. If they would also turn their attention to world skiing in the winter it would be perfect!
old_windbag
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by old_windbag »

Yes PaulB I agree with your view of mellow voices. I like also, with phil and paul, that the conversation doesn't just mention the race all of the time, in golf ( I'm not a golfer or fan but I watch the US masters for some reason? ) Peter Alliss drifts the conversation gently around onto other topics. Also never excessive raucous excitement. There can be too much focus on certain riders, at one time it was Cavendish, in a way its Froome now but his personality I find hard to warm to. F1 on BBC still has a fixation with Lewis Hamilton and all the psycho-babble Eddie, David and Suzy go into of will he win or won't he.
ITV4 covers many sports well and I praised them in a BBC trust survey putting them and the Beeb as my favourite sports channels. The TT is good and I now enjoy the vuelta and tour of britain.. to have live stage coverage has been a bonus. The downside of all this sporting coverage is there's no time to fit in a holiday until winter! :)
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mjr
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by mjr »

PaulB wrote:I like Phil and Paul as their voices are generally mellow in tone. You must remember that they are providing commentary to several different TV stations at the same time. These channels take commercial breaks out of time with each other so the commentators have to keep an eye on that and match their comments accordingly.

Yes and they do it well but that's all about getting someone more money, isn't it? itv4 managed to provide a good commentary team for the Dauphiné and probably would for the Tour too, so I guess P+P cost less than having David Millar full-time and someone to replace Ned on the road.

I don't think itv have yet provided their own commentary for the Vuelta, have they? (at one point, it was Matt Keenan trying to do P+P's job single-handed and demonstrating how difficult it is - still did better than I would) Or the Giro (whose organisers reportedly wanted silly money) and I'm not keen on Hugh Porter who does some of their domestic race coverage (probably hired by Sweetspot or the independent production company, I think)...

the adverts which are really irritating; if I see that smug bloke eating something (I have no idea what) with chop-sticks again I'll snap them in two!

He's meant to be in mild discomfort because it's unexpected wasabi, not smug... so it's not even a good advert :lol:

Overall I like the ITV4 coverage of the Tour and of the Isle of Man TT races. If they would also turn their attention to world skiing in the winter it would be perfect!

Oh yes please. Ski Sunday spends too much time trying to be Top Gear lately. Thank heavens for red button and Eurosport!
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Bicycler
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by Bicycler »

The little TDF jingle you hear either side of the adverts gets annoying after a week or so. I rediscover this fact every year :lol:
Postboxer
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by Postboxer »

Yes it does, after the initial excitement of hearing it again.
landsurfer
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by landsurfer »

Could we please return to the lifting theme of the 1983 coverage. The bloody awful squeeze box, false France tune is annoying in the extreme!!!
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NATURAL ANKLING
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage...Spoilers.!!!!!

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Well we got GT the "Big Diesel" and "*&^%$£'s Cracked.............*&£"^&* Gone..........*^£"!(*'s Cracked......Froomey's "Untidy Style"... :?

All going on today

Sorry Mates :(
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old_windbag
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by old_windbag »

Could we have Kraftwerks "tour de france" please. The 1983 version if possible, it never made it far in the UK charts but I used to sit finger on record button of my ferguson tape deck waiting for it to play in the radio chart show. Musics so easy to acquire nowadays... it was quite entertaining back then. Also Kraftwerk enjoyed some good off time to go cycling so music by enthusiasts.

Hmmmm one should never post race results or events for those who have not yet seen the race......
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cycleruk
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Re: ITV4 Tour Coverage.

Post by cycleruk »

old_windbag wrote:Could we have Kraftwerks "tour de france" please. The 1983 version if possible, it never made it far in the UK charts but I used to sit finger on record button of my ferguson tape deck waiting for it to play in the radio chart show. Musics so easy to acquire nowadays...
Hmmmm one should never post race results or events for those who have not yet seen the race......


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTZyXlLhvxs
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