Best cycling commentator in the World??

How could anyone know? There are so many different languages involved, that no one person or group
of people could evaluate all of the commentators.

I have heard Duffield and Kelly, Liggett and Sherwin, and not many others. I can hardly understnad
Kelly, and I have heard Duffield use "also", "too", and "as well" in the same sentence.

Liggett tried to guess which rider tried to break out of the peloton yesterday, giving us two names,
then learning it was actually a third rider.

I don't think the commentators are allowed to spend enough time watching TV monitors, so they miss
some of the things that we see. They're probably getting tidbits in their ear, or looking at the
race Bible for factoids, etc.

While they aren't perfect, they are entertaining, so I'm not too worried that if I only understood
Basque, or Catalan, or Flemish, I might be able to hear a better commentator.

J999w said:

For those here who have access to other feeds other than OLN and other languages other than
english, I pose this question:

Who is the best cycling commentator in the World?

Ligget? Merkx? Others?

jw milwaukee

"J999w" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For those here who have access to other feeds other than OLN and other languages other than
english, I pose this question:

Who is the best cycling commentator in the World?

Ligget? Merkx? Others?

I've never heard Merckx commentate, but a non cycling Belgian friend described most of his comments
as monosyllabic grunts.

Quoted message said:

How could anyone know? There are so many different languages involved, that no one person or group
of people could evaluate all of the commentators.

Ahhh ... but there are many cyclists out there who are fluent in two, three, more? languages. We'll
just have to see if they show up here !

jw milwaukee

So who WOULD be great? Has anyone else given us any cues? Race announcers qualify. Reporters, too.
Let's widen the pool. Who should be up there? Any language is fair play. There's enough bilingualism
out there that we can at least GET THE WORD on who's good in the WORLD. When I heard the foreign
booth at the world's once they ALL sounded good.

--

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"Jeff Potter" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

So who WOULD be great?

I think Jeff Potter would be great. That man not only interfaces well with all demographic groups,
from the American Couch-riding Fattie to the serious hardcore racer.

Potter does especially well with the racers. When he posts to racing newsgroups, they hang on his
every word.

J999w said:

For those here who have access to other feeds other than OLN and other languages other than
english, I pose this question:

Who is the best cycling commentator in the World?

From what I understand, Jorgen Leth (famed cycling filmmaker) commentates for Danish TV (or Danish
Eurosport), and is as wonderful a commentator as he is a filmmaker.

Jeff Potter said:

So who WOULD be great? Has anyone else given us any cues? Race announcers qualify. Reporters, too.
Let's widen the pool. Who should be up there? Any language is fair play. There's enough
bilingualism out there that we can at least GET THE WORD on who's good in the WORLD. When I heard
the foreign booth at the world's once they ALL sounded good.

You need the space-filling drivel of a baseball or golf announcer, and the rapid-fire
narrative capabilities of a basketball or hocky play-by-play guy. There are many such, but few
that know cycling.

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[email hidden] (J999w) wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

For those here who have access to other feeds other than OLN and other languages other than
english, I pose this question:

Who is the best cycling commentator in the World?

Me. Duh.

-RJ

(J999w) said:

For those here who have access to other feeds other than OLN and other languages other than
english, I pose this question:

Who is the best cycling commentator in the World?

Ligget? Merkx? Others?

jw milwaukee

At the moment for TdF coverage on Eurosport in the UK we have Duffield and Kelly, but are fortunate
to have the excellent Kirsty Anderson providing analysis and insight.

It pains me to criticise Kelly, as he is one of my all time heroes, but I think he is over-powered
and embarrased by Duffers. The odd occasion Kelly has been on with another commentator he actually
comes out of his shell and is pretty good.

I enjoyed when Stephen Roche did the commentary with Duffers a few years ago, as he was much more in
touch with what was going on - he could interpret race radio much quicker and seemed to have more
contact with current riders.

In the English language the "guvners" are still Liggett and Sherwen. In the UK ITV coverage we are
fortunate to have the back-up of the excellent Gary Imlach,who manages to make his insert pieces
interesting and informative for the newbie, but still relevant for those in the know.

Regards! Stephen

Some don't hang quite long enough...

Kurgan Gringioni said:

When he posts to racing newsgroups, they hang on his every word.

--

Jeff Potter
****
*Out Your Backdoor * outyourbackdoor.comoutyourbackdoor.comOpen ↗ for modern folkways and culture revival...
...offering "small world" views on bikes, bows, books, movies... ...new books featuring: XC ski
culture, a Gulf Coast thriller folding bicycles ... with radical novels coming up! ...original
downloadable music ... and articles galore! plus national "Off the Beaten Path" travel forums!
HOLY SMOKES!

"J999w" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

For those here who have access to other feeds other than OLN and other languages other than
english, I pose this question:

Who is the best cycling commentator in the World?

Ligget? Merkx? Others?

Bob Roll

(a few days late, but someone had to do it...)

D.

Quoted message said:

jw milwaukee

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Merckx is not good at all. He says nothing substantial and sounds as if he has just eaten a five
plates meal drowned in two bottles of wine. Which is actually true in most cases. Except when Axel
wins, then the boxes are bouncing.

De Cauwer is funny in a nitwitty way, although now and then something interesting pops up, as if by
coincidence.

Eric De Vlaeminck used his commentator work as a way of communicating to and provoking the riders.

On Dutch TV the pathos and pretentious phrasing is just unbearable.

The Germans know [censored] about cycling. In the D-Tour they were assessing the GC hopefuls after some
flat stages. "Rogers, 5th, is not relevant, Wesemann is the big favorite, number 10 has to make up 2
seconds..."

The French are biased in a freakingly funny way The guy with the spikey hair who's been there for 15
years in the Velo Club, what a looney. Seems to know nothing about any aspect of cycling. a typical
statement "after the break we talk with the big TTT favorites, Credit Agricole"

There are some former riders I like though. Erik Breukink, dry and to the point. And for cross Adri
Van der Poel. One who really gives clues.

Bart said:

There are some former riders I like though. Erik Breukink, dry and to the point. And for cross
Adri Van der Poel. One who really gives clues.

What about Danny Nelissen on Eurosport, I like his commentary. Shame about the endless commercial
breaks (probably less than OLN, but we're not used to anything I guess).

You can't beat Canvas for all the background info and interviews. Too bad Wuyts and Uytterhoeven
don't get along very well (and U. has moved to other things), they're my favourite couple.

German tv is ideal for non-experts. Very thorough coverage, lots of talk around the table before the
etape, but very basic commentary.

As it is I'm stuck with the excellent but humourless Wuyts and De Cauwer as his sidekick, whos
speciality is just plainly repeating words 3 times to stress them.

Davide Cassani (RAITre) and Laurent Jalabert (Fr 2) equal...

Bart said:

Eric De Vlaeminck used his commentator work as a way of communicating to and provoking the riders.

so he's the henry chang of commentators, then?

heather

Bart said:

The French are biased in a freakingly funny way The guy with the spikey hair who's been there for
15 years in the Velo Club, what a looney. Seems to know nothing about any aspect of cycling. a
typical statement "after the break we talk with the big TTT favorites, Credit Agricole"

Speaking of the French, what is Jalabert like ?

I got to watch RAI International on satelite during the Giro, and while I can't offer much insight
on the quality of the commentary as I don't understand much Italian, one thing I do remember is this
fat bearded guy they had on after the end of each stage. He was always

quite figure out, as most of the time they just sat around with a fair amount of leg exposed, but
every now and then you'd see one of them taking notes (or something) on a writing pad. They (RAI)
did have quite a few post race group interviews in their studio with the winners and highly placed
riders in each stage including Simoni Cipo, Petacchi and McEwen as well as Pantani.

"heather halvorson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Bart said:

Eric De Vlaeminck used his commentator work as a way of communicating to

and

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

provoking the riders.

so he's the henry chang of commentators, then?

I'm sure he must have called some of them fatties at times, but usually it's about training routines
or race strategies.

"Donald Munro" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I got to watch RAI International on satelite during the Giro, and while I can't offer much insight
on the quality of the commentary as I don't understand much Italian, one thing I do remember is
this fat bearded guy they had on after the end of each stage. He was always

Quoted message said:

quite figure out, as most of the time they just sat around with a fair amount of leg exposed,

That seems standard on Italian TV. Perhaps they want us to believe all Italian women are
long-legged blondes ?

Bart said:

"Donald Munro" <[email hidden]> wrote

Quoted message said:

I got to watch RAI International on satelite during the Giro, and while I can't offer much
insight on the quality of the commentary as I don't understand much Italian, one thing I do
remember is this fat bearded guy they had on after the end of each stage. He was always

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

quite figure out, as most of the time they just sat around with a fair amount of leg exposed,

That seems standard on Italian TV. Perhaps they want us to believe all Italian women are
long-legged blondes ?

They aren't? ;-)

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