Keith99

I wanted to be sure I had the right person. I don't generally check announcer names.

Now that I'm sure I have the right one let me say I have though some of his comments re strategy were pretty good.

But here is the link I found with some video and it is disturbing. read the entire rant (or at least most of it). The guy details very well a problem he now has with the pair.

Universal Sports Announcers Lose Their Minds at Vuelta al Pais Vasco - Podium Cafe

One thing I'd add to his rant is that if there is one place where 'out of the blue' improvement happen it is in TTs for guys who are thought of as climbers. Especially in guys who within the past couple of years have risen to the level where they start to think they are or could in the future become real contenders for the GC in major races. Why? Because until that point they have not had the inclination to work on it in practice or go all out in a race. It simply is not worth it to move from number 100 to number 50 in the GC.

Now to be fair to the announcing pair there are many times when I 've gotten a sense with the old TDF crew that just what they are saying was NOT their own views but what they were told to say. It may well be they are no the proper target here.

dprayvd

I don't know which was more painful to hear, Liggett's "chinaman," and "vincenzi nibalo," or Golguski's "musette bag."

ugh

The Brit's are mostly good. I like Backstedt--he's good at the color guy role. Those Dutch guys are also good. Russian is an interesting listen. Spanish, German, Japanese, French--all cool to my ear.

Sound disabled works too.

CharlyAlfaRomeo

Gogulski trying to be hip today was painful. "Froome Dog" and other crap just sounded forced coming out of him.

Zinger

Yeah I remember that alright. That was pretty unfair to speculate into a live mic without any kind of evidence. I mean we do it in here but we don't have the audience of people who assume commentators know what the hell they're talking about.

I liked Go Go back when he rode for team Crest in the '80s but I sure as hell didn't like that.

As far as commentators go, everyone has someone they love to hate. I always hated Ferdie Pacheco the fight doctor.....Yak Yak Yak too much. Don Dunphy was a good boxing commentator because he knew when to shut up and just watch. I still love to hate Pacheco anytime he gets a live mic to yap into anymore. Cosell never bothered me but Pacheco grated my nerves from the first time I heard him as a commentator.

Chicago Al 

I consistently have problems with my DirectTV DVR recording the bike races I want, so I either end up with multiple recordings of the same stages or miss stages, and last week we found that it hadn't recorded two stages of the Vuelta. I was able to 'find' recordings of them online, download them and watch them on the TV.

One of the stages I picked up was from SBS in Australia, one was from ITV in GB. Even with the multiple levels of compression the video was much sharper than the SD we get from USN, and
the commentaries were relaxed and detailed. Maybe best of all, there were no shots of Schlanger and 'Gogo' in their 'studio' which looks to be a repurposed broom closet. Again, the USN coverage resembles something from a college radio/TV department, including the commentary. Schlanger is not so hard to take, he's fine on the motorbike in the TdF, but he's not a lead announcer. Gogulski may know his stuff, but he is insufferable, the kind of guy who can't wait to tell you how much he knows. Sometimes you can actually see him smirking as he prepares to lay things out for you.

By contrast, Bobke may be a goofball, but you never feel that he's trying to convince you of how smart he is. (Perhaps for good reason, but still. )

And thanks for the link, Keith99. I hadn't watched that race or caught that commentary, but I agree with the 'rant' completely. It's like these guys have to find things to kvetch about, to hype up a controversy, as if the races weren't already interesting enough.

Keith99

I'm pretty sure that is their marching orders. Not quite fair to blame the announcers for following orders.

Which brings me to a complaint re the Vuelta Coverage. They showed a sort of leaderboard for most stage wins in a single Vuelta, with the current rider with the most stages this year at about 10th, making a sort of big deal about it. I saw the list and thought what the heck, no Merckx. I watched the replay and yup I was right. They were sort of honest about it, the graphic said since 1994. But they gave the impression it was all time. Trying to pimp the race and not doing a good job of it.

One would think that most likely for the first time since 1973 the final podium of the Vuelta being more impressive than either the Tour or Giro would be enough.

Chicago Al 

We finished watching the Tour of Britain last night, have several other races recorded, and tonight my wife says, 'No more bike racing. At least not unless it's HD, and without those ***holes!'

Harold914

I am happy to have found this forum.

Loved to see Todd Gogulski ..The worst.

Also Mr. 'What If" Steve Schlanger. I get stomach aches when I see that Steve and Todd are calling a race I look forward to seeing.

Steve in Vuelta: "Sagan dropped out to protest his minibike incident': really poor, Steve.
Did it ever occur to you geniuses that someone arranged for the mini bike to hit Peter?
And he did have to drop out because of injuries.

Todd, last stage Vuelta, poo-pooed the solo long efforts, and the cyclist won the stage!
"If you would call the race Todd and Steve and stop making your moronic predictions, we could enjoy the race. Steve gets one 'what if?' an Hour!

Steve and Todd, were you paid to promote Dagencor?

I like Phil and Paul.

Bobke really blew it in the Tour de France: "If Sagan doesn't start winning his team will not ride for him." Big disappointment, Bob.

Harold914

I am happy to have found this forum.

Loved to see Todd Gogulski ..The worst.

Also Mr. 'What If" Steve Schlanger. I get stomach aches when I see that Steve and Todd are calling a race I look forward to seeing.

Steve in Vuelta: "Sagan dropped out to protest his minibike incident': really poor, Steve.
Did it ever occur to you geniuses that someone arranged for the mini bike to hit Peter?
And he did have to drop out because of injuries.

Todd, last stage Vuelta, poo-pooed the solo long efforts, and the cyclist won the stage!
"If you would call the race Todd and Steve and stop making your moronic predictions, we could enjoy the race. Steve get one 'what if?' and Hour!

Steve and Todd, were you paid to promote Dagencor?

I like Phil and Paul.

Bobke really blew it in the Tour de France: "If Sagan doesn't start winning his team will not ride for him." Big disappointment, Bob.

Harold914

Loved to see Todd Gogulski ..The worst.

Also Mr. 'What If" Steve Schlanger. I get stomach aches when I see that Steve and Todd are calling a race I look forward to seeing.

Steve in Vuelta: "Sagan dropped out to protest his minibike incident': really poor, Steve.
Did it ever occur to you geniuses that someone arranged for the mini bike to hit Peter?
And he did have to drop out because of injuries.

Todd, last stage Vuelta, poo-pooed the solo long efforts, and the cyclist won the stage!
"If you would call the race Todd and Steve and stop making your moronic predictions, we could enjoy the race. Steve get one 'what if?' and Hour!

Steve and Todd, were you paid to promote Dagencor?

I like Phil and Paul.

Bobke really blew it in the Tour de France: "If Sagan doesn't start winning his team will not ride for him." Big disappointment, Bob.

spec84

MOE-VEE-STAR and TINK-AFF-SOX-OHH

dcsix

+1 Giacomo
+1 Slackerprince

Laggard

Why do they constantly need to talk? All I really need is some graphics showing gaps and maybe a play by play the last 20 K.

shinyandfree

"Sean Kelly, do you think the break will be able to make it to the finish?"
SK (monotone): "Well...yes, it will be hard to make it to the finish. They will have to work very hard and push on and really work hard in order to make it to the finish. Often when the break goes out it does not make it to the finish and so it will be hard in order for this break to make it to the finish. You see the guys in the break. They are working hard, but the pack is also chasing them, so we will see if they can make it to the finish ahead of the pack."

Rich Gibson 

I don't mind most of them. Phil Liggett should consider retiring, he misses too many riders' names. In the Tour he identified Tor Hushovd. I like Rob Hatch(sp?) the best although he makes an obvious point of showing off he can pronounce every single rider's last name correctly but he really knows his stuff. The other one at the bottom of my list is Carlton Kirby.....screaming like a girl at every finish, snickering at his own 'jokes', irrelevant anecdotes about his meals...blaah, blaah, blaah.

Rich