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New respect for Wiggins
Having watched Eurosport coverage of the Giro for the last couple of weeks I have a new found respect for Wiggins. How he has put up with that annoying Irish presenter is beyond me, respect to him for not telling her to shut up, I really hope that they don’t use her for their TdF coverage.
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22 comments
Emma Pooley has a nice relaxed presenting style, I liked her on GCN, however she'd need a booster seat to sit on a couch with life sized people.
Size'ist much!
I'm all for more women 'experts' on the panel, that's probably what looks a bit odd about the coverage in my eyes.. Orla is a sports presenter and has made a living out of cycling sport for a while. There must be a raft of non-male experts out there.
'Boring Brian' brings the couch cool level down a peg or two.
Saying all that, the coverage is better this year than previous years, I also like Wiggo's insights on the couch, they are less saccharine than the usual comments, I like his 'Astana Bloke' comments.
Style wise however, Wiggo's going down the rankings, his jumpers, whatever 'brand' it is he's wearing don't seem very interesting.. it's a normal jumper (black or grey) with a large patch sewn on the chest accompanied by black jeggins.. every day..
Can you not dislike someone if they are female now? Maybe the guy just doesn't like her delivery/style and that's that. I remember that Jennie Gow doing Motogp on BBC. It was terrible and wooden she had no charisma at all unlike Suzi Perry. Luckily she buggered off before all the riders went into a coma.
Personally I think she's a massive improvement over Edwards who I really didn't like. Even the non-cycling wife has stopped giving me grief about watching it 'after the race has finished' and gets involved with the discussions.
Definitely a -1 for Emma Pooley, never really took to her at GCN and along with some of the other male presenters there part of the reason I stopped watching.
A few more expert female guests to balance the panel wouldn't go a miss.
For me it was as an expert on the couch, not as the anchor. But you are right about the Swiss job which is why I said it was a shame she wasn't around anymore
Not sure when you gave up but I thought Emma, Hank and Chris grew into the presenting roles after initial nerves / issues. It is not something that a lot of people can do from the outset and if you see early footage of Si and Dan you can see the same. TBH Ollie is the only one that grates now which is suprising as I didn't mind him on CW.
I did a bit of to camera work a few years ago, and I can assure you, it is bloody hard. I for one was not invited back for a second session!
+1 for Emma Pooley, I was going to put her name forward, she is great on the GCN videos she does, relaxed, knowledgable and sensible.
Why is the presenter just there to draw comments from the experts? Have you seen Sue Barker present Wimbledon? A presenter who is also an expert, the same with Tim Henman, just shows that the presenter can also be an expert in their chosen field.
The key word here is 'can'. It's not necessary. Orla worked at Sky for well over a decade before joining Eurosport.
You may not like her manner but IMHO it would be unfair to suggest that she doesn't understand the sport or is there purely as eye candy. She would be the first to admit that she's not the expert, that is why the ex-pro riders are there, but a good presenter handles the contributors and steers the show.
Despite being brilliant, Emma left GCN a few months ago for a new job in Switzerland. I very much doubt she would anchor the Eurosport programme as well as Orla has done.
I have enjoyed watching the Breakaway show more than I had expected. Wiggins is unambiguous and straight (which hasn't always been the case) and the insights about what happens behind the scenes and his opinions on riders and teams are more illuminating than a straight recap of the race we've just watched.
Orla Chennoui (sp) knows what she's on about but is mostly there as a presenter, which she does well - mostly she is just there to bring in the panel. Not sure what it is about her that you find annoying?
Wiggins on the other hand I find pretty poor as a broadcaster. He's good when speaking from experience, but he obviously doesn't watch a great deal of cycling any more as his knowledge of current riders is pretty bad - has to revert to 'the bloke from Astana' or something general quite frequently - then Brian Smith gets a turn and knows everything about pretty much every rider. On his podcast he just seems to want to be contrarian and controversial as much as possible but doesn't really seem to have much conviction behind what he says when someone else picks him up on things. Probably he knows his quotes get picked up by the papers if he is a bit of a s*** stirrer.
I actually like Orla, and I acturally liked Jonathan Edwards as well.
If you look at the worlds most popular cycling presenters phil and paul (rip), they were experts that treated the viewers like total newbies. that's great when you are a newbie, but 30 years in it becomes a bit grating.
I think a presenting modle that mixes experts talking like experts, with non-expert, professional presenters making it a bit more accessible for all is a great way to do it.
As for Rochelle Gilmore... her style just doesn't do it for me.
For female presenters, I like Jo Shand.
Can I just say how impressed I've been with Colin Sturgess with his latest commentating exploits
I think Orla is an excellent presenter. I'm not totally convinced by the structure of the Breakaway programmes though, I like it when the after-stage coverage includes a bit more analysis and interviews than what you were able to see in-race.
Just remember that the previous presenter was Jonathan Edwards. It's a low bar, but Orla clears it easily.
Orla is excellent and I really like the addition of the "Breakaway" to Eurosports coverage.
I've no problem with anyone, male or female, presenting sport as long as they know what they're talking about. Far too many "jobs for the boys" in the past so it's not just about diversity.
Yep can't have blokes talking about sport anymore. Babe Broadcasting Corporation is another example of using more than it's fair share of new female presenters, but that's just to balance up the years of bloke only domination.
Rochelle's got great knowledge but she annoys me almost as much as Carlton Kirby. Too much hyperbole and shouting. Perhaps better as a studio pundit than a colour commentator
Sexist, much?
Nope. Her being of the female persuasion isn't the problem with her presenting, except she reinforces the traditional stereotype. Her inane head back laughing and stupid questions actually position the males as experts and her as 'the eye candy'.
On the flip side, as mentioned above, sometimes the presenters role is to cue the expert up for the insights.
So the choices are:
1. Keep with this system and conclude she is a presenter and they are the experts
2. Replace her with a male/female presenter with knowledge of the sport
3. Include more women giving their expertise alongside Brad and The Coach
4. A combination of the above
Yep. Sexist, totally. Orla is a perfectly competent presenter there to draw comments from her (male) guests while top and tailing the tv presentation. In your complaints I can't see anything but rank sexism.
What do you want anyone to say anyway? You watched the race coverage, make up your own mind. Former pro riders give a view from the peloton but the overall conclusions are usually obvious.
You do realise she has been a cycling reporter for many years and also does a cycling podcast for several years. I suspect she does know what she is talking about when they allow her. However I would agree on 3. No need to have only one female on the couch. Shame Emma Pooley isn't around to do it.
Really? The fact YOU jumped to the conclusion it was sexism based on the miniimum amount of detail in Welshboy's post speaks volume about how sexist you are as I'm sure had 'Welshgirl' criticised the presenter you wouldn't have instantly jumped onto the 'sexism' bandwagon.
Nope.
I think 'Sky Orla' is in it for the long haul.. they need the diversity to be fair.. otherwise it's just white blokes talking about the good old days and how in their day things were harder.
I'd like to see more Rochelle Gilmore, now she's stepped back from wiggle high 5.