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Has the course been sanitised a bit? Last section looks proper dull.
Last section is the effectively the same as it's been for years isn't it?
They said in the commentary they've put fresh gravel down on sections due to punctures on sharp rocks, but I thought that was near the top? Other than that no idea.
BBC1 now if you need a change of commentary.
Equally bad - the brit seems to go through spells where he adds an "ah" after-ah everything-ah he-ah says-ah - really annoying once you've noticed-ah
Minaaaaarghhh
Nightmare! I'd probably be kicking the bike at that point. Fair play to him.
Was that Kathy Sessler talking to Greg?
That's a shame, clearly he'll just have to keep riding until fort bill is back on the circuit and win then.
I bet Minnaar wishes he still had Marshy gluing his tyres on, how unlucky has he been with punctures this year.
Ooof, that was rapid from Matt Walker until it went wrong.
Wow.
They're really losing a lot of time at the bottom through the jumps, must be really draggy.
What a run from Charlie! The race is on
Will someone get the hot seat trio a warm fleece...?
Dammit Bernard
what a great reaction from Kolb
Eurosport commentary is ok, much better than bbc. Who is the other commentator, sounds a bit like Gee Atherton?
Here we go, last run...
What happened with Bernard Kerr ? I’ve only just turned on and expected him to go 3rd from last ?
*holds breath*
Yesssssssd
Whoop!
1 & 2 for Atherton racing as well.
What happened with Bernard Kerr ? I’ve only just turned on and expected him to go 3rd from last ?
Crashed in the woods before the road gap
Epic!
noticed the bbc broadcast had finished - Eurosport showing the medal ceremonies 😀
British bike first and second Gold and Bronze been a good day for Blighty DH 💪💪💪
Who is the other commentator, sounds a bit like Gee Atherton?
Neil Donoghue
BBC commentry was good and I thought was better than GCN Discovery. V funny when Andrew Neethling used the phrase 'pissed off' and Clare Baldwin interrupted the commentary 2mins later to apologies.
Nice to have Clare and Chris Boardman talking about how amazing the sport of downhill is after the race finished. They seemed emmotional after watching it
I think the BBC did a grand job for the sport in the UK putting it live on BBC one all afternoon.
Thanks frogstomp. He was good
Think one of the best moments was Kolb crossing the line second and visibly gutted, right up to the moment he realised it was Hatton who had beaten him, then celebrated like he'd won!
Exciting race, thought Needles on commentary was good, even threw in a Warner-esque 'down quicker than a homesick mole'
Think one of the best moments was Kolb crossing the line second and visibly gutted, right up to the moment he realised it was Hatton who had beaten him, then celebrated like he’d won!
These folk come across as really well.
Who is the other commentator, sounds a bit like Gee Atherton?
Neil Donoghue
who made Cedric look like an expert. Neil was sooooo dull.
brilliant race and well chuffed for Charlie
who made Cedric look like an expert. Neil was sooooo dull.
we've had years of being spoilt with commentary though, why don't they get this? how do some of them stay in a job? Carlton Kirby for instance, jesus christ
Pheebs 5th in women's will only get stronger. Top lass too.
I quite liked Neil commentating, definitely prefer him to Cedric.
Got to say I found the whole thing a bit boring, I think due to the camera angles and a fairly sanitised track. Thought the head on shot into the woods looked fast, then into the techy rock hop but missed the brutal rock smashing on a dh bike up top. Then the tedium of the worlds best bike riders doing some average (to them) sized tabletops. But then that appears to be where the style of tracks are heading
Sat in campsite taking it all in on a massive come down.
The jumps are still massive. The track is anything but sanitised. There was absolutely nothing tedious about it at all.
The work on the track was genius - they made corners that allowed the riders to really push and pressure into them, meaning they hit the brutal straights and rock gardens faster. Atmosphere at in the arena this afternoon was electric.
Camera work left a bit to be desired. I understand the earlier riders are going at 1 minute gaps so you don’t get to see it all, but why just show the motorway? Almost impossible to make up significant time there so it is only exciting when the rider is within a second of the current winning time. Which is probably 10-20% of the time.
loads of riders lost 10-20 seconds between splits one and two, which we never really got to see even on the later riders getting 3 mins of coverage.
also, we got to see Greg and Finn and a few others nursing a broken bike down. If there was ever a time to cut to the next rider and give them more air time, it’s this.
on the plus side, is Andy Kolb the nicest guy in professional sports? I just want to be his friend, he’s awesome.
I quite enjoyed it, looked like a mixed and challenging track too, more enjoyable to watch than some tracks of the past for me, although missing somewhat on the commentary front at the moment!
And for the first time in her life, my 80 year old mum watched a full sporting event and really enjoyed it. She flicked onto it whilst channel hopping, got gripped by it then watched it all. It was quite funny getting her excited WhatsApp commentary throughout the race 🙂
Just watching the replay now we're home from the actual race. Ric McLaughlin commentates with all the excitement of a man commentating on lawn bowls. Warner would simply have been much better covering today's race and all the incidents. I did like his coverage of the EWS in prior years but he's not cut out for the commentary box.
Got to say I found the whole thing a bit boring
it's a long long old track though, the longest on the circuit, and since it was introduced, the game has changed, and you cannot film every second of every run unless you set riders off at 4/5 minutes apart, which isn't logistical, nor would you want to watch 45 or so 5 minute runs and again the logistics of filming every second, doesn't work
but the length makes it attritional, which is what makes it what it is, the difference to nailing everything for 3 minutes compared to half again is massive, so props to the riders,
we had a massive weather event in the middle, historically lots and lots of times we would have had the early guys win, but that didn't happen, we got crashes and time made up/lost who knows where and the front end showed how better they are compared to the backend, even with the weather
I thought it was great, but again, we've been spoilt with the passion Rob brought to the commentating, so they need to take that onboard
Funny, if I have the telly on and the whole thing is a bit boring, I just watch, or do, something else. 🤷🏻