Road Bike Racing - Wheres Bob Roll when we need him?

*** RANT WARNING ***

I have to say this now before I burst.
This new guy that OLN has Bill Patrick. . . sucks royally.
I'm sorry to be so blunt, but who is this guy? where did
he come from and please god can somebody send him
back?

First of all he's playing the Lance as bikegod a little
too much, according to him the results are in, thank you
very much.

Secondly he doesn't know what he's talking about, is he
some big wigs brother in law that had to be given a spot?

Thirdly he's a buffoon, asks stupid questions
"Well Paul, after todays prologue do you think anyone
can beat LANCE?" "Gee Phil, will Lance be in yellow the
entire tour? and can anybody beat him?" .

hell, at this point I'd take the skanky blonde doing
colour commentary and human interest stories.

I miss Bob Roll, he knew what he was talking about,
he was funny, I love his GIRO commercials.
This new dork doesn't come close.

ok, rant over.
Marty

While we're at it. . .

Get Franky Andreau out of there, too.

"So, Lance, was that 100% effort out there today?"

Duh!!! What would you expect Lance to say after he just wins the prologue, to insult his competition and say it was a breeze. Lance is too classy for that.

Franky. . . some advice. . . stay in the Trek team car and away from the microphone.

Sorry, though Bob Roll is comical, he's too longwinded. Let Ligget and Sherwin carry the burden along. They can handle it.

yeah, this new guys is even worse than Adrian Carsten IMO!!! now thats BAD! (he was the filler guy guy who used to cover the tour on ESPN.

i don't think Frankie was that bad. he did some nice commentary on the bikes being used for the prologue.

i agree that bob roll REALLY REALLY talks for a long time and is long winded, but at least his stuff is interesting, i'd still take him over the new guy any day...

I don't want Bob Roll doing the entire
commentary, just the opening after commercial
breaks etc.
Franky did some good techinical stuff. I really liked
when he went over the bikes, and the thing about
the skinsuit was interesting.
Yeah Bob is long winded, at least he knows
what he's talking about.
either way, Ligget and Sherwen handle all of
the commentary so thats fine.

Marty

Originally posted by lotek
hell, at this point I'd take the skanky blonde doing
colour commentary and human interest stories.

Can we not have both Bob Roll and the skanky blonde????

:D

I like Bob as well. Any of you guy out there that ride MTB listen up. Buy a pair of Bob Roll prayer Stix. They help with his daughter's college fund. After all Bob was a pro race and that is how he made his money. This was in the day before big contracts like Tomac, Armstrong etc.

Hunter,

Ok I'm not a MTB type,
what praytell is a Bob Roll Prayer Stix?

curious minds want to know.

Marty

Handlebar grips

I know! I was asking myself the same question last night as I watched. I laughed out loud every time one of his maglia rosa commercials came on even by then end when I had seen them all two or three times a day for 3 weeks.

Frankie's OK. He's not a professional commentator, but I respect his cycling knowledge. I think some of what comes across as silly questions grow out of his relative inexperience as a commentator.

I have no use for this new guy for all the reasons already mentioned.

So where is Bob? I know he is doing something on another OLN adventure show, but I didn't know he wasn't going to be doing TDF. I really enjoy Phil and Paul, but Bob added that little touch of wackiness.

I liked Lance's facial expression and response to Frankie's question! :D

BOB!! WE NEED YOU!!!!

Bill Patrick was on ESPN I believe. (Not 100% sure, but he certainly has that Sports Center voice down.) He really is playing up the American card. It is like listening to the sports reports saying that Lance was "beaten" during stage one, as opposed to willingly giving up the yellow jersey for strategic reasons. He is no different than last year with Bob Varsha, who is now doing autoracing news on the Speed Chanel.

I hate to disagree about Bob Roll, I found him annoying during the Giro. I am perfectly happy just living with Phil and Paul. I am not watching the highlight show just the stage itself.

I am also perfectly happy not to know how many shirts OLN provided the crew this year. Watching that woman sniff everyone's arm pits last year was a little much....

who is this skanky blond? i haven't seen her yet...its not odessa is it?

aaaaa

Lotek, I'm with you on that Patrick guy, what a total yutz! He's a stupid, emptyheaded moron, but morever, why do they NEED him? Phil and paul are enough- do they really need this doofus and his inane questions?

The problem is that it's probably very difficult to find english-speaking commentators for cycling on television, and finding ones who are good on air is probably even harder. It's a very small pool of talent. In canada, on the rare occasions they do broadcast cycling events, they get whatever former pros they can find and it's usually someone with no personality or talent. The Europeans are lucky- there are so many former pros that there must be at least a few who have talent and personality. Eddy Merckx and Pedro Delgado do tv commentary! They just have a bigger talent pool to choose from- we just aren't blessed in that way.

In the meantime, don't complain too much. You could all be living here in Canada where, except for the Tour, OLN means "endless coverage of fat sweaty guys lifting boulders" for the rest of the year.

I think the worst was last night watching
the highlight show and this putz patrick says
"Theres LANCE ARMSTRONG with his USPS team"
and the helicopter was showing Delatour (is that right?).
Well it was a team in blue, right?
I've seen some of the comments on the OLN board
and I think this guy is getting ready to be lynched.
about Roll, love him or hate him at least he knows
what he's talking about.
The armpit thing last year was totally stupid (and gross).
Yeah I believe Odessa is the skanky blonde.

Marty

What slayed me was when B. Patrick said, just after the finish (Freire, McEwen, Zabel--1-2-3), It was Freire, Zabel, McEwem...How could he be so incorrect in such a hurry!?!

Yes, we are extremely fortunate to get this coverage in the US. I can remeber just a few short years ago having to suffer through Costas' 2-hour NBC highlights for the entire week's stages--and this just for the TdF. Unless Patrick reinvents himself by the mountain stages I'm certain he won't bother us in 2003. All in all though, this has been excellent cycling.

The guy on ESPN in Dan Patrick.

David

Someone at Trek must be thinking the same. Have you seen those Bobke(?) commercials with Bob in the Postal team kit? There are two - one about feed bags and one with little TdF toys thatt he is playing with. Doesn't explain why he's not in France for OLN, a sad loss to the team.

The Bobke TV commercials by Trek are some of the
funniest things I've seen on TV in a while. My favourite
tho is still the Giro commercials, but Bob and the
TdF toys is hysterical. . .

Those ads he did during the Giro were a hoot! I really miss him.

Another liability is Frankie Andreu. The guy has zero personality or talent off his bike. He's a himbo! I just ff over his dumb interviews and tech tips- he's just a total dud on-air.

Unless I wanna shell out big bucks I'm stuck with CBS coverage out here in the midwest corn fields. If it wern't for Velonews. and cyclenews. I'dd be really outa the loop, Desmonies Regugatator is a day behind and Lance centric in coverage of about 4 inches + pic. I like watching both because each watches diffrent riders and sometimes one fallls behind in updates. May have to break down and buy a video this year just to pretend!.
farmer kev
:confused:

After watching last Sunday's TdF coverage on CBS, I'm not sure if I can handle next week's. Talk about vapid and inane! Yech!

Unfortunately, I have to upgrade to digital cable to get OLN which will cost me $25 a month for OLN and a handful of channels I could care less about.